 The skull is here because he's Yorick and everyone knows my friend Yorick and he is a constant companion in my Shakespeare studies and my Shakespeare teachings He's an old friend of mine. He shows up in class. He's been with me in Shakespeare birthday parties He's been loaned out to students for their Halloween costumes So he and I go way back. You have to laugh at it I think you have to have fun with it or it becomes a dead letter and it's not fun anymore We're trying to make it new try to adapt it try to get people interested And I think eventually Shakespeare will speak for himself. He doesn't need me to defend him or anything like that I think he might need me to just make a few strategic introductions to people who are afraid of Hamlet But if you're afraid of Hamlet, maybe you should start off with Julius Caesar Or Romeo and Juliet If I could have my Shakespeare students or any of my students learn anything out of that Shakespeare class It's that Shakespeare's for everybody That's not a snobby thing and exclusivist thing But he had something to say to everybody because he talked about the human condition so in the Globe theater you had nobles and High mucky mucks and kind of elite Londoners But he also had groundlings working class people who stood because they couldn't afford a seat They're all watching the same place and so I think we need to remember that Shakespeare has something for everybody And it's okay to laugh at him. It's okay to riff on him In fact, I think he would very much get a kick out of that