Can Shakespeare help us understand human behavior? Explore important work of the bard at McHenry County College’s latest Experts and Insights educational speaker series “Renewing Shakespeare from the Page to the Stage” Thursday, April 20 at 6 p.m. The session, held in the College’s Luecht Auditorium, will be presented by English instructor Ted Hazelgrove and Theatre and Speech instructor Jay Geller.
"After our collaboration on MCC’s recent production of Juliet and Romeo—for which we adapted a script that reversed the genders in the play—we realized highlighting our approach in a lecture would capture the process of transforming a Shakespearean play from the page to the stage," Hazelgrove said.
The duo will use both films and live-action scenes to showcase lessons, themes, and poignant observations from Shakespeare’s works as both a literary and performing text.
Jay Geller is in his 23rd year as the department chair of Theatre at MCC. He is also chair of Speech and Journalism and teaches speech, film, and all theatre courses. He has directed and produced 50 productions at the College. He has an undergraduate degree from Northern Illinois University and a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from Illinois State University.
Ted Hazelgrove has taught writing and literature at MCC for 25 years, with an emphasis on Shakespeare and Greek and Roman mythology. He received an MFA in poetry from the University of Arizona and has been an aspiring poet for most of his life.
The session is free and open to the public. Registration is requested but walk-ins are welcome.
The next Experts and Insights session will be “Stuck in an Echo Chamber? How to Find Your Way Out” on May 18.
Interested participants can register and learn more at
www.mchenry.edu/experts. If you need an accommodation or a sign language interpreter, please contact MCC’s Access and Disability Services department at (815) 455-8766 or
disabilityservices@mchenry.edu.
The Experts and Insights series originally started in 2019 as an opportunity for the community to experience the high quality of education and expertise provided by MCC’s faculty as they present topics in their fields of study.
