To Be or Not To Be Shakespeare?

clipped from www.canadianshakespeares.ca Slings & Arrows is a Canadian television series set in the world of a fictional southern Ontario Shakespeare festival. On February 5th, 2006 members of the Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project (CASP) coordinated with Rhombus Media to document the forty-fifth day on set at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille. Documentation of this visit makes for a large part of the multimedia material we have collected here. We begin with a series of video clips from seasons One and Two of Slings & Arrows.

The Canadian TV series "Slings & Arrows" was not just a wry, literate comedy about a fictional Shakespearean festival--it was also the centerpiece of an educational program about Shakespeare. Who better to "teach" Shakespeare than actors and directors who are supposedly trying to discover and convey the meaning of his Hamlet as the series goes on? The series (available on DVD) is backstage fun with the twist that we learn a lot about the plays as we follow the characters through all kinds of plot twists. Now that's an interesting way to market Shakespeare to the masses.