When reading Shakespeare, it is often difficult to imagine his plays in their full capacity. College and high school students all over the world find themselves struggling to make sense of the Bard's verbose and venerable literature. Many consider Shakespeare to be the greatest writer the English language has yet to see and the majority of us associate him with his plays. The use of language in the plays is indeed impressive when read off of a page, but when it is seen preformed by trained actors one is likely to develop an even greater appreciation for Shakespeare's work. The ideal setting for one of his plays would obviously be seeing it performed live in a theatre because this would get you closest to the original context. However, in today's day and age, movies are much more popular than plays.
After stumbling through Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and feeling like I didn't have the best possible representation of his work, I watched Franco Zeffirelli's 1967 movie adaptation staring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Seeing the play presented this way gave me a much better grasp of the events and totally altered my concept of the imagery. Movies are a medium that most people are familiar with so the film instantly made me more comfortable with the intensity of the dialogue. In addition to that, the movie's imagery revolutionized my view of the play. It is extremely difficult for an American college student in the 21st century to have any idea what Italy would have looked like in the 16th century. The film's elaborate sets and costuming instantly filled this void. Once I overcame this obstacle, the play systematically began to make more sense. Not only because now I had a concrete image in my head, but because I also got to see actors performing the work as it was intended.
Having to imagine what the characters would be wearing or doing can be very distracting when attempting to read a play, which is why I believe that a play or movie is the best medium for truly appreciating Shakespeare's brilliance.