International Youth Theater Network

The Life of William Shakespeare

Despite the popularity achieved by his plays and the worldwide recognition for his prowess in writing, very little is known about the personal life of William Shakespeare. In fact, up to this very day, nobody really knows his actual date of birth. According to historians, William’s birth place was the house that his father owned in Stratford-upon-Avon and he was baptized on April 26, 1564. Historians further theorized that he must have been born some days before his baptismal date since at that time, it was required that a newborn child should be baptized on the nearest Sunday or holy day following his birth.William, who would go down in history as the greatest writer in the English language, was the third of eight siblings and was the eldest surviving son. His father, John, was a glover and tanner of leathers. John soon prospered and ventured into the business of dealing farm products and wool. He married Mary Arden, William’s mother, sometime in 1556 to 1558. William’s two elder sisters, Joan and Margaret, died shortly after their births due to the waves of plague that swept England during the sixteenth century. Luckily, William survived to reach adulthood and from then on, carved his place in history through his immortal plays.

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Macbeth

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare never would have dreamt that he would someday be recognized as the world’s finest writer in the English language. Also called the “Bard of Avon” or simply, “The Bard,” Shakespeare came to London in 1588 to join the theater. It was around this time that he showed great promise as an actor and as a playwright. His tremendous talent for acting and writing was his ticket so he could join the Lord Chamberlain’s Men in 1594. Together with Will Kempe, a talented comedian and Richard Burbage, the leading tragic actor during their time, their theater company became a hit in London and was patronized both by the royalties and the theater-loving public.

During his time, Shakespeare was regarded as a very prolific writer. The publishers of First Folio, John Heminges and Henry Condell were often amazed with how Shakespeare’s mind and hand seemed to work together. So fast was Shakespeare as a writer that they seldom saw any errors in his original manuscripts. The First Folio of 1623 listed 36 plays written by the Bard. These plays were categorized as comedies, histories and tragedies. It is alleged that some of these plays were not entirely written by Shakespeare but rather were collaborations with another writer. Due to their popularity, there had been countless adaptations of these plays in films, television shows and theater productions.

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Macbeth

In the world of theater, many superstitions are associated with “Macbeth”, the shortest of the tragedies written by William Shakespeare. In fact, theater performers do not say the name of this play aloud. Instead, they refer to it as “the Scottish play”, “MacBee” or “The Scottish King.” According to superstitions, the play was cursed because Shakespeare used real witches’ spells in the text. Interestingly, actors who uttered “Macbeth” inside a theatre allegedly figured into accidents, misfortunes, and even deaths. The spread of the idea that it is an “unlucky” play may have also stemmed from the fact that in the past, it was usually the last play staged before a theatre shuts down. Nonetheless, critics consider this play an anomaly due to its brevity. Compared to Shakespeare’s other tragedies like Othello and King Lear, “Macbeth” is more than a thousand lines shorter.The plot of this Shakespearean tragedy was loosely based on the life of King Macbeth of Scotland as accounted by Raphael Holinshed and Hector Boece, a Scottish philosopher. The scene highlights the start of the play where three witches, called the Weird Sisters, revealed to Macbeth, an army general of King Duncan of Scotland, the prophecy that he would soon become king. This prophecy cultivated the title character’s lust for power which led him to commit deception and murders.

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Funding

- The network would look to grants and sponsorship to fund both the general administration and specific projects.

- Membership to the network would be free to participating youth theatre companies. However some charges may need to be levied to cover the nominal costs of such things as publications and postage etc. (i.e. news letters and ‘How to’ literature for those without access to the internet.)

- Workshops, lectures and festivals may require fees from participating organisations.

- Groups requiring substantial support for specific projects may be required to cover the costs of the Networks involvement.

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