My Trip to Elsinore

Hej, jeg hedder Andrew!

I am raising money for a trip to Kronborg Castle, Denmark, better known as Elsinore from "Hamlet", to attend a conference on Shakespeare called "William Shakespeare: The NEXT 400 Years".  The conference is from April 22-24, 2016, and the 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare's death falls right smack dab in the middle.

Why go to Denmark to learn about Shakespeare?  I asked myself that same question about seven times this week; and it's only Tuesday.  The simplest and most truthful way to answer this is that I like Shakespeare and what better setting is there to learn about him than Elsinore?

But my yearning to go there runs deeper.  I've been to Canada and Mexico, but nowhere else.  I want to experience a culture that is completely different from my own; I'm a bit jealous of my friends that have been to China.  Also, I need to be and stay on the cutting edge of Shakespearean knowledge if I want to go anywhere in Shakespearean theatre; and I do.

I also want to learn about Shakespeare.  In college, I had tons of Shakespeare courses and took it for granted.  Now, I am struggling to find ways to keep learning about and doing Shakespeare.

This brings me to Logan Youth Shakespeare (LYS).  Why am I doing LYS for free?  Simple.  I am teaching Shakespeare.  I am getting as close as I can to the bard and watching as children learn about him: his words, his rhymes, and his rhythm.  I am watching the frustration, and the joy they get when it finally clicks.  I am working on real life problems that are not set in stone; that are flexible and can be bent any number of ways.

The only downside of LYS is that I am not getting paid to do it; if I didn't have a job as an Event Specialist, I couldn't do it.

This brings me to another point.  When I go to this conference and learn new information about Shakespeare that will be unknown in Logan, maybe even all of Utah, I will become desirable as an expert on Shakespeare.  I will be the person that people, like Mary Jackson-Smith, founding director of LYS, come to for answers when they don't know what Shakespeare meant in this line or that.  I will be the actor and director that knows the freshest way to do Henry V and all the subtle hints in the text that have been lost for hundreds of years.  Most importantly, I will be able to teach more than I ever have been able to before.

On April 23, 2016, I will be in Elsinore learning an entirely new way of doing things, but I can't do it without your help.  If as little as 221 people donate ten dollars in the next ten months, I will be able to experience a new culture and learn new things, coming back to Utah with fresh insights on Shakespeare and the Elizabethan era.

Please help me make this trip a reality.  Donate as little as ten dollars if you can and watch as I learn and bring new information back with me to teach to anyone who has an open mind and a passion for theatre.  Please interact with me, whether it's to ask a question on Shakespeare or simply ask how my day went.  You can find my fundraising site here, and I look forward to meeting you.