Top Shakespeare Costumes for Halloween

~ duane ~ 5 Comments

Ok, ok, I want to play too. Over the last week or so I’ve seen lists for tv shows, family movies, horror movies – everything to get you in the Halloween mood. But what about our little corner of the world? Doesn’t Shakespeare have anything to get us into the Halloween Spirit? Here’s my contribution:

Twelfth Night

You’re a girl? Dress up like a boy. You’re a boy? Dress up like a girl dressing up like a boy. Twelfth Night’s main character spends the whole play in costume. We discovered, a few months back, that she’s not even called by her real name until the very end of the play!

Julius Caesar

Why just be any ghost, when you can be Great Caesar’s Ghost(*)? Don’t skimp on the knife wounds, or the blood. Lots and lots of blood. Or if you really want to wear a toga and don’t want to get blood all over it, dip your arms in the red stuff up to your elbows, then go as Brutus.

(*) Bonus points if you can actually convince somebody to dress up like J Jonah Jameson from the Spiderman movies, and then spend the night pointing at you and shouting that.

Hamlet

I knew Hamlet would make a good costume when my 4yr old spotted the idea on one of his cartoon shows. After random channel flipping he comes running into my office to tell me “Daddy, somebody on tv is dressed like Shakespeare!” Along comes the 6 and 8yr olds to tell me “Well, not Shakespeare – he’s dressed like Hamlet. He’s holding a skull and talking to it.”

Of course you could also go with Ophelia, although taking a quick jump in the pool before going out trick or treating might cause you to catch your death (ha!). Then again why not go as Hamlet’s father’s ghost? I’ll leave it up to reader imagination to depict how exactly you’d walk around wearing your beaver up.

Or you could do like I did, and go as Yorick.

The Tempest

A witch (although, granted, she doesn’t really make much of an appearance), a wizard, a sea monster, an airy spirit. Plenty of opportunity here to take a traditional Halloween costume and really run with it. If you want to get really creative, grab a partner and dress up as Stefano and Trinculo. I always described them as pirates to my kids, although “court jester” is probably more accurate.

Titus Andronicus

How can you not have fun dressing up like Titus? Put on a chef’s hat and bloody apron, carry a cleaver and a big stew pot. Throw a prop head in it, maybe a prop hand while you’re at it. Shakespeare’s goriest tragedy is often compared to a modern slasher movie, so why not just go completely over the top with it? Bring along your daughter. Don’t let her talk.

Macbeth

Ghosts make plenty of appearances in Shakespeare’s work, The Tempest and Midsummer are both loaded with magical goings on … but really, is there any play scarier than Macbeth? Dress up like a weird sister, dress up like Banquo’s ghost. Or maybe a sleepwalking Lady Macbeth, covered in blood? For the really inside reference, go as Macduff – carry around Macbeth’s head.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Fairies are timeless, in more ways than one. If you need a couple’s idea, why not Titania and Oberon? I love the idea of an entire family dressing up as Midsummer, with the kids playing the roles of Cobweb, Mustardseed and the others. Or go in a completely different direction and make an ass of yourself, literally.

Have I forgotten any? You can always throw on your monk’s outfit and go as Friar Laurence (carry around a pickaxe, crowbar or some other tomb-opening implement for extra credit), or really grab any random “Elizabethan” or “Renaissance” costume from the local store and say that you’re the lead in As You Like It, Much Ado, or any of the other romantic comedies.

What else? Who’s got the creative ideas?

Iambic Midsummeter

~ duane ~ 10 Comments

So after my daughter told me that she wants to be able to read Midsummer in the original, my brain started working on which parts I could extract and use to teach her, since I don’t want her to approach it and feel that it is 100% over her head. “I know!” I thought, “It’s a great opportunity to teach poetry, and meter.”
I immediately think back to A Midsummer Night’s Lorax, a post I did comparing something that kids aren’t supposed to understand with something kids inherently understand.
“DUM, da DUM da DUM da DUM da,” plays itself out in my head, “IF we SHAdows HAVE ofFENded, DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da, THINK but THIS and ALL is MENded…”
“Wait a second,” I think. “That’s not iambic pentameter. That’s only 8 beats, and the beats on the first part.”
ONE two THREE four FIVE six SEV’N eight
What the heck is that? I’m sure there’s an official name for it.
By the same token, I go back to “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows” and wonder what meter that’s written in…. is it me or does that line have nine syllables? WTF?

Where OXlips AND the NODding VIolet GROWS
Ok, the next line is iambic pentameter.
What happened?

Milestone Day for the Geeklet

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

616tCfIh4bL._SL160_.jpgSo today I learned that my 8yr old daughter, entirely on her own, broke out my Usborne “Stories from Shakespeare” because she wanted to read the Tempest. She’d now finished it, and wanted to discuss.
*beam*
She pointed out to me that this version was written “in complete sentences, not like Shakespeare wrote it.” She wanted to know what exactly did happen to Ariel, never fully understood where Sycorax was, and why Prospero would want to get rid of all his magic books. All very good questions, which I happily answered over brushing teeth this morning.
“Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare (Illustrated Story Collections)” (Usborne Publishing Ltd)
She also told me that she wants to do Midsummer next, because “she only knows it without the boy.” Boy? Yeah, apparently the changeling boy is very confusing. Then again, so was Sycorax. I’m beginning to sense a pattern – when Shakespeare talks about people who aren’t really in the story, it’s hard to follow.

Original Pronunciation Is Back In Vogue

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

I’m always fascinated when someone says, “This is what Shakespeare performance sounded like.” How do we really know?
Anyway, the topic’s come back around again this week because someone at the University of Kansas is staging Midsummer in original pronunciation, and it’s being dubbed “the first time in North America” that this has been the case. This is probably accurate, although it’s certainly been done elsewhere.
When I first blogged about this idea back in 2008 I said it sounded “A bit Scottish”, and I think that’s still accurate. (The ShakespearePost article linked at the time is no longer up, alas).
I wonder how much of the UKansas work is really just taken directly from David Crystal’s work? I mean, the man’s got an entire site dedicated to Pronouncing Shakespeare.
For the curious, pronunciation has come up a lot here on Geek over the years. Often with respect to John Barton, who knocks it out of the park in the Playing Shakespeare videos when asked to demonstrate for his students.

Today is Called St. Crispin's Day

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

…and all the Shakespeare geeks are posting their favorite references. Here’s mine, albeit a quick and unexpected one:

This is from The Anniversary episode of Fawlty Towers. The good bit is right around the 4 minute mark where Basil, having apparently forgotten his anniversary, is guessing at what today’s date might signify.