Month: September 2010

Cool find of the day (and by find I mean, “The inventor emailed me and told me about it” :)) is Play Extempore, a combining of Shakespeare with Dungeons and Dragons.

From the Game Manual (which, right now, can’t be read on OS X due to a font issue but I think that’s being fixed):

To play this game you will need someone to act as the Playwright, or gamemaster, and at least four Players. The Playwright runs the game. He chooses the genre that will be played or rolls for it (see Genres) and gives the play a title. He chooses the game’s setting or rolls for it (see Setting), performs the non-playing characters (NPCs—see Minor Characters), and sets the storyline according to the genre being played. He can also act as a Chorus to move the action forward in time or geographically.

The idea is to stage an improvised 5 act play. Players get character sheets just like in a D&D campaign.

I immediately sent this to an old friend who is both an active D&D player, as well as a working actor. His response (via IM):

“This is hysterical! I love it. random monologues! And duels and battle of wits! Fun.”

Looks like a work in progress (a teaching tool, recently released for free and looking for feedback). So if you’ve got a handful of Shakespeare geeks that you hang out with, take it for a spin. Or maybe a roll? Let us know how it goes!

I’m always looking for new angles on our favorite topic. Today while hunting around for new Shakespeare movies (I did not find any, I think we’re all caught up), I did find out that I can search the Internet Movie Database’s list of quotes from movies that contain the word Shakespeare.
This is fascinating to me, because it’s not quotes from Shakespeare movies, and it’s not people in movies quoting Shakespeare plays. It’s people in movies who used the word Shakespeare. In whatever context they needed.
So sometimes you get, “Shakespeare said blah blah blah.”
Other times you’ll get, “What are you, frickin Shakespeare over here?”
Sometimes you’ll get very large quotes, or very large paragraphs about the subject. It’s always different.
And that’s what fascinates me. Here in one shot is a way to cut across dozens of movies that you may have never seen, pull out a single reference, and then work backwards.
So there’s the game. Flip through the quotes a bit. Find a quote from a movie that you’ve never seen, that makes you say “Ok, now I want to see this movie to understand where this quote came from.” Maybe because it’s just a weird enough quote that you have no idea, or maybe it’s because the quote sounded so good that you can’t wait to see it the way it was intended.
Although it won’t make me run out and get the entire season on DVD, I can’t resist pasting this quote:
Full House (1987 TV Series)

Episode: Michelle Rides Again: Part 2 (1995)Duane here is a Shakespeare freak. Aren’t you, my little Hamlet-and-cheese?Duane, you’re into Shakespeare?

🙂 Yes, Yes I am. Had they only said “geek” it would have been that much more awesome.

Ok, who new that Google News actually allows you to search “news” from up to 20 years ago? I just had to type in Shakespeare and start poking around.
Here’s the first interesting article I found, showing the most popular required reading lists for high school (broken out by private, public, Catholic).

I don’t think there are many surprises (Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Hamlet show up on every list), but it does remind me a bit of our Catcher in the Rye discussion from a few weeks back. What was required reading when you were in high school?

I never read Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, or Gatsby. But I did read some Thomas Hardy, I don’t see him on the list. And some Kafka, Hemingway and a few others.

I’m surprised that we’ve never talked about BardBox before. It’s not new, has quite a bit of content, and at least for the subcategory I’ve linked, every post contains an original video. Sometimes animation, sometimes actors. I’m going through them now. It’s very cool.

I’d like to come up with a snappier title for this exciting news, but I’m going to be out of town and thus I’m rather jealous.  We all saw Patrick Stewart and David Tennant do Hamlet earlier this year (well, on television. Those of us not lucky enough to see the live version).  Now we get to do it again, this time with Stewart’s Macbeth, which will be previewed on PBS October 6.

They’ve got a preview up:  http://www.pbs.org/arts/gallery/shakespeare-three-tragedies/macbeth-preview-video/

It looks …. weird. I get a strange sort of “Sweeney Todd” vibe, and I’m not sure why.

No word yet on whether Stewart also plays the ghost of Banquo ;).   (Inside joke).  But I swear, if he shrugs when Macduff says that he was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped, I’m taking him down.

Seriously, this is awesome and I will no doubt DVR it (I’ll be on a cruise for my anniversary that week).  What I will miss that was so fun the first time was “live tweeting” it.  Some geeks do it for award shows, some for sports events. Shakespeare geeks? We live tweet PBS Great Performances.  I feel like Frasier Crane’s brother Niles for some reason.

Anyway, set your DVR now so you don’t forget!