The game's afoot

Like the age-old feud between the Montagues and Capulets in Romeo and Juliet, the long-lived NBA rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the L. A. Lakers makes for great drama. The action-packed stories that Shakespeare crafted for the stage echo repeatedly in the comedy and tragedy on the athletic field, in stories that feature noble and tragic characters alike. Macbeths career begins with promise but ends in ruin; Pete Rose put his legacy as a baseball great in peril by betting illegally on the Cincinnati Reds. Twelfth Nights Viola disguises herself as a boy to enter into a mans world; in the mid-twentieth century, Babe Didrickson Zaharias challenged the old boys when she competed in the PGAs Los Angeles Open. Through parallels between Shakespeares plays and sports figures and events, this book introduces seven of Shakespeares best known and most often performed plays to the sports enthusiast. discussions of the plays are followed by questions for further discussion. Other features, like Inside Shakespeare tidbits and interviews with Shakespearean actors, sports, fans, and the college basketball coach who discovered and launched NBA star Stephen Curry, invite the beginning or returning student of Shakespeare to understand, view, and enjoy the plays.