My experiences with Shakespeare

As i said before, i have had a lot of interaction with Shakespeare and his plays from a very young age. From the age of 10 a joined a local youth group called Tolethorpe Youth Theater, i was one of the original students as it opened the first year i was there. Tolethorpe is one of the last open air Theaters in the country, this basically means the whole stage is open to the elements while the audience sit under a huge awning. We used to go every saturday from 9 until 1 and would perform a variety of Shakespeare's plays and learn his techniques and teachings. It was amazing because while we would perform there would be rehearsals going on with actors from all over the country rehearsing plays that would be performed that summer. The building is old and rather rustic and you would be able to go into the costume rooms where it was like you had traveled back through time to see what they would have worn. I loved the place as we would be able to run around the grounds and perform on the stage, it was something completely different to just performing on a normal stage.

I got my first chance to perform with the Shakespeare company in one of their plays at the age of 12/13. I was one of the first children to be picked from the youth group to perform with the adults. I performed in Midsummers Nights Dream, as one of the fairies. It was amazing to perform out in the elements although frustrating at times as we had to perform come rain or shine, and once we were performing and a harrier jet flew over, hovered and put their flood lights on us to see what we were doing and watch us.

I always found performing Shakespeare was a lot more interesting then reading it, in order to fully understand his language and works you really needed to perform them as the plays were meant to be performed not read. The best way to get an understanding of his use of langauge was doing it this way.

Tolethorpe really created a hunger for me and Shakespeare, and although i don't do much now it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. I left the Youth group and the Theater when i turned 18, and it is something i always miss.