Why? Because after more than four hundred years later, the man we call Shakespeare still does it better than anyone else. If you have never seen a Shakespeare play, or if after four years of Shakespeare in high school you still really don't get him, read on. I can help.
My first piece of advice is one that I've used on middle school students for years. Get to know and love (okay, like) one play really well. Here's the thing. Shakespeare uses a number of the same expressions in many of his plays--the archaic language that we no longer use today--over and over, and becoming accustomed to them in one play will make listening to the others a bit more familiar. Let me recommend Twelfth Night, written toward the middle of his career in 1599. Many scholars consider this play to be one of his best comedies, as did Hollywood, which borrowed the story and used it as the basis of its successful teen comedy She's the Man.
The Trevor Nunn film version of Twelfth Night, set in nineteenth century England, is the best one to start with because of its brilliant cast and scenery, but before you watch it, read the plot summary first. Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare is a quick and easy read, but a myriad of notes and summaries exist in bookstores and in online resources. Knowing the plot allows you to concentrate on the language.
There is so much more that can prepare you to attend any Shakespeare Festival, but it's too detailed for a blogpost. If you finally want to understand the plays you'll be attending at your nearest Shakespeare Festival--or even in your classroom--and if you really want to raise your literacy and enjoy the world's greatest writer, if you want to laugh and cry and empathize as never before, if you want to know you are not alone in your joy or your suffering, go to my website now! Here it is: http://www.readwritevolution.com/Reading/shakespeare.html
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