In an e-mail exchange with a friend today, we were commiserating with one another about the difficulty of getting students to interact with Shakespeare.
They whine that they can't understand the language, so they can't read it.
They whine that they can't follow what's going on in film versions, so they can't watch it.
Yet the Danes/DiCaprio Romeo & Juliet of a few years back did well enough. Methinks it's all about casting.
Friend suggested that Johnny Depp, because he's popular with our crowd, should do a Shakespearean tragedy, whereupon I hit on the idea of financing it through the contributions of grateful English teachers.
I figure ten bucks from each of us should be enough to get Depp and a high-quality cast and director, as well as finance the other costs.
Yeah, there are that many of us and we're that desperate.
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I have been all over this idea for years!!!! I love it. i have always insisted that we do high school students a disservice by making them read Shakespeare. It wasn't written as a story to be read. Films are terrific, but on stage is better.
As for films, The Kenneth Branagh version of Much Ado About Nothing is brilliant!!! Kate Beckinsale? Surely they know her? Branagh, he was in a Harry Potter film!! Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves?
As For Johnny Depp - too young for Lear, too old for Hamlet (or not?), but he'd make a great Iago.
I like this game!! Let's cast a show!!!! This would make a great meme. (for us Shakespeare dorks)
:)
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