Act One, Scene One

My history with theatre is mainly musical, and by taking this class I hope to change that. Excluding my aforementiond appearance as Julius Caesar in a video for English in high school, I’ve never been in a play, so my experience in that aspect of theatre is fairly limited.

My particular area of interest is Shakespeare – I love his writing, especially his tragedies, and I’ve read a few of his plays. My father was a theatre major, and I managed to pilfer an old textbook of his – the complete works of Shakespeare. I would really love to get into his head, per say – to understand what would drive someone to write such things the way he did; with beauty and poetry, but also with sadness and tragedy. I did a fair amount of research on him in high school, so I know a good deal about his life for the most part. It is also of interest to me the way his works are modernized in films as of late. Even so, I’d love to learn more.

Shakespeare isn’t all I’m interested in of course. I’m excited to get into Greek tragedies, among other things. I would also like to know more about Moliere and his works. Through this class I hope to gain an expanded knowledge of the people, plays, and other aspects of theatrical history.