 Hey everyone, my name is Kim Douthat and today we're going to be talking a little bit about Shakespeare, who he was, what he did, and why we should still care about him today. Now you don't need a whole lot of materials for this, mostly just something you could take some notes. So a writing utensil and some paper or scrap paper or whatever you have. Now what do you think of when I say Shakespeare? Some people might think of British. He was British, yes. You might think of poetry and flowery words. You might think of corsets and tights, but what do we actually know about him? We know he was a playwright. We know he was born at Stratford upon Avon. Many, many years ago he was born sometime in late April of 1564. We don't know exactly when he was born. We know that he died in 1616. We know that he married a woman named Anne Hathaway. Not that Anne Hathaway. We know that he had three children. But one of the most interesting things about Shakespeare, we don't know a whole lot about him or his life. There's not a whole lot of records that exist that tell us any of these things. A lot of people speculate about his education, about him, his life, that even speculate as to whether or not he wrote the plays that we attribute to him. But when it comes down to it, there's not records that tell us a whole lot about him. Now we know that he was born at Stratford upon Avon. And all that means is that the town of Stratford is located on the river Avon. It'd be similar to if we called Seattle, Seattle upon Puget. His family lived there. That's where he got married. Stratford's home was, but almost all of his work was done in London. Now we know throughout his life he wrote 39 plays. That number's a little bit debated. He may have collaborated with a few other playwrights. It's also possible he didn't write a few of the plays that we think he wrote. We know he wrote 154 sonnets and two long verse poems. Now in Shakespeare's time, if you were an artist, you had to make money, right? You needed somebody to help pay for these things. And so they used to have what were called patrons. Now these patrons were usually wealthy people. Sometimes they were titled and they would help support artists. So at one point in time, Shakespeare was supported by a group called, he was supported by a man called the Lord Chamberlain. So his group of actors were called the Lord Chamberlain's men. Later on in his life, he got to be really big and important. His group was called the King's Men, because none other than King James I was his patron. Now a lot of the local theaters produced Shakespeare's work, but the theater we think the most about when we talk about Shakespeare is the Globe Theater. The Globe Theater was open to the public in 1599. It was shaped, I'm sure this won't surprise anyone to learn, it was shaped like a globe. The very center of it was open to the air. Around the edges, the seating was called the gallery. Now anyone who had the money for a ticket, they could come in and see one of Shakespeare's plays. But it didn't mean that all seating was created equal. If you sat in the gallery, that was the more expensive seats, you were undercover. You had a roof over your head. If you were one of the people who sat in the yard, they were called the groundlings. Those were the cheap seats. Remember that open air I talked about? Yeah, there was no roof over you. So if you're one of the groundlings and you're in that yard, if it's raining, you're going to get wet. If it's really cold outside, I hope you brought a heavy jacket. I shouldn't say they sat either. There were no seats in the yard. You were basically standing. I suppose unless you just got so tired, you just plopped down. But then you're going to have other audience members blocking your view. In Shakespeare's time, there weren't fancy lights. There weren't lights. They didn't have electricity. And so all of the actors and the audience, they had to rely on the daylight. Depending on the time of year, you might have to start a play earlier in the day. They didn't have microphones either. Actors had to project their voices. The acoustics in the globe could be a little questionable. So the ability to project your voice, that was really, really important. Now, the stage itself, it thrust out, called shockingly, a thrust stage. This might not be the kind of stage you are super familiar with. A lot of our contemporary stages are what we call proscenium. Now, a proscenium stage, all that means is it has a frame. It might be an arch. It might be more of a square shape. But the stage itself is framed. Sometimes you had a little area out in front. This is called the four stage. This might be where you find an orchestra pit. Now, in a proscenium stage, the actors are on stage performing with each other. They have their three walls around them. The audience itself is that fourth wall. Now, if I'm an actor on stage, I don't acknowledge that fourth wall. Unless a playwright tells me to. Sometimes a playwright will have an actor turn towards the audience and directly address them. This is called breaking the fourth wall. You know who loved to break the fourth wall? Shakespeare. Now, a thrust stage, that's a little bit different. In a thrust stage, you have audience all around. You have the gallery all around. That meant no matter how much an actor might try, at any point in time, part of them is going to be showing their back to part of the audience. That made it even more important for actors to be projecting their voices. If they don't project their voice, someone may not hear part of the play. This idea of going to see a play is a really modern concept. Back in Shakespeare's time, you wouldn't say you were going to see a play. You would say you were going to hear a play. Because that's where everything was. That was what was important. And that's where all of the action was given to the actor. Shakespeare wasn't really about writing stage directions. Stage directions, they generally inform an actor. When are they entering? When are they exiting? Are they in the middle of a fight? Are they cooking? Are they dancing the Macarena? It tells them what they need to know. Shakespeare kept those pretty brief. You found out all the action in the text. In fact, one of the most distinct and longest pieces of stage direction Shakespeare ever wrote was the line, this is from a winter's tale, exit pursued by a bear. It's one of my personal favorites. Now, in 1613, the Globe Theater burnt down. It was during a production of Henry VIII, a cannon on stage misfired. The heavens above, the ceiling above the theater, caught fire. It was made of straw. Straw tends to burn fairly quickly. And since the rest of the theater was built of wood, it all burned down very fast. They rebuilt it the following year, and they plugged along until the 1640s. In the 1640s, the Puritans took over control. Puritans weren't really about theater. In fact, they closed all the theaters. They tore the Globe Theater down. In 1997, it was reconstructed. They rebuilt it about 750 feet away from the original site. And they reconstructed it really to replicate what was done with the original Globe. They did the very best they could to keep it as similar as possible. Now, I know what you're thinking. That's cool, Kim. But why should we care about some guy who wrote plays 400 years ago? Here's the thing. Shakespeare wrote for the time. He wrote for the problems of the time. He wrote for the people of the time. But his stories are universal. He dealt with themes of love and loss and family and hatred and jealousy, power, corruption, war, politics. I think one or two of those things we can still apply today. His characters were complex and interesting. The language he used was rich. A lot of contemporary artists and writers and poets, they take their inspiration from Shakespeare. In fact, I bet you've seen some movies based on or inspired by Shakespeare's work. And you didn't even realize it. The movie, 10 Things I Hate About You, the movie Deliver Us From Eva, Kiss Me Kate, which is also a Broadway play. All of those are the taming of the shrew. And they deal with issues of gender and marriage and dating and family. West Side Story, No Mio and Juliet, Romeo Must Die, all of those based on, I'm sure you can guess this one, Romeo and Juliet. They deal with themes of forbidden love, feuding families, age, gender, and identity. The Lion King, it's basically Hamlet with Jungle Animals. Although Disney ends its movie a little bit more happily than Shakespeare did. You have issues of revenge, family, and corruption. She's the man. It's basically 12th night. Gender identity, sexual identity, love, deception, class. Even Mean Girls has themes from Julius Caesar and Macbeth. I think we should all just stab Caesar. So whether or not your characters are teenagers, gnomes, cartoon lions, there's something that can be found in Shakespeare. These themes are universal and they endure. You can even find inspiration from Shakespeare in modern music, particularly if you look at rap and hip hop. They both shape words and rhythm. They share a story in an impactful way. They draw upon creating images with their words to express emotions and tell a story. A lot of our words and phrases that we use today we did not have until Shakespeare. He wrote his works to be lived, to be acted out and performed. So if you have the opportunity to pick up some of Shakespeare's work, don't just sit down and read it. Stand up, say it out loud. Grab a friend, grab your dog, say it to a wall. Live it. I want you to think about these themes when you are listening to your favorite music, reading your books, watching movies and television. Because I bet you're gonna find that these works are more inspired by Shakespeare than you ever realized. Thank you all so much for letting me talk a little bit about Shakespeare with you. It's a subject I really love to talk about. My name is Kim Douthit and I hope you have a wonderful day.