Month: May 2009

So last night I got invited out to New York City to see Hudson Valley Shakespeare rehearsals.  I greatly appreciate the invitation and the recognition, but I do not lead the kind of life that lends itself to spontaneous weekend trips to a different state. Fair enough – somebody asked me if I’d been out to Western Massachusetts to see Shakespeare and Company.  And, well…no. I have, however, driven (with just wife, not kids) over 2 hours up into Vermont I think it was to see my first live King Lear performance.  And last summer we made a family trip – one night only! – to see a special children’s version of The Tempest on Cape Cod(*).  Other than that I think the farthest we went was our trip to see the Rebels in Salem (Salem, was it?) which is surprisingly close to an hour drive, I had no idea it was that long. Personally, I’d happily become the sort of guy who takes a quick trip out to the Berkshires or to New York City to catch a show, if I were a single man.  But family obligations do count for something, and for any Shakespeare I do have to ask myself whether the whole family can make it, or if not the kids then at least the wife, otherwise that trip isn’t even business, it’s Daddy going off on vacation by himself, and that’s not really cool.   So, since I haven’t written much this week, I thought that might make an interesting topic for discussion.  How far are you willing to travel for your Shakespeare?  What variables factor into the decision?  Would you plan a vacation around a show?  Would you plan a vacation *specifically for* a show?  Would you get on a train, or a plane? Would you could you with a goat?  Or do you not?  Do you content yourself with whatever show rolls through town?   (*) By the way that summer trip last year was so well received by everybody that my wife has even said she’d be open to doing another one this summer.  Alas, that troupe is not performing this season.  So if anybody knows a good kid-friendly production happening this summer in the New England area, I’m all ears!

I’ll be off on a brunch cruise today, but I thought I’d check in to ask:  Who’s your favorite Shakespeare mom?  Much like Disney movies, the mom often gets the short end of the stick in a Shakespeare play (Lear and Tempest come immediately to mind…)  Lady Capulet?  Gertrude?  Tamora?? I’m trying to run through the list in my head and hate to miss a good one… How about this?  How about making a list of mothers first?  Who’s got the complete list of Shakespeare moms, so we can pick from them?

Ok, I’ve been challenged.  I stated on Twitter that I don’t like Sonnet #116 because it’s become so cliche as “the wedding sonnet.”  I always hope that I’m going to hear a different one, but I never do.  116 is nice enough in it’s own right, I just get the feeling that people think of that as “the” sonnet and never consider using any others.
Personally (and my regular readers know this whole story) I did Sonnet #17, almost entirely because I liked the whole bit about “the age to come would say ‘This poet lies, such hea’enly touches ne’er touched earthly faces’” bit.  (I did not love that being a procreation sonnet, it ends awkwardly with “so you should have a kid”. )
However, I did not have this one done as a reading.  Instead, I whispered it in my new wife’s ear during our first dance.
So on Twitter somebody asked me what a good wedding sonnet would be, and I thought it a good question.  If you’re going to have someone get up and recite a sonnet to everybody on the occasion of a wedding, which one would you pick?  Is 116 the best one?  Or is it only used because is says marriage right there in the first line?

UPDATED September, 2010 I liked this idea so much I wrote a book on the subject of Shakespeare wedding quotes, including an entire section on the sonnets.

Dom Deluise has died. In tribute, I went looking to see if the man had ever done any Shakespeare.  The closest I could find was Baby Geniuses. 🙂 However, I did find this interview where he brings up the subject:

I had to audition for the High School of Performing Arts because they wanted to see if you could, in fact, carry on and, you know, act a little. So my brother, who was older than me and not as wise as I thought, said the thing that I should learn was Shakespeare. So here I was talking, just barely talking when I was a young person, and my brother said you should learn "All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely. They have their entrances and their exits and in their lives they play many parts. The mewing puking child…" And so here I tried to do… can you imagine, a Shakespeare thing? Then they said, "Now we’re going to improvise. Find that book on the table and there’s a piece of paper in it, and just ad lib." So I looked at the book and looked around and I said, "Oh, a letter!" And I took the piece of paper and I said, "If you don’t pass your…" I was reading the letter. "If you don’t pass your audition, you’ll never get into the High School of Performing Arts."

So I’m guessing that he never thought of himself doing Shakespeare.  Oh, well.  He might have made a good Henry VIII?  Falstaff’s an easy guess for a big jovial type, but I don’t think Mr. Deluise ever did “serious”.  Perhaps Merry Wives of Windsor?

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=5183214 In this week’s episode of “NPR’s Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me” they have a good deal of fun with actor Liev Schrieber who is currently playing mutant Sabretooth in the new movie Wolverine.  But he is also an accomplished Shakespearean, and they have a grand time with that.  Schrieber himself makes the X-Men / King Lear comparison, first noting that today’s comic book movies are very similar to Shakespeare, then later going with “Shakespeare is easier.”

“I’m just glad you didn’t say Snagglepuss.”
     “Also a fine Shakespearean actor, not a lot of people
       know that.  Exeunt, stage left!”
”I can’t believe I never squeezed that in.”