Lucretia’s blog about how Shakespeare changed her life  has prompted me to write my own entry about how Shakespeare changed mine.  Like most students, I was introduced to Shakespeare in high school.  We studied Macbeth and had to memorize a passage from it to deliver in front of the class.  I still remember the passage (“Tomorrow, and tomorrow …”), but it’s the reaction from my fellow students that stays with me. They really sat up and took notice, and I think that attention led me to try out for the school play (West Side Story).  That experience has resulted in a life-long love affair with Shakespeare’s plays.

Shakespeare’s plays stayed with me through undergraduate school, and in graduate school I had the opportunity to read Titus Andronicus for the first time.  No one in the seminar wanted to read the play, but I volunteered to read and research it and present my findings to the group.  What a play!  Blood, guts, and violence.  It became my favorite. The beauty of the language to describe some of the most horrific events in Shakespeare took the wind right out of me.  It’s a play I often taught to my students, and I think it led them to really get into Shakespeare.  In fact, from time to time I see former students and they almost always mention the play.

Shakespeare’s plays have been an important part of my professional life, to be sure. I thank Fred Davis, my high school teacher, for introducing me to Shakespeare.  Who gets your thanks?