A Self-Evaluation of "The Shakespeare Product"

As part of my Shakespeare class at Brigham Young University, I'll be reviewing the quality of "The Shakespeare Product."  I will follow a format similar to what I used in a review of my classmate Jennifer Prusse's blog a few days ago.  Here it goes...

Posts
- Quantity: Throughout the semester I posted 30 times, and about half of those posts (14) were directly related to my theme of business in Shakespeare.  In a short period of 3 1/2 months, I think I've consistently managed to post valuable content to keep the blog interesting.

Burbage Family and the Shakespeare Business Strategy

This blog explores the business-side of Shakespeare, with a central focus on the Bard and his works as a product.  Learn more about this central theme from a previous post.  

In yesterday's post, I suggested that although I've made some interesting observations about Shakespeare's probable business motivations, I had yet to find conclusive research to demonstrate this.  However, today I tackled my research with an excellent source, The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare (source info), and I found some useful information about the Theater Companies of Shakespeare time, including information about profit, business competition, and appealing to audiences.  In this post, I'll offer information about the following: 1) some of the key figures of the Theater Companies; 2) Shakespeare's participation in the business side of things; 3) insights regarding the performances that contributed to developing Shakespeare into a great product.

The Shakespeare Product: Revisiting its Purpose

Several weeks ago, I presented a hypothesis for my blog that suggests a connection between modern business principles and the proliferation of Shakespeare.  Today I wanted to take some time and reflect, re-evaluate, and make sure that I'm on the right course.  I'll review some of the areas that I've explored and how my research ideas have progressed.  

Early Stages

Although I attempted a variety of random, fun posts about Shakespeare, I realized early on that I wanted to pursue a connection between Shakespeare and business.  To begin, I went after the low-hanging fruit: simple, thematic plot lines or character interactions of Shakespeare that would relate to business scenarios.  At this point, my hypothesis was simple: 

Character and plot in Shakespeare can teach valuable lessons for real-life experiences in business.

Here were some of my efforts:

• I began with an investigation of existing materials and resources that make use of Shakespeare as a business tool.  In particular, I found that Henry the V is a business favorite for exemplifying leadership.  I also located a corporate training company called "Movers and Shakespeares."  After some investigation of this company's training style and emphases, I anticipated that my blog could approach Shakespeare from a similar perspective.
• I attempted a few different analyses that focused on the thematic elements of plays: how the characters treated each other, whether the results were positive or negative.  In particular, an analysis of The Taming of the Shrew demonstrates this experiment.  I also did a close reading of Othello as a leader that used a similar approach.

New Source Page.

This is a brief post to direct you to a new Source page that I added.  I've spent the last few weeks researching Shakespeare (and his writing) as a product, and the source page lists all of the resources that have appeared on my blog.  The source page includes a complete lists of published written works, as well as links that I have referred to in my posts.  Feel free to comment on my sources and suggests other works that might contain relevant information regarding Shakespeare and business.