My name is Samantha Smith, and I am delighted to join the
Atlanta Shakespeare Company as the Education and Development Coordinator. I first became a Shakespeare fan when I was
eleven and saw Macbeth at Vancouver’s
Bard on the Beach and since then my love of seeing Shakespeare’s plays
performed has taken me from Stratford, Canada to Stratford-upon-Avon, England. I’ve had the great pleasure of seeing
nineteen separate Shakespeare plays performed, and I’m thrilled that I will
have a chance to see many more performed on the Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse
stage. Although I have spent most of my
life in Memphis, Tennessee, I am coming to Atlanta from London, where I earned
my master’s degree in Shakespeare Studies from University College London. I am passionate about encouraging students to
investigate and enjoy Shakespeare’s plays through watching and participating in
performances, so I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to contribute to
the work of the Education Department here at the Atlanta Shakespeare Company.
Gratitude is a common theme around Thanksgiving so in the
spirit of the holiday I investigated how Shakespeare’s characters express
thanks. Characters give thanks to the
heavens and to other characters quite frequently in Shakespeare’s canon;
variations on the word “thank” appear a whopping 489 times in the plays (Open
Source Shakespeare). Often, the
characters expressing gratitude speak much as we do now, saying “thanks” (All’s Well That Ends Well 2.3.77), “I
thank you” (Cymbeline 4.4.33), and,
in a more Elizabethan phrase, “I thank ye” (Henry
VIII 5.5.70). Sometimes, they
illustrate their thanks more simply, commenting that they “humbly thank”
someone (All’s Well That Ends Well
3.5.97) and offering “a thousand thanks” (The
Taming of the Shrew 2.3.84). Perhaps
the prettiest expression of thanks comes from Sebastian, speaking to Antonio in
Twelfth Night: “I can no other answer make but thanks,/And
thanks; and ever thanks” (3.3.14-15). We
at the Atlanta Shakespeare Company would like to say “ever thanks” to our
patrons, donors, and many students who investigate and celebrate Shakespeare’s
plays with us. Happy Thanksgiving!
Works Cited
Bevington,
David, ed. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. London: Longman Publishing,
2004. Print.
Open
Source Shakespeare. George Mason
University. 2015. Web.
19 November 2015.
Submitted by Samantha Smith, Education and Development Coordinator
