William Shakespeare, 16th Century English Playwright
performed by A. Theodore Kachel

William Shakespeare (baptized 23 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, and as the world's preeminent dramatist.  He wrote approximately 38 plays and 154 sonnets, as well as a variety of other poems.  Already popular in his own lifetime, Shakespeare became more famous after his death and his work was adulated by many prominent cultural figures through the centuries.   He is often considered to be England's national poet and is sometimes referred to as the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard") or the "Swan of Avon".

Orthodox scholars believe Shakespeare produced most of his work between 1586 and 1612, although the exact dates and chronology of the plays attributed to him are under considerable debate.  He is counted among the few playwrights who have excelled in both tragedy and comedy; his plays combine popular appeal with complex characterization, and poetic grandeur with philosophical depth.

Shakespeare's works have been translated into every major living language, and his plays are continually performed all around the world.  Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in the literature and history of the English-speaking world, and many of his quotations and neologisms have passed into everyday usage in English and other languages.  Many have speculated about Shakespeare, including his sexuality, religious affiliation, and the authorship of the works attributed to him.

In the summer of 1992, Ted Kachel presented William Jennings Bryan as his first historical character, and since then has researched and performed General William Tecumseh Sherman(1994), Sir Winston S. Churchill(1997), and H.G. Wells(1999).  This summer he will offer his character, William Shakespeare of the Globe Theatre, at the Lake Tahoe Chautauqua.  Since this beginning in 1992, Ted has toured with his characters for other Humanities Council Chautauquas, for civic organizations and professional societies, and at college and at town venues throughout Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Arkansas and Colorado.

In 1999 he retired after forty years of teaching in the humanities and in drama as Director of the Theatre Program at Tulsa Community College.  He still teaches there part-time a religion class using his advanced studies earned through his Ph.D. in Religion and Society from Columbia University.  In addition to continuing his Chautauqua performing he is writing his first novel about the impact of the Sixties on our politics, culture, religion, and life-styles in America.  Further research and writing begun with his initial study to perform Bryan in 1992 continues in another book-length project tracing the lives and public interactions between Bryan and Clarence Darrow from their first meeting in 1896 at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, through their many debates on the Chautauqua lecture circuit, to their final ‘show-down’ at the Scopes Trial in 1925.

In presenting Shakespeare for this summer’s Chautauqua, Ted brings his life-long study and fascination with the theatre and its most eloquent and humane playwright, the Bard of Stratford-on-the-Avon, to bear on the fundamental work of imagination in the way humans create, sustain, and share their deepest hopes and widest visions of what is possible for our species.  This is the continuing work of the arts and of the humanities.  Let, therefore, Shakespeare again lead us this summer as we seek to illuminate our lives now by looking through the ‘eyes of the past’ on the ‘possibilities of our futures.’