Grammatista

I attended the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company’s presentation of Macbeth. I think the single most important thing that I took away from that presentation is how the play had been adapted to suit its audience. By suit its audience I don’t mean that the words were changed into non-standard English or the lines were said in a south Boston accent, everything about the play was still Shakespearian; they just gave it a little different edge. They achieved this different edge by performing the play in a “post apocalyptic punk” lens; they dressed in mid eighties punk attire and used weapons like an axe, a switchblade, and hunting knives. These slight changes in attire and weaponry actually made it a lot more interesting for me because it was different. As an English student going to be an English teacher I have seen my fair share of Shakespearian productions, whether they were online, a dvd, or in person, and just these slight tweaks to the format made this particular presentation stand out amongst the crowd. Another thing that the Pigeon Creek Company did was to present this play on a “thrust” stage; which meant that they were on the same level as everyone else, not separated by a big stage and lighting changes. This little change allowed for the actors to get up close and personal with the audience which essentially forced the students to not only pay attention but stay alert because at any moment an actor could be talking to you. I really like this because it was both interesting and it mandated that people paid attention. In my future classrooms, if I do indeed have to teach Shakespeare, I plan on teaching it through a more relatable lens like the Pigeon Creek Company did. It is simple techniques like this that allow students to become more involved and interested in what they are learning about and as a future teacher I’m thinking that having my students involved and interested is at least half the battle.