Shakespeare’s Birthday

Tomorrow, April 23, is considered the officially recognized birthday of William Shakespeare. My daughter, Madeleine, loves to watch his plays as well as act in them when she gets a chance to do that at school. I’ve always been surprised at and a little bit in awe of her early love of Shakespeare. My own theory is that she was exposed to his works when she was young, at a time when a lot of what adults said didn’t make sense to her. So she learned to appreciate the overall story without focusing so much on understanding every single word that was spoken.

I wish I could say the same is true for me. The first Shakespeare play I saw was Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was in high school and my class traveled to see the production at a local university. That play is certainly one of the most accessible of Shakespeare’s works, but I still struggle with it. And I read as much background as I can about a play before I attend any production so I’ll know the general story line.

We haven’t chosen Shakespeare for any of our mother-daughter book club meetings, but I think it would be great to read one of his plays and then attend a theater production together as a group. I’d love to hear from someone who has done this and how it went.

Happy 444th birthday William Shakespeare.