I Have A Question

~ duane ~ 8 Comments

A question this morning from the peanut gallery:

If you were to direct a Shakespeare play, which, where, and why?  Which play would you direct?  Where would you set it?  And why would you set it there?

My initial response to this, knowing my audience, was “I have a bunch of people who have directed a bunch of plays, so we’ll hear about what choices they made in the past.”

Hence, we’re cutting that off at the pass.  This question must be answered in the conditional / future tense.  Which play would you direct, where would you set it, and why would you set it there?

(That word has now lost all meaning to me.  Would would would.  I hate when that happens.  Looks like mould now.)

Sir Kenneth!

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Sir Laurence Olivier. 

Sir Ian McKellen. 

Sir Patrick Stewart. 

Kenneth Branagh.

One of these things is not like the others…..
BUT WAIT!
As part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, Mr. Branagh can now count himself among that pantheon of Shakespearean gods – he, too, has been knighted and shall now be Sir Kenneth.
I could swear that we’d had a discussion about his lack of Sir awhile back, and I’d gone googling for whether he was or was not in fact knighted.  But now I can’t find it.  So it was a bit of a surprise to me to learn that yes it is finally official, but that it only just happened within the last couple of days.
Congratulations, Sir Kenneth!

Digging Up The Curtain Theatre

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

I know I’m a bit behind on some stories.  Bear with me while I play catch-up?  You’re the best.

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of the Bard’s old stomping grounds — ruins of a famous 16th-century theater, buried below the streets of modern London. Known in its heyday as the Curtain Theatre, it’s often been eclipsed by its more famous younger sibling, the Globe.

I saw a whole bunch of links about this one but I’m going to go with the NPR story because you can get the story in whatever way work best for you – audio or transcript, with lots of pictures.

On the one hand I agree that it is cool to have this piece of history.  But I just have to admit, archaeology is not my thing.  They mention “one of the nicest things they found” was a bit of a pot being used as a mousetrap.

…

Umm…..oh.  Yay?  I guess if you can’t draw a straight line between a thing and Shakespeare (and his works), it’s just not my cup of tea.  Your mileage may vary.

Illustrating Shakespeare With Paper

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

Are traditional paper books dead?  If you’re a publisher like Barnes and Noble, you have to get creative.

They already had the rights to a cheapy paperback version of the plays.  They spot an artist who works in this really cool “paper cut” style and want to work with him.  Bingo bango, a new edition of Shakespeare is born!
I don’t know that this kind of thing would make me run out and get yet another edition of one of the plays — but if I was in the market for one and I saw half a dozen different volumes to choose from?  Something like this might stand out!  (Of course, this does not get into the discussion of which volumes have the best glossary, footnotes, edits and so on…we’re talking entirely about judging a book by its cover, here.  But let’s be real, plenty of people do that.)

Quick Update

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

Been a bit of a busy couple of weeks for me at the day job, and I apologize for the lack of posts. I hope that Blank Verse kept you entertained at least for a little while.

Have a good Father’s Day?  I got Coriolanus on DVD.  I can’t decide whether that would be a more appropriate Mother’s Day gift. 🙂   (Credit to @playsthetart on Twitter for that joke, which I totally didn’t get when she said it).

Amusing update – through a really weird series of coincidences I bumped into the book agent that I worked with back in the late 90’s in the technical field.  He now has his own agency, specializing in non-fiction with focus on humor and pop culture.  So I didn’t miss a beat before pitching him my book idea, compiling all of our best lists and Twitter hashtag games into one humorous volume.  I did not get a happy answer, but I’m quite proud that I didn’t miss the chance to ask.

I think that’s all I’ve got for the moment.  Shakespeare on Boston Common will be coming up soon — Coriolanus.  I’ll have to make sure I watch the movie before I go see the show. 🙂

How’s everybody else been?  Got any summer Shakespeare plans?