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

WSSW (II) The Empire Striketh Back

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 Empire Striketh Back is available from Quirk Books, and readings and reviews are on YouTube. 

It looks positively fun, this effort by Ian Doescher. 

WSSW (I) Verily, A New Hope

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Verily, A New Hope is available from Quirk Books.  There are several readings and reviews on YouTube as well.  Here is a book trailer:

Return once more to a galaxy far, far away with this sublime retelling of George Lucas's epic Star Wars in the style of the immortal Bard of Avon. The saga of a wise (Jedi) knight and an evil (Sith) lord, of a beautiful princess held captive and a young hero coming of age, Star Wars abounds with all the valor and villainy of Shakespeare's greatest plays. 'Tis a tale told by fretful droids, full of faithful Wookiees and fearstome stormtroopers, signifying... pretty much everything.

Reimagined in glorious iambic pentameter - and complete with twenty gorgeous Elizabethan illustrations - William Shakespeare's Star Wars will astound and edify Rebels and Imperials alike. Zounds! This is the book you're looking for.

IAN DOESCHER has loved Shakespeare since eighth grade and was born 45 days after Star Wars Episode IV was released. He has a B.A. in Music from Yale University, a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in Ethics from Union Theological Seminary. Ian lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and two sons. This is his first book.

Ian Doescher Reimagines, Shakespeare Obliges

As far as science fiction films go, the following are ones I reveled in the most: The Matrix, Alien, Minority Report, and more recently Transcendence and Her.  I loved Star Trek from decades ago, but never quite gravitated to the film adaptations of the popular TV series.  However, despite its high acclaim and breathtaking success, Star Wars was more of an occasional curiosity than anything that had any pull on me.  Until now, perhaps.

I ran into this recently from c|net Exclusive cover peek at new Shakespeare 'Star Wars' prequel parody.  I had heard about William Shakespeare's Star Wars, but my merely modest interest in SW was not enough for me to look into it, despite my longstanding love for WS.  Again, until now.  I'm not sure if the illustration for the upcoming installment of WSSW (below) is preliminary or final:  believe the title will be Forsooth, The Phantom Menace.

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Doescher claims to be only a Star Wars and Star Trek fan and not well versed in other science-fiction literature. The idea for WSSW came to him when he went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland shortly after reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. After the first draft was shown to LucasFilm, their response was “We like this and it’s fun, but we’d like to see Ian do more with it. Go ahead and have some more fun with it, and go out of bounds of movie itself”, so he rewrote it.

Reference: Ian Doescher.

The notion of re-imagining a $4.38 billion science fiction juggernaut, and moreover re-writing it à la Shakespeare (i.e. iambic pentameter, blank verse), intrigue me greatly.  Here is a reference sheet for said juggernaut:

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So far Doescher has published his version of the original trilogy:

1. William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope
2. William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back
3. William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return

His 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

So I have plenty of time to watch all the George Lucas et al masterpieces on DVD and read all the Ian Doescher re-imaginations!

Composing Love Songs for Shakespeare

Tom Hiddleston

Songs about love are everywhere, from eighteenth century operas to thrash metal hits. In today’s music industry, the charts are full of love songs, about every kind of relationship or romantic thought imaginable. And of course, as the teller of some of the greatest love stories of all time, Shakespeare provides endless inspiration for these love songs.

Reference: Shakespeare's Love-Song Legacy.

This article offers a playlist on Spotify, so if you're a user, then have a listen.  Alternatively, it is easy enough to search for these and other Shakespearean love songs on YouTube.  Music is yet another dimension to the enthralling poetry and drama that are Shakespeare. 

Guy Woolfenden Composes for Shakespeare

primitive animal horns

Music has been a vital part of staging Shakespeare’s plays from their first performances right up to the present day. But no original instrumental music survives from the plays themselves. So how can music still be used to make the plays come alive?

Obviously I think music in Shakespeare is extremely important. But before I started writing the music for the [Royal Shakespeare Company], the music was sometimes almost an afterthought. Composers sent in music without knowing anything about the production style.

It’s all a question of style, and it depends very much on the nature of the production one is working on. I was always guided by what the design team had planned for a production and had a much better idea of what was needed once I had seen the designs for the sets and costumes. Of course I relied on the director’s guidance to shape the music.

Reference: Writing the Music for Shakespeare's Plays: An Interview with Guy Woolfenden.

I suppose if a director knows exactly the music that he or she wants for a production, then the composer of that music or the creative process behind it is more or less secondary.  But to Woolfenden's point, I think it's vital to compose original music that speaks specifically to the theme, rhythm and direction of the production.