http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/how-restorers-ruined-the-last-portrait-of-shakespeare-1656028.html Whether you believe the Cobbe portrait is Shakespeare or not, this should be an interesting story.  A theory will be argued next week that the portrait was in fact changed deliberately to show Shakespeare as he aged – changes that were removed by the restorers. One of the big questions that people immediately asked when the Cobbe became so famous a few weeks ago was, “What’s up with the hair?  In the Droeshout portrait – done only 6 years later – Shakespeare is quite bald.”  The argument of the article seems to revolve around whether some hair was added, or removed, at different periods in the painting’s lifetime.

http://www.ohiorc.org/adlit/inperspective/issue/2008-04/Article/vignette1.aspx I always like hearing about projects like these, mostly because I never got to do any when I was in high school.  This teacher was doing Julius Caesar, and chose to make a radio station project out of it.  “Odd,” I thought, wondering where the Julius Caesar comes in.  But she explains in depth how she broke the lesson down, including things like the advertising copy written for each side’s propaganda (and spoken by the DJs).  They also had to involve the characters in some way.  I was thinking of a “special in-studio guest”, but the idea of Brutus calling in to get request some motivational music is pretty funny.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bal-ages-of-man-0327,0,1031508.story “Ages Of Man” sounds like the sort of show I would love. Think of Ages as a collection of Shakespeare’s greatest hits. The show is a one-actor tour de force initially performed by Sir John Gielgud in the late 1950s in Europe and the U.S.The concoction includes the monologue from As You Like It that provides the title of the current show; King Lear mourning the death of his daughter, Cordelia; Hamlet’s soliloquy on suicide and Prospero’s retirement speech at the end of The Tempest. Ages also showcases several much-loved sonnets: the 18th (Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?), the 116th (Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment) and the 29th (When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes).  

http://chicagoist.com/2009/03/27/its_a_bird_its_a_plane_its_a_shakes.php So says the Chicagoist article about an upcoming production of The Tempest at  the Steppenwolf. “Safe is not exactly what I do," said Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi, co-artistic director of the Actors Gym and aerial coach for The Tempest. I wonder if my pal David Blixt, the Master of Verona, is still out there, because he’s a) based in Chicago but also b) outspoken on the need to keep actors safe onstage.

“I’m reading a book by Douglas Crockford called "Javascript: The Good Parts" and he precedes each chapter with a Shakespeare quote that underlines the topic of the chapter. Very cool considering it’s a very technical book. There’s your Will + geekery for the day” JavaScript: The Good Parts Thanks to Jay for the old-school geeky link.   He’s right, here’s the opening for chapter 1, which is titled Good Parts: ….setting the attractions of my good parts aside I have no other charms.  – William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives Of Windsor That of course is only going to be of interest to web programmers, but I happen to be one of those :).