What I Love about Shakespeare: Stage

I was a student at Northwestern University in the late 1970s, and disco was at its peak.  I loved what Alec R. Costandinos did: an uptempo rendition of Romeo and Juliet, as only that era could produce.  Much of the album was disco instrumental, but I found myself particularly drawn to two passages.  I searched our student bookstore for the play, and learned that these passages were exactly the opening sonnets for Act I and Act II.  I bought the plays, I enrolled in Shakespeare, and the rest is history.  It's been an enduring love affair since.

This week I talk about the three main things I find so compelling about Shakespeare.

Schubert Theater, in Chicago

It is very special to watch drama on stage.  It is as if fictional characters become real before our very eyes, the artifice of the setting notwithstanding.  I am privileged, too, to have watched Shakespeare in different countries: from the US (Chicago), to England (London) and UAE (Dubai).  Which I wrote about in Theaters Where I Have Seen Shakespeare.  Some say, his historic masterpieces were meant to be performed, rather than read, and I say, of course.  In this respect, the director and cast have every license to exercise their creativity in interpreting, acting and staging the play.  That in and of itself, if done well, is an enjoyment.  Moreover, since I am writing my own play, Shakespeare helps me conceptualize what I want to write and visualize how I want to stage it.