Shakespeare gives a workshop

Shakespeare strode into the Webster University hall looking quite dapper in his late 16th century outfit despite a run in his stockings. He ran his finger around his ruff as if it were a bit tight.

He had been slated to give this workshop a year ago, but he refused to travel by bus, car, train and definitely not by Easy Jet to Geneva. Thus it took almost a year as he insisted on a horse and/or carriage.

In his travels, he had grown used to the strange clothing people wore. He especially appreciated that women showed so much more of their bodies. Nothing like a pretty ankle and even better a pretty calf and thigh.

The class had about 70 people, more women than men. The room was in one of those modern buildings with unbelievable large glass windows and not a wooden beam in sight. He had decided the beams must be hidden otherwise the ceiling would descend upon all their heads.

He had refused to do this workshop by Zoom, afraid he might never escape one of this little squares that he saw flickering on those lighted boxes. He also wanted to see the faces of the students.

He cleared his throat and began to speak.

Good Morning. Here is what we will be working on today. I have been told that most of you want to be playwrights or poets and some of you want to write novels. Although novels are interesting, I do not see them becoming a major publishing force...too expensive, too heavy. And they take so much time to read. Not like two or so hours to see a play or a few minutes or more for a poem. Also poems can be reread and reread until every bit of flavor has been exhumed. A novel is much too bulky for that.

Let's start with what we write with. I have seen you all taping on letters and the words appear on the box above. 

None of you seem to know the creative energy and emotional thrill of selecting the right paper, the right quill, I will show you how to sharpen a feather later in the workshop, and how to make ink. I prefer making my own ink, and I've been known to change the color to help my mood. 

There are pens you can make from a feather you find in the street, and there are those that are designed by craftsman. Still you do need to know how to get the point just right so what you write will be legible.

Now the major topics.

 

Character

It is hard to have a character all bad and all good. Take Polonious. He was an idiot, but well meaning. It gave a shallow man, a bit of depth, but not too much. One doesn't want to overdo it.

Shylock was hated yet he was sympathetic. Not very, but enough the critics chided me for it. I hate critics. They can write to disparage but they could never produce what they disparage themselves.

As I understand life now, women can play women on stage and that gives you a lot more leeway in developing their characters. It was easy enough to find a svelte boy to play Juliet and a rough man to play Lady Macbeth...but Kate in Taming of the Shrew? I can't tell you how many men failed at the part.

So remember, don't make a character all bad or all good.

 Relationships

Ah, that is the seed of all writing. How do you show relationships? Well first if you say thou instead of you, it does reveal a closeness, a trick of the trade, so to speak. What is harder is to reveal the hidden relationships that make a good story. Think of Hamlet's relationship  with his mother for example.

Verisimilitude

Be careful that everything is time appropriate. I once was lambasted by the critics when I put a clock in Roman times. I took it out immediately of course, but there were still scripts floating around with the clock most foul in it.

And speaking of clock I see by my watch (he looks at his wrist), a most useful invention of your time, I must say, we need a tea break. When we come back in 15 minutes, we will do a writing exercise.