I love when I find things. I had no idea that Sir Laurence Olivier’s first Shakespearean role was Orlando in As You Like It. I think there’s probably a debate about that claim – do we mean his first filmed role? – but either way, thanks Amazon!
I absolutely love some of the perspective that time brings (this being 1937!):
* Sir Laurence is listed as nothing more than “with Laurence Olivier”, among others. Not even a starring role.
* The “treatment suggested by” J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan. Barrie died in 1937, so I’m not sure whether this movie came out while he was still alive or if that credit was in honor of his contribution.
Unfortunately, the 2 minute free preview is all credits, we don’t get to see Olivier at all. I think I’ll probably rent this, I’m just going to avoid it for now because I’m at work and if I do hit the button I won’t be able to stop myself from watching it at my desk :).

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad2 last week, all the demos were about art and video and music, and how they were using technology to put all this creative power into the hands of everyone. He even had a great quote on the subject:

It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. That it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing. And, nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.

Why it took me until now to click with that, I have no idea.

Let’s talk about what this means for Shakespeare.

This new device has two cameras, right? Front and back-facing? Great. I challenge my geeks out there to produce some Shakespeare on an iPad2. Just imagine Hamlet from the point of the view of Hamlet. When he’s talking to Claudius? He’s holding up the iPad and filming Claudius. When he’s performing a soliloquy? Use the other camera, and speak into it like you’re on a webcam.

Or who knows, maybe it doesn’t have to be entirely in first person – maybe Claudius and Polonius are holding the camera when they spy on Hamlet and Ophelia – and you can hear, rather than see, them commenting on the scene. Imagine what you could do with special effects. Imagine how to do the ghost scenes. The possibilities are *amazing*.

Now distribute it online, so that people are playing it using almost the exact same medium with which is was created. Brings a whole new meaning to the idea of immersive experience, I’d say.

Somebody make this. Everyone who says that film and theatre are forever two entirely different beasts, this is your challenge to produce a third form that bridges the two.

You *know* that this is going to happen. The questions are entirely Who? and When? Tell me why the answers can’t be “Us” and “Now.”

Spotted on Yahoo! Answers : What did Shakespeare have to say about bullying in Hamlet, Act I?
I thought it an interesting question. I don’t think that Shakespeare was trying to make any particular statement on that subject. I think that “bullying” as we know it is a pretty new name for what’s a pretty old concept. Hasn’t the big and powerful guy always forced his will upon the littler guy, regardless of what you call it?
But part of the fun is in finding today’s issues in Shakespeare’s work, we know that. So who are the bullies in Hamlet?
I saw a production once where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were big skinhead dudes, like soccer hooligans, who made it perfectly clear that if Hamlet didn’t do what they wanted, he was in for a beating. I’ve always remembered that “Where is Polonius?” interrogation scene, because every time Claudius asked it, one of them bodily threw Hamlet across the stage.
What about the ghost itself? Isn’t there a case to be made that Hamlet’s only taken on this act of revenge because the ghost made him do it?
Then of course there’s Ophelia’s relationship with her brother and father. I wouldn’t say that Laertes is a bully, but Polonius certainly can be. Laertes’ “Watch out for Hamlet” is Polonius “I forbid you to see him.”
Discuss.

[UPDATED – Sorry if you saw the original, blank, post. ]

At a recent marketing and branding conference, “Chief Content Officer — and Shakespearean scholar” Brad Berens got up to speak about Shakespeare and branding:

Aside from all the obvious and enduring cultural references and adaptations of Shakespeare’s work over the centuries, we don’t typically think of Shakespeare as a successful brand story. But we should, Berens said, because the way he created, bonded with, and nurtured his customer base has valuable and highly applicable lessons for marketers today. In essence what he did back in The Globe Theater in the 1500s, Berens said, is move from meaning transmission to environment cultivation.

I’m curious whether others find deeper meaning in the examples the article provides, or if this is just another case of people using the magic word Shakespeare to make their point.  Do we think that Shakespeare was at all interested in “brand”, the way we know it today?  Do we think that he was pursuing it without ever realizing it?  Surely there was name recognition, at least.  But being recognized as good at your job, versus actively pursuing a strategy of getting your name recognized, are two very different things.

I’m not quite sure how to describe Sonnet 155, but I’m excited to have found it.
What if a musician went out to a variety of people, actors, fellow musicians, etc… and asked them about the most important themes in Shakespeare? Then our travelling musician combines all their answers with Shakespeare’s words and produces something very, very new. A fascinating combination of classical and rock music with spoken word performance is what follows.
It’s called an album, but on the web site it speaks of tickets and prices as if there’s a live show. I wonder if there is (or will be) video?
Check it out, let me know what you think.