Category: Shakespeare Geek

Venn Shakespeare

~ duane ~ 5 Comments

 

Venn vs Euler Diagram
Venn <-> Euler

The most popular post I’ve ever made is the one depicting Shakespeare’s works as a Venn Diagram (although technically that shape is an Euler Diagram).  That post on Facebook has garnered over 2 million views at this point, and hundreds of comments. People have asked me if it is available as a poster (as far as I know it is not – I did not create the original image).

The problem is, I don’t like it.  Most of the comments are of the form “Why do you have play X in this category but not that one?” and “You forgot to put Y in the Z category” and so on.  The categories (Suicide, War, Romance, Supernatural) are, I think, too broad.  Does Romeo and Juliet count as war between the two families?  I would say no, but some people disagree.  How about Much Ado About Nothing? It starts with the men coming home from war.

So here’s what I propose.  Can we make a better one, or a set of better ones?  Something that more people can agree on? If we can make something that’s generally agreeable to a large audience I’ll be happy to make it available as a poster / stickers / t-shirt / etc…

I’ve been working with Bardfilm on some new categories.  The goal would be to find a set such that:

  • All plays are represented by at least one category.
  • Minimize the number of categories that have no entries.
  • No single category has too many entries.

What categories would you like to see?  “Supernatural” made our list as well.  I was thinking “Insanity” might be a good one. Bardfilm proposed “Fake Deaths” and “Cross-Dressing”.  If we can’t agree across all the categories we can look at doing one for Comedy, one for Tragedy, one for History, but I think those would end up looking a little sparse, and I’d feel bad about leaving out Romance.

What other ideas have you got for us? Tell us the category you think should be on our diagram, and which plays would be in it.

Tom Hanks Is Falstaff. Discuss.

~ duane ~ 4 Comments

Have you heard the news?

No, not that Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have been associated with The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles’ Simply Shakespeare event since 1990.

This year, Hanks and Wilson will actually be taking part in the production, something they’ve never done before.

Even better?  Tom Hanks is playing Falstaff.

How do we feel about this? Is that a good role for him?  Has Hanks ever played anything other than a purely lovable good guy Jimmy Stewart type?  Can he do Falstaff? I know the man’s got acting credits up one side and down the other, but I’m not sure that he’s ever performed Shakespeare. Is Falstaff the first role you want to attempt? Is it too much of a role to ask of anybody?

 

What If Claudius Was Innocent?

~ duane ~ 7 Comments

Here’s a thought that came to me over the weekend.  What if the “ghost of Hamlet’s father” really was an evil spirit that was just trying to cause trouble? What if Claudius didn’t really kill Hamlet’s father?  How would the play change?

Other than Claudius’ actual words (“a brother’s murder”), how much evidence is there that he admits to his crime?  If we snipped that bit out could he just as easily be dealing with guilt over the “crime” of marrying his brother’s wife?

More importantly, what does this do to the character of Hamlet?  We go through the entire play assuming that Hamlet is doing the right thing, and Claudius is the bad guy. What if it was reversed? What if we really didn’t know? Or, even better, what if we knew (somehow) that Claudius was innocent, and that Hamlet spends the play chasing the wrong guy?

 

Sir Patrick Brings The Shakespeare

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Sir Patrick Stewart as Oberon

So you’re putting together the Motion Picture Academy’s Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony, and you need a big name to host.  Why not geek cultural icon, Professor Xavier and Jean Luc Picard himself, Sir Patrick Stewart?  A match made in heaven.  Sir Patrick, who seems to always be in the mood for such sport, is game for the event.

And what does he do? He brings the Shakespeare.

I love it.  It’s a small thing (he ad-libs Puck’s “If we shadows have offended…”) that many people probably saw as a throwaway line. But we know better.  We know that over four hundred years ago, before CGI and special effects were a thing, Shakespeare was in the business of putting dreams on stage.

 

The Ultimate Shakespeare Hoodie

~ duane ~ 4 Comments

So, I’ve got the chance on Amazon Merch to make hoodies. But before I just jump in and blindly start copying designs from t-shirts and then waiting 90 days of no sales before they get de-listed, I thought I’d do some market research. Let’s design the ultimate Shakespeare hoodie and I’ll see if I can’t make it!

First of all, do you wear hoodies?  (I’m going to get tired of saying hoodie in this post, I’m pretty sure.)  I’d definitely like to add one to my collection. Unlike t-shirts, where they’re cheap enough that I don’t mind buying half a dozen, I can’t wear t-shirts all year round. Plus I can’t really wear them to work. But a hooded sweatshirt is always something you can layer on top of regular clothes, weather and environment depending.

Do you like stuff on the front, or the back, or both?  Something smaller in the front, in the typical “pocket” spot?

What kind of image do you want?  A picture of Shakespeare?  Which one? Stylized or classic? Some other image, something iconic like a skull, a sword, a quill?

Or would you prefer words?  An actual Shakespeare quote, or something more “catch phrasey”?

I’d love to get a discussion going in the comments. What kind of Shakespeare hoodie do you wish existed?