When I was in high school I read, if I remember correctly: Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Taming of the Shrew, Richard II and the Henry plays (not VIII). I’m trying to remember, but I think that was about it. I know no Lear, or Tempest, or R3.  Certainly not Coriolanus or Titus, and I’m having a hard time remembering whether we read any other comedies. So my question is this : Assuming we’re talking about “high school” age, and by that I mean 14-18ish, what plays do you think should be taught as part of the curriculum? This could turn into a whole discussion about curriculum overhaul, which is fine, but not really what I’m going for.  What I’m really wondering is, if you assume “A typical student will, as part of their standard English education, be exposed to Shakespeare”, what plays do you think should be included?   Do you think there are any common choices we can (or should) stop teaching?

I am happy to announce that my first Shakespeare book, Hear My Soul Speak : Wedding Quotations from Shakespeare is now available!   I’ve been playing with this idea for awhile, ever since I heard sonnet 116 recited at one too many weddings.  “Isn’t Shakespeare’s work just absolutely loaded with material that would be cool for a wedding?” I thought.  “Is it that people keep repeating the same old stuff because it’s what they know? What if they have a reference book to the rest of the good stuff?” So I asked a friend of mine, who happens to be in the wedding planning business (she’s a florist, actually), “If I could put in your hands a book that represented all the good Shakespeare material that’s relevant to weddings – stuff for vows, toasts, father of the bride speeches, but also just decorative stuff that could be used on the invitations and thank you notes and such, would you be able to get it into the hands of people who are planning their wedding? Do you think it would be of value?”  The answer was a resounding, “Yes, absolutely!” and so a book was born. What this first version represents is a hand-chosen list of well over 100 quotes from across all the sonnets and plays (and even some Venus and Adonis thrown in for good measure), organized by where they might be most useful.  The groom is going to say something different to the bride during their vows than the best man is going to say during his toast, you see.  Where necessary, the quotes are explained in their original context.  This is particularly true for the selected sonnets.  It was very important to me that if I expect people to quote Shakespeare, that they actually have some clue what they’re talking about and are not just reading words they barely understand.  To that end there’s also a chapter on tips for memorizing and reciting Shakespeare.  Lastly, quotes are grouped by play (or other source) so the reader can learn a bit about Shakespeare’s works along the way.  If all your favorite quotes are coming from a certain play, maybe you want to go seek out that play and learn more? The book is now available in the Apple iBookstore, on other ePub-compatible devices, and downloadable PDF for those without an e-reader device.  (I do not believe in DRM, so the PDF is freely printable. It’s not one of those that’s got so many locks built in you don’t enjoy reading it. Please don’t pirate. 🙂 ) Although I’m taking a bit of a break to catch my breath, I do hope to have a printed edition available sometime in the future.  The amount of effort I put into that project is directly related to how much interest I can drum up in this one, though, so help me spread the word! Going to any weddings, soon?  Buy the book.  Give it to the wedding party.  Help get more Shakespeare in everybody’s life.  If you’d like to link to me, for the moment I ask that you link to this post instead of directly to the landing page.  It’s little more than a placeholder at the moment (though that will change very soon).  Thanks for all the help that everyone’s provided over the past few months! P.S. I’ve got enough material collected that there’s also potential for a volume 2 that focuses on music, wedding customs, flowers, and all that other good stuff.  Who knows?

Well, remind me not to run a contest over the long Labor Day Weekend again, will ya?  I’ve got 3 codes to give away and 4 people entered (not counting the couple I was forced to deny because they came in late).  What that does go to show is that you should always enter these things, you never know how good your odds are going to be. Could I get readers CSG, Kathryn Anderson and KLK to email me, and I’ll send along your promo codes! Please note that these are strictly controlled by Apple (not the software author), and they do have an activation expiration.  That is, they need to be collected and used within the next week or so or they will cease to exist.  Once you activate the software it is yours to keep, but the code itself does have a time limit. Congratulations to my winners!  Andrea, as a consolation prize I’m able to offer a code for the PC version of the software if you’d like it.  I feel bad that I basically had to pick one person not to win.  I did try to argue for more codes, but like I said, they are controlled by Apple, not the developer, and their hands are tied.  If you’d like a free copy of the PC version, please email me as well. Thanks for playing, everybody! And for the rest of you, get off your butts next time, huh?  The only way places will keep giving me stuff to giveaway is if it generates interest in the product!

Where my iPad people at? http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2010/09/contest-ipad-owners-got-shakespeare.html Shakespeare in Bits has a very cool Romeo and Juliet browser for the iPad where you get to watch a little animated movie of each scene, side by side with the play text, modern translations, character sketches…pretty much everything you need to study the play.  By bringing the iPad into it, these folks are really leading the way in what educational computing is going to mean very soon.  Right there in your lap you can get the play explained to you in whatever way works best for you. AND, they’re giving away three free copies!  Hurry up and enter, contest ends at 12pm EST tonight!

Well, it’s school time again.  My 8 and 6yr old daughters went off this morning, their 4yr old brother heads off to preschool next week. I am hoping that we’ll have some students (of whatever age) stop by to talk about Shakespeare, even if it’s just to get help with their homework.  Sometimes our discussions end up with a fairly high barrier to entry, like you’ve got to be an experienced Shakespeare geek before you can play, and I want to make sure random visitors know that this is not the case. I think that we should spend some more time on the basics – plot summaries, character sketches, that sort of thing.  I suppose I can do whatever I want, it’s my site :), but I want to put up content that will appeal to a wide audience. So, I’m casting for ideas.  If you’re a student (and by that I mean high school, college, or what have you), what would you like to talk about?  If you’re already a Shakespearean of whatever flavor, what do you think we should spend some time talking about?  I’d like to strike a balance between content that is useful and welcoming to folks who are hesitant to dive into Shakespeare, without boring those that would much rather dig deeply into the trickier questions.