Until I saw Shakespeare‘s The Comedy of Errors at the The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, I had never seen Shakespeare live in the theater. In fact, the closest I had ever gotten was reading Julius Caesar in English class and watching Shakespeare in Love. The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey provided a family friendly experience, and a perfect way to dive into the work of such a complex author. The Comedy of Errors was humorous and extremely well done. The actors were able to bring life to Shakespeare’s words, and the actors’ actions on stage helped with the understanding of difficult passages of dialogue.

Aside from the great acting the experience of picnicking outdoors in beautiful weather added to show. The outdoor amphitheater is located right by a small airport so every so often a plane did fly overhead very loudly. This may be assumed as a problem, but the theater company would spontaneously stop acting and dance to some music that had been qued by stomping on a character’s foot. The audience, including myself, found this to be hilarious every time, and it happened at least five times.

I am a technician studying at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in Manhattan. As a technician I build scenery and props, work shows, and set up lighting. My background as a technician provided an experienced lens to look at the show through. The scenery was all clean and well made. The set itself was very beautiful and really added to the show. The costumes were all fit for the time period and tailored nicely, particularly the women’s dresses. I went to see the afternoon show with my family so lighting the set was unnecessary, but studying the lights that were hung seemed to show that the crew was more than well prepared.

The show was incredible, and a great way to experience Shakespeare for the first time. I was able to understand Shakespeare’s words with the help of a great cast. The actors all knew their parts and played them to perfection. The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey made the writer accessible to a much lager age group, and everyone in the audience seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the performance. The show was wonderful and a great way to expose yourself to amazing writing.