There are lots of ways you can be touched by Shakespeare.

For some people, it can touch you so hard you quite literally fall over.

I was watching an extraordinary performance by Sirian Home of Richard III.

And I was so captivated by, I realized later, the verse,

you put a hypnotic character on the stage and you hypnotize

your audience with the language and the audience wonder what is going on. I wondered what

was going on to such an extent that I passed out.

From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.

I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.

The story you just heard was Sir Ben Kingsley talking about the way Shakespeare changed his life.

In his case, after he was revived, he watched the rest of the play and then begged members

of the Royal Shakespeare Company to let him join.

That story is just one of dozens on the exact same subject, told by actors, directors, writers,

soldiers, a Holocaust survivor in a new web video series titled,

appropriately, How Shakespeare Changed My Life, gathered by actor-director Melinda Hall.

Melinda came into the studio recently to talk about the series,

where it came from, what she's learned from it, and where it's headed.

We call this podcast, Mine Honor, yay, my life be thine.

Melinda is interviewed by Barbara Bogave. What a dream job you have talking to all these famous

actors about Shakespeare. And I'm thinking a lot of these people are not easy to nail down

for an interview. I know that from personal experience.

So it may be, it made me think that whether Shakespeare somehow opens doors in a way, that other topics don't, and what it would be about Shakespeare that makes hard to get celebrities come to the table.

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