Characters (from left) Henry Wriothesley, Will Shakespeare, Mary Fitton in the new webseries Blank Verse. (Facebook / Blank Verse)

Could Shakespeare make it big today? Many of the most renowned English writing legends rose to fame long ago, during the earlier years of the language we know today (not that English has stopped evolving—lol), and their talent and subsequent fame is oftentimes questioned when compared to those in the contemporary world. This is the focus of Blank Verse.

Created by theatre and film graduates from the University of British Columbia, Blank Verse is a new webseries about William Shakespeare and other “great writers of his time, reimagined as modern day university students.” Moving historically-accurate events and contexts into the 21st century, the series aims to “draw attention to the struggle of artists in our contemporary world, and examine our place within the cultural atmosphere of the past 500 years”.

Featuring rising stars from across Canada, as well as established voices in the Vancouver Theatre Community, Blank Verse plans to answer a number of common questions pondered, including: Who was William Shakespeare? What would it be like if Shakespeare had not existed until now? How do we define greatness in our modern culture?

This weekly webseries will air every Sunday, beginning on August 25th and running until December 29th via YouTube and blankverse.tv.

Curious about the series? Word nerds can check out their prologue or further investigate the webseries on Facebook and Twitter. I know I will!