I know it’s going to happen. One of these days I’m going to get contacted with a press release for a new Shakespeare book that’s burning up the New York Times Best-seller list, written by Alexi Sargeant.

If you’re a long-time reader of the blog you might recognize that name, because we’ve known Alexi for at least seven years – here he is helping write some Shakespeare sequels in August, 2010.

Among his many other endeavours, he’s also designed a Shakespeare board game that we’ll all be getting each other for Christmas next year called No Holds Bard.  I thought it was still in stealth mode, but heck if he’s going to write about it on his own site, I’m going to help him get the word out:

I’ve been working on-and-off for a few years on a Shakespeare mashup fighting game called “No Holds Bard.” Players battle each other as characters like Hamlet, Macbeth, Beatrice, and Cleopatra—and even the Bear from The Winter’s Tale. It’s meant to be geeky, exciting, and educational.

I can’t wait to see the finished product, Alexi!  Remember us when you’re famous!

I am no Marlowe scholar. I had never heard of the Baines note.  I asked Bardfilm about it, as I do with all these things, and he replied, “Long written about, seldom seen.”

Until now, because the British Library is making the Baines note public.

The note is reportedly a conversation between Marlowe and police informant / part-time spy Richard Baines, compiled by Baines.  In it, “Marlowe casts doubt on the existence of God, claims that the New Testament was so “filthily written” that he himself could do a better job, and makes the eyebrow-raising assertion that the Christian communion would be more satisfying if it were smoked “in a tobacco pipe”. Not to mention the whole “gay christ” thing.

Baines then adds a personal note that, “All men in Christianity ought to endeavour that the mouth of so dangerous a member may be stopped.”

A few days later, Marlowe is stabbed to death. (“A great reckoning in a little room.”)

Apparently there’s question about the authenticity of the story, and that it was created specifically to get Marlowe is trouble with the authorities.

I love learning new things.  Have we got any Marlowe scholars in the audience?  Tell us more!

I found a link where you can read the transcript of the Baines note, too, if anybody’s interested.  I can’t make out a blessed word.

 

 

They’re making a “Romeo and Juliet style musical” about the life of Pharrell Williams, according to the Hollywood Reporter.  If you don’t recognize the name, and thus my joke fell completely flat, he’s the guy behind many things, but probably most notable in recent memory for Happy, a song so catchy that people literally made 24hr loops so it would never stop playing.

Back to the story, there’s some big names attached who have contributed to American Idiot, Spring Awakening, and Toy Story 4, though we’ll forgive that last one.  (Toy Story 1-3 were one of the great movie trilogies and I’m frightened that 4 is just a straight money grab that won’t hold a candle to the originals.)

I also won’t be the first to point out the obvious — given that Mr. Williams is alive and well, clearly their version of the story isn’t going to end the same.  So I am expecting that this is that thing I’ve always talked about when the Lion King comes up, how every “oh noes, boy and girl can’t be together because they’re from two different worlds” story ends up being branded a Romeo and Juliet story.  They do get a bonus that Williams grew up in Virginia Beach, and Virginia/Verona is an easy switch :).

At least we know it’ll have good music.

 

Why won’t your friends come see Shakespeare with you?

I don’t mean you, specifically. I expect that if you’re here reading this you probably enjoy taking in a nice Shakespeare performance on occasion. And I don’t mean your core group of friends who may feel the same way. I think that it’s safe to say, for all of us, that such a group only extends so far.

I mean literally everybody else in your life. Friends, family, coworkers.  If you asked, they probably don’t want to come see Shakespeare with you.

Why do you think that is?  It’s a question I come back to regularly because it bothers me. I feel like there’s a large audience out there that is dismissing Shakespeare as a chore, something they said sayonara to back in school and never looked back. I feel like those people are missing something important, something that will make their lives better, and I feel some degree of personal obligation to fix that.

Preaching to the choir

Surely you’ve heard that expression. I realize I’m often doing that here.  I’m all, “Hey, Shakespeare is even cooler than I imagined, check this out!” and you all are all, “Yeah, I know, right?”  Only, you know, we both sound more education when we say it.  Like, totally.

I don’t want that.  Well, I do, I just don’t want only that :).  I want our choir bigger. I want the whole world to be a part of it.  Maybe there are folks out there that have studied Shakespeare and know everything they want to know about him and his work, and just don’t like it, and I suppose we have to accept that. (We just don’t have to invite them to the holiday party.)

But how about everyone else?  That gets me back to my original question.  If you’ve got someone in your life (and I know you do) who you wish would share Shakespeare with you, but doesn’t … why do you think that is?  How do we bridge that gap?

Oh, and by the way, for that core group of friends that do want to see Shakespeare with you? Show them this post. Spread the word. We’re not about keeping the Shakespeare to ourselves here.