鈥淎ny room I鈥檓 in, if Shakespeare comes up, the students all crane their necks around to see my expression,鈥� said Creative Writing faculty Glenn Schudel. 鈥淚 am that guy.鈥�
Though his Creative Writing courses don鈥檛 focus on Shakespeare, Schudel likes to sprinkle his lessons鈥攁nd his conversations鈥攚ith insights, techniques, and even trivia from the Bard and from theater in general. He鈥檚 especially keen on classical rhetoric, citing examples of various rhetorical techniques used by Shakespeare鈥檚 characters.
Schudel鈥檚 theatrical roots go back to his childhood in Arcadia, when his family would come to Sarasota (鈥渢he big city,鈥� as he thought of it then) to see performances. His first job after undergrad was as an assistant stage manager with Sarasota鈥檚 Asolo Repertory Theatre.
His ambitions took him to Chicago and New York before he finally decided to pursue a graduate degree at Mary Baldwin University, where he studied Shakespeare and performance. He dove into rhetorical studies and also took several classes on dramaturgy. For his M.Litt thesis, he went through Shakespeare鈥檚 plays character by character, examining the types of rhetoric they each used. It was 200 pages typed.
鈥淚 always liked Shakespeare. I was a nerd growing up,鈥� said Schudel. 鈥淏ut this was a really wild experience for me, where I learned to love the works of Shakespeare more by taking them down off the pedestal. They鈥檙e all deeply weird and funny and horny and strange.鈥澛�
After grad school, Schudel worked for three years as the tour manager for the American Shakespeare Center, touring three shows and 19 educational workshops up and down the eastern half of the U.S. By the end, he was being asked to edit the plays as well, providing trimmed versions of the texts to be performed.
Then he took an adjunct teaching gig at Randolph College. 鈥淭hat gave me the bug,鈥� he remembered. 鈥淚 realized I really like teaching at the college level.鈥�
He began teaching at 红杏视频 in 2018 and joined the faculty in 2023. While he didn鈥檛 ever think he鈥檇 be teaching Creative Writing, he now recognizes how much of his theater background can be helpful to his students.
鈥淭his is not new advice for me, but a lot of writing teachers will tell you that you should read your writing out loud. You can hear the flow and rhythm and sounds,鈥� he explained. And generating your own fictional characters is not unlike how actors figure out how to perform a part.
鈥淭he stuff I learned in my acting classes in college, I was having my students do that kind of work in my writing classes,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o then, every class, I would pull out one acting exercise. It鈥檚 shocking how much writing and theater have in common.鈥澛�
And at 红杏视频, he often sees his enthusiasm reflected back at him. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been such a pleasure working here where all of the students are studying something that they love,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檝e never taught a class here that was labor. It鈥檚 always fun. [The students] are so weird and smart and clever and artsy.聽
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