Lecture on campus strips down Shakespeare’s collected written works
Mary Beth Bjork
Equinox Staff
“Naked Shakespeare” in the Mountain View Room on March 9 prepared students at Keene State College for “The Tempest,” which will be performed next year.
Entering the Mountain View Room, faculty members from the KSC Theatre and Dance Department primarily made up the audience at the event.
“I was hoping to convince people to give Shakespeare a second chance, seeing Shakespeare really, and give them more to think about,” said Oscar Blustin, a director of Shakespeare plays working in London, England and speaker at the “Naked Shakespeare” lecture.
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Blustin said he also works “a little bit in New York.”
Another goal of Oscar Blustin’s was the act of “getting people talking about Shakespeare and convincing people that he is not dead.”
Blustin also said, “I brought two productions of Shakespeare plays to Keene in 2009 and 2010 touring.” Some of the students and faculty had already seen some of Blustin’s productions before coming to the “Naked Shakespeare” event.
“I have seen a couple of the shows he has directed that were here several years ago from the Castle Theatre Company. I enjoyed them a lot. So, I have seen his work, but I have never met him and I thought he was an old man,” Dan Patterson, a theatre professor
“It is nice to see to me, he looked like a kid, but all that energy is lovely,” he said.
Patterson also said, “The meter and how important it is to understand but also how important it is to not get hung up on it.”
“That’s I think the thing that’s sort of driven my career is knowing what I needed to know, not letting it get in my way because… it can get in your way. I mean… it can help you a lot but it can get in your way, he continued.
From past to present, Shakespeare will continue to be on the KSC campus and have an impact on our community.
“Shakespeare was a genius, however, he is also very available to us and we do not have to regard him as precious and elite, and in fact we are doing Shakespeare and I am directing ‘The Tempest’ next year so it worked well in terms of students hearing that point of view in something that we will be preparing ourselves,” PeggyRae Johnson, a theatre professor, said.
“I think they are going to see Shakespeare in a more modern context; plays are relevant to modern life like the man said, any situation you come up with that has happened in your own life he will find a scene in Shakespeare that deals with that thought. I do not know if he said everything, but I kind of like the idea,” Patterson said.
Patterson also said, “He sure said a lot and so it makes it more immediate… for more students particularly, students if they listen and get the message that this is what makes Shakespeare survive, it is immediacy.”
Continuing with the impact of Shakespeare in today’s society many found this lecture to be helpful when relating Shakespeare’s plays to our everyday lives.
“I loved it, it reinforced a lot of things I think about Shakespeare…from an actor’s perspective, I would much rather focus on the aspects of Shakespeare that are sort of reverent and that we regard as sort of this high art form because theatre should be accessible to everyone,” Ryan Ouellette, a senior theater major, said. “
I think he emphasizes that Shakespeare is accessible,” Ouellette continued.
Not only is Shakespeare related to our society today, but can also be applicable to people globally.
“As he pointed out, a lot of people are afraid of Shakespeare and he is incredibly universal and available to all of us so hopefully he presented Shakespeare in a way that people listened a little differently just because of the British accent if nothing else” Johnson said.
Many students said that the event captivated their attention and was in fact fun.
“It was really nice. Sometimes Shakespeare gets placed on a pedestal where it is unapproachable once you have seen a bad show it can really turn you off but at the same time I thought it was inspiring in the sense of simplifying it,” Tyler Gammans said, a senior theatre major.
“Well, you hear lecture, and you think, maybe I should bring a notepad and take notes but it was not, no, it was just interesting and fun to listen to,” Senior Chelsea Tuffy said.
Mary Beth Bjork can be contacted at
mbjork@ksc.mailcruiser.com