By Ann Marie Todes
“With mirth and laughter, let old wrinkles come!” Seventy-five-year-old Bob Smith leans forward, smiling, his sparkling green eyes set to a playful tease. “It’s from The Merchant of Venice,” he says, “and probably what we all wish for—a comfortable old age surrounded with love.”
For over 30 years, Bob has held Shakespeare talks for seniors all over Manhattan. He started at the Hudson Guild on 10th Avenue. “I owed a friend a favor and she suggested I give a talk. Nothing fancy. Thirty of us sat at a big oak table and worked our way through the sonnets. It was magical and, six months later, I had 11 groups all over the City.”
Smith has no formal education past high school but his Shakespeare obsession has led to directing and guest-artist stints at top universities. A front-page profile in the New York Times described him as, “a plain-spoken autodidact, whose passion for Shakespeare regularly breaks attendance records.”
His memoir, Hamlet’s Dresser, was a Wall Street Journal editor’s pick, a Barnes & Noble top choice, and a Book of the Month Club selection. Neil Simon called it, “masterful, poetic, sad, and brilliant.” Library Journal dubbed Bob, “the teacher we all should have had to introduce us to Shakespeare.”
Bob first encountered the Bard at his local Stratford, Connecticut library when he was 10. “I did my homework there because my severely disabled sister had fits of screaming and it was a quiet haven.”
In homage to Shakespeare’s birthplace, the library had a stained-glass portrait of the Bard. “I asked the librarian who it was and minutes later she dropped a copy of The Merchant of Venice on the table where I was doing math.”
“The first line of Merchant is, ‘In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.’ Of course, I didn’t know what ‘sooth’ meant, but it was clear that I’d found a kindred spirit who understood my isolation and sadness.”
For almost 25 years, Smith has held packed lectures at the 92nd Street Y. But last spring, he had a medical problem that set him back. “Supported by the courage and pluck of an army of seniors, I decided to go back to a library. I wanted that experience again and the beautiful Epiphany Library on 23rd Street seemed the perfect place in which to explore all of Shakespeare’s works.”
Bob is just finishing a wonderful six-week Antony and Cleopatra class. On February 17th, he starts Twelfth Night. “It’s a gorgeous text with remarkable, joyous poetry, and more than a touch of melancholy.”
“The Twelfth Night class is filling up and I’m ecstatic.” And, just maybe, as he works his way through the plays and poems, Bob Smith will talk the library into installing its own Shakespeare window.
