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

(image credit)

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?

(image credit)

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.