Pip pip, cheerio kids!
As you perhaps can tell from my greeting, we are about to embark on a transAtlantic journey to the home of the Bard. Needless to say, I think the Bard is just the bee’s knees, and I’m sure that in no time we’ll all know our onions about the fabulous William Shakespeare. (Those expressions are British slang. Can you tell what I’m saying?)
This week, we began our journey with a simple question, “What do you know about William Shakespeare?”
On day one we asked ourselves the question: Do we really need to read Shakespeare in modern day America? We tackled that idea by interviewing friends, high school graduates, and teachers. We read Kate Tempest’s poem and watched her video
and read “Why Read Shakespeare”, a speech given by Catholic University professor Michael Mack. We spent the rest of the week getting acquainted with our dear friend William. Ultimately we learned quite a bit about the Bard of Avon and the London businessman via a powerpoint, a couple of short videos, some photos, and a few Entrance Ticket questions that allowed some of us to “eat me out of house and home”. (2 Henry IV, II, i, 74)
This week we embark upon the plays Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. We’re chronicling our journey on Twitter #354RandJ and #354Macbeth. Of course, we will celebrate the 23rd of April with a Birthday Bash for the Bard, which this year, also marks the 400th anniversary of his death. And we are hoping that some of us will be able to make an actual trip across the pond next year to walk in the footsteps of the man, the legend, the Bard.
What would you like to see and do if you were able to visit the home of the one and only William Shakespeare?