Why won’t your friends come see Shakespeare with you?
I don’t mean you, specifically. I expect that if you’re here reading this you probably enjoy taking in a nice Shakespeare performance on occasion. And I don’t mean your core group of friends who may feel the same way. I think that it’s safe to say, for all of us, that such a group only extends so far.
I mean literally everybody else in your life. Friends, family, coworkers. If you asked, they probably don’t want to come see Shakespeare with you.
Why do you think that is? It’s a question I come back to regularly because it bothers me. I feel like there’s a large audience out there that is dismissing Shakespeare as a chore, something they said sayonara to back in school and never looked back. I feel like those people are missing something important, something that will make their lives better, and I feel some degree of personal obligation to fix that.
Preaching to the choir
Surely you’ve heard that expression. I realize I’m often doing that here. I’m all, “Hey, Shakespeare is even cooler than I imagined, check this out!” and you all are all, “Yeah, I know, right?” Only, you know, we both sound more education when we say it. Like, totally.
I don’t want that. Well, I do, I just don’t want only that :). I want our choir bigger. I want the whole world to be a part of it. Maybe there are folks out there that have studied Shakespeare and know everything they want to know about him and his work, and just don’t like it, and I suppose we have to accept that. (We just don’t have to invite them to the holiday party.)
But how about everyone else? That gets me back to my original question. If you’ve got someone in your life (and I know you do) who you wish would share Shakespeare with you, but doesn’t … why do you think that is? How do we bridge that gap?
Oh, and by the way, for that core group of friends that do want to see Shakespeare with you? Show them this post. Spread the word. We’re not about keeping the Shakespeare to ourselves here.