William Shakespeare’s Hamlet has been translated into almost every known language and is still performed worldwide more often than any other play ever written. For over 400 years, people have been fascinated by this tale of an ancient court of Denmark and its philosophical prince who is called to revenge the murder of his father, whose own brother has not only murdered him but married his widow. What is there about the language, characters, plot and ideas that has allowed this play to hold the world's stage for over four hundred years?
Dr. Bethany Sinnott, English Professor Emerita at Catawba College and well-known Shakespeare scholar, will provide an answer to that question at the next Catawba College Community Forum on Tuesday evening, February 16.
February’s Community Forum sets the stage for a community reading of Hamlet that Sinnott will lead, one act at a time (for a total of five acts), beginning at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 23 and continuing on consecutive Tuesdays at 7 p.m. through March 22 at Catawba’s downtown Salisbury storefront, Downtown Catawba, located in the Plaza Building, 100 West Innes Street, Suite 103. This community reading, sponsored by Catawba’s English Department, will use the Folger Shakespeare Library paperback edition of Hamlet. A limited number of copies will be available for use by those community members who attend one or more of the readings.
Dr. Sinnott received her B.A. from Duke University, her M.A. from Northwestern, and her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She taught Shakespeare at Catawba College from 1970 to 2011. Her honors include receipt of the first Leona Fleming Herman Professorship of English, the Swink Award for Outstanding Classroom Teaching, the Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award, and the South Atlantic Association of Departments of English Outstanding Teacher Award. She was inducted into Catawba's Blue Masque Hall of Fame in 2013 and received Catawba's Trustee Award for Outstanding Service to the College in 2006. For several years Dr. Sinnott was a Nancy Lyles Classics in Context lecturer for the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival.
In addition to her many activities in the world of academics, Dr. Sinnott serves as historian for the St. Thomas Players in Salisbury, secretary for the Rowan County Extension Master Gardener Volunteers, on the Vestry at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, on the Board of Salisbury Symphony, and she delivers Meals on Wheels, no doubt bringing a smile to the face of every recipient, just as she has brought smiles to the faces of her students and colleagues at Catawba for so many years.
Come to the next Catawba College Community Forum on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in Tom Smith Auditorium of Ralph W. Ketner Hall for an introduction into the mysteries of what some have argued is the greatest play ever written, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Admission, as always, is free.
