William Shakespeare: 400 Years After His Death

[Drew Espinosa]

On 23 April 1616, one of the greatest playwrights in history died. He left behind a legacy that continues to shape our culture to this very day.

 

 

 

What are your favorite plays?

Your favorite sonnets?

And did you enjoy them when you were in school?

Edited April 23, 2016 by Drew Espinosa

[glitteryantlers]

I liked drama theory better than the actual dramas :-P and I found the Globe Theatre fascinating. 

 

I have many favorites: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, The taming of the shrew.

 

I saw a very modern The Tempest 20 years ago, complete with an ambulance car on the stage and naked men   I found it more than interesting. The director was an infamous gay actor, later leader of the national theatre.

 

The picture is from a newer play, just so you can imagine what we saw

 

Edited April 23, 2016 by glitteryantlers

[Bill W]

I think I've seen productions of most of Shakespeare's plays (at least all of the famous ones).  I've been to Stratford, Connecticut for the  Annual Shakespeare Festival, I saw multiple productions when I was in England, and I catch the films and various vids of stage productions whenever possible.  He was truly amazing and prolific! 

[Timothy M.]

I can recall thinking Romeo and Juliet was probably wastly overrated as a romance before I read or saw it. I thought people were simply praising it as one of the best tragic romances ever, because it was 'the thing' to do.

To my surprise when I read it in college I found it stunningly romantic when they meet. So in spite of the later, rather unrealistic development with the fake dying and miscommunication, the love story is genuinely beautiful.

 

Other than that I like Hamlet, of course.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Timothy M.

[JamesSavik]

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
 

[northie]

At school: aged 14-16 Macbeth, 16-18 King Lear. I suspect we only scraped the surface of Lear (unsurprising really!)and as such I didn't get much out of it.

 

As a musician I never cease to be amazed by the amount and variety of music inspired by Shakespeare, whether written for or about the plays, settings of texts from the plays and sonnets, or written in honour of the playwright himself.

[jfalkon]

My favorite plays were Macbeth and Hamlet.  It was great studying them in school because there was someone to explain things.  If I were left alone with the centuries old language and layers of meaning I would have been completely lost.  

I didn't expect to like Romeo and Juliet because romantic stories usualy don't interest me much but after studying the play I learned to apreciate the quality of the writing.  I might have been board at first but luckily my teacher gave us a lecture on the history of theater.  Among other things he told us us that in Shakespeare's time even the female roles were played by men.  The image of Juliet as a drag queen stuck in my head and kept me entertained.  

[Zombie]

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine