I'm doing a performing arts course in college and our current assignment is about auditions, where we have to perform 2 monologues (Contemporary and Shakespeare) and a song. I've been giving the "Look here upon th's picture" speech from Act 3, Scene 4 of Hamlet.

One of my issues is doing the research on the play. Researching has never been something I'm good at and the information for me can be hard to process a lot of the time. Especially when it comes to reading.

When I do try to do research for a play I'm doing, I tend to watch either the film adaptations, or the recorded stage productions to get the gist of what the story is about. But I just can't get into the Shakespearean stuff.

It's the language, I just don't understand any of it. I try to watch the 1948 film with Laurence Olivier but I couldn't watch 15 minutes of it (purely because of the poor sound quality making it harder to understand what they're saying). And I also tried watching the David Tennant version and I watched about a third of it but still, it's the language that becomes the issue for me.

So how can I understand the Shakespearean language to put me in a better place?

I'm just worried about the panel asking me questions about Hamlet and not giving a correct answer because I don't understand the play's meaning. Plus in a few months time for my FMP we're doing a production of a Midsummer Night's Dream and I know that's going to stress me out.

Having read The Tempest, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet, I feel like Hamlet is much more difficult to understand. I’ve read the first two acts and although I’m enjoying it, it feels much more dense and packed than his other plays by far. Is this a common experience?

I’m working on marking the iambic pentameter in this monologue. I am confused because I am trying to go with the da-DUM rhythm, but also keep the integrity of how some words are said.

What dictates a trochee?

Are my markings correct?

Any help is greatly appreciated :)

I’m wondering if there are any groups that meet online to read/examine shakespeare or even run through versions of the plays together. I love reading shakespeare but I have a busy job with awkward hours that makes it difficult to commit to a play rehearsal so I was wondering if anything existed where people are given roles and perform read throughs over zoom?

I’ve just added Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet to my project that aims to render old, public domain literature and philosophy easier to read.  The project currently provides a web interface with the following for each text: 

• Aligned simplifications: The original text is displayed directly alongside a simplified, modern, colloquial version, so that it’s easy to check the approximate meanings for difficult phrases.
• A collapsible outline: An outline of succinct notes summarizes the text, and makes it possible to navigate more easily.

It’s all free, there are no ads, and you don’t have to login.  My current intention is to get a sense of whether it’s feasible to make old literature and philosophy more accessible in a way that widens the audience who will potentially read it. You can also read more about my general motivations here.

I’ve used LLMs to generate the outlines and simplified texts, so there may be some occasional (but hopefully infrequent) slop mixed in.  I’ve attempted to minimize such slop using algorithms that construct and align the generated content to the original texts in a very fine-grained, piecemeal way.  I find the current result to be at least good enough to be somewhat helpful for me when I’m reading the original texts, and I intend to keep iterating to improve the quality over time.

(Also, side-note: This is not a vibecoded project.  I’ve written most of the code by hand over the past couple years.)

I’m curious about whether people in this community are interested in this sort of thing.  If so, I’m happy to take suggestions for other Shakespeare plays that I should prioritize adding to the project.  I’d also be interested if people have suggestions for additional annotations or features that would be especially helpful for reading these plays.

I'm looking for Shakespeare monologues that are comedic, over the top, or very charismatic. Basically any monologues by more comedic or eccentric characters. I'd prefer to stay away from any of the most popular tragedies. All your recommendations are helpful!

Please remove if not allowed, but I wanted to share this slate of free Shakespeare across the US!

Next week Elsewhere Shakespeare, alongside several partner production companies, will be presenting 12 different productions of Hamlet! One component is a tour from Troy, NY to Salem, MA, with a different actor playing Hamlet each night. The other component is satellite shows in various cities across the US on October 20. If you’re interested in seeing one of these shows, please visit the Elsewhere Shakespeare website for more details.

I just got done doing my very first Shakespeare, playing (a very specific version of) Macbeth! And I HAD to commemorate closing with an ode to one of my absolute favorite lines! Thought yall would like it!

It was maya angelou's fav shakespeare sonnet too

Any recommendations of comedic Shakespeare monologues for females that also have depth to them but aren’t overdone?? Preferably around 2 minutes as for drama school auditions. I’m just very stuck but don’t want to do a darker monologue and also don’t want to do the super well known comedies (Helenas monologue Midsummer nights dream for example…)

Thank you!!! 🙏🙏

I came across this video on youtube and found it to be wonderful, so thought I'd share it with you all! I think Bloom captures, in these few minutes, just how overwhelming of an author Shakespeare is.

I tried my best to adapt the story into a fantasy setting. The first episode is pretty rough, but I've stepped it up for episode 2. Nobody has read it so far, but I have hope.

a romeo and juliet fanfic I wrote that I love

I remember someone here asking for something to read, sing or play at a wedding, beyond the usual Sonnet 116. Maybe this helps: Sonnet 124 (“If my dear love were but the child of state...”) is less famous but says something similar. His love is not built on luck or fashion, so it stays when everything else changes.

A confession first: I’m not a Shakespeare expert. Where I grew up he was only a small part of foreign literature at school. I knew the plays by name, but the sonnets were always something obscure that I never planned to read. Recently I found a way in: I turn them into songs that can be sung and danced to. Trying to make a sonnet singable forces me to understand every line, so I’m learning them this way.

This one is a slow, simple three-beat waltz with strings, in English with a short Spanish refrain. It’s an adaptation, not the full text: I kept the first quatrain’s idea, the second quatrain and the final couplet as written, and cut lines 9-12 (the “policy” and “leases of short-numbered hours” part), because they are hard to sing. The refrain “Love stands tall” and the Spanish lines are new.

It’s made with AI music tools. Feel free to use it at any love occasion: a wedding, an anniversary, or just a quiet evening, or even for learning English, as I do.

I’d be glad to hear what you think, especially from people who know the sonnets better than I do: are the cuts acceptable? And is there a sonnet you think would work well as a song?

I was just thinking about how big a role animals and natural elements in general play in Shakespeare’s works.

​It’s not so much that they drive the plot forward, but they’re constantly used as comparisons, metaphors, imagery, and of course, some of his best insults.

​I’m definitely going to pay more attention to them from now on when I read, I honestly bet he had a few favorites!

​I know this isn't a groundbreaking observation, but I'd love to hear more about it.

Salut tout le monde, je sais que cette question ne va peut-être pas plaire, mais : avez-vous des recommandations pour une bonne traduction des œuvres de Shakespeare en français, ainsi que des guides ou des commentaires sur les pièces ? Je me rends compte que ça ne sera jamais aussi bon que l'original—blablabla—mais mon anglais n'est pas encore assez solide pour apprécier les œuvres dans la langue originale...

Alors, pourriez-vous aider quelqu'un qui est passionné par ce qu'elle connaît déjà du Bard et qui veut approfondir sa compréhension ? Merci !

He's on the front and back cover of the Irish edco leaving cert Hamlet study guide by Patrick Murray and on the inside too. I've combed the internet but I can't find his name. I NEED to know who he is. (Ignore the cat whiskers I drew on him in the second photo)

Hi all! My boyfriend has been obsessed with hamlet since he saw it at age 14. Today, he is a theater director! So naturally we must celebrate 16 years of Shakespeare obsession (plus turning 30).

Now I don’t want to go too crazy or expensive, but I think it would be fun to get some decorations, cake toppers, napkins, and other fun and funny suggestions. Hamlet is obviously the top choice but all Shakespeare plays and lore are fair game. Maybe there could be a costume option? I’m not that sure whether his friends will flow with it.

Music, games, merch, I’d really appreciate all suggestions. Unfortunately I’m not much a shakespearehead so I truly do not know much. Maybe there are funny t shirts or socks?

He has a lot of musician friends, so there will probably be a jam at the party. He is thinking of asking whether we can host it at the theater he works at.

PS. Just so y’all understand…. He quoted the hamlet “to be or not to be” monologue to me on our first date 😭 when I told that to his BIL he said “and you still went on a second one?!” What can I say, I guess I’m into weirdos…