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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.2648  Friday, 23 November 2001

From:           Paul Swanson <swansonpo@msdmv.k12.in.us>
Date:           Friday, 16 Nov 2001 11:01:19 -0600
Subject:        My Old Brain Is Troubled

Colleagues,

I have a recurring question that troubles me, and I want to pose it to
all of you.

As I wrote in another post, I am a drama director at a small high school
in southern Indiana in the United States. At my school, I have mounted
five Shakespeare productions (two productions of MND, one of Much Ado,
Love’s Labour’s, and Twelfth Night), plus The Crucible, Cyrano de
Bergerac, and several Moliere one acts. Generally speaking, our
productions are very good and seem to have a good reputation around our
part of the state.

Our latest production of Midsummer opened last night, and while I was
very pleased and proud of my kids, I must admit that I walked away from
the play somewhat troubled at our audience’s response.

I set our Dream at the beach in the 1960’s and used a lot of “surfer,”
Beach Boys music in the show. The performance earned a standing ovation
at the end of the play, and there was, of course, an abundance of
laughter at 5.1 and Bottom and his cohorts. Much of this laughter
stemmed from physical, slapstick moments, including a ridiculous
Bergomask dance to the tune of The Beach Boys “Do You Wanna Dance?” All
in all, I thought this production was very, very accessible to our
audiences.

But for much of the play, the audience sat somewhat silently, seeming to
“not get” what I consider to be the utterly hilarious predicament of
Puck and the four lovers, et al... Even the response to Bottom’s
entrance with the ass’s head and the ensuing lines was somewhat muted.
As I have said before, I left the performance smiling and proud, but
there was also a part of me that truly wondered how connected (or
disconnected) the audience was to Shakespeare.

This brings me to my question, and believe me when I tell you that I
really worry about this: Is Shakespeare a dying part of culture? Is
understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare different in the U.S. than
it is in other parts of the world?

If I was talking to each one of you face to face now, I would ask, “What
sayest thou, Bully Bottom?” And I would be damn happy because I know you
would get my joke. I truly wonder sometimes if Shakespeare is slowly
fading from our culture, and I really worry about this.

What do you think?

Sincerely and respectfully,
Paul Swanson

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