Shipping Has Been Around Since Shakespeare

High School | Learning | December 11, 2015

(My school has a musical production every year, but sadly doesn’t do straight plays, leaving the older students to often arrange one themselves. I’ve decided to put on ‘The Tempest’ by Shakespeare. I prepare audition pieces for those who don’t have them, one including an exchange between two male characters in which one says he’ll love the other if he is king. A young girl is reading for that particular role.)

Younger Student: “Um… miss, Sebastian… is he gay? Are they gay?”

Me: *looks at the line she’s pointing at* “Oh, no. He loves him like a friend, like his king. It means he’ll respect him and defend him.”

Younger Student: “Oh… okay.”

(She and a few others seem disappointed.)

Me: “But you know, there’s no mention of wives… so they could be. Play it however you want to. Someone out there will agree with it.”

(Her face lit up and she read the piece brilliantly.)

This story is part of the Shakespeare roundup!