My heart’s never in it when the good holidays (Shakespeare’s Birthday, April Fool’s Day…) fall on a Sunday.  I whipped up a quick “Is Lady Gaga doing Shakespeare?” post for fun to see if I could catch any interest on Twitter, but alas there was already a “Gaga Had A Baby” trend going on :).  Or maybe I just made it too low key and people actually believed it.  Or just didn’t care.  Either way, it wasn’t true.

Anybody see any good Shakespeare-related jokes this year?  Geek site reddit.com had some amusing stuff where they did a joke spin on Facebook’s “timeline” — the trick was that the timeline let you go forward and backward hundreds of years, and sure enough if you headed back to the Elizabethan era you started seeing posts from and about Mr. Shakespeare.  Along with comments!  Well done.

Once upon a time we had a discussion of a sequel to Othello. This week we have the opportunity to interview Nicole Galland, co-founded of Shakespeare for the Masses and author of the upcoming historical novel I, IAGO (William Morrow Paperback Original; 978-0062026873; April 24, 2012).

Shakespeare’s classic Othello features literature’s most infamous villain: Iago. But despite Iago’s leading role and almost incessant chatter throughout the play, he becomes suddenly silent near the end leaving generations guessing as to why he committed such heinous crimes. Now just in time for Shakespeare’s birthday, Nicole Galland’s meticulously researched reveals the true motivations behind the character whose name has become synonymous with evil.

A successful young soldier and adoring husband to Emilia, Iago’s desire to rise in rank and good regard under the command of General Othello informs his actions and begins to cloud his thinking. Gradually, Galland introduces all of the celebrated characters Shakespeare lovers know well—from Roderigo and Othello to Desdemona and Cassio—and in a fascinating manner, we learn about Iago’s intricate relationships and dynamics with each of them. Nicole says, “When creating the characters in I, IAGO, I relied on information in the original Othello text. Although the play appears to be about innocent people being tragically duped and destroyed by the villain, a closer look reveals that there are few real innocents in this story.”

The author has graciously agreed to answer questions from the Shakespeare geek audience.  What would you like to know?  Ask your questions in the comments and I’ll send them along to the author at the end of this week.

I’ll start.  I for one would like to learn a little bit more about the expected audience for a book such as this. How much does the story suffer if the reader has never seen or read Othello? In a situation like this does the publisher know that such a book goes right to the heart of the hardcore Shakespeare crowd, or do they hope for a wider appeal?

I’m still trying to find some evidence for this story, but this morning after church I get into the car, turn on the radio, and here the end of an interview where somebody’s singing the “You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong, Come not near our fairy queen” song from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Then some generic Sunday morning radio host voice comes on and says “Lady Gaga, on her upcoming Shakespeare project.  We’ll be right back.”

I have no idea what this means. Nobody ever followed it up!  It just went straight into a commercial and then I never heard another word of it.

Anybody know what that’s all about?

I’ll update later in the day if I find out more information.

I have to admit that as far as “entertainers” go, I find the idea interesting.  Whether you like her music or not, you have to acknowledge that she very theatrical about it already.  If she wants to do something with a spin on a Titania character?  That would be highly cool. Not to mention the crossover audience! My kids are exactly the right age group for her kind of music. I’d be all over this.

Howdy, y’all!

What do you think the greatest works of literature in the western world would sound like if we’d given William Shakespeare a big ol’ cowboy hat, some boots, and stuck a guitar in his hand? I think it woulda gone a little somethin’ like this.  One!  Two!  One, two, three!

• Strangled My Wife Because My Best Friend Told Me She Was Cheating But He Lied
• My Girlfriend’s Gone Crazy And My Mom Married My Uncle
• I’m Swearing Off Women, At Least Until The Next One Comes Along
• My New Best Bro Turned Out To Be A Broad
• Her C’s, U’s and T’s Made An F’ing A Outta Me (explicit)
• Those Weren’t Her C’s After All (The Yellow Stockings Song) (radio friendly)
• Called My Girl A Ho On Our Wedding Day
• Never Drug Your Wife To Win An Argument (She’ll Sleep With The First Ass She Meets)
• You Only Say You Love Me When I Offer You A Third of My Kingdom
• Who’s Taming Who Here Anyway?
• Don’t Tell My Fool, My Achy Breaky Fool
• My Drinking Buddy Is King Now But All I Am Is Banished
• Proud To Be Syracusan (Where At Least I Know I’m Not Ephesian)
• My Boyfriend Killed My Dad, I’m Going Swimming
• Hitchhiked My Way To Dunsinane On A Tree That Was Going My Way
• Never Listen To Witches, Or Your Wife
• I Want My Kingdom Back, This Horse You Sold Me Stinks

Thanks to my co-conspirator Bardfilm for his contributions to this list!