The "Romeo and Juliet" of Alec R. Costandinos

Imagine Shakespeare rendered into disco. Hard, isn't it. Yet, this Alec R. Costandinos masterpiece was my introduction to "Romeo and Juliet," and the beginning of a long love affair with Shakespeare!

 
Moreover, I began memorizing passages from his plays, and would recite them everywhere - in the car, in my bedroom, at the library. Beginning with the opening sonnet (Chorus) of "Romeo and Juliet," just so I could sing along with this Costandinos' piece!

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents̓ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love
And the continuance of their parents̓ rage,
Which but their children̓'s end, naught could remove,
Is now the two-hours̓ traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Then, the sonnet to open Act II:

Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair for which love groan'd for and would die,
With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair.
Now Romeo is beloved and loves again,
Alike betwitched by the charm of looks,
But to his foe supposed he must complain,
And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks:
Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear;
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new-beloved any where:
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet
Tempering extremities with extreme sweet.

The Eternal Youth of Romeo and Juliet

In her article Romeo And Juliet Trailer: The Girl From True Grit Is All Grown Up And Doomed, Katey Rich writes:

If you were a teenager 15 years ago, your definitive Romeo and Juliet were definitely Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. If you were a teenager 25 years before that, you were all about Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey from the 1968 version of the story. Now this Tumbl'd and Twitter'd generation of teens is getting their own tragic love story, with this new adaptation of Romeo & Juliet starring up-and-coming youngsters Hailee Steinfeld (an Oscar nominee forTrue Grit a few years back) and Douglas Booth.

Trailer (image credit)

Trailer (image credit)

Trailer (image credit)

Romeo and Juliet are the eternal youthful couple - impassioned and impetuous - so I never tire of them.  Here are productions I've seen: 

• Goodman Theater (Chicago).  The director set the play in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood, early 20th century.  Instead of a knife, the lovers used a gun in the end ... brutal.  
• American Ballet Theater (Chicago).  "Romeo and Juliet" in ballet was fabulous, and it gave me better insight on Mercutio's dark humor.  
• Shakespeare Globe (London).  I was on a business trip, and flew in on Sunday afternoon.  The concierge said there was only standing room left for the show that evening.  For £5, no problem.  

I am of the Franco Zeffirelli era, and especially fond of the performance of Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey.  Still, this latest production looks worth watching. 

But what matters, I think, is that our young people learn about "Romeo and Juliet" from the text itself and come to appreciate their timeless story. 

Memento Mori in Shakespeare

The more I think about it, the more I see how rich and complex the issues of death are in "Hamlet." From dealing with the murder and the ghost of his father; to losing Ophelia; to agonizing over his desires for revenge; and, in the end, to accepting fatalistically the fact of his mortality.  

There's a lot to memento mori.  To wit: Shakespeare on Show: Top Ten Exhibition – memento mori seal.

Seal Impression from ‘Top Ten Characters’ exhibition at Nash’s House

This seal impression dates from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and bears the impression of a skull surrounded by a legend which states ‘N.R. MEMENTO MORI’ (‘remember that you will die’). 

The seal bearing the impression of a skull does not necessarily indicate status, but rather a philosophical perspective of life. Seals bearing the motto ‘Memento Mori’ were commonly used in Tudor England to remind people of their fragile mortality and to encourage them to pray and to be more pious; the idea strongly emphasises the Christian concept of divine judgement.

From the Folger Shakespeare Library

It is appointed for all Men once to die,
Therefore think upon Eternity.

And as I am so must you be,
Therefore prepare to follow me.

The Sonnet Project on Mobile 'App'

How about William Shakespeare's sonnets, dramatized by New York actors, downloaded as an app for your smartphone?  What a super-awesome idea!

Andrew Leonard says it perfectly in his article - "App of the Week:  The Sonnet Project":

But best of all, the medium and the message match! I’d have a hard time sitting still to watch an entire Shakespearean play on a small screen, but a sonnet is the perfect length. The clips are short: You can log in to the app, watch a sonnet, and log out in the time it takes to reheat your leftovers in the microwave for lunch ... This is high culture packaged for the attention-deficit-disorder generation. 

The brain child behind this is the New York Shakespeare Exchange, and here is a screen shot of their 'app' on my iPhone:

And here is a sampling of dramatizations they've done so far:

Excuse me, while I checkFacebook tweetsomething ... 

watchaTEDvideo writeinmyjournal ...

usethebathroom takethetrashout ...

More on NYSE presents The Sonnet Project.

I super-love this project!

The British Museum Does Shakespeare

Wish I were at the British Museum for its Shakespeare Exhibition last year ...

Richard III is one of the most intriguing evil characters in Shakespeare, along with Iago and Lady Macbeth.

Jonjo O'Neill, as Richard III (image credit)

Wow, Cleopatra is well-acted here by Harriet Walter, in the moments before killing herself to be reunited with Mark Antony.

Harriet Walter, as Cleopatra (image credit)

There is a moral dilemma, I think, to the character of Brutus. This clip clarifies why, in the end, he stabbed Caesar. But does Caesar's ambitiousness justify the assassination?

Paterson Joseph, as Brutus (image credit)

From Drumbeat to Book Cover Comes Macbeth

I remember seeing Macbeth on stage in Chicago years ago. It was a DePaul University production, and the drumbeat in the gruesome denouement of the play was so powerful that it was as if our collective hearts would pound through our chest cavity. That was the best musical rendition of Macbeth I had heard.

This book cover offers an equally powerful interpretation of the same play, but does so with visual arts. It's brilliant!

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Macbeth agonizes so much in those dark, unreal hours, before killing Duncan, as to evoke some empathy in the audience (me, at least). He simply wants to call off the whole affair, before it truly gets bloody. But it's Lady Macbeth who emasculates him for hesitating, and prods him into crossing the Rubicon. Once crossed, there is virtually nothing stopping Macbeth from anything but a gruesome denouement. Yes, this book design 'speaks' to this, but it speaks most, I think, to Lady Macbeth's psychological descent into hell. This book design is most about the bloody spots that she can't seem to wash off her hands!

Sleep is our Shakespearean Theme

Sleep is our theme, as these captivating images bring Shakespeare to mind.

I.  The Tempest 

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

(image credit)

II.  Macbeth 

Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep," the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care ...
Still it cried "Sleep no more!" to all the house:
"Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more."

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III.  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 heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub.

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Much Ado about Amy Acker

Amy Acker, looking elegant and stylish for Vanity Fair.  (And stunningly difficult to wrest your eyes away from!)  Word is, she's acting in a new film by Josh Whedon: Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing."

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“I would be lying to say I didn’t dream of playing Beatrice,” she says now.

“We really had no idea what was happening,” says Acker. “I was kind of thinking I would show up and Joss would have his Flip cam or his iPhone and it would be like a glorified reading and we would film it.” Instead, Whedon and his wife, Kai Cole, turned their Santa Monica home into a set, and the costumes and props (town cars, iPods, walkie-talkies) are decidedly 21st-century. 

Voilà Whedon's modern day "Ado" ...

But enough of Whedon or Shakespeare, and more of Acker in a lengthier interview with Nordling!

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Kenneth Branagh in that Scottish Play!

Kenneth Branagh, in the titular role of that Scottish play. His first Shakespearean performance in over 10 years.

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As the thane who would be king, Mr. Branagh is forever scanning the shadows, eyes alternately narrowed and preternaturally wide, for evidence of things seeable and otherwise.

Stunning image of Kenneth Branagh as the ill-fated Scottish King!

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The formula for survival here is to keep moving, keep killing and keep watching your back, because you don’t know who’s about to plant a knife in it.

Apologies, but one of these three weird sisters reminds me of Anthony Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs" (lol).

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Gasping for breath and stumbling as fast as he can, this Macbeth is trying to outrace the night. As if that were possible.