A Fresh Look at the Bard

In my "real" life, when I'm not writing, I teach high school English. That includes trying to help students unravel reading Shakespeare. I think I do a pretty decent job at helping them understand it. After going to see A Midsummer Night's Dream, I now see how much richer that experience could be if my students could actually see a play staged.

While I was at the Romance Writers of America Conference in Atlanta last week, I joined some friends at the Shakespeare Tavern just down the street from the conference hotel. What a great experience! We laughed our butts off. Anyone who knows me, also knows I have never been a fan of Shakespeare's comedies. I now understand that's because all I was doing was reading them.

While I thought everyone did a great job, I have to give kudos to the actors who played Bottom and Puck. When I've read this play in the past, I simply found these characters annoying, but seeing how the actors interpreted them on stage was fantastic.

If you're heading to Atlanta, the Shakespeare Tavern is definitely worth a visit! Oh yeah... the food's good too.