A long long time ago I found Shakespeare in XML, by Jon Bosak, and I’ve quite literally carried it around with me ever since.  If you’re not a programming geek you may not know the value of XML, so let me try to explain.  XML is like a database inside a file – it is self describing of what’s in it.  So instead of this:

Act 1, Scene 1

SCENE I. Elsinore. A platform before the castle.
    FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO
BERNARDO
    Who’s there? You get something more like this: <Act> <Title>Act 1</Title> <Scene> <Title>Scene 1</Title> <Stagedir>Elsinore.  A platform before the castle … </Stagedir> <Speech> <Speaker> <Name>Bernardo</Name> </Speaker> <Line>Who’s there?</Line> </Speech> … Get the idea?  So if you’re a code geek you look at that and start seeing the logic you can apply, like “In Act #3 how many lines are there in all of the speeches spoken by Hamlet?” and it’s quite literally one or two lines of code. Anyway, I never found the Sonnets in XML.  There’s one or two out there as examples of how to do XML, but I never found the whole set of 154, and I wanted it. So I made it.  It’s very basic, but it does what I need.  If others find it useful and make enhancements I’d appreciate hearing about it. Enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/opinion/04dowd.html?_r=2&ref=opinion Fun story, full of Lear references, about how John McCain (the man who professed last year to not even knowing how to send e-mail) is now on Twitter.  Everybody is quite sure that it’s his people doing it, by the way, not him.  To be fair to the man, his long time injuries prevent him from sitting at a keyboard for extended periods. It is not a piece that is positive on Obama, in case you’d like to know that up front.  But it is hard to deny the facts (I am a supporter of Obama, not McCain) – there’s lots and lots and lots of wasteful spending still going on, now with Obama’s signature on it.   Can’t really argue that.  The best you can say to defend it is “Picking your battles.”   McCain’s entire argument seemed to be about trimming 7 billion dollars – from a 410 billion dollar bill.  Hopefully (and note I’m saying hopefully, not definitely!), Obama will pick some bigger battles to fight.

Random idea I just tripped over : Would it be possible, without completely destroying major parts of the script, to play Juliet as blind?  I can imagine it really heightening the various scenes where they are apart – if he’s not physically in contact with her, he might as well be a million miles away.  Not to mention really emphasizing her dependence on the others around her.  When she wakes up in the tomb that’d be particularly scary, until she feels Romeo there beside her, and has to figure out that he’s dead. Just something that hit me.  Somebody on Twitter said how could you play Juliet more vulnerable, and that leapt out at me.

[From the press release.  Linked for the unusual reference — “a musical reverance to Will Kempe”???] A reviewer called it "the most lasting impression" of this year’s Brass Festival of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester: Bramwell Tovey’s "Nine Daies Wonder", performed by the Canadian violinist Mark Fewer and the Foden’s Brass Band. The piece is a musical reverence to the Shakespearean actor Will Kempe, who in 1600 Morris danced from London to Norwich. Soloist Mark Fewer won the hearts of the Manchester audience not only by his virtuoso violin playing, but even more by reciting Shakespeare lines, singing, and finally fiddling a jig that made everyone’s feet stomp.
If you missed the concert, you now get a second chance to listen to it: BBC Radio 3 broadcasts the live recording of "Nine Daies Wonder" in its "Afternoon on 3" show upcoming Friday, March 6, 2009, at 4:30 pm Greenwich time (11:30 EST). The show will also be available as a concert on demand for some days thereafter on www.bbc.co.uk/radio3.
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Further information:
Mark Fewer: http://www.latitude45arts.com/en/artist.php?artist_id=83
BBC Radio 3: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/
Reviews of the Manchester concert:
http://www.4barsrest.com/articles/2009/art954.asp
http://www.4barsrest.com/reviews/concerts/con545d.asp

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/4903759/David-Tennants-curtailed-Hamlet-will-rise-from-the-grave.html People went frickin bananas for Dr. Who as Hamlet.  Personally I’ve never been a Dr. Who fan and don’t know much about Tennant, so I can’t really offer an opinion either way. But if it comes to DVD, then I can watch it at will.  Much like how I’m in the middle of Sir Ian’s King Lear, I think this idea of getting the “superstar” stage performances of today on film is a huge step forward in bringing theatre to a world that wouldn’t normally see it.