Wednesday, we got the opportunity to listen to a guest speaker named Ben Crystal, an author and actor whose latest book, Shakespeare on Toast, aims to get people to understand Shakespeare's works not as books that need to be read, but rather as plays that ought to be performed. The students from both Professor Post's and Professor Braunmuller's sections (I myself am a Braunmullerite) assembled in the conference room not knowing quite what to expect.

Crystal, son of renowned English linguist David Crystal, shared with the class that he has been referred to as "the Jamie Oliver of Shakespeare." He explained that just as Oliver tries to convince non-cookers to take up a fry pan, he hopes that his book will make Shakespeare more accessible to those who consider the bard too dull or difficult. The fact that both are young, charming, English blokes probably had something to do with the analogy as well; it remains to be seen whether Crystal will begin to refer to himself as The Naked Actor.

We began by discussing iambic pentameter — Crystal explained that it is not simply a metrical system, but indeed a tool Shakespeare uses to thread silent stage directions throughout his works. Using a few lines from Act 2, Scene 2 of Macbeth, and with a couple of volunteers (Tommy and Erin, two of the other bloggers), Crystal showed how actors can interpret the unwritten cues. (See Erin and Tommy's before-and-after rendition in the video above, or read Tommy's version of events here.) Crystal argued that by establishing iambic pentameter as the norm, changing it up a bit, and then returning to it, Shakespeare essentially "riffs" like a jazz musician and gives actors "more space to act."

Next we looked at two versions of a speech from Act 5, Scene 1 of Titus Andronicus— the original publication from the 1623 First Folio and a newer version from Penguin Books. Crystal's intention here was to show how editors have changed the plays over the years for easier reading, and that in doing so they have failed to consider the way Shakespeare originally intended the plays to be performed.

After this he had us split into groups and examine two versions of Sonnet 29 (see below for text), then explain any differences.

What would a Shakespeare seminar be without a bit of acting? As Crystal's great desire is for people to perform, rather than just read, Shakespeare, he told us that he wanted every one of our 60-odd members to say at least one line before leaving. After a massive circle-reading of Sonnet 29, he asked us to come up in our groups and perform it for the rest of the room. One brave volunteer then read the entire sonnet to the class, and the session ended with Crystal stressing once more the need for everybody to experience performing Shakespeare — to "get the words off of the page and into [our] mouths."

Sonnet 29:

When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.