Pretty neat! A whole new avenue for Shakespeare scholars to explore.
I have a facebook friend who is currently (and has been for absolute YEARS) getting her PhD in Shakespeare at the Institute where I got my MA all those years ago. I have a pair of former professors who are visiting the Insitute for their biannual Shakespeare Abroad spring term course, the one I took even more years ago which got me started on this whole thing. Reading their updates has me jonesin’ for some Stratford upon Avon. We’ve also been watching the aforementioned Slings and Arrows. Each season follows the rehearsals, development, design, production, and performance of one of the Shakespeare greats: season one, Hamlet. Season two, Macbeth. Season three, King Lear. They are really fun to watch, and remind me why I got that expensive and as-yet-unused degree all those years ago.
The only way to fully absorb a Shakespeare play is to perform it. You can read and re-read and triple read the text, watch a performance, watch a movie, hear a reading, go to discussions, do a couple of these at once (I sometimes will watch and follow along in the text.) But to be in it! To hear the text night after night! Hear the actors and director explore what it all could mean, try things, find things, uncover meanings! It is absolutely amazing to me, the exploration that a Shakespeare text allows.
*geekrant over*