Shakespeare has been one of my favorite playwrights ever since 1st grade. I've picked up a few things in my years of reading and performing Shakespeare, and I feel that knowing how Shakespeare ran things back then, and really getting familiar with his plays is the first step to successfully act in one of his plays.
Life:
William Shakespeare was born on April, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom. He lived during the Elizabethan Era. Shakespeare started to write plays because he understood that he had the potential to be a brilliant playwright when he wrote his first play, Henry VI in 1590. He thoroughly enjoyed theater and realized that he could also act in them. By March 15, 1595, William Shakespeare had become a leading member of his company, the Lord Chamberlain's Players. He acted in the Globe Theater.
Themes:
Shakespeare's plays are all either comedies, tradegies or history. He had a very dark mind apparently, because most of his plays, even the comedies involve at least one person dying or getting brutally hurt. A few of his famous comedies are A Midsummer Night's Dream, All's Well That Ends Well and A Comedy of Errors. All of these plays involve mass confusion and they're all extremely entertaining. However, entertaining is not a word I would use to describe his tragedies. Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth have all never failed to make me cry. The characters are bonded to such an extent that they come alive right before your eyes. They have themes of greed, wealth and royalty all leading to disaster and death. One of Shakespeare's less famous play categories are his historical plays, inluding Richard III, Henry V and Julius Caesar. These plays explain the context of these people and exaggerate the qualities in them that led to their demise.
Writing Style:
Shakespeare wrote in a metric line called Iambic Pentameter. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line. The rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called feet. Iambic Pentameter is a line that alternates unstressed syllables with stressed syllables, equaling 10 syllables per line - unstressed/stressed/unstressed/stressed and so on. It's used in traditional English, poetry and verse drama. Although Shakespeare mainly used it in his poems, it's easy to spot a few lines with Iambic Pentameter in his plays. It sounds like a heartbeat and makes plays and poems flow really smoothly. It's key to know how to utlize the few lines with Iambic Pentameter to make your Shakespearean character really come alive.
WHAT'S THE PAST TENSE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE?
WOULDIWAS SHOOKSPEARED!!