Here is the core of my teaching about Shakespeare:
1.
Shakespeare is a genius
2.
Shakespeare’s genius is theatrical
3.
Shakespeare is a dirty old man
I approach the teaching differently depending on
whether it is a performance class or dramatic lit/history class. Still, the core remains:
1.
Shakespeare is a genius. Shakespeare’s canon,
and the King James Bible (to which Shakespeare is said to have contributed),
created the English language. Harold Bloom argues that Shakespeare in fact
invented what it means to be a conscious, thinking individual. Trust the
genius. Believe in it. Have fun with it. And never forget:
2.
Shakespeare’s genius is theatrical. Shakespeare
has nearly been destroyed by dry dissection by dons in Oxford and dunces posing
as teachers of English lit. Shakespeare is theatrical
genius, and that means action. That
means getting up and doing it. That means hearing it spoken aloud with passion.
Never forget that Shakespeare was not an artist; he was a businessman and a
craftsman. His plays made lots of money, because they worked as great theater,
entertainment, better than cockfights or bear baiting.
3.
Shakespeare is a dirty old man. Remember, it smells but it sells, and Shakespeare was about putting butts in the seats. If
you think it’s a dirty joke, it is. If you think it might be a dirty joke, it is. If you can’t imagine how that could
be a dirty joke- it probably still is.
Those are the three main points. In teaching, I give examples and anecdotes,
usually going from #3 on to #1, and developing
according to whether the focus is theater studies/dramatic lit/history, or if
the focus is performance.
Any time I get confused- it occasionally happens- I go back to point #1. Shakespeare is a genius! Let's figure this out!
I am not averse to cutting Shakespeare, however one must cut with care. That will be the topic of a future post.
For performance, I go strongly with Patrick Tucker, with
whom I studied while I was in London (lucky me!). His approach is in his book: Secrets
of Acting Shakespeare: The Original Approach. His premise includes points #1-#3 above, and
the fact that in Shakespeare’s time, there was no rehearsal. Pretty much none.
Tucker deduced that Shakespeare had to pack all the direction, actor’s notes,
and stage directions, right into the text itself. He uses the First Folio as
the closest we have to Shakespeare’s work, using the clues of the “random”
capitalization, using rhythms of verse, assonance, alliteration, contrast,
comparison, and so on.
For dramatic lit, I still get up and read it, do it.
The opening scene of Romeo and Juliet is awesome for action, dirty
jokes, and sudden violence. One point I
try so hard to make when teaching Shakespeare: try to think of it as the first
time. What if you didn’t know the story? R & J starts out like a comedy!
For theater history, there are tons of things that are fun:
QEI, the Virgin Queen; Puritans trying to shut down the theater; the
secularization of theater; popular entertainment. Still, to me, Shakespeare is
the pre-eminent genius, not only of the Elizabethan age, but of every age; sui generis, his own thing.
