Billy Shakespeare and Me.

I'd be surprised to hear if I was the only one whose first introduction to Shakespeare was freshmen year in high school, reading "Romeo and Juliet" in English class. In a way it's totally appropriate--awkward teens in their transitional years reading about other awkward teens who probably weren't to smart about who they were fooling around with. Reading that in class and watching the Franco Zefferelli film version made for an overall satisfactory intro to Shakespeare. Then came "Hamlet" in sophomore year and "King Lear" senior year (each of them read at least once more in college).

I don't think I grew to actually appreciate Shakespeare fully until taking Walter Metz's MTA 104 "Theater and Mass Media" class in fulfillment of my film major. "Hamlet" and "The Tempest" were both readings on the syllabus, and the way Walter taught the class was in such a fashion that really opened my eyes to the  theatrical roots of just about any form of popular medium today--specifically film and television. The fact that Shakespeare's fingerprints are all over everything from "Gilligan's Island" (Walter was convinced that the castaways' five minute staging of "Hamlet" was probably the most concise and clever adaptation of all time) to South Park ("Titus Andronicus" = "Scott Tenorman Must Die"...seriously) speaks a lot to the power and life present in his works. It was a very rich experience and helped me see that Shakespeare was pretty much present in the DNA of any pop culture entity.

There was a funny article on The Onion.Com about a bold, revolutionary director of Shakespearean theater who was directing one of The Bard's plays in the time and setting that the playwright intended. As a student of film, storytelling, art, and literature I think the fact that Shakespeare has never really become irrelevant is really mindblowing. I'm looking forward to hearing aaaaaaall about it.

Truly not the end of zombie Shakespeare.