Doth Shakespeare retaineth dat rizz?
One of my dearest friends is a high school drama teacher and let me tell you k-12 teachers are SUPER HEROES. On Friday (November 1st), I spent all day with her at school (me 8:30am-3:30pm, her 8am-10pm…opening night of the fall play). I discussed Shakespeare and the performance conditions of his time with each of her five periods of drama students. I have been teaching Shakespeare for over fifteen years and my old faithfuls don’t work anymore.
It used to be that a She’s the Man or 10 Things I Hate About You reference would get the room hype. Certainly, in the past, all the kids knew Baz Luhrmann’s R&J even if I had to call it Leo DiCaprio’s R&J. Heck I could throw out a lil Gnomeo and Juliet and get some nods of recognition. Now…nothing. The hardcore drama students knew Something Rotten, & Juliet, or SIX but the majority of the students who were new to drama/theatre or even getting elective periods didn’t come with a lot of Shakespeare knowledge or context. Not even from their English classes, despite common core requirements.
In the 90s and early aughts, there seemed to be an abundance of contemporary Shakes adaptations on screen. I say screen because there is greater access to video content over live theatrical experiences for many high school students (I have a future post about the treasure trove of filmed stage productions, but this is not that post). Gen Z, which they assured me they are (as opposed to Gen Alpha *insert shrug emoji), has a high degree of digital literacy, and their classroom was fully kitted with a Promethean Board (yeah I had to look that up–huge flat-screen smart board with tablet-like features). I guess gone are the days of the roll-drop projection screen, and teachers rolling AV carts into the room may as well be the Stone Age to these young scholars.
Between 1999 and 2001, Julia Stiles played Kat, Opelia, and Desi in rapid succession. For a good long stretch, Kenneth Branagh was churning out a new Shakespeare film every couple of years. This created a surefire collection of accessible clips with popular actors (Denzel Washington, Kate Winslet, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Keaton, and Keanu Reeves–if that’s your thing) to pop on in classes. In the decade between 1990 and 2000, three theatrical releases of Hamlet hit the big screen. Julie Taymor, famous for directing the Broadway megahit Disney musical, The Lion King, put a singular stamp on a film rendition of Titus and followed that up with a Helen Mirren-led version of The Tempest. Shakespeare had a good run at the movies and now it seems we are at the ebb of Shakespeare's renaissance on film.
Certainly, the well hasn’t run entirely dry, Denzel got a run at Macbeth in 2021. There is no shortage of writing credits in pre/post-production for William Shakespeare on IMDb. However, there aren’t any highly anticipated summer blockbusters in the 2025-26 pipeline for Will. Charmingly enough though, period pieces and costume dramas are dominating right now. Where Shondaland’s 2017 sequel to the Romeo and Juliet saga, Still Star-Crossed failed, Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte thrive. Complete with Bridgerton Balls and themed tea service in an area near you. Hulu’s Rosaline (another alternate telling of R&J) had its moment in 2022 and quick on its heels was this year’s Amazon Prime Video pick, My Lady Jane. Though canceled, it was met with critical acclaim and fans have petitioned for more. Add this to the Little Women(s), Austen spin-offs, and Middle Earth fantasy and there is no denying that audiences are still down with a little Ye Olde romance/regicide/costume/paranormal thriller. So why is Shakespeare benched?
My theory, not enough STRONG FEMALE LEADS. Like Twilight’s Bella, All’s Well that End’s Well didn’t actually end well for Helena. This generation is over the “pick-me” girls. They don’t want damsels in distress, they want “I’ll get it my own dang self.” And of course, I know Shakespeare wasn’t writing for women, and that perhaps the boys in the apprentice company were trained in “the postures of female subjugation.”
All the better for us though that the texts were written for, rely on, and demand (question mark) gender play. What so many of the aforementioned period films and TV series have in common are the brilliantly crafted female characters. Audiences are responding to that. I know some of y’all are so sick of the phrase strong female lead, like, “Why do women always have to be strong?” And I don’t mean it in that way (especially in this post-election season when Black women want to take their capes off). I mean a potent force; a complex, contradictory, autonomous, flirtatious, alluring, not always (very) demure woman who may need assistance who may want to marry, who may not. Austen and Alcott deliver such delicious characters, and the Bridgertonverse offers a diversity of femininities; Lady Jane and Rosaline both talk back and talk smack. Shakespeare has some, but he could have more. How do we bring the spirit of & Juliet or SIX to the classroom? How do we bring the female Hamlets or Lears to the students? The baller sword fight between the women playing Mercutio and Tybalt? TV and film have outpaced theatre in several ways, I think it’s time for Shakespeare on film to catch up to the theatre’s willingness to “see the lady the epilogue.”