Shakespearean Scholar
When Dr. Gordon Lell first came to Concordia College in 1970 to teach Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton, it was impossible to foresee just how many students' lives he would touch. Lell quickly became the Shakespeare scholar on campus - his Shakespeare course was in high demand, filling some of the largest classes on campus. He timed readings of plays with area productions, taking students to performances in Fargo-Moorhead, Minneapolis and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Lell soon began leading students on overseas seminars as well, letting them explore the playwright's home in Stratford and the theaters of London.
To date, Lell has taught the great works of Shakespeare to more than 4,450 students during 73 semesters of classes. He's led 24 May Seminars and two Exploration Seminars overseas, all recorded in memory books lining a long shelf in his office. Over the years, the retired naval captain has taken 54 groups with more than 3,500 students to the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis to experience Shakespeare the way it was intended - to be experienced, not just read. Each student is encouraged to memorize a sonnet and Lell leads by example. He has two envelopes of worn paper scraps at home, all scrawled in tiny penmanship with favorite Shakespearean sonnets he's memorized over the years.
Lell has also shared his love of Shakespeare with Fargo-Moorhead adults through 25 Communiversity classes on various plays. Alumni can't seem to get enough of his enthusiastic classes either - attending in groups of nearly 100 for special "Gordy and the Guthrie" lunch, lecture and play outings in Minneapolis.
But Lell is hesitant to take credit for so much student interest in Shakespeare. After all, he says, the writer is still the most performed playwright and the most successful screenwriter in the world, with nearly 70 films of Hamlet alone.
"I appreciate that the whole world of Shakespeare is completely independent of what I do," Lell says. "I'm just connecting students to those plays. I'm not keeping Shakespeare alive. I'm tuning students into him."
