Saw something interesting yesterday, and I think it merits its own post because I’d love to hear details from someone who knows for real. Saw Othello.  There’s a sword fight at one point between Cassio and Roderigo.  Here’s the interesting thing – Roderigo was left-handed (insert Princess Bride joke here).  Cassio was right-handed.  This, if you stop to think about it, made the swordplay very … lopsided.  It all took place on one side.  Didn’t feel right. So tell me, stage combat people, how normal is that? How much of a problem is it? Is there more danger?  I’d think that someone trained in swordplay for right handed people would be more likely to accidentally whack a leftie because the opposing sword is not where it’s supposed to be.  But maybe there’s tricks to it that I don’t know? 

Enough fooling around about how you know you’re a Shakespeare Geek or I know I’m one.  What if Shakespeare himself was a geek? I missed this article when it came around in April, but Pocket Lint imagines some geeky variants to the plays:

The Windows Tale
In Sicilia Valley, King Gates becomes convinced that his wife, Melinda, is having an affair with his friend Ballmer, King of the software department. He has her imprisoned and sends delegates to search the internet to see if his suspicions were true. While in prison, Melinda, gives birth to a girl and Gates has it sent to the software department to be placed alone in the wild. When the delegates return and state that the internet has exonerated Melinda, Gates remains stubborn and his wife and son die. Sixteen years later, a repentant Gates is reunited with his daughter, who is in love with the Prince of the software department. His wife is also later reunited with him by extraordinary means.

Give yourself extra computer geek credit if you thought that “delegates” was going to turn into a software patterns joke.  Double credit if you knew that Melinda Gates was the manager of the doomed Microsoft Bob project, and that the Internet will never ever exonerate her for that particular crime.

Challenge accepted. …both my day job and my education have absolutely nothing to do with Shakespeare.  All of this is done on my own time with my own resources, entirely a labor of love. …I own and operate 4 Shakespeare web sites (this one, this one, and two more yet to go public ….) … I’m writing my first Shakespeare book, “Shakespeare for Weddings.” …I read Shakespeare texts like this one. For fun. In ebook format. On my iPhone. …I spent yesterday afternoon watching other people’s children perform Othello … ….while wearing a shirt like this… …which is only one of a large collection. …I’m on Twitter. And Facebook. And Ning. And Zazzle. And WordPress. And Squidoo.  And probably a dozen others I’m forgetting. …my oldest daughter reads As You Like It for fun, my middle daughter had Barbie dolls named Regan, Goneril and Cordelia, and my youngest son asks for “the Hamlet songs” as bedtime lullabies. And, lastly, I know I’m a Shakespeare Geek because this post is still only about half as long as it could be.

So I had a very interesting day.  Spent the afternoon watching Othello performed at my local library (more on that in a separate post).  Knowing I’d be surrounded by Shakespeare geeks I of course wore my Mercutio Drew First shirt.  More people recognized and appreciated the reference today than ever before, I’m happy to say. Where it gets even more interesting is after the show when I stopped off at the nearby pizza place, and the guy behind the counter recognized and appreciated the line as well.  He’s the first to actually read it out loud, including the ShakespeareGeek.com part. He said he wanted one, and like always I told him, “Come by my site and buy one.”  So maybe he’ll stop by, and see this.  Hi, pizza guy! Anyway, that started up a conversation when he told me that he and a friend had spoken of producing a show of their own, and daydreaming about doing RENT until they realized just how much it would cost to procure the rights to such a show.   We spoke of public domain stuff, and he asked if I knew of a repository where fledgling producers could learn more about works that are available in the public domain. I thought this an interesting question, because while we often hear about novels and poetry that are public domain via projects like Project Gutenberg, I’m not sure where I’d point somebody who wanted to read public domain plays.  I’m assuming that the rights are the same – if it’s more than X years past the death of the playwright, at least in the US, the work falls into the public domain? And once that happens, anyone who wants to do a show could get the script and just do it? I am assuming all of that, and do not know it for a fact.  Hence, as I told pizza guy I would, I’m asking.  Surely one of my more theatrical followers, someone who has produced a show or two of their own, would know the answer.  How do you find out what shows are available, and what do you need to go through to actually do it?  If this guy did want to pursue attempting RENT, how do you figure out where you’re supposed to go about asking for the rights and cutting the check?