I’d heard that Senator Robert Byrd, who passed away recently at the age of 92, liked to quote Shakespeare on the Senate floor (though, surprisingly, I can find no reference of ever having blogged that). What I did not know is how often or how well he did it.  This NY Times article has come indeed to bury Byrd, not to praise him, and pulls no punches in citing Byrd’s mistakes (“the evil that men do lives after them” comes up), but credit is given where it is due.  The man knew his stuff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/opinion/04marche.html

Anybody familiar with this book, and/or the upcoming movie?  Check out the description that caught my eye:

Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player,
Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen
Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent,
secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to
find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who
died in the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Of course, the Shakespearean bit could be all of about 2 lines of dialogue in the introduction of the character.  But I prefer to imagine something more along the lines of “Searching for Bobby Fischer”, where the kid just exudes this sort of genius for everything he does.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=64738

I just noticed the web site of The Nickel Shakespeare Girls  and was thinking we might need to have a throwdown with Willy’s Wily Wenches. 

I wonder if you can even perform Shakespeare in a mud wrasslin pit?

🙂

Every year around this time, The Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta holds their fundraising drive.  This year they’re heading for $50,000 having been promised a matching gift that would bring them up to $100k.

The Tavern is very highly regarded for their “original practice” style, and we’ve spoken of them often here on the blog.  One of their staff, Ann, has been a regular contributor in the past (though I’m not sure if she’s still hanging out with us).  If you’ve got some bucks to donate and want to support Shakespeare, Atlanta can certainly put your generosity to good use.