William Shakespeare, the great English poet and (1) _dramatist,_, was born in
1564 in the town of Stradford-on-Avon. There were no theatres in England
then. Groups of actors travelled from town to town showing performances
in the street. Sometimes actors came to Stradford-on-Avon The boy went
to see all their shows and liked them very much. He wanted to become an
actor. Sometimes he wrote little plays and (2) __staged__ them with his
friends. When he was twenty one. William went to London. There he joined
a group of actors. At first he only helped actors and then began (3)
__writing plays__ for them. Soon Shakespeare's plays were staged more and more and
became famous. Shakespeare had a great ability (4) ___to summarize__ the wide range of human
emotions in beautiful and laconic verses. His literary (5) _heritage__
includes about 37 plays, 154 sonnets and some poems. He coined more than
1700 English words and created a lot of common expressions, which are
widely used in modern English.
Shakespeare is often called one of the most remarkable (6) __storytellers___ that
ever lived. He wrote comedies and tragedies, histories and romances
which have become immortal.
He created a lot of great, memorable and (7) _ complex__ characters like
Hamlet, Ophelia, Lady Macbeth, Othello and King Lear. Actors love
playing Shakespearean characters – these roles are usually really
difficult, but very rewarding. The role of Hamlet is often considered to
be the top of an actor’s career.