Rose Study for Juliet {4}

Rose Study for Juliet {4} by Ron Villejo

What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man.

Romeo and Juliet (Act II, scene ii)

Rose Study for Juliet {3}

Rose Study for Juliet {3} by Ron Villejo

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

Romeo and Juliet (Act II, scene ii)

Rose Study for Juliet {2}

Rose Study for Juliet {2} by Ron Villejo

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?

Romeo and Juliet (Act II, scene ii)

Rose Study for Juliet {1}

Rose Study for Juliet {1} by Ron Villejo

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

Romeo and Juliet (Act II, scene ii)

Romeo and Juliet - Analyzing Staging (Act V)

Romeo and Juliet - Analyzing Staging (Act IV)

Romeo and Juliet - Analyzing Staging (Act III)

Romeo and Juliet - Analyzing Staging (Act II)

Romeo and Juliet - Analyzing Staging (Act I)

Macbeth (Act II, scene i)

Macbeth (Act I, scene v)

Macbeth (Act I, scene iii)

Othello (Act V, scene ii)

Othello (Act III, scene iii)

Othello (Act I, scene iii)

Othello | Royal Shakespeare Company - Iago

Lucian Msamati discusses the character - Iago - in Iqbal Khan's production of Othello with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

One professor at Northwestern University once said to a lecture hall full of students that evil is infinitely more interesting than good.  It was a course in Shakespeare, so no one would quibble if any of us took it to mean evil in Shakespearean plays...  Nevertheless, there is probably a lot of truth if that statement were to refer generally to those figures or subjects that most command our attention, imagination and reactions.  Iago is a superb character study, precisely in this respect.  As Msamati clarifies, what motives his character is deeper, more dangerous, more emotional than something like race.

Othello | Royal Shakespeare Company - Othello

Hugh Quarshie discusses the character - Othello - in Iqbal Khan's production of Othello with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Indeed Othello is his own man: dignified, battle-tested, commanding of respect.  Yet, not all is well in Venice, and one Iago proves that the best of men can be taken down.  His undoing of Othello is the stuff of tragedy.

Othello | Royal Shakespeare Company

The say this production is electrifying is to add fuel to a play that is already fire, defined.  Iago works on Othello with exquisite prowess and evil intent, and what looks to be a rather sensuous rendering of the likes of Desdemona is the two hours' traffic of our stage.
 

King Lear (Act III, scene vi)

GLOUCESTER	Here is better than the open air; take it
	thankfully. I will piece out the comfort with what
	addition I can: I will not be long from you.
KENT	All the power of his wits have given way to his
	impatience: the gods reward your kindness!	5
[Exit GLOUCESTER]
EDGAR	Frateretto calls me; and tells me
	Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness.
	Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.
Fool	Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a
	gentleman or a yeoman?	10
KING LEAR	A king, a king!
Fool	No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son;
	for he's a mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman
	before him.
KING LEAR	To have a thousand with red burning spits	15
	Come hissing in upon 'em,--
EDGAR	The foul fiend bites my back.
Fool	He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a
	horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.
KING LEAR	It shall be done; I will arraign them straight.	20
[To EDGAR]
	Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer;
[To the Fool]
	Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she foxes!
EDGAR	Look, where he stands and glares!
	Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam?
	Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,--	25
Fool	Her boat hath a leak,
	And she must not speak
	Why she dares not come over to thee.
EDGAR	The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a
	nightingale. Hopdance cries in Tom's belly for two	30
	white herring. Croak not, black angel; I have no
	food for thee.
KENT	How do you, sir? Stand you not so amazed:
	Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions?
KING LEAR	I'll see their trial first. Bring in the evidence.	35
[To EDGAR]
	Thou robed man of justice, take thy place;
[To the Fool]
	And thou, his yoke-fellow of equity,
	Bench by his side:
[To KENT]
	you are o' the commission,
	Sit you too.	40
EDGAR	Let us deal justly.
	Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
	Thy sheep be in the corn;
	And for one blast of thy minikin mouth,
	Thy sheep shall take no harm.	45
	Pur! the cat is gray.
KING LEAR	Arraign her first; 'tis Goneril. I here take my
	oath before this honourable assembly, she kicked the
	poor king her father.
Fool	Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril?	50
KING LEAR	She cannot deny it.
Fool	Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool.
KING LEAR	And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim
	What store her heart is made on. Stop her there!
	Arms, arms, sword, fire! Corruption in the place!	55
	False justicer, why hast thou let her 'scape?
EDGAR	Bless thy five wits!
KENT	O pity! Sir, where is the patience now,
	That thou so oft have boasted to retain?
EDGAR	[Aside] My tears begin to take his part so much,	60
	They'll mar my counterfeiting.
KING LEAR	The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and
	Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.
EDGAR	Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs!
	Be thy mouth or black or white,	65
	Tooth that poisons if it bite;
	Mastiff, grey-hound, mongrel grim,
	Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,
	Or bobtail tike or trundle-tail,
	Tom will make them weep and wail:	70
	For, with throwing thus my head,
	Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.
	Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and
	fairs and market-towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry.
KING LEAR	Then let them anatomize Regan; see what breeds	75
	about her heart. Is there any cause in nature that
	makes these hard hearts?

King Lear (Act I, scene ii)

EDMUND	Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
	My services are bound. Wherefore should I
	Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
	The curiosity of nations to deprive me,	5
	For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines
	Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
	When my dimensions are as well compact,
	My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
	As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us	10
	With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
	Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
	More composition and fierce quality
	Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
	Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,	15
	Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
	Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
	Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
	As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate!
	Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,	20
	And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
	Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
	Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

King Lear (Act I, scene i)

KING LEAR	Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.
	Give me the map there. Know that we have divided
	In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent
	To shake all cares and business from our age;	40
	Conferring them on younger strengths, while we
	Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall,
	And you, our no less loving son of Albany,
	We have this hour a constant will to publish
	Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife	45
	May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy,
	Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love,
	Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn,
	And here are to be answer'd. [Begin] Tell me, my daughters,--
	Since now we will divest us both of rule,	50
	Interest of territory, cares of state,--
	Which of you shall we say doth love us most?
	That we our largest bounty may extend
	Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,
	Our eldest-born, speak first.	55
GONERIL	Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
	Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
	Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
	No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
	As much as child e'er loved, or father found;	60
	A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
	Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
CORDELIA	Aside
	Love, and be silent.
LEAR	Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,
	With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,	65
	With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads,
	We make thee lady: to thine and Albany's issue
	Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,
	Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak.
REGAN	Sir, I am made	70
	Of the self-same metal that my sister is,
	And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
	I find she names my very deed of love;
	Only she comes too short: that I profess
	Myself an enemy to all other joys,	75
	Which the most precious square of sense possesses;
	And find I am alone felicitate
	In your dear highness' love.
CORDELIA	Aside
	And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love's
	More richer than my tongue.	80
KING LEAR	To thee and thine hereditary ever
	Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
	No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
	Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,
	Although the last, not least; to whose young love	85
	The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
	Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw
	A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
CORDELIA	Nothing, my lord.
KING LEAR	Nothing!	90
CORDELIA	Nothing.
KING LEAR	Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
CORDELIA	Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
	My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
	According to my bond; nor more nor less.	95
KING LEAR	How, how, Cordelia! mend your speech a little,
	Lest it may mar your fortunes.
CORDELIA	Good my lord,
	You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
	Return those duties back as are right fit,	100
	Obey you, love you, and most honour you.
	Why have my sisters husbands, if they say
	They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,
	That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
	Half my love with him, half my care and duty:	105
	Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
	To love my father all.
KING LEAR	But goes thy heart with this?
CORDELIA	Ay, good my lord.
KING LEAR	So young, and so untender?	110
CORDELIA	So young, my lord, and true.
KING LEAR	Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:
	For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,
	The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
	By all the operation of the orbs	115
	From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
	Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
	Propinquity and property of blood,
	And as a stranger to my heart and me
	Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,	120
	Or he that makes his generation messes
	To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
	Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved,
	As thou my sometime daughter.
KENT	Good my liege,--	125
KING LEAR	Peace, Kent!
	Come not between the dragon and his wrath.
	I loved her most, and thought to set my rest
	On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight! [End]
	So be my grave my peace, as here I give	130
	Her father's heart from her! Call France; who stirs?
	Call Burgundy. Cornwall and Albany,
	With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:
	Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.
	I do invest you jointly with my power,	135
	Pre-eminence, and all the large effects
	That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course,
	With reservation of an hundred knights,
	By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode
	Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain	140
	The name, and all the additions to a king;
	The sway, revenue, execution of the rest,
	Beloved sons, be yours: which to confirm,
	This coronet part betwixt you.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act V, scene i)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act IV, scene i)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act III, scene ii)

Richard II (Act V, scene iv)

Richard II (Act IV, scene i)

Richard II (Act III, scene ii)

Help with playing Shakespeare

(image credit)

I love how Players-Shakespeare helps:

Helps you choose great Shakespeare productions from The Globe to watch at home.
Helps you choose other great Shakespeare productions to watch at home
Provides free versions of most (and a growing number) of Shakespeare’s plays in our own Modern First Folio Editon
Provides Playreading Packs to let a group of friends read those plays together.
Helps Playreading Groups to run a Shakespeare play-reading group
Provides Reviews of Shakespeare productions and News of Theatres, Actors, and Publications
A “What’s New” page where you can see what’s new on Players-Shakespeare.com site (It’s our old Home Page.)

Maxine Peake as Hamlet and Ophelia

It is a mark of the boldness and versatility of Maxine Peake that she is one of the few actors to have played both Ophelia and Hamlet in productions of Shakespeare’s Danish tragedy.

Reference: Bold, versatile and fiercely democratic: An ode to Maxine Peake.

"Star-crossed" literary lines

Very good video. That opening sonnet in "Romeo and Juliet" is a lyrical overview of the play, and makes clear that "star-crossed" means ill-fated.
 

Hamlet (3) Globe to Globe in Rwanda

Actresses Miranda Foster & Jennifer Leong reflect on what the need to move the Globe to Globe Hamlet show outdoors, due to power cuts, meant to the people of Rwanda.

They're not allowed to congregate in public places. There are signs saying "No Loitering," and people get arrested if they literally hang out in public together. But because we were doing our show, everybody could hang out and be together.

Hamlet (2) Globe to Globe in Rwanda

Actor Naeem Hayat reflects on what it was like to be part of the audience in Butare, Rwanda where the play needed to have a sudden move of venue.

The scene with Yorick, for example, when the gravedigger brings out the skull, the human skull means something totally different in Rwanda than it does to us. For me, there was a definite moment, a palpable moment of recognizing that.

Hamlet (1) Globe to Globe in Sudan

Actress Phoebe Fildes talks about her experience performing in Khartoum, Sudan where the show was free and nearly 5,000 people attended.

For it to be received as it was, with such enthusiasm and joy, really, was really incredible, because we all expected it to be the opposite.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Globe (3)

BOTTOM

[Sings]
The ousel cock so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill.

TITANIA

[Awaking]
What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

BOTTOM

[Sings]
The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay.

For, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry 'cuckoo' never so?

TITANIA

I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

Reference: A Midsummer Night's Dream.
 

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Globe (2)

HERMIA

O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!
You thief of love! what, have you come by night
And stolen my love's heart from him?

HELENA

Fine, i'faith!
Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!

HERMIA

Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem;
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

HELENA

I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;
I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
I am a right maid for my cowardice:
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,
Because she is something lower than myself,
That I can match her.

HERMIA

Lower! hark, again.

HELENA

Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
I evermore did love you, Hermia,
Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
Save that, in love unto Demetrius,
I told him of your stealth unto this wood.
He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him;
But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:
And now, so you will let me quiet go,
To Athens will I bear my folly back
And follow you no further: let me go:
You see how simple and how fond I am.

HERMIA

Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?

HELENA

A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.

HERMIA

What, with Lysander?

HELENA

With Demetrius.

LYSANDER

Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.

DEMETRIUS

No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.

HELENA

O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!
She was a vixen when she went to school;
And though she be but little, she is fierce.

HERMIA

'Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'!
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
Let me come to her.

LYSANDER 

Get you gone, you dwarf;

Reference: A Midsummer Night's Dream.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Globe (1)

The language maybe more polite and formal, and the manner may be more distinguished and measured, but with their characters Aden Gillett and Janie Dee play in the same crucible of romantic longing, sexual desire and meddlesome conflict as do the young lovers.  A Midsummer Night's Dream owns a complicated, multi-plot structure, yet it is remarkable that Shakespeare pulls it all off marvelously.

Romeo and Juliet - Globe (2009)

Speaking of Romeo and Juliet at the Globe...

Experience the hugely popular 2009 production of Romeo & Juliet at Shakespeare's Globe, when it is screened in cinemas around the country this Valentine's Day.

This romantic tragedy was my first Shakespearean play, and it stood as my favorite after having read nearly 30 of them.  It still stands as such 36 years later.

Elizabethan Theater (2)

I was a groundling at the Globe about 10 years ago.  I arrived in London early afternoon, the day before a set of business meetings.  The hotel concierge said there were tickets left for that evening's performance of Romeo and Juliet, but only for standing room.  How much?  £5 made it a very easy decision.

Elizabethan Theater (1)

Elizabethan Theater: Shakespeare and the Globe

Learn about theater during Shakespeare's time. Topics include why The Globe, his theater, was located in Southwark, what the theater probably looked like, what sorts of special effects were used, and why it's unlikely Romeo kissed Juliet.

UPDATE: The London Bridge did cross the Thames during this period but people who could afford it still hired boats to cross because the bridge was crowded, slow, and dangerous.  [That's right: The London Bridge actually refers to several different bridges, which date back to the first century.  For example, the Medieval London Bridge was built from 1176 to 1209, and it was destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666, well after Shakespeare's time.]

Puritans viewed theater as immoral in general, and in particular crude, common, and inappropriate for the delicate sensibility of women.  So they were not allowed on stage, and apparently they were frowned upon if in attendance.  I wonder, though, how young adolescents felt in dressing up as women and playing them on stage.

"All the world's a stage"

... rebuilt recently but it was originally constructed in the seventeenth century... during the day because they couldn't afford candles to put on the plays at night... far more interaction between the public and the actors. And in fact, the groundlings, which were the cheapest seats just under the open cover. They would shout at the actors and throw things at them if they didn't like the play. 

... none of the actors were women because they weren't allowed to be in plays. And also the church was very critical of theatre... very popular and very affordable... the cheapest seats could be afforded by everyone.  

So this is where the groundlings stand and to come here it's only five pounds to see a play and they say its one of the best places even though if it rains, you're going to get wet... you are right next to the actor's foot. You could see right up his nose and if he spat down at you,... great participation because the audience can see you, the actors, everybody's involved in the play which makes kind of a difference from the typical West End play... Here, you felt like you were really part of it...

They're pretty authentic even down to the finest details like the original seventeenth century underwear... And nowadays we go and see a play but back then the most important thing was the acoustics... 

The stage represents three different elements,... there's a trapdoor to go underneath which represents hell.  

... in the seventeenth century it had burned down twice.  So to make this thatched roof after the Great Fire of London...

Shakespeare: Another short biography

Shakespeare was fortunate, or perhaps fated, not only to keep writing but also to keep earning from it.  Even when the plague closed London theaters for two years in the early 1590s, he had a wealthy patron - Henry Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton and Baron of Tichfield - for whom he wrote Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.

I hope to find such a patron myself.
 

Shakespeare: A short biography

It isn't enough simply to be an artist and to create art.  It's important

1. to be at the right place (traveling to London)
2. to happen upon the right circle (a group of actors, who formed a theater company)
3. to carve out the right business model (a profitable theater company, that enabled Shakespeare to write)
4. to live in the era of the right high level patron (Queen Elizabeth I encouraged music and drama)

Among 2000 words and expressions...

Along with every inch a king, I love the following:

Understanding Shakespeare: Gravy

Understanding Shakespeare: Decipher the Meter

Understanding Shakespeare: Identify Images

Understanding Shakespeare: Follow the Action

Understanding Shakespeare: Follow the Thought

Romeo and Juliet, by Alicechan

Romeo and Juliet, by Alicechan

I stabbed Juliet a bit more~~ pointed out that the dagger wasn't actually stabbing Juliet and omgggg that was so very true I'm embarrassed I ever drew it that way. XD So, hopefully it looks like it's dug into her tummy a bit deeper... ^^;; Thank you for the critic Sour Apple!!

THEY ARE SO STUPID. totally wanna be them though, haha.

ugh. Too much texture I think on this one. x.x I drew this specifically to practice photoshop so I don't feel like I ever connected with it.. I colored it all there, but uhhhh...no. It had even more texture vomit it on it than this version, so I cleaned somethings up in painter. It was like.. I worked backwards... o.O interesting experience though SO I GUESS I DIDN'T WASTE MY TIME. :C

Romeo and Juliet, by dontachos

Romeo and Juliet, by dontachos

A friend of mine pointed to me that this looks suspiciously similar (haha, no, she said it in a much kinder way xD) to anime version of the play, 'romeo x juliet'. I did not intend that (i didn't even know about the anime before! So -weird-... x_x) but i can't help but admit that they do look similar so... uh... yeah. We should all now go and see the anime, i suppose xDDDD

Romeo and Juliet, by tilywendy

Romeo and Juliet, by tilywendy

Here is the other work for the exhibition. I loved the movie Romeo and Juliet made in 60's [Franco Zeffirelli film (1968)], so I chose the two main characters as the theme for my picture.

David Crystal Explains the Voice of Shakespeare

Accents in all languages have changed over the centuries. So what did English sound like in Shakespeare's day? Was it like the "Queen's English" and BBC accent of today? No, it wasn't, according to linguistics expert David Crystal.

Just as I thought, linguists turned to the poetry of Shakespeare to infer the accent with which he spoke.  Years ago my poetry professor Mary Kinzie referred to love and prove as a sight rhyme, but Crystal points out that prove sounded more like love in the time of Shakespeare.  So apparently it was an actual rhyme.

Ben Crystal does Shakespeare in his Voice

I cannot imagine that anyone has had access to an actual sound recording of Shakespeare's voice, so the question is How does actor Ben Crystal, or anyone for that matter, know what his accent was?  My guess is that we infer from his writing, maybe from the Folio, and his poetry in particular.  In any case, I found this little bit of instruction informative and enjoyable, and I marvel at how verse and versatile actors have to be to perform Shakespeare.

Jim Meskimen does Shakespeare in Celebrity Voices

CLARENCE: O, I have passed a miserable night,

So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,

That, as I am a Christian faithful man,

I would not spend another such night

Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days--

So full of dismal terror was the time.

Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower

And was embarked to cross the Bergundy,

And in my company my brother Gloucester,

Who from my cabin tempted me to walk

Upon the hatches: thence we looked toward England

And cited up a thousand heavy times,

During the wars of York and Lancaster,

That had befall'n us. As we paced along

Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,

Methought that Gloucester stumblèd, and in falling

Struck me (that thought to stay him) overboard

Into the tumbling billows of the main.

O Lord! methought what pain it was to drown!

What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears!

What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!

Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wracks;

A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon;

Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,

Inestimable stones, unvaluèd jewels,

All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea:

Some lay in dead men's skulls, and in the holes

Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept

(As 'twere in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems,

That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep

And mocked the dead bones that lay scatt'red by.

I passed (methought) the melancholy flood,

With that sour ferryman which poets write of,

Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.

The first that there did greet my stranger soul

Was my great father-in-law, renownèd Warwick,

Who spake aloud, 'What scourge for perjury

Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?'

And so he vanished. Then came wand'ring by

A shadow like an angel, with bright hair

Dabbled in blood, and he shrieked aloud,

'Clarence is come -- false, fleeting, perjured Clarence,

That stabbed me in the field by Tewkesbury:

Seize on him, Furies, take him unto torment!'

With that (methoughts) a legion of foul fiends

Environed me, and howlèd in mine ears

Such hideous cries that with the very noise

I, trembling, waked, and for a season after

Could not believe but that I was in hell,

Such terrible impression made my dream.

Richard III (Act I, scene iv), by William Shakespeare

 

Kim Hall: How well does Othello speak to our culture?

Is Othello Shakespeare's American Play? is, I believe, an unfair, misguided question to ask, mainly because it's a closed-ended one.  As such, it begs simplistic, one-sided responses, and aborts what may very well be a very rich conversation or debate.  The better (open-ended) question is How well does Othello speak to our culture, our relations, our Zeitgeist?  Moreover, while there may be situations where a teacher ought to hold off on putting Othello or Merchant of Venice in the curriculum, I agree with Professor Kim Hall: The very open, even blunt rendering of race makes these plays terrific fodder for impassioned conversation and meaningful learning.

Kim Hall: What does it mean for Othello to be Black?

Professor Kim Hall is spot on:  While many students may wonder Was Othello Black? the more important questions are What does it mean for him to be Black, how does this shape his relationships with others, and what about the play resonates for us on such matters as love and romance, race and prejudice?

Kim Hall: What historical lessons can we draw?

One has to be careful to draw historical lessons from Shakespeare.  That is, because he freely dramatizes historical figures and events, we ought to take his plays as a prompt to research the facts behind this dramatization.  Of course, as masterful works of art, his plays may shed light (i.e. psychological, experiential or behavioral) on historical figures and events, which facts, in and of themselves, may fail to shed light on.  At the very least, as Professor Kim Hall points out, we glimpse Elizabethan views on the royal court in Shakespeare's time.  At the end of the day, as I have argued elsewhere, our understanding of anything in our world and history are all the richer, more complete when we account for both objective and subjective angles.

Shakespeare Does Iambs

Shakespeare's most poetic lines don't just talk about matters of the heart, they follow its rhythm.

As obtusely as Heinz Kohut (psychoanalyst) and John Ashbery (poet) wrote, I understood them and felt as if they spoke to me.  As surreal as were the paintings of Salvador Dali, they were a special language my unconscious understood.  So as entrenched as the English of William Shakespeare sounded to scores of people, I heard the poetry and drama in every word.  That is the underpinning of why I love iambic pentameter and accordingly why I adopt it in my poetry.

Shakespeare Talks Trash

I like Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage (though this isn't iambic pentameter [see next post]).

I like Thou art as loathsome as a toad.

I like Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese.

Shakespeare Makes Words

I like dauntless, besmirch, and lackluster.

I like eating our flesh and blood.... out of house and home.

I like good riddance to the green-eyed monster, breaking the ice, and dead as a doornail.

Mark Thornton Burnett: Creating Local Purchase

Mark Thornton Burnett, professor of renaissance studies at Queens University, Belfast, on how two Shakespeare plays become films about dance in 21st Century Mexico and 19 Century banditry in Venezuela.

Oh, how I agree that Shakespeare plays are sturdy enough and robust enough to allow for an adaptation that has local purchase.  My plans for Shakespeare Talks! bank on this very notion: Whether an audience is Spanish or African, Arabic, Indian or Persian, I will fashion a staging that accounts for local language, culture and affairs.

Mark Thornton Burnett: Gaining in Translation

Mark Thornton Burnett, professor of renaissance studies at Queens University, Belfast, on how translation can be both linguistic and cultural.

I suspect that some translators feel compelled to render one language literally onto another, and they may argue that certain situations require such precise rendering.  But I agree with Burnett: Translation is both literal (linguistic) and figurative (cultural).  It is inevitable, I think, that something is lost in translation, but be that as it may, accounting for the tone, meaning and context of the original text and rendering it all for another language or culture is a matter, too, of re-creating or co-creating the original text.  So, in essence, what is lost in a literal translation is (re)gained in a figurative translation.

Mark Thornton Burnett: Stretching Comfort Zone

Mark Thornton Burnett, professor of renaissance studies at Queens University, Belfast, on viewing films of Shakespeare's plays in other languages, especially in languages we do not know.

I fully appreciate what Burnett encourages us Shakespeare scholars and aficionados: that we slide out of our comfort zones, and turn to colleagues and resources to better grasp a Shakespearean production in another language.  Also, I have had the fortune and pleasure of traveling to many different countries, and when friends or colleagues speak in their native language, I marvel at the sound (tone, pitch) and visual (gestures, interactions) of their conversation.  I challenge myself to understand what they are saying without knowing the words they are speaking.

Cross-Dressing and Gender-Bending

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What happens when you throw three of Shakespeare's cross-dressing female leads into a boat upon a stormy sea?

The resulting conversation that delves into the issues of language, identity and gender is both dramatic and full of humor, said director Sara Catheryn Wolf. After all, you can't put Portia, Rosalind and Viola in a room without sparking a tempest of some kind.

Wolf, a seasoned Shakespearean actress, said "Good Men and True" is an ideal play for every kind of Shakespeare fan. If you're an iambic-pentameter aficionado, you'll love the mashup of three beloved plays. If you're a Bard beginner, you'll gravitate to the relatable storylines and modern language. Win-win, she noted.

Reference: 'Good Men': Shakespeare's cross-dressers facing fate. 

It sounds like a thought-provoking yet thoroughly enjoyable re-visioning of Shakespeare.  Portia, Rosalind and Viola are among the most intriguing characters in drama, precisely because they break gender barriers without, for the most part, revealing that they have done so.  What writer Karen Dybis may not have known is that in Shakespeare's time, young men often played the role of women, who in these particular plays then disguised themselves as men.  More the cross-dressing, this is gender bending at its finest.

Right Leadership for Shakespeare Festival

Rick Dildine

Dildine oversaw growth at Shakespeare Festival St. Louis in his previous tenure, with attendance increasing more than 30 percent. Dildine made more than $87,000 in fiscal 2013. But he resigned in June 2014 to become executive director and president of Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, Massachusetts, which has an annual budget of about $5 million.

Reference: Shakespeare Festival’s executive director is back after resigning last year.
Unless an artistic troupe or organization has stable sponsorship, it must have a working business model to sustain itself over time.  Moreover, it must have the right capabilities in its leaders and staff, that is, those who ought to have some artistic prowess as well as business savvy and financial attention. 

Should Shakespeare be Censored?

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Shakespeare’s plays contain anti-Semitism, racism and sexism, sexual abuse and violence; they magnify the tenor of their age. But should they be censored when they might offend a particular community?

Reference: Should Shakespeare be Censored?

My answer is an unequivocal no. An artist ought to have as much license as is rightful and reasonable to decide how he or she should create or portray discriminatory, offensive stuff.  We do live in highly tense, sensitive times, however, and an artistic expression that is benign for one group may be incendiary for another (rf. Charlie Hebdo massacre).  So an artist must be thoughtful, responsible and forthright with however he or she decides.
 

They All Want to Play Hamlet, by Carl Sandburg

THEY all want to play Hamlet.

They have not exactly seen their fathers killed

Nor their mothers in a frame-up to kill,

Nor an Ophelia dying with a dust gagging the heart,

Not exactly the spinning circles of singing golden spiders,

Not exactly this have they got at nor the meaning of flowers—O flowers, flowers slung by a dancing girl—in the saddest play the inkfish, Shakespeare, ever wrote;

Yet they all want to play Hamlet because it is sad like all actors are sad and to stand by an open grave with a joker’s skull in the hand and then to say over slow and say over slow wise, keen, beautiful words masking a heart that’s breaking, breaking,

This is something that calls and calls to their blood.

They are acting when they talk about it and they know it is acting to be particular about it and yet: They all want to play Hamlet.

They All Want to Play Hamlet, by Carl Sandburg.

I suppose that because Hamlet is truly a complex, mythical figure in literature and theater, it is virtually impossible to grasp him wholly and discern the interiors of his character.  But I imagine any actor worth his or her salt will relish the challenge of playing him.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet

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Now that my family and I have the means again to revel in film and theater, I must find a way to see new Shakespeare productions.  At the heels of an Academy Award nomination, as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, the talented Cumberbatch is poised to take on the anguished Danish Prince later this year.  I've seen him in 12 Years a Slave and Star Trek Into Darkness. 

Lynn Collins as Portia

Lynn Collins, as Portia

He said he wasn't impressed with the 2004 film adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, but thought that Lynn Collins was quite good.  He wasn't sure how much Shakespeare she had done, but apparently she has had a great deal of training in the Bard and she has played Ophelia and Juliet in the past.  I've seen her in The Lake House, Bug, The Number 23, and Unconditional, and I do believe the beautiful lady has good range in her acting.

William Shakespeare Plays Online

William Shakespeare

The University of Michigan, University of Oxford, and ProQuest are behind the Early English Books Online - Text Creation Partnership, which has published a whopping 25,000 texts online from the 1473 - 1700 period.  Another 40,000 texts, including those of William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, and John Milton, are planned for release by the end of the decade (rf. U-M seeks to make Shakespeare, others available online) wow.  

In the meantime, FYI:

Before the publication of the First Folio in 1623, nineteen of the thirty-seven plays in Shakespeare's canon had appeared in quarto format. With the exception of Othello (1622), all of the quartos were published prior to the date of Shakespeare's retirement from the theatre in about 1611. It is unlikely that Shakespeare was involved directly with the printing of any of his plays, although it should be noted that two of his poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, were almost certainly printed under his direct supervision.

Here you will find the complete text of Shakespeare's plays, based primarily on the First Folio, and a variety of helpful resources, including extensive explanatory notes, character analysis, source information, and articles and book excerpts on a wide range of topics unique to each drama.

Reference: Shakespeare's Plays.

WSSW Ian Doescher Speaks to Middle Schoolers

Ian Doescher, with 6th grader McKinzie Baker

The books have allowed Doescher, who still works in marketing as a day job, to expand upon the world created by George Lucas that he grew up loving, he said. It’s also an opportunity to show young readers that Shakespeare isn’t so bad either.

“I’m pretty sure a lot of you already like Star Wars,” he said. “I really, really hope a lot of you will also like Shakespeare. He’s way better than I am...”

Some students got in on the action as well on Friday. Five from one of Dickinson’s classes read a scene from the first book during the assembly. Doescher brought an excerpt from one of his latest books, based on the three prequel movies released in the late 1990s through the 2000s and invited a student to read the scene with him.

Eighth-grader Alec Goodwin was quick to get his hand up and he was selected.

“I was ecstatic; I was blown out of my mind,” Alec, 14, said afterward. A big Star Wars fan, he said he hasn’t read Doescher’s books but plans to now.

Shakespeare only gets a light treatment in Dickinson’s classroom, as the English playwright’s work is mostly read at the high school level. But many students are intimidated by Shakespeare, Dickinson said, and these books are a way of easing students into his work.

“Shakespeare isn’t scary,” he said.

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Reference: Author of Shakespearean ‘Star Wars’ books visits Housel Middle School.

I must be repeating myself, over the stretch of articles on William Shakespeare's Star Wars, but I absolutely love what Doescher is doing and I am awed by the great reception to his re-imagining and re-writing of the longtime, highly popular science-fiction series.  The very aim of Shakespeare Talks! is to bring the wisdom, the drama and poetry of the Bard to a modern-day audience in ways that are faithful to the text, but not just so, as Shakespeare Talks! also enacts, explains and engages.

Doescher is way ahead of me, and is doing a superb job at realizing that aim of mine.

WSSW (III) The Jedi Doth Return

Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare's Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back and William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return.

Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages.

Something Wookiee this way comes!

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The Jedi Doth Return is available from Quirk Books, and readings and reviews are on YouTube. 

Doescher's prequel trilogy will be published one by one this year, in time for the release of Episode VII - Star Wars: The Force Awakens - the first of the sequel trilogy, on December 18th:

1. William Shakespeare's Forsooth, the Phantom Menace
2. William Shakespeare's Alack! of the Clones
3. William Shakespeare's Tragedy of the Sith's Revenge