Locales and People of Shakespeare Talks!

"Our City. Our Shakespeare." examines Chicago's special relationship with the world's most translated and performed playwright. By weaving together footage from theater, opera, dance and improv performances on Chicago's stages and interviews with civic and cultural leaders, theater critics and artists alike, it is clear that Shakespeare lives on in Chicago.

I was truly blessed, when I lived in Dubai, to have made Arab, European, Indian, Southeast Asian and Iranian friends.  So at the heart of Shakespeare Talks!, when I conceived it in this milieu, is the idea of adapting whatever talk I gave and whatever act I staged to the locale and its people and culture.  It meant engaging some of these friends to participate in translating Shakespeare, reciting on stage, and engaging the very souls of those people and that culture.  Whether or not Barbara Gaines and her staff, crew and cast at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater have ventured much outside the US, it is clear they share my vision and they speak to the rich diversity that is Chicago.

A Future for Shakespeare Talks!

CST believes that Shakespeare speaks to everyone, transcending time and place. To that end, we have evolved into a dynamic company that produces award-winning plays at our artistic home on Navy Pier, throughout Chicago's schools and neighborhoods, and on stages around the world.

Since Artistic Director Barbara Gaines founded the Chicago Shakespeare Theater in 1986, my wife and I have attended a handful of stagings.  From its humble beginnings at the Ruth Page Theater, to its more spacious, modern digs at Navy Pier, there was something special to this home-grown production.  So it's hard not to feel enthralled at what Gaines relates: Shakespeare with excellence and nuance, and produced with theatricality and accessibility.  Moreover, CST has won the Regional Theater Tony Award, three Laurence Olivier Awards, and 78 Joseph Jefferson Awards.  In time, too, may Shakespeare Talks! grow into prominence with fine arts, rich culture, and undeniable success.     

The Spirit of Shakespeare Talks!

My main vision for Shakespeare Talks! is (a) to educate with entertain, such as talks on leadership for management teams, with a good dose of monologue and participation (Shakespeare Talks!); and (b) to entertain with educate, such as performances that involve and teach children (Shakespeare Acts!).  The idea is to bring Shakespeare to life so vividly and engagingly that it is as if he were in fact right there talking to us.  Besides these two programs, I also envision Shakespeare Motivates! and Shakespeare Retails!, again with both education and entertainment as their core.

I am grateful to live in Chicago, because it is a rich center for arts and culture.  Theater is prominent, from professional repertories, to university and community productions, it's an enthralling city.  So the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, for one, resonates with the spirit of Shakespeare Talks!

Extraordinary
Educational
Vibrant
Global
Surprising
Bold
Innovative
Engaging
Timeless
Ambitious
Audacious
Humanistic
Playful
Alive and well in Chicago!

Sonnet 46, by NY Shakespeare Exchange

Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war,
How to divide the conquest of thy sight;
Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar,
My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,
A closet never pierced with crystal eyes,
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him thy fair appearance lies.
To 'cide this title is impannelled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart;
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye's moiety, and the dear heart's part:
      As thus: mine eye's due is thine outward part,
      And my heart's right, thine inward love of heart.

Sonnet 46, from The Sonnet Project, by the New York Shakespeare Exchange.

Shakespeare plays out that mortal war quite deftly, and interestingly an adjudication is necessary to settle it.  In Freudian terms, the heart is the id (the repository of impulse and desire); the eye (perhaps) the ego (the executor between self and reality); and in the courts sits the superego (the overseer, the judge, the arbitrator).  It's delightful acting and recitation by pretty Sydney Lucas, whose smile has a sly look and tone to it, as if the object of both her eyes and heart is hers and will always be hers.

Sonnet 97, by NY Shakespeare Exchange

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December's bareness everywhere!
And yet this time removed was summer's time;
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow'd wombs after their lords' decease:
Yet this abundant issue seemed to me
But hope of orphans, and unfathered fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute:
      Or, if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer,
      That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near.

Sonnet 97, from The Sonnet Project, by the New York Shakespeare Exchange.

I've lived in Chicago nearly all of my life, and as a poet there is lyricism to the passage of seasons here.  It doesn't matter which one, they're all ripe with metaphor.  They all resonate with something in me, which poetry puts its particular language to.  So this sonnet resonates with something in me, then.  Notice how its volta is actually situated at the start of the third quatrain, as if perhaps the sonnet really could not sustain summer pleasures or teeming autumn for any length of time.  The final couplet doesn't reverse the mood, but simply seals with a kind of nail to the coffin. 

Sonnet 109, by NY Shakespeare Exchange

O! never say that I was false of heart,
Though absence seemed my flame to qualify,
As easy might I from my self depart
As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie:
That is my home of love: if I have ranged,
Like him that travels, I return again;
Just to the time, not with the time exchanged,
So that myself bring water for my stain.
Never believe though in my nature reigned,
All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood,
That it could so preposterously be stained,
To leave for nothing all thy sum of good;
     For nothing this wide universe I call,
     Save thou, my rose, in it thou art my all.

Sonnet 109, from The Sonnet Project, by the New York Shakespeare Exchange.

What a delightful interpretation of this sonnet, one that I imagine many millennial couples can relate to.  I suppose All's Well That Ends Well could be its title.  But then again maybe not.  

The Complex Relationship of Desdemona and Emilia

I find this clip quite instructive about the relationship between Desdemona and Emilia.  Neither lady is minor as far as their import in the play is concerned.  While Emilia's deed, that is, giving Desdemona's fallen handkerchief to Iago, calls into question the bond between the two of them, I would argue that they are as close as any two people can be.  But as with everyone else, theirs is an imperfect relationship.  There is an inevitable flaw, regardless of how good any relationship is.  An inevitable shortfall in understanding between people is part of it all.  The major thing that ignites such an imperfection is this:  As Desdemona becomes increasingly embroiled in the disintegration of her marriage, Emilia has to navigate the vicissitudes of her own marriage to Iago.  Emilia must take part of the blame for the horrible death of Desdemona, which clearly pains her at the end, but ironically, I think, the two women are as close and as similar as ever by virtue of being women who must fend for themselves in a male-dominated, male-abusing circle. 

The Evil Genius that is Iago

That Iago is "an agent of destruction," as Rory Kinnear describes, is certainly true.  But that phrasing doesn't quite do justice to the evil genius that Iago is.  The proud Othello has earned his lot in life via his military prowess and valor and his articulate, upstanding manner.  But his Achilles Heel frankly is that he is tone deaf.  He lacks the Emotional Intelligence to acknowledge where he is vulnerable and to discern what his seemingly faithful right hand man has a grievance about and is subtly scheming.  Like Adolf Hitler who had tremendous empathy for the German people, so does Iago have for Othello.  So, empathy being a crucial aspect in his machinations, Iago has doses of Emotional Intelligence that Othello lacks.  He hears what the latter is deaf to, and knows precisely where the latter is weak, and sets about to manipulate, with great patience and precision, just as Hitler did, his very target.  The tragedy of the play, at the end of the day, is that the resolution of Iago's grievance warrants nothing short of the discrediting, the dismantling, and ultimately the death of Othello.

The Army as Central to Othello

The army is absolutely central to this play.

So says Director Nicholas Hytner.  At first, I resisted that notion in my mind, as in my readings of Othello and watching of productions and adaptations, the army seemed more like platform or backdrop, certainly not central.  But this bit from the National Theater convinces me otherwise.  For one, fighting and killing define the character of Othello, Iago and company.  For another, a tacit code exists, which emphasizes that everyone of them looks out for the other.  So when the proud Moor passes over Iago, he causes a breach in that code, and the mayhem, violence and destruction that ensue are simply part and parcel of  how central the army is to the play.   

Hytner turned to Major-General Jonathan Shaw for advice and guidance, who relates an intriguing  behind the scenes story.  The rest of the soldiers followed suit on how to wear their uniforms and gear.  But not actor Rory Kinnear, in regards to his character Iago, and Shaw kept correcting him on how he ought to wear his beret and trousers.  In time, Shaw stopped, as he understand how Kinnear was playing that evil genius and underhanded rebel of a character.

"Pity you couldn't dress Iago properly."

"Yes, that's the point."

will.i.am Bids Hamlet a Good Night

will.i.am, as William Shakespeare

will.i.am is of course with the hip hop group Black Eyed Peas, and after my preceding two articles this week, I thought a bit of humor is in order.  I'm all for anything tasteful, illuminating and hilarious as far as learning and enjoying the Bard is concerned. The little quote is a reference to their wildly viral hit and an allusion to the Prince of Denmark:

Thankfully Dame Judi Dench Kept at Shakespeare

Dame Judi Dench as Titania, in A Midsummer Night's Dream

[Dame Judi] said she has a lifelong hatred of the Merchant of Venice after being taught it badly at school, being made to read lines monotonously in turn.

“I remember having to read in a class and them saying you have to read six lines each,” she said. “Six lines each of the ghastly Merchant of Venice, regardless of who was saying them.

“It made it a complete nonsense. I never liked the play and I should never have played Portia – there, I’ve said it.

“It ruined the play for me, completely ruined the play.”

Reference: Judi Dench: Bad teaching put me off Shakespeare play for life.

At worst, a bad teacher can certainly leave a repulsive taste in students' mouths about whatever subject they may have had the misfortune of studying with that bad teacher.  Let's be grateful, then, as fans, audiences and readers, that Dame Judi kept at it anyway and acted Shakespeare on stage.  I haven't had the pleasure of watching her perform in such a role, but I've had the privilege of seeing Shakespeare so many times now on stage and film.  Along with studying him at Northwestern University, I'd like to believe that every actor and director of those performances were, like Dame Judi, proxy teachers to us all, too. 

Refreshingly Honest Tact on Shakespeare

In Shakespeare is too obscure for the stage, methinks, The Telegraph writer Jemima Lewis takes a refreshingly honest tact on the reverent Bard:

“There’s nothing in the world less funny,” my father once told me, “than a Shakespearean joke.”

Is there any less convivial feeling than sitting in a theatre surrounded by people pretending to laugh at a Shakespearean gag?

The Emperor's New Clothes

Lewis is like the child in the Hans Christian Andersen tale - The Emperor's New Clothes.  The loyal subjects are absolutely mum about said new clothes, as the Emperor parades in front of them all in the buff.  Quite naturally, a child exclaims instead, But he isn't wearing anything at all!

In fact, I would go further than my father. I’d like to do away with Shakespeare altogether – at least on stage. It’s just too old. The language is so antiquated that, unless you’ve already studied the play at school, you spend the whole time trying to work out the meaning of one line without missing the next one. It’s like trying to pat your head while rubbing your tummy.

Lewis seems to dole out an indictment of Shakespeare, but I think that would be a misreading of her piece.  Rather, it's an acknowledgement of how difficult Shakespeare can be, or is, to a modern day audience.  I am so glad I studied a solid year of his plays at Northwestern University, and I am quite grateful to have had three different professors who lectured us clearly and persuasively, often animatedly and humorously.  I loved Shakespeare from the very first time I read him, and I enjoyed him even more from their classes and of course understood much better than I ever would have.

Actors and academics, who spend their lives chewing over Shakespeare’s every perchance and perforce, tend to forget how much they know. Dame Judi [Dench] says children should be encouraged to look beyond the text and think about the big themes: love, anger, jealousy and so on. “That’s what Shakespeare’s about, all those things. He says it better than anybody else.”

I’m sure he does. But you have to leap the hurdle of basic comprehension before you can get to the deeper meaning. The reason I am a Shakespeare philistine is that I was badly educated. I only ever studied – by which I mean line-by-line analysis with a beetle-browed teacher – one play: Macbeth. And actually, I loved it. Still do. I can even watch it on stage without undue suffering.

Perhaps Shakespeare does come alive on the stage. But first he must be exhumed in the classroom.

All the more crucial, if children are ever to grasp and enjoy Shakespeare, to study up on him and to enlist a knowledgeable, engaging teacher.  Adults might look into classes at a local college, seminars at the neighborhood library, or even discussions in an online community.  They don't necessarily have to be fully schooled on him, before they watch him on stage.  Instead, they can do whatever mix of reading and reciting, talking and watching, suits them best. 

In an age of short attention span, and short video clips, and clipped messages, Shakespeare is a call to pause, reflect, and learn.  I can say that it's so worth it.

What I Love about Shakespeare: Stage

I was a student at Northwestern University in the late 1970s, and disco was at its peak.  I loved what Alec R. Costandinos did: an uptempo rendition of Romeo and Juliet, as only that era could produce.  Much of the album was disco instrumental, but I found myself particularly drawn to two passages.  I searched our student bookstore for the play, and learned that these passages were exactly the opening sonnets for Act I and Act II.  I bought the plays, I enrolled in Shakespeare, and the rest is history.  It's been an enduring love affair since.

This week I talk about the three main things I find so compelling about Shakespeare.

Schubert Theater, in Chicago

It is very special to watch drama on stage.  It is as if fictional characters become real before our very eyes, the artifice of the setting notwithstanding.  I am privileged, too, to have watched Shakespeare in different countries: from the US (Chicago), to England (London) and UAE (Dubai).  Which I wrote about in Theaters Where I Have Seen Shakespeare.  Some say, his historic masterpieces were meant to be performed, rather than read, and I say, of course.  In this respect, the director and cast have every license to exercise their creativity in interpreting, acting and staging the play.  That in and of itself, if done well, is an enjoyment.  Moreover, since I am writing my own play, Shakespeare helps me conceptualize what I want to write and visualize how I want to stage it.

What I Love about Shakespeare: Poetry

I was a student at Northwestern University in the late 1970s, and disco was at its peak.  I loved what Alec R. Costandinos did: an uptempo rendition of Romeo and Juliet, as only that era could produce.  Much of the album was disco instrumental, but I found myself particularly drawn to two passages.  I searched our student bookstore for the play, and learned that these passages were exactly the opening sonnets for Act I and Act II.  I bought the plays, I enrolled in Shakespeare, and the rest is history.  It's been an enduring love affair since.

This week I talk about the three main things I find so compelling about Shakespeare.

mystery

In What poetry is... to me, I mentioned three things: music, brevity and mystery.  Shakespeare adds a fourth: form and meter.  I cut my teeth on iambic pentameter from him.  I have a bent toward poetic thought and spirit, so his plays spoke to me because it was poetry.  The hundreds of poems I have written now are predominantly in metered poetry, and I taught myself how to write in a range of forms:  from the Shakespearean (English) sonnet as a springboard, to the Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet, to the villanelle and sestina, and even ballade.

What I Love about Shakespeare: Psychology

I was a student at Northwestern University in the late 1970s, and disco was at its peak.  I loved what Alec R. Costandinos did: an uptempo rendition of Romeo and Juliet, as only that era could produce.  Much of the album was disco instrumental, but I found myself particularly drawn to two passages.  I searched our student bookstore for the play, and learned that these passages were exactly the opening sonnets for Act I and Act II.  I bought the plays, I enrolled in Shakespeare, and the rest is history.  It's been an enduring love affair since.

This week I talk about the three main things I find so compelling about Shakespeare.

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My specialty as a management consultant is leadership assessment.  Our process was well thought through and well practiced.  It plunged into whatever stuff our client executives and managers were made of.  As I wound down my one feedback and coaching session, an executive related that he felt undressed by the intense process.  Such an intimate look, such an unvarnished glance, such pointed accuracy.  His revelation was calm and grateful, though perhaps there was a note of resentment there, too.  I simply listened, and in short order he said our session helped him to get dressed again.  I smiled.

Whether it's King Lear, Othello, Macbeth or so many more, that's exactly what Shakespeare does to the psychology of the larger than life, truer than life kings, queens, princes and courtiers.  He works his magic on the characters, then strips them of their trappings, conceit and glib.  We know what Lear was reduced to at the end, howling in pain with his dead beloved Cordelia.  We know how the undoing of the proud, battle-tested and honorable Othello happened.  We know how the eviscerating Lady Macbeth succumbs to her guilt and the stress. The psychological grasp Shakespeare owned rivaled that of psychologists.

Robin Williams Unleashes Genius on Shakespeare

When I picked up my daughter Eva from an August afternoon with a friend, she asked "Dad, did you hear about Robin Williams?"  "No, I didn't."  He had just died, apparently from suicide.  I was quietly stunned.  The man was such a natural comedic genius.  I'm sure his acts were carefully prepared, but what we saw on stage or in interviews were so spontaneous as to seem purely improvised.  In Robin Williams (1951-2014) Performs Unknown Shakespeare Play in 1970s Standup Routine, for example, we see his genius unleashed on Shakespeare to an utterly delighted audience, like me:  Look, the moon like a testicle hangs low in the sky (rf. Romeo and Juliet)! 

The Fateful Story of the First Folio

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From Shakespeare to Sappho: Read the stories behind three artifacts of genius tells a great story about the First Folio.  Published in 1623, just seven years after Shakespeare died, it collected his 36 plays, half of which had never been published before.  It was given to the Bodleian Library at Oxford in 1624, but in 1664 the Library sold the First Folio.  After all, they had the Third Folio, and found no need to keep an old book.

The famous edition had virtually disappeared, apparently, until an Oxford student popped up with it in 1905.  An anonymous collector offered to buy it for £3000 (equivalent to $531,000 in 2014 valuation), but the owners gave the Library a chance to raise funds in Kickstarter style, long before there was Kickstarter.  In the end, the Library undid its foolish act of 1664, and that collector (Henry Clay Folger) came to house the largest collection of First Folios in the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Shakespeare Unbound Performs and Discusses

I love what ABC Splash and Bell Shakespeare, the national repertory of Australia, have arrived at:  Shakespeare Unbound.  First they enact 12 scenes from 6 major plays: Romeo and Juliet, Tempest, Julius Caesar, Othello, Hamlet and Macbeth, and second deliver them online for students to access freely.  Third the director and cast give behind-the-scenes talks and unpack the meanings of the plays.  A modern day audience ought to see Shakespeare performed, then hear about the plays from the repertory itself, and, I hope, have a chance to discuss them openly.  Shakespeare Unbound is on the ABC Splash website, and the Melbourne Herald Sun offers To be or not to be online is the question as ABC Splash and Bell Shakespeare take the bard to the net for students with Shakespeare Unbound.  I very much trust that with better understanding on what is going comes greater enjoyment of the plays.

Hamlet and the Tragic World of Elsinore

The setting for William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' can be viewed and interpreted in many ways. In this short film, director Richard Eyre, designer Vicki Mortimer and author Colin Bell discuss some of the ways the space in which 'Hamlet' exists has been brought to life on the stage of the National Theatre.

As I listen to this discussion, I get the visual of Elsinore as four walls and the feeling of it all closing in ever so gradually on Hamlet.  More than just a haunting experience, it must've been a maddening one as well.  He loses his beloved father, he witnesses his mother's overly quick remarriage to his uncle, frightfully he encounters his beloved father, he suspects his uncle to be the murderer.  The more I think about it, the more I see Shakespeare layering his play with sheets after sheets of tragedy. So, without a doubt, the director and his or her crew must manifest such layering via stage design, lighting and props.   

Othello and the Tragedy of Racial Discrimination

This short film offers reflections on the impact of performances of 'Othello' by Ira Aldridge, Paul Robeson and Willard White. Professors Carol Chillington Rutter and Tony Howard offer commentary, alongside Adrian Lester who discusses playing Ira Aldridge in 'Red Velvet'.

In this bit on Othello's Racial Identity, by Philip Butcher, there is such scholarly effort to clarify precisely what the proud general was.  But I think ironically that effort clouds the very fact of racism in Shakespeare's time, all the way to the present day views and staging of the play.  Whether or not Shakespeare meant Moor to mean Moroccan in origin specifically, his play is an outright discrimination against Othello based on his skin color.  The more Iago works his evil on him, the less Othello's royal lineage can save him.  It must've been more than a little courageous for Black actors like Aldridge, then, to play him and subject himself to vicious racism and manipulation.  

Lear and the Tragedy of Narcissistic Rage

Originally screened as part of the NT Live broadcast, this short film gives an insight into Sam Mendes's 2014 production of King Lear with Simon Russell Beale in the title role.

It is definitely plausible that Lear was suffering from a neurological disorder, especially at such an advanced age, Lewy Body Dementia or otherwise. But I posit that it is his irascible, conceited personality that fuels the tragedy of the play.  His daughters know this all too well, and while the two eldest play the pandering game with him, Cordelia refuses to.  Goneril and Regan stand to benefit in a major way, while their youngest sister doesn't look for reward and is thus free to be genuine and truthful.  If I as a clinical psychologist may hazard a diagnosis on Lear, then, it is that of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.  Cordelia's refusal to pander to him is an infuriating, shameful blow to his ego.  This narcissistic rage, as we clinicians call it, is the beginning of the end.  So while nothing will come of nothing means, at first, no reward for Cordelia's impetulance, later on in the play nothing takes on a more tragic, literal yet existential meaning:  loss of worldly possessions and kingly trappings, loss of Lear's most loyal and loving daughter.

Voice-Text Work on `Much Ado About Nothing

Pause awhile,
And let my counsel sway you in this case.
Your daughter here the princes left for dead.
Let her awhile be secretly kept in
And publish it that she is dead indeed.
Maintain a mourning ostentation,
And on your family’s old monument
Hang mournful epitaphs and do all rites
That appertain unto a burial.

Marry, this, well carried, shall on her behalf
Change slander to remorse. That is some good:

No, though he thought his accusation true.
Let this be so, and doubt not but success
Will fashion the event in better shape
Than I can lay it down in likelihood.
But if all aim but this be leveled false,
The supposition of the lady’s death
Will quench the wonder of her infamy.
And if it sort not well, you may conceal her,
As best befits her wounded reputation,
In some reclusive and religious life,
Out of all eyes, tongues, minds, and injuries.

From Act IV, scene iv of `Much Ado About Nothing.

Actor Chris Saul has a wonderful, fitting voice for Shakespeare.  He sounds to be a neophyte to Shakespeare, but he has potential to be a truly fine actor in his plays.  Iambic pentameter is the hallmark meter for Shakespeare, but as voice coach Jeannette Nelson suggests, the Bard was so masterful with his poetry-cum-drama that trochees (along with spondees and pyrrhics) play along with the iambs.  The varying accents within a pentameter line make for such rich poetry, and bring the drama along as the plot intends.

Voice-Text Work on Hamlet

To be, or not to be? That is the question—
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?

From Act III, scene i of `Hamlet.

To my ears and in my mind, the sibilant sounds in this deeply philosophical passage are less about intellect and structure and more about the continuity or the flow, if you will, of Hamlet's grief and agony.  It's the other sounds that are about intellect and structure, such as b in "To be, or not to be?" and l in "slings" and r in "arms."  That said, son of renown actor Ben Kingsley, Ferdinand has difficulty reciting this passage quietly, even after Jeannette Nelson instructed him twice to do so.  For him to truly understand this passage, he does have to work almost a whispered voicing of it. 

Voice-Text Work on Ophelia

Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!—
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword,
Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
Th' observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. Oh, woe is me,
T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

From Act III, scene i of `Hamlet.

I love this kind of work, and I buy into the notion that vowels carry the emotion, while the consonants anchor the intellect, in the English language.  Ophelia is all about emotion, isn't she, as counterpoint to the brooding, philosophical Hamlet.  Actress Ellie Turner must be grateful to have a voice coach like Jeannette Nelson working with her, and she was getting there nicely with her monologue of this well-known passage by Ophelia.

Art has Value

Preface

As Dr. Ron Art took sufficient shape for me to launch it via a Facebook page three years ago, I wanted to share my Art Manifesto.  This manifesto isn't just a set of beliefs about art, but also a proposal about the very nature of art.  Physicists work at discovering the immutable laws of the universe, and in a similar way I work at crystallizing some fundamental truths about art.  More broadly, art is an integral component of The Tripartite Model, along with science and religion.

My Art Manifesto

1. Art is cross-art by nature
2. Art is always autobiographical
3. Art is sensuous
4. Art is synesthetic
5. Art is never completely original
6. Art has value

Dr. Ron Art is a sizable complex with five main wings, under which several projects are at various stages of progress:

• Poetry in Multimedia 
• Shakespeare Talks! 
• Dramatis Personae 
• Art Intersections 
• T'ai Chi Empower

My Art Manifesto is the undercurrent for these projects.  This is the last of six articles, where I introduce this manifesto. 

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A talented artist friend

When I lived in Dubai, a Filipino friend invited me to his first solo exhibition.  His paintings were astounding, both in breadth (they were huge) and in theme (they were profound).  His creative talent wasn't narrowed to painting, but extended to photography, sculpting and performance.  At this exhibition, for instance, we all wondered where the hell he was.  Two hours into it, and he still hadn't shown up.  Then he arrived, wearing exactly what he wore in a sizable self portrait, including clown makeup, and pulling the same red wagon depicted in that photograph.  He was like the Pied Piper, as he snaked through the crowd, picking up odd things on the floor, and us opening up, making way for him, and regathering behind him to follow along.  It was a tour de force show.

I was equally astonished, however, at how much he low-balled the pricing of his pieces.  It was par for the course for a lot of Filipinos in Dubai, that they hardly saw their true worth and hardly demanded it.  They smiled at whatever pittance they received, because after all they were the happiest people in the world.  But being dead bottom on the salary scale in an Arabian Business survey was emblematic, I thought, of how people and companies took advantage of their low salary expectations and how Filipinos themselves reinforced it with their acceptance and passivity. 

On the face of it, my artist friend was the same.  So a few days later, I got together with him, and asked him point black: If someone were to offer him 10 - 20 times more than the pricing he had set for any of his pieces, would he accept it?  I was glad to hear his response:  yes.  I wanted to advocate for him and to serve as his talent agent, and his response suggested that we had something to work with.  Had he said no, instead, there would have been little reason for us to go forward.

Art as the royal road to wealth

Consider the following documentary on very expensive paintings:

If this documentary doesn't take your breath away, then you may have little or no breath to begin with.  Certainly each artist may dream of a multimillion dollar windfall for his or her art.  For the vast lot of us, however, eking a living out of what we love most is a daily struggle or an impractical option altogether.

But how to determine art value?

A few years ago I spoke to a German friend, who at the time was pursuing her PhD in marketing and focusing on pricing as a specialty.  I asked her how the value of art was determined.  We chatted a bit, but mostly she just sent me a wealth of articles on the subject.  Evidently art pricing wasn't something she had looked into, as she really wasn't able to advise me.

I gathered the following were pricing determinants:

• Talent and renown of the artist
• Promotion, sales and marketing efforts
• Historical, social and political context
• Art market trends for particular genres
• Whim, ego and wealth of the art aficionado-collector

Over time, as my thinking advances and my knowledge grows, I will elaborate on these and other determinants. 

Dr. Ron Art in perspective

It took a few years to clarify the concept, create the platform, and launch it in earnest.  So when I spoke to the foregoing friends, this wide-ranging endeavor was still in its infancy.  I wanted to create art and engage others, but I also wanted to promote, negotiate and sell it.  (a) I've been posting stuff in methodic fashion, across Google+, Twitter and Facebook, and (b) writing articles like mad across several Blogger, Tumblr and Pinterest profiles.  (c) Plus I am working on specific projects, at various stages of progress:

• Poetry in Multimedia.  Searching for a multimedia publisher for `The Song Poems
• Shakespeare Talks!  Staging `A Midsummer Night's Dream in the community
• Dramatis Personae.  Writing my play `The Room, as advocacy against housemaid abuse
• Art Intersections.  Planning my photography project `Real Beauty
• T'ai Chi Empower.  Teaching students and coaching leaders on T'ai Chi  

I'm not yet at the point of formulating the pricing for whatever I'm going to sell, but I'm getting there, for sure. I have struggled, admittedly, and that may continue, but for me there is little that is ennobling about struggling or suffering. I appreciate its inevitability, and I do my best to learn from it. But I plan to get past it and delve even more into art, and I plan to become wealthy at it.   

Art is simply not something to dish out for nothing.

Art is Never Completely Original

Preface

As Dr. Ron Art took sufficient shape for me to launch it via a Facebook page three years ago, I wanted to share my Art Manifesto.  This manifesto isn't just a set of beliefs about art, but also a proposal about the very nature of art.  Physicists work at discovering the immutable laws of the universe, and in a similar way I work at crystallizing some fundamental truths about art.  More broadly, art is an integral component of The Tripartite Model, along with science and religion.

My Art Manifesto

1. Art is cross-art by nature
2. Art is always autobiographical
3. Art is sensuous
4. Art is synesthetic
5. Art is never completely original
6. Art has value

Dr. Ron Art is a sizable complex with five main wings, under which several projects are at various stages of progress:

• Poetry in Multimedia 
• Shakespeare Talks! 
• Dramatis Personae 
• Art Intersections 
• T'ai Chi Empower

My Art Manifesto is the undercurrent for these projects.  This is the fifth of six articles, where I introduce this manifesto. 

The four points I've written about so far in my Art Manifesto - (a) art is cross-art by nature, (b) art is always autobiographical, (c) art is sensuous, and (d) art is synesthetic - came to me five years ago, but this fifth is a recent inclusion.  I crystallize it here.

We are all inviolably connected to each other, and we belong on long, billowing ribbons of life, since the beginning of life itself.  So while we may pull things together in a novel fashion, while we may take a radical leap of creativity, and while our work may strike others as duly original, the fact is we are never fully alone or isolated from others in the world.  Our art may be original to some extent, but never completely so. 

Literature

Consider the famous reflection by the English poet and cleric John Donne (Meditation XVII):

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

American novelist Ernest Hemingway drew from Donne for the title From Whom the Bells Tolls.  William Shakespeare, Donne's contemporary in the late-16th, early-17th centuries, drew quite a bit from his predecessors, and they from their predecessors, too, for instance, for `Romeo and Juliet:

• The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke, and Palace of Pleasure by William Painter were primary sources. 
• In turn, for his narrative poem, Brooke may have translated the Italian novella Giuletta e Romeo by Matteo Bandello.
• There are characters named Reomeo Titensus and Juliet Bibleotet in the works by Pierre Boaistuau, who translated some of Bandello's novellas into French, such as Histoire troisieme de deux Amants, don't l'un mourut de venin, l'autre de tristesse (The third story of two lovers, one of whom died of poison, the other of sadness, rf. A Noise Within).
• One Bandello story was La sfortunata morte di dui infelicissimi amante che l'uno di veleno e l'atro di dolore morirono (The unfortunate death of two most wretched lovers, one of whom died of poison, the other, of grief, rf. A Noise Within).

So one of the most famous works in literature and theater follows quite a lineage of art.

Film

`Stoker is very stylish 2013 film by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, and in its simplest, most obvious theme it is about the coming of age of a young lady.  But it's more complex than that, and quite a lot move and shift in the interiors of this family.  The acting - led by Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, and Nicole Kidman - is simply superb. 

For the purpose of this article, I want to highlight American film talent Wentworth Miller, the screenwriter for `Stoker.  The name didn't ring a bell to me.  But because I love film, and I am obsessively curious about the background and crew, I Googled him.  I found out that he played the younger Coleman Silk in another beautiful, very curious 2003 film The Human Stain, also starring Kidman and Anthony Hopkins.

[Miller] used the pseudonym Ted Foulke for submitting his work, later explaining "I just wanted the scripts to sink or swim on their own."  Miller's script was voted to the 2010 "Black List" of the 10 best unproduced screenplays then making the rounds in Hollywood.  Miller described it as a "horror film, a family drama and a psychological thriller".  Although influenced by Bram Stoker's Dracula, Miller clarified that Stoker was "not about vampires.  It was never meant to be about vampires but it is a horror story. A stoker is one who stokes, which also ties in nicely with the narrative."  Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt also influenced the film. Miller said: "The jumping-off point is actually Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. So, that's where we begin, and then we take it in a very, very different direction."

Reference:  Stoker.  

I have been enthralled with `Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) for a long time.  I watched that Hitchcock film (1943), and it too was superb.  I'm sure the inspiration for Miller is a bit more intricate than we can know, but an evocative name like "Stoker" and a conniving character like Uncle Charlie are the threads that stitch Miller to his creative predecessors.

  

Poetry

The influences to my poetry are many, but Shakespeare, and poets WH Auden and John Ashbery are prominent.  For example, my latest poem - Swan Song of Ophelia - is about one of the most tender yet enigmatic women in Shakespeare.  Auden wrote a breathtaking commentary on The Tempest, titled `The Sea and the Mirror, which in turn inspired me to write a long poem about a patient I worked with, who committed suicide.  Ashbery, along with surrealist painter Salvador Dali and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, were instrumental to the poetry I wrote in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

But let's take one from my collection The Song Poems.  The idea is simple:  I take any music video I like from YouTube, then I let it take me wherever it wishes to take me.  These poems are an account of these journeys.

The following are the specific music videos that inspired me to write this song poem:

  

 

Nowadays social media, technology devices, and digital content all extend and tighten the ties that connect us to one another.  What I've captured here is just a small sampling of my argument that art is never completely original.  To come back to Donne, none of us is an island onto himself or herself.  There is no person born and raised in complete isolation, and biologically we are forever bound to our parents.   

Art simply gives us the means, the knowledge, and the opportunity to do what creative thing we wish to do with whatever and whoever came before us.

Art is Synesthetic

Preface

As Dr. Ron Art took sufficient shape for me to launch it via a Facebook page three years ago, I wanted to share my Art Manifesto.  This manifesto isn't just a set of beliefs about art, but also a proposal about the very nature of art.  Physicists work at discovering the immutable laws of the universe, and in a similar way I work at crystallizing some fundamental truths about art.  More broadly, art is an integral component of The Tripartite Model, along with science and religion.

My Art Manifesto

1. Art is cross-art by nature
2. Art is always autobiographical
3. Art is sensuous
4. Art is synesthetic
5. Art is never completely original
6. Art has value

Dr. Ron Art is a sizable complex with five main wings, under which several projects are at various stages of progress:

• Poetry in Multimedia 
• Shakespeare Talks! 
• Dramatis Personae 
• Art Intersections 
• T'ai Chi Empower

My Art Manifesto is the undercurrent for these projects.  This is the fourth of six articles, where I introduce this manifesto. 

I have this pet idea that (a) we work at art is sensuous, that is, heightening our five senses for any stimuli around us.  Then (b) we cross the usual pairing of sense and stimulus, and now it's art is synesthetic.  Synesthesia is a neurological condition, where sense-stimulus pairings are scrambled, for example, hearing colors or seeing music.

Some synesthetes often report that they were unaware their experiences were unusual until they realized other people did not have them, while others report feeling as if they had been keeping a secret their entire lives.  The automatic and ineffable nature of a synesthetic experience means that the pairing may not seem out of the ordinary. This involuntary and consistent nature helps define synesthesia as a real experience. Most synesthetes report that their experiences are pleasant or neutral, although, in rare cases, synesthetes report that their experiences can lead to a degree of sensory overload.

Though often stereotyped in the popular media as a medical condition or neurological aberration, many synesthetes themselves do not perceive their synesthetic experiences as a handicap. To the contrary, some report it as a gift—an additional "hidden" sense—something they would not want to miss. Most synesthetes become aware of their distinctive mode of perception in their childhood. Some have learned how to apply their ability in daily life and work. Synesthetes have used their abilities in memorization of names and telephone numbers, mental arithmetic, and more complex creative activities like producing visual art, music, and theater.

Reference: Synesthesia.

That's stupid.  Numbers don't have colors, they have personalities!

Of course, synesthesia isn't the purview of art alone.  I love what Alex relates at the end: Fellow synesthetes have very different orientations to numbers, so their gatherings have the makings of a friendly fight.

I don't view synesthesia as a medical problem, though it can be, if a person is disturbed by it and it affects his or her day-to-day functioning.  By and large, though, synesthetes who may or may not be artists clearly find it pleasant and normal.  I imagine that in general established artists or would-be artists have a greater degree of synesthesia than non-artists. 

Imagine the creative possibilities

Five years ago I was at Happy Hour with a couple of friends in Dubai, and I must've mentioned synesthesia.  They didn't know what it was, so I explained it and mentioned it as a hallmark of art.  I met them in an acting class, so like me they were artistic sorts and they were duly intrigued by its being an art manifesto.

I promised to write a poem about it:

They say, true synesthesia is involuntary –

Like twitch of muscle fibers, firing of nerve cells,

Molecular activity of momentary

But frequent ringing of cross-stimulating bells.

But I do not conceive this as neurologists

For science claims too much of human mantelpiece,

Or relegate to armchairs of psychologists

(Though I am one) this cross-emotional release.

So, dear, who truly owns this synesthesic power?

The artist!  Let’s begin with sight.  For eyes have might

To hear the music in Picasso, feel the hour

Shorten upon the skin from images at night. 

Consider hearing.  Enter Mozart opera –

“The Magic Flute” singspiel that is a rousing texture

On fingertips, a harlequin to camera

Of colors from dramatic notes-and-words admixture.

Now, smell.  The fragrant hyacinths across the field

May give rise to a spread of roasted lamb, merlot

And crème brûlée – for flavor is as much the yield

Of fragrance as of succulence, tied with a bow.

Taste, then.  Cold water on the palate in the heat

Of equatorial summers is to bathe in springs

Collecting from the mountaintops, down to their feet,

Where rushing, falling is what water also sings. 

 

Last but not least, is touch.  For lovers, all the world

Is synesthesia.  Were they simply left alone

To stroke each other’s face, we’d see the cherubs twirl,

Hear oud play, breathe perfume, lap Häagen-Dazs’s cone.   

So, there, the sensual artist is the king and queen,

Whose living fully rules each momentary scene.

Synesthesia © Ron Villejo

So how about synesthesia in short film, music video, and training and education?

I love the bits about listening to fruits and vegetables, meat and eggs, then himself.  Toasting, cooking and eating books.  Herds of cats coming out of the speakers.

The lyrics and singing are terrible, but the visuals and music are catchy.  The Hindu holiday of Holi - the festival of colors - is a nice touch.

I like the notion of metaphor as seeing the similar in dissimilar things.  But imagine the work of researchers in synesthesia, applied as training and education for all art students.  There is evidence that our brain is very plastic, that is, pliable and changeable.  So we could adopt neurological applications for children, teenagers and adults, and thereby build up their artistry, creativity and innovation, and reshape their (our) brain for a meaningful good.