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

(image credit)

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.

ad more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2015/01/30/3386661_author-of-shakespearean-star-wars.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

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!

(image credit)

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