Month: September 2011

Emma Watson, who’ll forever be known as Hermione to Harry Potter, wants to do some Shakespeare. She cites a desire to tackle Juliet, or Ophelia.  A little bold, wouldn’t you say?  Wouldn’t it be cool to start her out in A Winter’s Tale?   “Starring Hermione as … Paulina.” (You thought maybe I was going to say Perdita? ;))  In fairness, I take her quote to mean something more like “It would be a dream to tackle Juliet or Ophelia” and not “Yeah, I think that if I were to do Shakespeare, I’d have to be Juliet or Ophelia.” I’d think for a young woman that’s a young man diving right in with Hamlet.

This story reminds me of a really random bit of trivia.  Harry Dean Stanton stars in Stephen King’s The Green Mile  which also features a character named Dean Stanton.  Dean Stanton is played by Barry Pepper.  Harry Dean Stanton plays a character named Toot-toot.

Regardless of your position on the Authorship question, sometimes it’s fun to learn new things.  I had no idea that there were at least 10 candidates for authorship.  Oxford’s on there, of course. Bacon and Marlowe, Mary Sidney and Emilia Bassano.  But I heard some new names as well – Roger Manners?  Who’s that? 

It’d be funny to research 9 of these 10 to the point where you could defend them in a debate, and then just attack the bejesus out of the Oxfordians from all directions until they cry. 

Apparently my 9yr old had some sort of free time at art class the other day and was flipping through a stencil book.  She found (and recognized!) stencils for a scroll: (click for the larger image)

So she remembered the names of 8 Shakespeare plays off the top of her head?  Not too bad, Geeklet.  Of course, she then informed me that she “didn’t do every single one, like Henry the First, Henry the Second…” Bonus points for working in “Globe Theatre” as well!

She also found a curtained theatre stage (which, truthfully, I’m not sure I would have recognized if I’d seen it in a book).  This is what she provided: (again, click for larger)

That is Hamlet, performing the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquoy….while holding Yorick’s skull.  Apparently as part of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.

I love it.

So.  Every article I read about having a successful web presence of any meaningful size always starts with, “Have a newsletter. Collect email addresses.”

I’ve never done that. It is a glaring omission in my strategy. There’s many reasons for that, but most end up in that vicious cycle of “Unless I specifically plan to sell you something, I can’t incur the cost of paying for such a service.”

Well, today after stumbling across a free (we’ll see about that) option, I figure let’s try an experiment.  If you’re interested in what a Shakespeare Geek newsletter might be all about, please come over to the blog and sign up.  I don’t really know what the newsletter will involve, I’ll be honest. It’ll depend on how many people sign up.

Over at the top of the left-hand column you should see a new “Follow Shakespeare Geek by Email” widget, where you can enter your email address (and then confirm by clicking on a welcome email).  If for some reason that widget is not working or you don’t see it, please click here to go directly to the subscribe page.  Thanks!

I’m relying on you folks to let me know the demand for this feature.  If I see a bunch of people sign up right off the bat, I’ll know it’s something you’ve been wanting.  If I have to beg and kick and scream, well, everything will balance out – I won’t go killing myself to deliver content via that channel.  It’s up to you.