Shakespeare probably would be your friend on Facebook

Before anyone says that Shakespeare is not on fleek, consider this: He was the first writer to use the word "friending." Long before Facebook, Shakespeare used the term as a verb in "Hamlet."

And, by the way, the word "fleek" goes all the way back to 19th-century British literature. Who knew?

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. It is believed he was born on April 23, 1564, and died on April 23, 1616.

Everyone is familiar with Shakespeare, but many who have heard of him also have consciously avoided reading his works, thinking they are too highbrow and hard to understand.

Dawn Walts of Aurora would like to change all that.

"Students struggle because they take it all so seriously, but Shakespeare was very playful with his writing," she said.

A former English professor at Lewis University, Walts has 10 years' experience teaching Shakespeare.

She says she loves the library as much as she loves Shakespeare and reading.

So she decided to give back by presenting some programs about Shakespeare at the Eola Road Branch, her neighborhood library. "I sent an email through the library's website and said, "I'm here at the library all the time, I am a former English professor, and I would love to offer something to the library," Walts said.

"This is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, and I felt I couldn't let that go without some sort of celebration or event."

Walts said she has always loved reading. "I grew up in libraries, and my earliest memory is of being in a library. My life has always been filled with books, and being an English professor is a great way to share that with students."

Reading was not Walts' only love. She started her educational journey as a dance major at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania.

She danced for a small company called Dafmark Dance Theatre, also in Erie, but hung up her pointe shoes when she was 24. At that point, she moved back to her native California and worked at Del Monte Foods.

"Everyone knew I loved to read, so they would come to me for book suggestions," she said. "We would have these little book clubs at work."

When it was time for a change from the corporate world, she started graduate school in San Francisco and then transferred to Ohio State.

She did her post-doctorate work at Indiana University at Bloomington before moving to Aurora seven years ago.

Walt is married and has three children who attend District 204 schools.

"The big reason I resigned from teaching is that I was not spending as much time with my family and my community as I wanted to," Walts said. "I wanted to be more accessible to people and to serve the community. I love the Aurora area and my kids are growing up in the Eola Library/Community Center building. So I decided to stay home and volunteer at their schools and be more present for them as a mom.

Walts has been volunteering at McCarty Elementary and Fischer Middle schools and also is involved with Moms Building Bridges, an organization of women who value diversity and serving the community.

Her aim with the Shakespeare programs is to get kids comfortable with Shakespeare and "familiarize them with some of the characters and stories so when they approach his work in high school they are not so intimidated."

A Reader's Theater for third- through fifth-graders was held Saturday, April 9. A teen program, "Shakespeare for Teens," will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 17.

Walts will give some background about Shakespeare, since, she said, it has been 400 years since his death and his works were written more than four centuries ago.

In the teen program, Walts will mention some of the teen films that have been adapted from Shakespeare plays, including "Ten Things I Hate about You" ("The Taming of the Shrew"), "She's the Man" ("Twelfth Night") and a 2000 release of "Hamlet" with Ethan Hawke.

"Sons of Anarchy" is based on "Hamlet" as well, and "Empire" is based on "King Lear," Walts said.

"The producer of 'Empire' was driving and listening to hip-hop music one day and thought, 'What if you took "King Lear" and set it in the hip-hop industry?"

"'House of Cards' is 'Richard the Third,'" she said. "Shakespeare is everywhere. Writers study Shakespeare. People who write TV shows are readers. Shakespeare was the Steven Spielberg of the day. Of course, writers will go back to what worked 400 years ago."

Walts said program participants are going to get excited about Shakespeare.

"It's going to be fun. My students never believe me in the beginning of class but at the end of the semester they say they did have fun reading Shakespeare."

Some of the teen program activities include Shakespeare Mad Libs, Shakespeare Karaoke, and an Iambic Pentameterathon.

Walts is writing a book about how to read Shakespeare. "It is based on the principle that everybody can have fun reading Shakespeare," she said. She is self-publishing the book on Amazon and hopes it will be released this summer.