Month: July 2011

Thinking about Orson Welles as Falstaff got me thinking about our great Shakespearean actors.  Specifically, those who are no longer with us. 

For the moment let’s talk about film, because for what I’m about to ask only film, not stage, makes any sense.

Orson Welles was Falstaff, Macbeth, Othello, Lear, Shylock.

Sir Laurence Olivier was Orlando, Henry V, Hamlet, Lear, Richard III, Othello, Shylock.

How about Richard Burton? Not only was he Hamlet and Petruchio, he was Caliban as well.

…so, here’s my question.  What actor (or actress), who is no longer with us, makes you wish “If only he’d played ________” and now we’ll never know.

See what I’m getting at?  This is why I said film.  Because even though Olivier and Gielgud were decades before my time, I can at least go to film and get a glimpse of what they were capable of.  But if Olivier never put a Macbeth on film, well then I’ll never get to see Olivier’s Macbeth.  Dig?

Who do you wish we had?

Shakespeare Geeks may or may not know the story of Chimes At Midnight, Orson Welles’ conflagration of so many history plays that I don’t even have an accurate count (although I’m sure someone will correct me).

On the one hand, it is Welles’ masterpiece – he himself called it his favorite of all his films, and many believe it to be the greatest Shakespeare film yet made.  This is not even counting the technological achievements, such as the first use of “shaky cam” for the battlefield scenes.

The problem is that, due to a nightmare of legal issues, the film is not available in a US version.  If you’ve seen it, chances are that you have seen the Brazil import.

Well good news!  It looks as though people have been trying to sort out the ownership red tape for years, and have finally gotten it straight (for now?).  The article says that the film has been “restored” as well as re-released, so I wonder whether that refers just to the quality of the print, or the possible edition of new material?

Thanks Haley for pointing out this entry on the Folger Education Blog entitled “Who We’re Reading“. Yours truly is on the list, as well as regular contributor Bardfilm. I wasn’t familiar with the other two entries, I’ll have to go check those out.
( Disclosure – The author of the article, Caitlin Griffin, is a frequent commenter here. Hi, CGriff! Thanks for the link!)

As I sit here entertaining myself on Twitter late on a Wednesday, after having watched the America’s Got Talent results show (go Snap Boogie!), I had an idea.

For any given “famous scene” of Shakespeare, you can find many clips on YouTube. What’s interesting is that once you weed through all the famous ones – Olivier’s King Lear, Branagh’s Henry V, etc,… – what you get is just plain old people.

So here’s the challenge I’m extending. Dig through some regular people doing Shakespeare, and provide some links to the good ones. Let’s see if we can’t give some credit. If you want to play, even if you can’t find any links of your own, you at least have to watch the ones that are provided and vote for those you like the best.  I have no prizes to offer, but maybe we can give somebody a boost in views and make their day.

Scene choice is up to you. Maybe we can keep it separated between comedy and tragedy or something (though I expect that “dramatic readings” will almost always come from a tragedy). I recommend picking people who have actually picked a soliloquoy of some sort and then pointed the camera at themselves. Audience shots of stage productions don’t tend to be very good quality.

Get the idea? Ok, show me what you can find!

Any gamers / game designers in the audience?

http://gamechef.wordpress.com/2011-contest-rules/

2011 Theme: Avon Calling
The theme of Game Chef 2011 is William Shakespeare. As always, you are free to interpret the theme however you like, but remember that this is the theme and not just an ingredient. Your game should be “Shakespearean” in some regard, though how exactly is up to you.

Get to it!