do so camefrom seeing bits and pieces of it done in Hollywood movies like DeadPoet's Society. I didn't realize how much small exposures like! thosecould cause me to prejudge the actual text; after I had read the playfor myself I was surprised at how much the text differed from myexpectations. Not knowing the whole of the plot, but rather only bitsand pieces, I expected a play filled with fairy dust and pixy-womentoe-dancing, laughing, with flowers everywhere, or something like Hylasand the nymphs. What I did not expect was a group of rag-tag laborersputting on a play, young females catfighting over their men, or Titaniabeing "enamored of an ass." (Act IV, Scene i, MND)Even with surprises, though, the text by itself held little detail and richness in my mind.I thought it a decent play, but certainly nothing like I had hoped, andI didn't feel involved in it or connected to it in any way. One of thethings that did impressed me, though, was finding out for myself howaccessible Shakespeare actually is. When it came time for me to learnmy lines for Philostrate (MND), I copied them from a site on theinternet which posted the text in its entirety. I realized the!n howlucky we are that plays like these survived through the ages, sometimesprobably making it from one hand to the next in a form no better thanthe paperback I carried in my bag. Through my reading, the importanceof the text was impressed upon me, and I feel that I have gained a newappreciation for the lasting and foundational qualities of pure script.ViewingViewing a play adds a kind of second dimension to a textualreading. While our primary impressions of a Shakespearean play areestablished with the initial reading, those impressions are challengedwhen we come into contact with a play performed. At this point we havea first hand contrast between how we felt and how someone else feltabout the same play. Once we have sampled another's interpretations wenecessarily question ourselves o...
