I've been on a huge Shakespeare kick lately. Last year, I made a New Year's resolution to read all his plays. That fell through. So, I'm renewing my resolution. However, I've limited it to these ten as a starting point -- Othello, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Hamlet, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I figure by 2009 I can add some more titles. It's also easier to find film versions of these ten. So that when I finish reading the script, I can then watch it. The whole idea is to come to a greater appreciation of good storytelling. Hopefully, it'll serve to inspire me in my own writing. What better writer than Shakespeare?
In the car, I was listening to This American Life on my glorious iPod. The episode Act V:
Jack Hitt followed a group of inmates at a high-security prison as they rehearsed and staged a production of the last act -- Act V -- of Hamlet. Shakespeare may seem like an odd match for a group of hardened criminals, but Jack found that they understand the Bard on a level that most of us might not. It's a play about murder and its consequences, performed by murderers, living out the consequences.
