In Young Company’s Newest Production, Shakespeare Gets a Gen-Alpha Spin Thanks to the Show’s Dramaturg, Andrew-Elijah Schindler
As theatrical jacks-of-all-trades, dramaturgs wear many hats during the production process. Some include script consultant, sensitivity reader, accent and etiquette researcher, designer, historical background researcher and shadow puppetry specialist.
Andrew-Elijah Schindler, a theatre arts studies major with a specialization in playwriting, had the unique opportunity to push his dramaturgy skills further than he ever had before when tasked with making some changes to Shakespeare’s “Henry V” script for BYU Young Company. The production included additional narrative dialogue tailored for a young audience — namely, Gen-Alpha slang.
At first, making changes to the script of one of the greatest playwrights of all time seemed daunting to Schindler. “I’m such a big fan of Shakespeare and when you’re writing extra dialogue for someone like him, you wonder — what weaknesses am I covering?” said Schindler. “It’s not like anything is wrong with it, it just might not be the best for an 11-year-old middle or elementary school student.”
Qualms about the task dissipated when Schindler made a key realization. “I realized that approaching it from the angle of internet humor — very young and purposefully nonsensical — was something that I could do and Shakespeare could not,” said Schindler. “In that sense, it felt like a meaningful way to contribute that was not competing with him.”
Initially, Schindler’s goal was to keep the new lines as Shakespearean as possible by writing his new lines in Shakespeare’s characteristic iambic pentameter. Director Rebeca Wallin, however, wanted him to fully embrace Gen-Alpha verbiage.
Part of the challenge with incorporating this genre of slang is that it is not meant to make a ton of sense. “For example, ‘skibidi’ is one of the most versatile words ever, which is kind of the point. It is difficult to be clear with brain rot [internet humor and phrases often used by Gen-Alpha] when I was trying to do things like clarify what a king’s ransom means,” said Schindler. “There was always this wrestle of trying to clarify language with words and phrases that are purposefully absurd and silly.”
“It’s a very bold choice to pair Shakespearean English with words like ‘skibidi,’” said Schindler. Recognizing that the humor required for the task was a little younger than that of his own generation, Schindler ran all his new narrations by an expert: his middle school age brother-in-law. “He uses words like ‘skibidi’ unironically, so he’s very well accredited and was a great resource for this,” said Schindler.
The incorporation of Gen-Alpha slang was met with intense verbal reactions from elementary and middle school audiences — “there was a lot of whooping and hollering,” according to Schindler. His favorite review was from a middle school student who walked by him at a dress rehearsal: “That’s a crazy show.”