We started A Midsummer Night's Dream with just one text. There was no one to interpret the words, no body movement or voice inflection to indicate meaning or intention. All the meaning the reader understands comes from the words alone. The simplicity of the text provides ample ground for the imagination, as each reader can come away from the text with a different conception of what happened. Words are simply the pieces of the puzzle that individuals put together to give coherence and logic to the work. Although we all generally read the same words, we can see that very different comedies arise depending on who interprets them. By interpreting the clue words that Shakespeare wrote in the script to direct the performance of the play, we were able to imagine gestures, expressions and movements appropriate to the playwright's intentions. An example of this can be seen in the several Romeo and Juliet: Luhrman clearly had a more modern outlook after reading the script than Zeffirelli had only 18 years earlier. The live show at the CalPoly theater also brought with it a very different feeling, intense, more childish and sweet, with almost the same words. Reading also affects our experience as without the text we would most likely not be able to appreciate Shakespeare; having the text makes Shakespeare widely accessible (freely available on the web) to all who want it. Once you have the script, anyone can perform Shakespeare, even every day, non-actor citizens put Shakespeare in parks, at school or in a forest. My experience reading Shakespearean works has shown me that reading is necessary and... paper......, I feel like my understanding of Shakespeare has really expanded. Not so much Shakespeare himself, of course, but rather what he did, what he tried to achieve; I have a much clearer sense of what all the actors and crew do to put a show together, from text to performance, from start to finish. There's a little part of me that wants to keep doing Shakespeare, do all the comedy, or at least do it again. Another part of me, the more persuasive and logical part, simply wants to keep it exactly where it is in my mind, remembering it fondly, like A Dream. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Norton Shakespeare: Greenblatt, Stephen, editor. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.