Watch a Shakespeare movie. The plays are written to be performed by actors, not to be read. My favorite is Henry V in the Branagh version, and it is a good plac

Watch a Shakespeare movie. The plays are written to be performed by actors, not to be read. My favorite is Henry V in the Branagh version, and it is a good place to start. Take a scene like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHAAH8PCnMo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHAAH8PCnMo. Just listen to the rythm and poetry and how the intensity builds, and appreciate how great actors make the text live. But there are a wealth of great Shakespeare films. Often they are creative in how they stage the story, like Ian McKelleans Richard III, which takes place in a kind of 1930's fascist Britain. This might seem disconcerting at first, but the original plays didn't care a lot for historical or geographical accuracy anyway. Be aware that Shakespeares strong points are not plotting and pacing. Movies and stage version often cut and rearrange a lot to satisfy the modern audience. Also the stories are typically taken from somewhere else, so the genius of Shakespeare is not the overall story, but rather in the poetry and the language and the unique characterizations.