Month: September 2009

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070628192208AAx5yq4 Unlike with other Yahoo Answers crossovers, I don’t think Ray Eston Smith Jr is a current contributor here on Shakespeare Geek.  But this seemingly simple question, and his lengthy detailed answer, fascinate me. Mr. Smith (Eston Smith?) states as fact that Hamlet was 30, and then enumerates all the clear instances within the play where Shakespeare tells us.  Including: * The "30" is also mentioned in "The Mousetrap," where the Player-King said to his queen, "thirty dozen moons with borrow’d sheen about the world have times twelve thirties been" since their marriage. This is meant to signal 30 years, thus relating the Player-King to Hamlet’s father. * King James VI of Scotland, in his private correspondence, liked to use code-numbers in case his letters were intercepted. His code for himself was "30." There are many parallels between Hamlet and James VI. * Hamlet wanted to go "back to school in Wittenberg." That doesn’t mean he was a student. At age 30, he may have been a tenured professor. (Did they have tenure in those days? It doesn’t matter, they didn’t even have a university in Wittenberg in Hamlet’s days. …Hamlet just wanted to go back to Wittenberg where, at age 30, he was well-settled. I’d never heard some of those before, particularly the James VI thing.  There is debate in the comments, although people seem to agree that the gravedigger scene clearly says he’s 30. Discuss?

I love this article about finding the “best” monologues for audition, for three reasons. First, because it comes right out and says “there’s no such thing as a best monologue.”  Of course that’s true.  Men, women.  Comedy, tragedy.  Long, short.  Old, young.    But that won’t stop the psychology at work when somebody sees “10 best” – they almost always have to click. I know I did. 🙂 Second, it’s a lesson in monologues.  It is NOT,  for example, “dialogue where you’ve stitched out the other person.”  Amen, brother.  He also suggests that you’re doing yourself a disservice if you use a sonnet instead.  You clearly haven’t expanded your horizons to appreciate the variety available to you within the plays. Lastly, Shakespeare’s certainly included – but absolutely none of what you’d expect.  No Hamlet here.  Instead you get 3 out of 10 from the Bard – the Tempest (no, not Prospero or Caliban or Ariel, either!), Twelfth Night, and even Measure for Measure.  I think, having done away with the “best” idea, that he’s clearly trying to make a point that life is more than To be or not to be. Maybe it reinforces the obvious, but who cares.  Sometimes you need that.  Especially for anybody who really did think they were going to get a magical list of the 10 best monologues guaranteed to get them the callback? UPDATE:  Helps if I include the link!  Thanks Chris! http://www.backstage.com/bso/advice-the-craft/10-top-monologues-for-actors-1003999290.story

So I’m bored tonight and looking for content.  I don’t type “Shakespeare” into the search engines because I’ve got monitors on those to bring the news to me.  I type in character names. I type in “Caliban” and get this! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ferentz-lafargue/a-tempest_b_294571.html Posted just this morning, a blogger on the Huffington Post compares current New York politics (and the whole “Obama’s people tell governor Paterson not to run”) to the Tempest:

In a sense, Cuomo is Ariel to Paterson’s Caliban. This of course suggests that Gillibrand is Miranda, and Schumer is Prospero in this New York State Democratic adaptation of The Tempest.

I don’t fully get it, I just got a kick out of the fact that it was posted just today and I happened to trip over it entirely by accident ;).

Using Shakespeare as the foundation for your game is not new.  Some work, some don’t. But it’s always a good idea, from where I sit.  And eventually somebody’s going to hit upon the formula that makes it work.  I think the trick, like “10 Things I Hate About You” and “Lion King”, is to make it map to Shakespeare without coming right out and saying it.  If you tell people “This is Shakespeare, you’ll like it” you won’t get as good a reaction as if you say “Did you like it?  Cool, because you know, it was based on Shakespeare.” With that in mind we have “Gamelet”:

Inspired by Hamlet, the new game is — in the words of its solo developer himself — a "twisted" adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play. Players control a "man from the future", who arrives in Hamlet’s time just as the Danish hero is about to seek revenge for the death of his parents and rescue his beloved Ophelia from her captors. Unfortunately, you crash land right on top of Hamlet, and must now assume his place in order to prevent the "history" of the world from radically changing.

Sounds like a cross between Hamlet 2 and Wizard of Oz.  Back when I was in school, dreaming of writing games for a living, Hamlet was my holy grail.  Specifically, I wanted to build an engine so rich in AI that all of the NPC (non player characters) would roam around and behave *like* their Shakespearean counterparts, without ever actually being told to. We shall see how it goes.  By my “map it without telling them it’s Shakespeare” rule, it won’t work.  Fingers crossed that I’m wrong!   http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=1970

Although the name sounds familiar, I don’t know much about this Lenny Henry fellow.  He’s a comedian?  He’s getting great reviews for his spin on Othello:

But appropriately to a tragedy that knows a thing or two about stealth, the director, Barrie Rutter, lets the text’s variable loyalties land where they will — led by an Othello who displays the “free” and life-enhancing nature spoken of by Iago, until suspicion sets in and Mr. Henry’s genial presence starts to cloud over.

I haven’t seen much of Othello, but my recollections do tend toward the … well, boring.  I’ve never really thought of him as a fun guy.  Perhaps I’ve been thinking about him wrong.  Maybe the more you show his good nature up front, the harder the fall as his paranoia takes over. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/arts/23iht-lon23.html