Your Weekend Mission

<Cue Mission Impossible music>

This week there was much to be said, though perhaps not here, on the subject of Shakespeare’s accessibility.  After all, we’ve been demonstrating it for years, there’s really no bandwagon for us to jump on.

But! Just because I preach to the choir doesn’t mean that the choir can’t go out and do some good deeds.

So, if you’re reading this, here’s your mission :  Bring up Shakespeare. Mention the actual word, at a minimum, somewhere out in the “regular” world where you wouldn’t normally do so (so all you lucky lucky folks who talk about Shakespeare for a living already have got to go find new converts).   Then, report back here with your stories.  Let’s see who has the best story.

Over the last couple days I’ve been blanketing my town with posters for the upcoming Rebel Shakespeare show, Much Ado About Nothing.  I could walk into the random market or Post Office and stick up a poster.  I could say, “Is it ok if I hang up one of my posters here?”

What I say is something more like, “Hi, I was wondering if I could hang up a poster on your community events board?  The library is doing Shakespeare for kids next week.  You like Shakespeare?  It’s one of the comedies. Much Ado About Nothing.”  All while wearing my t-shirt adorned with a big Shakespeare face, so they already saw me coming a mile away ;).

Sometimes it falls on deaf ears.  Sometimes it gets me into a conversation.  Either way, people walk away from the encounter having heard the word Shakespeare. The more people that do it, the more times they’ll hear it.  It’s not a scary word.  It’s a wonderful world, and more people need to hear it more often.