How to read the histories.

The best piece of advice I read when starting out on this project was, when reading the histories, find a good stage or film adaptation to watch while you're reading through the work, marking interesting passages to return to after you're done watching.

This is a good idea, but since my goal was to read every word of Shakespeare's plays and sometimes quite a bit gets left out in modern performances, I realized that skipping around was both confusing and counter to my goal.

So, the following is how I've been approaching the histories:

1) Read a summary of each scene, using a reliable crib note-type site. This isn't a mandatory step, but if the language intimidates you (and there's nothing wrong with that - it sure as hell intimidates me), having a summary helps you get a lot more out of the scene. You understand the overall action and can actually enjoy the words. My favorite site for this is Shmoop because they use a lot of humor to get their point across.

2) After reading the scene summary, read the scene and underline anything that grabs you. This doesn't have to be the usual famous monologues, just lines you like. In King John, I took to underlining all of Lady Constance's fantastic burns.

3) Continue through the entire play this way and pat yourself on the back when you're done. Good work.

4) Find a stage adaptation to watch, following along in your text if you so choose.

5) Write a one or two sentence summary of the play. Your future self will thank you when you aren't able to remember King John from Richard III.

6) Wait a few days. You deserve the break. You can start on something else if you can't stand to be away from the Bard for even a minute.

7) THEN find something else to reinforce what you just read. I like listening to a short podcast or lecture, but you could also find a comic book, online game or quiz, or have a discussion with someone else who has read the play. If you're the creative type, you could even make something of your own.

8) Move on. You're done!

Weekly Wrap-Up #1

* My cat felt so neglected, he took to laying on my text so I had to interact with him in order to read. (I'm a terrible human being.)

* I embraced my ignorance and spoiled the ending of King John by looking up a timeline of the English monarchy. As a History AND English major, this hurts.

* I read along as the Wichita Shakespeare Company performed King John in a park. Proof that any play can be done anywhere by anyone. (This isn't an insult - look what we, as people, can do! This play is 420 years old! Wichita is 4,440 miles away from Stratford-Upon-Avon!)

* I set up some handy Google alerts so I don't miss anything Shakespeare-related in my corner of the world.

* I researched the twisted underworld of literature that is Shakespeare's Apocrypha. More on that some other time.

* I watched my Tempest interpretation (Forbidden Planet) before actually reading the Tempest because it was already on my DVR.

Other fun stuff:

* Don't forget to look and see if a First Folio is coming your way! (Looking for performances? This is a seemingly well maintained list.)

* Play some games while you're at it.

* And a handy flow chart to help you decide what flavor of Shakespeare you're in need of at the moment.

Why King John is worth reading.

Because, let's face it, you're going to need some convincing for this one:

1) It kicks off the histories, chronologically speaking. And hey, they get better from here, right? Right?

2) Constance is head of the burn unit. Seriously, this woman and Eleanor of Aquitaine swap insults like they're going out of style.

3) You get to read what that "gild the lily" line ACTUALLY says. #misquotedshakespeare

4) There are some other beautiful, interesting, and hilarious lines. The Bastard, our faithful nut-sheller of every scene, has some real gems. (My favorite line from this play, though, comes in act five scene four. "When we were happy we had other names." Oh, Duke of Salisbury, you manly tear crying poet.)

5) Bragging rights. Okay, you knew that was coming. If you want to say you've read Shakespeare's complete plays, you've got to read this one. So buck up, brace yourself for Arthur's whining, be prepared for all of the women to disappear as fast as Prince Henry materializes from absolutely nowhere, and get to reading.

So you if came here with the Google search "Should I read King John?", the answer is yes. You should.

Essentials for your year of Shakespeare.

Because I love a good list, and because I've already accumulated a bit of stuff for this project:

1) A copy of the complete works. I'm sure there's something scholarly about which edition you pick up, but I got mine based on the cover. I'm not sorry. Having things that you love, love to look at, and you know you'll keep forever is okay by me.

2) A notebook or word processor document or, heyyyyy, a blog. Take notes, write to do lists. Get rolling and get organized.*

3) Access to the internet so you can watch amazing things like this. The internet is going to be important if you want to do this whole project for free**, which should be pretty doable. I'm going to be transparent about what I spend on things during this project and try to offer free alternatives. (Step one, you won't be able to buy as many stickers.)

4) A local library. Even one that stinks as much as the one I frequented when I started this project should have a copy of Hamlet on DVD.

5) A DVD player or whatever. So far, I've found a performance of every play on the internet, you just have to dig pretty deep. So maybe not a DVD player. I don't know, man. It's a list.

6) And enthusiastic audience. This isn't a must, but I have a handful of Twitter friends who tend to root for me when I'm excited about something and it's nice.

*My great great uncle would say this frequently. Someone would inevitably tell him that he should probably get organized THEN get rolling.

**I'm aware the internet isn't free in most places and you still need a computer/phone for it. Access should be possible at your local library, but I understand that this is a privileged statement. Do your best, Shakespeare project-ors.

Me and Will

A brief history of Shakespeare... if you take out everything that doesn't involve me:

1994 - as a fifth grader I try to decipher my sister's freshman English copy of Romeo and Juliet. I didn't make it past the first page, but damn it, I wanted to get those jokes.

1996 - Romeo + Juliet comes out and is every middle school girl's everything, including me. This film introduced me to Radiohead, Harold Perrineau, and the glory of Hawaiian print shirts. This movie made me feel cool and smart and I don't mind that you know that about me.

1999 - Screw R+J, 10 Things I Hate About You comes out and becomes every teenage girl's everything, including me. This movie pushed me into a world of feminist literature (I read the Bell Jar and the Feminine Mystique) and I felt even a little smarter.

I take Acting I in high school and am properly introduced to Hamlet via Mel Gibson's classroom learning materials, before we all knew how bonkers he was. At some point, I successfully read Romeo and Juliet in my own freshman English class and fall in love with the music of the film more than anything.

2002 - I play Beatrice in and costume the cast of Much Ado About Nothing, my senior play. It was a post-nuclear apocalypse romp with ratty, Waterworld-esque military garb and some pretty intense face paint. I look like this:

I don't look like that now. Man, I need to work out more.

(I also fell in love with my future husband during this play, but he didn't ask me to prom, so screw that guy.)

College - who even remembers? (I read most of the histories for a Shakespeare class.)

2016 - I visit the First Folio in the likeliest of places: Vermillion, South Dakota. I look like this now, more or less:

Yes, I took a folio selfie.

In April, Google Doodle was Shakespeare's death-plus-400 years (deathiversary?) and I remembered, oh yeah. I love this guy.

In May, I saw the Royal Shakespeare Company's Shakespeare Live broadcast in a local-ish movie theater, bought a copy of the Complete Works and started this.

So, you're all caught up.

#brevity2016

You heard it here first - no. Second. Twitter heard about it first.

This is my Shakespeare project.

Sure. Lots of people have had Shakespeare projects*, but this is mine.

Wherein I shall:

1) Read all of Shakespeare's plays in the course of one year fourteen months. (More on the change in a moment.)

2) Watch an interpretation of each play, most likely a movie or recording of a stage performance.

3) See as many live performances as possible. (This is the reason for fourteen months - I get to do the festival season twice to help out with this.)

4) Supplement the 37** plays with contemporary works, criticisms, biographies, etc. As much as I can stomach, really.

5) Pilgrimage to one Shakespeare holy site.

6) More to be added if I think of anything.

*Three among many sites I've bookmarked in the last day.
**We can argue about this later.