William Shakespeare

There are no records on how or when or why Shakespeare moved to London and began acting or writing plays. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time during the mid-1580s, but by 1596, Shakespeare's plays were being produced by the Lord Chamberlain's Men-an acting troupe of which WS was a not only a member but a partial owner.

William Shakespeare wrote 37-41 plays (a couple he collaborated on with another playwright.) He wrote comedies, tragedies and histories. Some of his comedies were a little sad. Some of his tragedies were a little funny. Today, we'd call them "dramedies" (a hybrid of drama and comedy) but Shakespeare scholars call them "problem plays."

The real problems with Shakespeare's plays are that they seem foreign and strange because the language is not always like that we speak today.  The English language spoken during the Elizabethan era is called Early Modern English (we speak Modern English.) For the most part it is very similar to what we speak today, but there are some grammatical changes, changes in the meanings of some words, some spelling differences, and some words we just don't use anymore. This can be confusing to those reading Shakespeare, especially young readers.

Another aspect of Shakespeare's plays that may seem weird is that they are all written in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a meter commonly used in poetry and drama. It describes a certain rhythm that words have in each line. This doesn't mean that Shakespeare's plays rhyme (like his sonnets) although there are sections of rhyming parts in several of his plays. It means that every line has the same number of feet (beats per line) and words are stressed or unstressed (emphasized) in a certain pattern. Iambic means each foot has two beats, one stressed and one unstressed. Pentameter means there are five of these feet making up one line of poetry (or in the case of Shakespeare's plays--dialogue.) Interestingly, iambic pentameter is said to be a natural way of speaking English. So...once you understand what is being said, it's quite natural to speak Shakespeare's lines.

Shakespeare's plays were the blockbuster hits of his day. And his audience ranged from kings and queens to common folk. He wrote something for everyone.

If you like political thrillers (Julius Caesar)

or heroic battles (Henry V)

gory horror scenes (Titus Andronicus)

or spooky magical tales (Macbeth)

a classic whodunit (Hamlet)

or a family drama (King Lear)

a heart-breaking love story (Romeo & Juliet)

or a screwball romantic comedy (Taming of the Shrew)

or a happily ever after fantasy (Midsummer Night's Dream)

Shakespeare Delivers.

Shakespeare created hundreds of  interesting characters

from historical figures                            to romantic couples                                    to flawed heroes

and magical creatures

like fairies,                                         sprites, wizards, monsters                                        and witches

Along with kings, queens, clowns, soldiers, sisters, dukes, ghosts, etc.

Many of these characters have become household names (a phrase Shakespeare coined) and literary icons

Shorewood Drama Jr. has a Shakespeare "franchise" in its repertoire of original works. 

Started back in spring of 2011 with Condensed Shakespeare Soup, each generation of SDjr players has had an opportunity to learn about Shakespeare, his language, plays, and characters in a less than formal setting. Our Shakespeare Soup franchise - with two sequels: Shakespeare Soup 2: Attack of the Bard (spring 2015) and Shakespeare Soup 3: The Good, the Bard and the Ugly (fall 2015) - are sketch comedy shows based on the stories, characters, and even portions of famous lines by William Shakespeare. We've even done what Shakespeare did best and 'borrow' stories from other performers or writers or shows and made them our own.

Each version of Shakespeare Soup has had its own 'flavor.' Condensed Shakespeare Soup was an homage to sketch comedy shows like Laugh-In, The Carol Burnett Show, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Saturday Night Live, In Living Color, and Mad TV, but with a G-RATING. A few of our favorite sketches were...

Shakespeare Soup Episode 2: Attack of the Bard was steeped in Star Wars. We produced many of the skits used in Condensed Shakespeare Soup, but also added three scenes from books by Ian Doescher, who 'translated' the original Star Wars trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) screenplays into Shakespeare's Early Modern English. We performed scenes from the following books...

In our triumpant return to in-person shows after Covid-19, we tackled William Shakespeare in Shakespeare Soup 3: The Good, the Bard, and the Ugly. Our theme was classic movies and in addition to some of the skits from the previous helpings of Shakespeare Soup that fit the theme, we added our own versions of these classics...

And "borrowed" the Shakespearean versions of two classic films: Shakespeare's Oz by jordan Monsell and The Merchant of Morocco or If Shakespeare Wrote "Casablanca" by Thomas Hischak

Eager to see what we're serving up in Shakespeare Soup 4: The Bard Legacy? 

Mark your calendars for spring 2028