School can be Fun!

Hi everyone! People always thinks that classes are no fun, but at Loyola they are! This past Thursday, my Shakespeare class scheduled a field trip to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier. We have been reading King Lear and so our professor thought that it would be a good idea to go and see the story brought to life.

I had never been to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, so I was excited. Being an English major student who loves one of the greatest playwrights in the history of literature, I was in my element. I did not expect the theater to be that large at all, but it turned out to be a nice size, where every seat in the house was a great seat. There were three levels of seating, and our whole class took up the entire third balcony. The stage itself was large. There was a huge rectangular stage in the back with a smaller stage jutting out into the audience. While absorbing the beauty of the theater, the lights dimmed, and it was time to watch the play.

 

Since the Chicago Shakespeare Theater is a theater that can afford special effects, this place pulled out all the bells and whistles. There was loud crashes of thunder, intense strobe lights for lightning, real rain that fell down upon the stage, and plenty of fake blood being squirted out of bleeding eyeballs and battle wounds. The biggest effect of all was when the whole building backdrop fell forward. I was scared that the actor would get crushed underneath, but there was a window on the building backdrop and the actor was standing in the precise location of where the window would be when the building fell to the ground. The actor remained completely intact. This special effect made my mouth drop and had the whole audience clamping!

The actors themselves are world famous actors. They have performed in many plays, some even in different countries! They brought so much life to Shakespeare’s words, that every single audience member, including myself, was sucked in the entire play. The minimal props and excellent lighting helped the audience focus on the actors instead of becoming distracted. This was a wonderful directing choice because Shakespeare’s language is difficult to understand, so the less distraction, the better. Also the actors used the whole space of the theater, including the aisles, to perform. It made the entire audience feel included, like they were actors in the play themselves.

King Lear was a wonderful play and I already cannot wait to go back to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier! It was truly a magical experience. And who said school was not fun???