http://labs.timesonline.co.uk/blog/2009/03/06/romeo-and-juliet-twitter/ Sorry, but this is a lousy idea. They’re broadcasting the entire play over Twitter, 140 characters at a time. This means that one simple soliloquoy will take dozens of tweets, and half the time be broken up between multiple transmissions. I don’t even know if there’s people on the other end, or just some bot that has been programmed to do it. AmwayShakes’ version of Taming Of The Shrew is far more interesting, because you’ve got people actually attempting to rewrite the text in a more Twitter-friendly way, accomplishing in those 140 characters what you might otherwise have taken half a dozen lines to do. Sure, it destroys the original text, but that’s kinda sorta the point, innit? Making a statement about communication as a whole, and the core of what you are trying to express versus the medium by which you choose to express it? If you want the original text go read it, just like if you want people to speak at you in great lengthy paragraphs, go send an email or read a blog. [Dang, boss just walked in and clearly stared at my screen :( gotta go!]
Category: Shakespeare Plays
William Shakespeare is widely regarded as one of the most influential playwrights in history, and his plays have been performed and studied for centuries. From the timeless tragedy of Romeo and Juliet to the hilarious antics of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s plays continue to captivate audiences around the world. Whether you’re a fan of tragedy, comedy, or romance, there’s a Shakespeare play for everyone. So why not revisit these timeless classics and discover the magic of Shakespeare for yourself?
Browse the entire text of Shakespeare’s plays right here on Shakespeare Geek.
Romeo and Julian
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4842414/Gay-Romeo-and-Julian-school-play-sparks-political-correctness-debate.html I had missed this story – spotted on Digg, of all places – about a school in trouble for doing a gay version of Romeo and Juliet called, as noted Romeo and Julian. What’s the big deal? Directors make changes like that all the time, mucking about with gender, race and age at will to make a particular point. I remember hearing about a version of Othello where everyone was black, except the title character. The most interesting bit of the article to me was this odd quote: But Commons leader Harriet Harman rebuked him, saying: "I seem to remember that in Shakespearean times, boys would play girls and girls would play boys and the whole point was trying work out which was which. Ummm….I’m not so sure about the “girls playing boys” thing, nor that that was, in fact, “the whole point.” Maybe somebody over on the other side of the pond can fill me in if I’m missing something.
Movie Review : Get Over It
(My apologies to whoever pointed me this movie, I’ve forgotten whether it was here on the blog or Twitter or elsewhere.)
Get Over It is, for the most part, your standard high school romantic comedy: nerdy guy has awesome girl, nerdy guy loses awesome girl to handsome jerk. Even more awesome girl (Kirsten Dunst) comes along who loves nerdy guy, but he doesn’t see it because he’s too busy trying to win back awesome girl #1. Blah blah, awesome girl #1 learns what a fool she’s been and wants nerdy guy back, nerdy guy decides that awesome girl #2 is the better choice, happily ever after.
Now, take that plot and drop it on top of a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Interesting. Especially when you have handsome jerk playing Lysander, nerdy guy as Demetrius, original awesome girl as Hermia and new and better awesome girl as Helena.
Now, do it as a musical. Directed by Martin Short, playing one of those standard “washed-up actor who goes on to direct high school theatre” roles (very similar to the Hamlet 2 thing that just came around last year). Is it me, or does Kirsten Dunst try to sing in all her movies? It’s… cute.
With any movie like this, I typically watch it for the Shakespeare. While the jokes are pretty standard stuff, there are some funny bits. When was the last time you caught yourself humming a catchy tune from Macbeth? Shakespeare may have been a great poet, but he’s no Burt Bacharach!
The ending, truthfully, was a surprise. I mean, not in the “Nerdy guy gets the right girl” thing. That always happens. I mean, how it all goes down. Actually it came down to a single word, which I found possibly the funniest part of the whole movie, but I can’t explain it without ruining the joke. If you collect this sort of stuff you might have missed it when it first came around. I know I’d never heard of it.
Breakfast With Geeklet
The story you’re about to hear is 100% true.
We’re on vacation, up in a hotel in the mountains. We’re having the breakfast buffet, and as is typical, the kids have placemats and crayons to occupy them. My oldest, at 6, shows her picture and says, “What do you think, Daddy?”
“Looks like a shoe with windows,” I say. “Is it the old woman who lives in the shoe?”
“No,” she says, with the head tilt and eye roll that all 6yr olds master on their 6th birthday. “It’s Miranda on the island. See, that’s her Daddy next to her, and this is the boat that’s going to crash on the rocks. She’s calling to them, saying that they’ll be safe on the island. See the people?”
“….”
She flips the paper back over, colors some more, and flips it back so I can see it. “What’s the name of the monster, again?”
“Caliban?”
“Right, Caliban. That’s him, there.” Caliban has been drawn in red, and looks rather devilish. Again the flip, the coloring, the flip again. Now Ariel is up in the sky, like an angel of some sort. “What else can I draw?” she asked.
“Books,” I told her. “You need the magic books.” “Right!” she says, and returns to drawing. “Finished!” I look at the final picture (which I have, and plan to scan when I get home). The books are in a tree. “Prospero keeps his books in a tree?” I ask.
“That is the entrance to his secret hiding place,” she says, again with the head tilt and eye roll.
It may never actually happen, but I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that art class: “What did you draw, Hailey?”
“I drew a flower!”
“And how about you, Aidan?”
“I drew a dinosaur!”
“Katherine? What did you draw?”
“I drew the opening of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Act I, Scene 2.”
Hi, Romeo? It's Juliet. Listen…
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832002 “If Movies Had Cell Phones”. Dugg for inclusion of Romeo and Juliet: “Listen, Romeo, I’m gonna fake my death tonight, I wanted to let you know so you don’t freak out or anything.”