Initial Article written by Maddie Dundon
Interview analysis and final thoughts written by Ainsley Urbanek
Featured: Ty Burgess & Jo Yanko
By the time they reach college, most people have made up their minds about Shakespeare. Experiencing Hamlet for the first time in a high school English classroom, with a half-asleep Ophelia and a hungover Hamlet, tends to turn even the most interested students off of Shakespeare forever. Tired teenagers aren’t to blame for their disinterest; their aversion to Shakespeare is a product of the way they were introduced to it. What made Shakespeare so popular in Elizabethan England was that he wrote for everyone. From peasants to the queen of England, anyone could attend performances at Shakespeare’s Globe, and he made sure his plays had a little something for everyone. Over the years, his appeal has become a lot less universal. Language evolved, and the Early Modern English of his time became a major barrier to entry for a lot of modern readers.
But language is not the only thing turning young people off to Shakespeare. Most people are first introduced to his plays in a high school English class. While these plays are certainly literary classics, they are not novels, and should not be taught as if they were. When people read Othello as if it were Pride and Prejudice, they miss out on what makes a play unique. Even when teachers have students read the play out loud, it can still be difficult for them to understand what’s going on. The average fifteen-year-old can’t be expected to understand the nuances of syllable stressing, prose vs verse, or Early Modern English language, and they certainly can’t be expected to effectively communicate those things to their classmates. These gaps in understanding lead people to put Shakespeare down for good before they even uncover what makes it so great in the first place.
One way to remedy this issue is through adaptation. Unlike many plays, Shakespeare’s work is in the public domain. This allows other creatives to modify his work without facing legal trouble. There are many kinds of adaptation, from loose inspiration to exact copies, and everything in between. Shakespeare adaptations have become so ingrained in media that many people don’t even know that their favorite movies are based on his plays. Movies such as 10 Things I Hate About You (Taming of the Shrew), She’s the Man (Twelfth Night), Anyone But You (Much Ado About Nothing), and West Side Story (Romeo and Juliet), modernize the plots of Shakespeare’s plays, allowing people to realize how much they can enjoy his stories without getting turned off by the language. Many film adaptations still stick to the original text, however. Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film: Romeo + Juliet takes the play out of 16th-century Verona, Italy, and places it into the 90’s, in the fictional city of “Verona Beach”. Even when using the same text, an altered setting or time period can offer a breath of fresh air to a centuries-old work.
While film is great, and makes Shakespeare accessible, there is something to be said about putting a spin on Shakespeare while keeping it in its original environment. There is nothing quite like live theatre, especially because these plays were written when the idea of film was inconceivable. Taking an adaptation to the stage allows it to create a unique identity for itself while maintaining all of the grit and reality that was originally intended. A perfect example of this is the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1979 production of Macbeth, performed at The Other Place (their small studio theatre), starring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench as the Macbeths. This production included very minimal scenic and costume elements, allowing the actors to shine. Even though this adaptation ended up getting filmed, the intimacy of a small theatre in the round allowed for genuine acting.
Adapting Shakespeare allows his plays to fit their original purpose. As I’ve mentioned, Shakespeare wrote for everyone. He wrote for peasants, he wrote for kings, and he made sure everyone could see themself on stage. He subverted societal expectations and allowed his characters to be people outside of their social class, and used this to tackle the social and political issues of the time. The fool was often the smartest character, and royals fell short on occasion. In the modern day, social and political issues are not always about royalty. Through adaptation, Shakespeare’s work can be used to represent people who couldn’t see themselves on stage in his time. People of all genders, sexual orientations, races, and classes can have the opportunity to play iconic roles and see people like them doing the same. Through this, the idea that Shakespeare is for everyone maintains its truth and is adapted to fit the modern world.
UB Theatre & Dance just had the pleasure of putting on Macbeth in the Drama Theatre of the CFA. As members of the cast, we had the opportunity to interview two of our cast-mates and hear their thoughts on our production and Shakespearean adaptations as a whole.
Featured:
Ty Burgess (Macbeth) interviewed by Ainsley Urbanek (Lady Macbeth)
Jo Yanko (Macduff) interviewed by Maddie Dundon (Malcom)
“What is your stance on modern interpretations of Shakespeare as a whole?”
Jo says, “[Shakespeare] lends itself very well to any sort of time you want to put it in…You have to just have a good reason and be able to defend that reason.” Shakespeare, and all art for that matter, is used to say something and push a message out there, and often it’s something we must learn from. As Ty puts it, “What can Shakespeare do for us right now?”
“How is this production of Macbeth commenting on the world today?”
“Macbeth is such a politically tense show,” Ty suggests, and Jo agrees that this is “what happens when power goes unchecked?” Ty continues, “…especially in the climate we are in right now, it’s important to bring these things to light and not hide them behind flashy spectacle shows…This is what I think, Macbeth is supposed to be used for.” And I raise you, that’s what Shakespeare is made for. “I think it’s important to use theatre to send a message more than anything else…and I think the Bard’s words are wonderful for that.”
“How do you balance the demands of such an iconic part with the creative freedom of an adaptation?”
“There are two schools of thought when you’re in a show,” Jo proposes, “either don’t look at anything else because you don’t want it to influence your performance, or see as much as you can to get information on why people are making these choices.” Ty and Jo both agree on the latter and do plenty of research on other actors in said roles, to enhance their own understanding of the part, to which Ty says, “Not copy-paste, but copy-analyze.”
Ty continues, “Being in conversation with my fellow actors, especially you, we really played a lot with the gender roles and power in masculinity dynamics in Macbeth, and being a Trans–Actor, it’s important to me that that is represented onstage. And since this is a queer adaptation of it, there is so much to explore there, and in Shakespeare in general with gender.”
Jo shares similar views on bringing your own story into the character. “…bringing my own identity as a lesbian into it, I see him [Macduff] as this protector, which the Butch community has been for years now. When police were attacking gay bars, Butches were on the front lines, and I kinda see Macduff as a stand-in for that protector archetype.”
“Art is always meant to be interpreted and put through a perspective, and in my perspective, there is a lot of complicated nuance in gender in Macbeth.” (Ty)
“How do you think people should be introduced to Shakespeare?”
In Jo’s opinion, finding someone who understands the literature and artistry of it can make a huge difference in your initial understanding. “So often people get caught up in the heightened language of Shakespeare and think, ‘I can’t understand this.’ But if you have someone who understands the history behind these plays, you can see that all these things [references, jokes, political commentary] are still here…Find someone who knows and loves Shakespeare, and don’t be afraid to dig into it. Shakespeare is a never-ending journey.”
I agree heavily with this take, as someone who is experiencing her biggest introduction to Shakespeare by being cast in a modern adaptation. Being surrounded by cast members like Ty and Jo, who have guided me through the process, along with having an amazing directing and dramaturgical team, has made it so much easier to immerse myself in this brand-new world.
“The text itself is so important,” Ty states, “…and the text itself will actually tell you so many clues and hints about the character. But the thing is, you can’t just look at the text, because that’s not how it’s meant to be taken. It’s meant to be performed.”
Allowing yourself to see through the world of Shakespeare is daunting, honestly, and feels like learning a new language from the ground up. For me, being able to focus on one character’s story made it a lot easier to comprehend. I got the opportunity to see the world through Lady Macbeth’s eyes, and suddenly it wasn’t a new language or new world; it was mine; everything fell into place, as it so often does in Shakespeare.