Month: October 2013

Loyal followers of Shakespeare Geek know what’s coming. Ever since my children were old enough to go to school, I have taken the early year “parent teacher conference” as an opportunity to volunteer to bring some form of Shakespeare content to the classroom, adjusted for whatever age we’re working with. I’ve read a children’s version of The Tempest to first graders, I’ve done recitation with the Brownies, I’ve done sonnets with the fifth graders and last year we did Midsummer Night’s Dream with the third graders.

This year I’ve got a second grader (7yr old boy) and a fourth grader (9yr old girl and veteran of Midsummer).

How’d it go?

Second grade teacher loves the idea, and in fact brings up the idea of fairy tales as inspiration for modern literature. Which I find an absolutely fascinating coincidence because in a future post I’ve got a book that claims to be a collection of fairy tales that inspired Shakespeare. Perfect fit! I can come in, read one of the fairy tales, and talk about the parallels to Shakespeare’s story. Works for me.

Fourth grade teacher, while admitting her own weakness in the realm of Shakespeare, is also chomping at the bit to try it. Her idea was to go more down the path of biography (something I’ve always wanted to tackle and not done yet) which fits in with her class’s existing book report schedule, where their second book must be a biography. She suggested that as a special guest I can come in and do a presentation on Shakespeare’s biography. Sounds good to me!

So it looks like it’ll be showtime for me again at least twice this year. My oldest is now in middle school where the rules about parent volunteers are entirely different, so I have no idea whether I’ll be able to get in there at all. But if the opportunity presents itself I will try!

I told the teachers today, “I know that the high school actually has a very good Shakespeare program. What I’m hoping is to create this wave of children back in elementary school that have already got enough Shakespeare experience that when they get to high school and are “introduced” to the topic officially they’ll all be, “No problem, we got this,” and the teachers in charge of that program will be left wondering, “Wait, what just happened?”

Loyal readers know that your Shakespeare Geek is born and raised in Massachusetts, which makes me a lifelong Red Sox fan.  Baseball changed forever for us in the 2004 World Series when we broke the curse by shutting out the Cardinals 4-0.

Speaking of the Cardinals….(oh, that was a cheap shot over the bow and I’m not ashamed of it)…it happens to pass that our pal Bardfilm is a Cardinals fan!  And lo and behold look who has made it back to the World Series this year.

A wager!  There must be a wager!

There is.  And here it is: The loser has to write and post an original sonnet on his blog, praising the other team.  So should the Cardinals win, I would have to pen a sonnet singing their praises (what rhymes with grumble?)  And, when the Red Sox win, Bardfilm will need to join the choirs that already sing our many praises.  I hope he doesn’t think he can plagiarize one of the songs already sung about our hometown heroes, as I will be checking.

🙂

Play ball!

Hanging out at lunch yesterday, my manager is talking to our latest hire.  The topic lately has been husbands getting in trouble with their wives, and I think this will be a funny story because my manager’s wife has told me that she reads the blog ;).

Anyway, our latest hire happens to be female, and chooses to argue the woman’s point of view by citing an example of how she and her fiance had a disagreement that could have turned into an argument, but instead they were able to work it out.

“Yeah, but you’re engaged!” manager tells her, “It’ll change once you’re married.”

“Hang on a sec,” I tell them, and bring out my phone.

*tappity tappity tap*

“Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.”

Revealing Shakespeare’s old ladies – a scholarly yet lively exploration of the presentation of ageing women on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage.

Thoroughly researched and accessible, Old, Bold and Won’t Be Told considers closely Shakespeare’s development of his older female characters, who defy conventional stereotypes and act with power, influence and creativity. Shakespeare refers to standard characteristics of the ageing woman – her loss of looks, ‘inappropriate’ sexuality, flouting of male governance and inability to hold her tongue – but, unlike his contemporaries, also further develops and celebrates the strength and importance of this figure.

Shakespeare’s most notable older woman is Paulina in The Winter’s Tale, the only older woman in early modern drama who is still vocal and powerful at the end of a play – a play which owes its conclusion to her directorial creativity. Through her, Shakespeare highlights the importance of the old woman to family and society. The study also explores other rich examples of Shakespeare’s developed older women, including Queen Katherine (Henry VIII), Volumnia (Coriolanus) and Queen Gertrude (Hamlet).

About the Author

Yvonne Oram started her working life as a journalist and later studied literature, history and creative writing at the University of East Anglia as a mature student. She has taught these subjects in Adult Education and for the Open University. She was awarded a Doctorate from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, for work on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. She gives talks on this subject to literature and history groups in the UK and Europe, and is currently National Literature Subject Advisor for the University of the Third Age.
www.yvonneoram.com