What was your first experience with Shakespeare?
I love asking people this question. It helps me gauge how they feel about the Bard. A standard “first experience” is Freshman year of high school reading Romeo and Juliet, and then watching the Franco Zeferelli film. Sometimes the relationship with Shakespeare isn’t there at all, or only exists in being able to spoof “to be or not to be”.
I’m a bit of an anomaly. My first experience with Shakespeare was when I was 11-years-old playing Lady Macbeth in my 5th grade class’ production of Macbeth (yup, you read that right), and I haven’t been able to shake (very bad pun intended) him off, yet!
My name is Carolyn, and I’m a Shakespeare Master. Literally -- I have my Master’s degree in Shakespeare from Royal Holloway University of London. Trust me, I didn’t realize that was a thing until I applied for it. I’ve often thought about what it is about Shakespeare in particular that I’m obsessed with. A myriad of reasons come to mind, but perhaps the one that sticks out among the rest is: there’s a reason his plays are still being performed 400 years later.
Throughout the years, I’ve realized that a majority of people avoid Shakespeare because they’re intimidated by it, or because there’s just not enough of an opportunity where they live to truly experience Shakespeare. Because of this, it’s become one of my goals to “re-introduce” people to Shakespeare: to show them that it’s not scary, it’s not difficult to understand, and that there are so many relatable things to learn and explore.
