This is a research project; therefore, I felt obligated to research an artist with whom I was not familiar with; however, this is also a reflection project, which means that I must have some connections or identifications with the artist. After a short hesitation, I decided to go with everyone’s favorite—William Shakespeare.
How is Shakespeare important for theater today? In about a million ways! His works are the models and goals playwrights today look up to—they set a standard for classic plays and an extremely high standard too. His other major contribution is the fact that he is so famous and his works so astonishing, he becomes a representational figure for theater throughout history (after he was born, of course) and across the globe. If you wanted to study theater and plays—Shakespeare is the man to start with; if you wanted to just read theater literature—Shakespeare’s works are where to begin. He is prominent to the theater world enough to become an icon, and that’s important to unite this considerably diverse art together.
Western style plays are not enjoyed everywhere, but Shakespeare is truly the penetrating factor for Western plays, specifically English plays, to other cultures. In China, I have heard of Shakespeare at an age comparable to when English or American Children hear about him. I also presume, with a decent level of confidence, that a same (if not higher!) percentage of the educated population in China knows Shakespeare as comparing to Western cultures. Although I cannot speak for many of the other non-Western cultures, and certainly cannot even represent the Chinese population, but still, what does this tell us? I believe that this carries about precisely this message, that Shakespeare is no longer just an Englishman, he is a global existence.
I would like to go through an internal actualization of my identification with Shakespeare through the examination of the process of which I was educated about him. My dad was a professor of the English Literature in a Chinese university, so naturally, I was hearing about Shakespeare a bit more often than my peers. At a young age, I only had the comprehension that this is an extremely famous person. I knew about a few of his works, and we studied segments of the translated version in class (elementary school Chinese class text). We knew that Romeo and Juliet was basically a metaphor for lovers who cannot end up together because of external opposing forces, and that Macbeth was a symbol of greedy ruler breaking his own toes with his own large stone, and that Hamlet was full of the supernatural and vengeance… but the literature itself was still beyond my ability. So although it can be said that I “grew up” with him, I did not comprehend much of his stuff until I was a bit older.
Later on, when my focus on him became much more academic, even professional, I was faced with the complexity of the variety of his works—of course, there weren’t just plays, but also poems. The meaning of the content was secondary, and the more arbitrary rules of interpreting his works came in—I had to learn about iambic pentameters and the structures of play acts and scenes (if it was a movie, also shots). It was no longer limited to learning the plot and the story but about the language itself—which was a stage where it became clearly distinguishable that he was different from any other storyteller. However, the study to this point focused on the merits of the literature of his work—there wasn’t much theater involved yet.
Finally, up to now, after educating myself with the proper ideas behind theater, I can finally take a look at his works under a (somewhat) complete light. His works, now as I see them, cannot be limited to merely words, but must incorporate also the elements of theater, such as staging, lighting, blocking, costumes, acting…etc, which all help elevate his works’ greatness to a new height. Different productions of the same play, for example, can also provide variety to what his original intentions were—a brand new dimension is added to it when we visualize literature to turn it into theater.
This leads me to the drawing of my conclusion—I now realize that his true greatness lies within not only the literature that he has left behind but also the invaluable treasure for the world of theater—the infinite possibilities of working with great theatrical work. As a potential film maker of the future, I do not wish to possibly fully comprehend his literary heights, but his insights and the harmonious relationship between his written compendium and the production of these works into a visual experience proves to be a priceless treasure.
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