Month: June 2011

What If Shakespeare Wasn’t Public Domain?

~ duane ~ 9 Comments

A few years back, i had a coworker that ran a Hemingway site. He was, other than the difference in authors, a lot like many of us. He had no special academic background in the subject, he was just a rabid fan. Read what he could. Collected books. New opportunities to discuss new ideas? Jumped all over them. Hosted a forum where he posted his ideas to get discussion going, answered questions when he knew the answers, and so on.

Big, big difference? Hemingway is not public domain. Imagine all the things about Shakespeare that we take for granted – how often we freely cut and paste as many pieces of text, as long as we want, whenever we need to make a point. Need video? There’s almost always a YouTube clip of somebody reciting the sonnet or performing the scene that you need. He had none of that. He dreamed of the sort of concordances and textual analyses that we take for granted with Shakespeare. How many different words did Hemingway use? How did his vocabulary change during his career? Can’t do it.

So I wonder … how would your life be different if Shakespeare were not public domain? Let’s say that, like Winnie the Pooh, somebody along the line *had* the rights to Shakespeare’s works, and sold them. And that the entity who now owns them has aggressively marketed them, and rigorously defended their copyright. How would your life be different?

I’m pretty sure this blog wouldn’t exist. I can go out and buy a book on Shakespeare like anybody else, but what I really needed was the forum where we could talk about it. I’m not a theatre person or an academic, so I am not normally surrounded with Shakespearean resources (be they scripts or people). So if you suddenly took away my ability to make my point in text by preventing me from cutting and pasting a portion of a scene from a play? Or, worse, hung the spectre of the takedown notice over my head so that whenever I did cite text I could potentially receive such a scary lawyer letter? I can’t see how it would ever get off the ground.

UPDATED: If you’re coming in from Twitter, don’t be shy!  How do you think the world would be different if Shakespeare were not public domain?

A professor on Twitter wanted to make sure that everybody knew that not every *edition* of Shakespeare is public domain, and that her notes and emendations were copyrighted!  I pointed out that, if Shakespeare were not public domain to begin with, she wouldn’t have had anything to write notes on 🙂  No response.

The Shakespeare Tavern said that their budget would go up, which is certainly true since now they’d have to pay for rights to produce the plays :).  But, I wonder, if Shakespeare wasn’t so universal, would there even be a market anymore for full-time Shakespeare houses?

A Director Who Understands Marketing over Shakespeare

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

Hey! Pssst! Want to see a 14yr old girl naked?
That’s the underlying message in news stories like this one about the new Romeo and Juliet movie, starring 14yr old Hailee Steinfeld, and it’s inclusion of nudity / sex scenes.

I’m well aware that Olivia Hussey was underage (15, was it?) when she played Juliet in Zeffirelli’s 1968 version. What bothers me here, and maybe this was true back then as well, is this idea of leading with the press release, so that everybody knows the real story of this movie is a chance to see a naked underage girl.
I may have cut the director a little slack if I didn’t see this quote in the article:

Director Julian Fellowes said he needs an age-appropriate actress for the role, because that’s how Shakespeare did it.

What the….what does that even mean? Shakespeare would have had a *boy* in the role, for starters, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t write in any explicit sex scenes!

And then he caps it off thusly:

“My version is a romantic story – one that keeps pretty true to Shakespeare but is, I hope, more accessible.”

So, you know, another genius bent on *improving* Shakespeare by giving us *his* vision.

Magic, The Gathering : Othello Edition

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

I love people who are creative enough to come up with stuff like these Magic cards in an Othello edition. I always have a million ideas for games, but lack the attention span to make a complete and consistent set of rules for them, as well as the resources to make the necessary materials. (I usually get stuck in that limbo of “I’ll make a video game – no, a card game! No, a video game! No, a board game….”)
Not this guy — visit the link to check out his Othello card (he is a Hero/Villain card, depending on what other character cards are in play), or maybe his Desdemona (power 1 / defense 1, not a strong character…) And this is only one of a number of sets! Very impressive.
The question has come up before, but it’s always fun to ask again – does anybody know any Shakespeare card games? Stuff like this – where players could use their knowledge of the subject as well as learning more about the subject during the game – is the best. Not just talking about some other game’s rules where the cards have been decorated with Shakespeare images.

Shakespeare’s Globe London Cinema Series

~ duane ~ 11 Comments

I’m trying to figure out what exactly this is. There’s going to be movie versions of Shakespeare plays shown nationwide? At a movie theatre near me? That could be cool. I wonder what movies …
“…the series will kick off in June with The Merry Wives of Windsor followed by Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 in August and closing in September with Henry VIII. “
…Oh. Not really sure how this is going to play to a nationwide US audience. Why those in that combination? They couldn’t squeeze in a tragedy, or a better known comedy?
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110602006410/en/Shakespeare%E2%80%99s-Classic-Works-U.S.-Movie-Theaters-Nationwide

Oh What The …. Again?

~ duane ~ 5 Comments

I know that Roland Emmerich’s new movie Anonymous is coming soon and will tell us that Oxford wrote Shakespeare.
But save a little bit of your scorn, oh ye Geeks, because apparently that’s not the only authorship movie in town. Be on the lookout in 2012 for a *Marlowe* movie?!
This information comes from a press release by the author of The Shakespeare Conspiracy, Ted Bacino:

The second movie, based on his book, The Shakespeare Conspiracy, by Ted Bacino, is scheduled for release in early 2012 and credits Marlowe with the writings. It is being produced by the Motion Picture Hall of Fame and Borone Films.

I don’t know much else we’ll hear about what could be a vanity/indie project, but I figured it was worth a mention. ‘Tis the season for Authorship debate, I guess.