If my former William Shakespeare professor at Saint Francis University taught me anything, it’s that the 16th-century British playwright remains alive in many pieces of modern media, such as songs, films and theatre, of course.

And Dr. John Woznak was right, especially in 2026.

Taylor Swift’s hit single referencing Hamlet’s ex-girlfriend, “The Fate of Ophelia,” is constantly playing in department stores, Jessie Buckley, who played Shakespeare’s wife in the movie “Hamnet” won an Oscar for best actress and my fiance and I are seeing the Pittsburgh Ballet’s rendition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” this weekend.

It’s interesting to see how much influence Shakespeare still holds over the media, as he’s been dead for over 400 years. Many people dismiss his work, calling it boring due to its insistent iambic pentameter and now outdated fashion, living conditions and societal expectations.

Despite these factors,

Shakespeare’s characters and storylines are constantly analyzed, reconstructed and performed, convincing me that he never went out of style.

A huge movement that many modern and post-modern artists have implemented is ripping these beloved Shakespeare characters and storylines and setting them in today’s world, such as the 2023 movie “Anyone But You” based on “Much Ado About Nothing” and “10 Things I Hate About You” based on “The Taming of the Shrew.”

And no one can forget the 1996 movie, “Romeo + Juliet,” set in a current Verona Beach — where characters use guns instead of swords — but they are obliged to use Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter.

Other references to Shakespeare, however, are more subtly embedded in a storyline, like how

Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” connects to Kendrick Lamar’s studio album “DAMN. COLLECTORS EDITION.” (That’s an article/video essay for another day).

During an interview over the phone, Woznak told me that Shakespeare’s stories are hard to shake from popular culture.

“We might remember the stories but not where they came from,” Woznak said.

His work also remains relevant at the local scale for high school students, considering the Central Pennsylvania branch

of the English Speaking Union’s National Shakespeare Competition and Johnstown’s Shakespeare competition.

“Kids are learning Shakespeare by heart,” Woznak said.

Many people continue to implement their admiration of his work into their own art, whether they realize it or not. Woznak said it’s because Shakespeare told stories about the flawed human experience, which is why they remain relevant today.

Shakespeare’s influence has never been denied, which is proven when character Henry Crawford says Shakespeare is a part of the “Englishman’s Constitution in Jane Austen’s novel, “Mansfield Park,” written in the early 1810s.

But what’s most important about Shakespeare’s work is that people continue to reconstruct it today, making it more accessible and relatable to the masses by changing details but keeping the plotline and/or characters intact.

People today are taking the work of an old, dead white guy and repurposing it to make it new and fresh while speaking to a modern audience, which is why Shakespeare’s work was good from the start.

Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414 and on Instagram and Facebook @colettecostlow.