[by: Elizabeth Dass]

In commemoration of William Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary, American Degree Program Spring 2016 intake students from the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences had put up a show to the masses as a part of their Theatre 101 class. It was held in the Taylor’s University Experimental Theater for two consecutive days, from 27th April to 28th April 2016. The show consisted of four different short plays for each day, which were adaptations based on Shakespeare’s literature.

The ambience and the setting of the plays was really simple, yet beautiful. There were many elements that brought the show to life, such as the music and the lighting, which played their own distinct parts in the show by heightening the impact of every scene in each play. At first glance, the performance space looked really small, but the use of space was executed really well. There were modern and medieval times.

I was quite taken back by the creativity of each group and how they had put so much detail into the little things that brought their play to a whole new level, including special effects such as smoke and gauzes. In addition to that, the costumes truly enhanced their characters – some had symbolism weaved into them, which brought more sophistication to the characters the actors played.

A scene from Coup d'etat

A scene from deluded retribution

A scene from a 'Herault of Joy'

The audience were all smiling as soon as the show started

I spoke with Miss Pat Chan, senior lecturer of the theatre of American Degree Program to find out what she felt about the whole show.

“I was blown away, and I feel that William Shakespeare would have been blown away, too. What we did was a fusion of Shakespeare’s works that had common issues [in his time] and we related them to the current issues [that are relevant] in the era we live in. Besides the results, the most important part was the back process of it, [and] everyone gave their dedication and passion which brought success at the end of the day.”