I am a Shakespeare nerd.

I am a Shakespeare nerd who discovered the plays in the mid-1990s, aka at peak Branagh.

I am a Shakespeare nerd who, as a 14-year-old, heard from her best friend that there was a bookshop in town that sold the collected works of William Shakespeare – in the original, thankyouverymuch – and so hopped on her bike and bought the brick of a volume. I still have it, I still use it, cumbersome though it is.

Hei Saini!

This is me almost twenty years later at the Swan in Shakespeare’s Globe with said friend. She does not like Shakespeare – not one jot – which for a person who has a PhD in drama and is an actual real-life performer must be the equivalent of some kind of debilitating skin condition, so please be discreet about it. (We are classy dames.)

I am a Shakespeare nerd who, upon moving to Australia, became mightily confused about flirting and the phrase “not ’til a hot January”, and still hasn’t properly recovered.

I am a Shakespeare nerd who played Puck once.

I am a Shakespeare nerd who could listen to Ben and/or David Crystal talk meter, rhyme and Original Pronunciation sex puns for – ahem – hours and hours. (I am also a language nerd, so discovering David Crystal has things to say about Shakespeare felt like there is a party in my Wernicke’s and everyone is invited.)

I am a Shakespeare nerd whose efforts at elevating her five-year-old nephew’s discourse only resulted in “Cry, haddocks, and make the doggies walk!”.

I am a Shakespeare nerd who enjoys not understanding everything in the texts. I still don’t get “Phoenix and Turtle” but my God if those words aren’t some of the most beautiful put to paper.

I am a Shakespeare nerd probably because I’ve always preferred reading things out loud, and – short of having an actual acting troupe at your disposal – that is the only way to do it.

I am a Shakespeare nerd whose first solo trip to the cinema was to see Looking for Richard.

I am a Shakespeare nerd who in a sliver of her mind hopes there will one day be an urgent need for someone to step up and, there and then, recite the Crispin’s Day speech because by Jove I am ready for that.

I am a Shakespeare nerd who will teach The Tempest on Tuesday. In short, I am a Shakespeare nerd who gets to make more Shakespeare nerds. To quote Caliban:

I am getting a pretty extreme metacognitive buzz out of the whole arrangement.

And as if that isn’t enough–

oh no, a bear!