Richard II (Act III, scene ii)

Help with playing Shakespeare

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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.