ASU Students Pay Respect to 400-Year Anniversary of Shakespeare's Death

Yesterday evening, ASU students prepared to perform William Shakespeare’s Macbeth with free admission at the ASU Auditorium on Tuesday, April 26.

Dr. Ashworth-King, ASU English Professor, is directing the show that is a completely student run performance.

Students from her Shakespeare class will act out characters in the play, with graduate students also helping to fill in some of the roles.  

“A vital aspect of study is missed when we only study the words on the page absent of staging, intonation, gesture and nuance,” said Dr. Ashworth-King.

The idea of performing the play on stage will provide students with experience that can be missed in the classroom, she noted.

Hollyn Bryant, English major, who will be acting the part of one of three witches in the play, said reading on stage helped put the role of each character in perspective by showing enthuse on certain lines in the play to help capture a specific character's motive.

“It really helps to get the point across that you can miss by just reading in the classroom,” Bryant said.

Ashworth-King added, “[Students] can understand more deeply the beauty of what many consider 'archaic' words and phrases, which are both alien to us as modern readers and intimately connected to what we say every day.”

The stage reading of this play can bring a better educational experience for those involved as well.

“A deep commitment to the play like the ones the students are making, positions them to study characterization and the interpretations of each line much more than simply reading the play for class is able to do,” stated Ashworth-King.

She also emphasized that performing in this play will bring the students in the Shakespeare class closer together.

“The experience tends to bond the class together," she noted. "Generally, the students work more together and genuinely appreciate the work of each other.”

Bryant mentioned that, because the witches speak in unison while on stage, it is important each of them get the timing and execution of the lines down.

“A lot of our lines overlap, so we’ll say a sentence, but each will say one part of the sentence as it goes down,” she said.

Students who performed in the staging in 2014 cited the reading as one of their favorite activities of the semester and one that helped them develop intellectually, Ashworth-King said.

The English and Modern Languages Department is working with the ASU Theater Program to provide this stage reading performance. Ashworth-King will be co-directing with another professor, Michael Burnett, for the production of Julius Caesar in October 2016.   

“I really enjoy collaborating with the wonderful faculty and students over in theater; they are helping out with the staged reading as well,” said Dr. Ashworth-King.

This performance is inspired by the 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare’s passing.