Oh, somebody else please tell me that they’re watching POV – The Hobart Shakespeareans on PBS? I’ve just started it on Tivo, and I’m loving it.
Here you’ve got a teacher that comes right out and says “I teach these inner city kids everything the system wants them to learn…and then I teach them Shakespeare because I love Shakespeare, because my dad read it to me at bed time, because I want them to have my passion for it. I use Shakespeare as a microcosm for everything I want them to learn.” Nice.
These are young kids — fifth grade, maybe? I’m wondering how much they “get” Hamlet a little bit. I just listened to a scene where he summarized Hamlet as saying, “Hamlet is about….what? One word. Starts with a D. It’s about…..death, right?” Until he said D, my one word would have been “revenge”. Before he said one word it might have been “children and parents”. I think it’s about much more than just death.
Either way, it’s still good. I like this guy.
Such Shakespeare Stuff – Blogging Shakespeare Everywhere You Look