Romeo and Juliet….as Scientologists?

http://www.romeopublishing.com/ Ok, the Scientologist comment is my own.  But in this “sequel” to Shakespeare’s most popular play, Romeo dies for Juliet…and then awakens “on a volcano in Hawaii.”  Volcanos in Hawaii play a role in the Scientology creation story, you see. Anyway, the story we’re talking about is a “time-travel romance” where Romeo crosses paths with a reincarnated Juliet on the chatboards.  The search is then on as Romeo tries to reunite with his lost love. Sounds…different.  If I found it as an ebook I may grab it, that’s the only real way I read anything these days (not counting audiobooks).  Apparently there’s some “kinky cybersex” in there as well which might turn some folks off, but I’ve been around the net long enough to shrug that off.  The press release, by the way, makes one comment I don’t agree with.  The author says that he “wanted to place significant social barriers between them, as it was in Verona.”  The only thing keeping them apart was the feud between their families, which is not what I would call a “social barrier”.  Wasn’t that the whole point of “Two houses, both alike in dignity”?  Society in general, the townspeople who kept having their nights disturbed, thought the whole thing a big annoyance.

When Did The Shakespeare Family Name Die?

Here’s a question that occurred to me the other day, and I don’t know the answer.  Shakespeare had a son, Hamnet, who died as a child.  He also had two daughters, Susana and Judith, who got married and had families of their own.  Interestingly, Judith named one of her children “Shakespeare” as a first name(*), which leads to my question… What happened to the Shakespeare family name?  How long did it last after William, since he had no heir to pass it down? A little bit of searching turns up Shakespeare’s Family Tree which shows that although Shakespeare did have several brothers (Gilbert, Richard and Edmond), it appears that none of them married.  His sister Joan married, but again, same problem, what happens to the Shakespeare family name?  Was William it?    (*) I know at least one couple who had a similar issue – she was an only child, and while she did want to take her husband’s name, she wanted to do something to recognize her father’s family name.  So she posed the idea of having her current last name be the baby’s first, or at least middle, name.  They didn’t go through with it.  Judith’s Shakespeare, by the way, was her first born, who apparently only lived one year.  Sad, but common in the day.  Don’t worry, Judith.  We remember your dad’s name.

The Players Have Come To Boston

Hurray!  Free Shakespeare returns to Boston next week!  They’ve begun setting up the stage, and my path to work each morning walks me right past it.  I don’t know when I became such a geek for this stuff (never stood on a stage in my life), but part of me each morning wants to walk over and just kind of touch it a little bit.  In just a few days there’s going to be something beautiful there.  I may be pissed off that it’s such a short run this year, and I may be bummed that it is Midsummer’s again, a play that’s done in every high school in the land.  But you know what?  It’s Shakespeare, and it’s free, and it’s so close I can touch it.  I do so love this stuff. My wife and I have already worked out the plan, I’m basically going to just camp out one night next week on my way home from work.  I mean, come on, I’m going to walk right past it, how can I not take the opportunity to just plunk myself down on the grass and get a choice spot?   Ooo, maybe I’ll bring a camera?  We’ll see if we can arrange a sitter during the weekend so that she can come in and catch a performance as well.  The only thing I haven’t figured out is getting home, I’m not thrilled about walking back to the train station at 11pm or so.  But I’ll worry about that later.   

Technorati tags: Shakespeare, Boston

My Father-in-Law is a Shakespeare Denier

My father in law is a lawyer.  As such he tends to be a very good debater, and is rather forceful in his arguments.  In other words, when he talks I basically listen.  As I’ve pointed out to my wife, “Your dad is a defense attorney, and defense attorneys don’t win cases by saying Hmm, you know, you’ve got a point there, I never really thought of it that way.” Anyway, we’re hanging out in the pool over the weekend and discussing family trips to Disneyworld.  I point out that there’s lots of other places in the world I still want to see, such as, “Going to England to do the whole Shakespeare thing.” “There’s a Shakespeare theatre in Connecticut,” he counters.  “You can go down there, see the recreation of the Globe, all that stuff.” “Not good enough,” I said.  “I’d want to visit the church where he’s buried.” “Where somebody is buried,” he said.  “They don’t even know who he was.”  Pause. Disbelief. I’m sorry, did my father in law just say what I think he did? “I’m confused,” said my mother-in-law. “I thought Shakespeare was Shakespeare.” “They think that some nobleman of the time wrote everything,” he continued, “And just signed the name Shakespeare.” “You’re probably thinking of the Earl of Oxford,” I said, “And there are just as many theories that it was Francis Bacon or even Queen Elizabeth. ” Mother-in-law : “So there’s no such person as Shakespeare?” Father-in-law : “Not really.” “Not true,” I said, “There most definitely was an actor named Will Shakespeare, he was born in Stratford and is buried there.  We know that.  The question is whether there’s evidence that he wrote the plays.  People believe that because there’s no evidence of his education that he couldn’t possibly have written was most people consider the greatest literature of the last 400 years.  You don’t really want to get into this with me.” I then gave my mother in law a crash course in Shakespearean history while my father in law got bored and hung out in the pool.  Man, I enjoyed that.  Beats the holy heck out of arguing about George Bush any day.

Shakespeare Association of America

Hey, is anybody out there a member of the Shakespeare Association of America?  I just came across their site in my travels and it looked somewhat intriguing.  The dues are modest – around $100/year dependent on income level.  I’m wondering if anybody’s a member who can fill me in on whether it’s worth it to  a guy like me to join up?  As I’m sure you all know I’m far from a stuffy old academic when it comes to dear Will.  I’m not at all interested in reading ancient tomes and comparing notes on how the meaning of “sullied” was different in 1599 than it was in 1587.  Is it, to put it simply, any fun? It’s probably not for somebody like me.  Part of the registration for the yearly program says, “Registrants in Shakespeare Association programs are expected to complete significant work in advance of the meeting: research papers, common readings, and bibliographic compilation, in the case of seminars; and pedagogic, scholarly, or theatrical exercises or exchanges, in the case of workshops. Seminars and workshops are appropriate for college and university faculty, independent scholars, and graduate students in the later stages of their doctoral work.”  Yeah, not really me.