http://laist.com/2009/12/02/jonas_oppenheim_wants_hamelt_to_shu.php When I saw a story about somebody doing Hamlet “without a single one of Shakespeare’s words” I assumed a modern translation, and was all set to lay in some snarky comment about making sure they don’t use any of the words Shakespeare invented, either, if they’re gonna play that game. Well, umm, no.  The play’s got no words at all.  He’s doing Hamlet entirely as a dumb show.

I’d been thinking about how to do a play that can travel anywhere in the world, without worrying about language barriers. Someone told me that Charlie Chaplin was a huge star in non-English-speaking countries. I started thinking about how to sustain full-length comic narratives without dialogue. I was going to write an original play – something along the lines of satirizing/apologizing for foul American foreign policy – but decided I didn’t want my first experiment in the non-verbal medium to also have the pressure of perfecting a new story. I started thinking about stories that I could hang this concept on, and "Hamlet" came to mind pretty quickly. First I thought of the dumbshow, then about how I could establish so many of the characters with body language. It flowed pretty easily after that.

I’m far more interested in it now.  I’m not sure as a modern audience I could sit still for 2+ hours of silence (even Charlie Chaplin movies had background music, didn’t they?) but the idea of making it universal by taking language out of it is neat.  We can say Shakespeare’s universal all we want, but when you get right down to it that means “…to the English speaking world.”  As soon as you translate it, you don’t have Shakespeare’s words anymore.  So why not a project that just gets rid of the words altogether?

http://www.thedailycity.com/2009/12/every-christmas-story-ever-told.html Somebody down in Orlando steals my intellectual property 🙂 I do not dress like that.

At some point or another in their careers, I expect that all young actors and actresses will consider Shakespeare, in order to be taken seriously.  Sometimes it’ll work, sometimes not.  For every Jude Law there’s an Ethan Hawke. I think the ladies have it even tougher.  Shakespeare didn’t write many Daisy Duke / blonde bombshell roles, so once an actress is stereotyped as eye candy it’s that much harder for her to be taken seriously. I was a little worried, then, when I saw this article about country star Carrie Underwood being "more than just blonde hair and a pretty dress", especially when it came up in my Shakespeare filters.  Ugg. But surprise surprise:

"I don’t have an acting "bug." It’s not something that is on my bucket list," Underwood said. "But if the right thing came up and we were approached and told ‘hey, this would be something cool for you, something small.’ I’m not looking to do any Shakespeare or anything major. Something small, something fun and it sounds like it would be a good time then I’d be in."

Maybe she could write a song about Shakespeare instead?  It worked for Taylor Swift.

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/11/29/how_do_actors_memorize_their_lines?mode=PF Tips for Memorizing Shakespeare is one of my more popular posts.  So I was happy to see this updated article in my local paper, interviewing professional actors on their own best tips for remembering lines (and what happens when you don’t!):

I had a blooper when I was doing "King Lear." I was playing Regan, and I came walking out onstage and I had to give a bunch of orders, and I started saying . . . something from "Much Ado About Nothing." At that time, I was doing "Much Ado" by day and "Lear" by night, while also learning a new play. But it didn’t matter. I said it with such conviction that people bought it.

http://www.culture24.org.uk/history+%2526+heritage/literature+%2526+music/art73655 Archaeologists plan to dig up Shakespeare’s home, known as New Place, some time next year.  This is not the church, this is not his bones.  We’re talking about his house.  Just to get that out of the way. It seems like an interesting project, not the sort you often hear about.  It’s not like there’s much mystery.  They’re not picking a spot and saying “I wonder if we’ll find anything.”  They known what’s there – at least, generally.  They’re trying to get enough information to create a modern recreation of the place. I’m all for learning more factual evidence about Shakespeare’s life.  You just know it’ll turn into the same sort of tourist attraction everything else about his life has.  Oh, well.