During the month of July, I will be facilitating a friendly competition among four writers to determine Shakespeare’s best play. The 32 plays in the competition were selected randomly. Each of the writers was randomly given 8 plays to briefly defend. My wife, Mary Ruth, had the time of her life picking the names out of the hats.
Every day for the month of July there will be a head to head match up of plays. Each play’s anonymous defender will argue why their play is the better than the play it is competing against. Then, people will vote on the Facebook posts I make each day for which play is better, however, it will be heavily suggested that they, the voters, not simply vote for the play they prefer but instead select the better argument.
Admittedly, this project borrows from one of Dr. Cohen’s final exams during the Mary Baldwin Shakespeare and Performance MLItt track. I added some twists of my own and hope it leads to some entertainment and debate about the plays. I am also interested in the competitive form of argumentation. I think Shakespeare would approve of a duel of words.
In In the end, we will have both a winning play and a winning writer. I will tally up each writer’s overall record and whoever has the best win percentage will be declared the victor.
Furthermore, each post will include a donation link. That way we can provide some people with some entertainment and find ways to help out in these trying times.
The writers that have agreed to battle it out to find Shakespeare’s Greatest Play are Nick Ciavarra, Tyler Dale, Mary Finch, and Jennifer Vosters. I will have posts about each of them in the upcoming weeks. I am so happy to have such talented writers and Shakespeare enthusiasts, artists, and academics participating in this project. It will be even more fun for all who read.
Due to the random selection process, 6 plays are not included in the bracket: Richard III, Tempest, 12th Night, All’s Well that Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing, and Winter’s Tale. I hope this project draws a lot of interest and becomes an annual event. That would allow for these plays to have a chance to win in the future to win and for writers to creatively defend each of them.
Keep a lookout for more posts!