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| Ian Doescher, with 6th grader McKinzie Baker |
The books have allowed Doescher, who still works in marketing as a day job, to expand upon the world created by George Lucas that he grew up loving, he said. It’s also an opportunity to show young readers that Shakespeare isn’t so bad either.Reference: Author of Shakespearean ‘Star Wars’ books visits Housel Middle School.
“I’m pretty sure a lot of you already like Star Wars,” he said. “I really, really hope a lot of you will also like Shakespeare. He’s way better than I am...”
Some students got in on the action as well on Friday. Five from one of Dickinson’s classes read a scene from the first book during the assembly. Doescher brought an excerpt from one of his latest books, based on the three prequel movies released in the late 1990s through the 2000s and invited a student to read the scene with him.
Eighth-grader Alec Goodwin was quick to get his hand up and he was selected.
“I was ecstatic; I was blown out of my mind,” Alec, 14, said afterward. A big Star Wars fan, he said he hasn’t read Doescher’s books but plans to now.
Shakespeare only gets a light treatment in Dickinson’s classroom, as the English playwright’s work is mostly read at the high school level. But many students are intimidated by Shakespeare, Dickinson said, and these books are a way of easing students into his work.
“Shakespeare isn’t scary,” he said.
I must be repeating myself, over the stretch of articles on William Shakespeare's Star Wars, but I absolutely love what Doescher is doing and I am awed by the great reception to his re-imagining and re-writing of the longtime, highly popular science-fiction series. The very aim of Shakespeare Talks! is to bring the wisdom, the drama and poetry of the Bard to a modern-day audience in ways that are faithful to the text, but not just so, as Shakespeare Talks! also enacts, explains and engages.
Doescher is way ahead of me, and is doing a superb job at realizing that aim of mine.
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