YouTube’s Got (Shakespeare) Talent

As I sit here entertaining myself on Twitter late on a Wednesday, after having watched the America’s Got Talent results show (go Snap Boogie!), I had an idea.

For any given “famous scene” of Shakespeare, you can find many clips on YouTube. What’s interesting is that once you weed through all the famous ones – Olivier’s King Lear, Branagh’s Henry V, etc,… – what you get is just plain old people.

So here’s the challenge I’m extending. Dig through some regular people doing Shakespeare, and provide some links to the good ones. Let’s see if we can’t give some credit. If you want to play, even if you can’t find any links of your own, you at least have to watch the ones that are provided and vote for those you like the best.  I have no prizes to offer, but maybe we can give somebody a boost in views and make their day.

Scene choice is up to you. Maybe we can keep it separated between comedy and tragedy or something (though I expect that “dramatic readings” will almost always come from a tragedy). I recommend picking people who have actually picked a soliloquoy of some sort and then pointed the camera at themselves. Audience shots of stage productions don’t tend to be very good quality.

Get the idea? Ok, show me what you can find!