âWant to know my first experience with Shakespeare?â Hannah Simpson, actor and recent OWU alum, says with a mischievous grin.
âDefinitely,â I respond eagerly.
âMy brother was more of a theatre kid than I was at the time, so we watched a production of Macbeth. When Duncanâs bloody ghost came on and went BLAAAH! I got so scared, and I did not sleep for three days.â
Luckily, Hannah was able to get over her initial reaction to Shakespeareâs theatrics and became a bit of an expert on his works. She petitioned to minor in Shakespeare, but, unfortunately, it is Wnot possible. She didnât let it stop her, though. Throughout her OWU career, she took every Shakespeare course offered. But the fascination had to start somewhere.
âI played the apothe- cary and some other randos in Romeo and Juliet,â she says with a bag of pretzels in her hand. âI know I read Hamlet my senior year of high school,â she continues, with her usual animated demeanor.” Dr. Long encouraged me to apply to the Travel-Learning Course [âShakespeare at the Globeâ] and I got accepted. Thatâs when I realized that [Shakespeare] was something I was good at, and itâs im- portant. I didnât take any Shakespeare my sophomore year, and I realized I never wanted to do that again.â
While at OWU, Hannah spent her final year creating and acting in her own version of Hamlet, in which all the parts were played by womenâa twist on the Renaissance practice of only allowing male actors on stage. Now, sheâs acting in a theatre company in the heart of Chicago called Oddâs Bodkins. The group was founded in 2015, and is entirely run by women. They perform Shakespearean plays as well as some modern productions. Whatâs interesting about Oddâs Bodkins, though, is its mission statement: They aim to diversify their casts and bluntly defy norms.
âWe have seven members, and we try to replicate the original practices, but weâre particular about the practices that we use,â she says. âWeâre just a bunch of Shakespeare lovers.â
She explains that they take the practices that benefit the experience the most. They do not use lights or sets, but donât use other techniques Renaissance theatre companies would have employed.
Hannah has acted in two Shakespearean productions so farâTouchstone in As You Like It and Balthasar and Dogberry in Much A do About Nothingâand has composed the music for Much A Do on her ukulele. Though, she continues to credit her education at OWU for how far sheâs come.
âIâm really lucky I was able to tailor my education at OWU to Shakespeare. If I didnât have that training or education, I wouldnât be here now.â
Hannahâs next Shakespearean role will be in Mid- Summerâs Night Dream as Bottom.
