Shakespeare makes life better.
Most of the posts in this category are simply leftovers from a previous era before the site had categories. Over time I plan to reduce that number to zero and remove this category. Until then, here they are. I had to put something in the box.
This is old, but I have to admit I’d never seen it. Eddie Izzard doing his impression of Christopher Walken, doing Shakespeare.
It’s short, and his Walken isn’t very good, but still.
Challenge Extended – Can anybody find video of the actual Christopher Walken doing some Shakespeare? Doesn’t even have to be performance, can be something he whipped up during a talk show interview.
Some people try for a play a month, some try for a play a week or even a day. How about just one steady stream of all Shakespeare, all the time, until you’ve read it all?
Such is the task of the annual Fairbanks Bard-a-thon, where people are welcome to show up and start reading from whatever parts are available. In the early morning sessions they maybe see 10 people, while a popular session will have 50.
I’d actually written about this project previously, back in 2007. I don’t know how long it’s been around, but there is a reference in the article to someone who’s been coming for 10 years.
Here’s a question – the person that they interview says that the defining moment for her was when she got to read the part of God.
What play is *that*?
This morning, before brushing his teeth, my 4yr old looked in the mirror, threw his arms up in the air and shouted ” To BE! Or….NOT, to be. THAT is the question.” No idea where that came from, there was no prompting from me at all. I loved the delivery. Many times he’s come up to me and repeated it just like a 4yr old would repeat a joke over and over again not realizing it’s not funny anymore, just knowing that it got a reaction once therefore it must get a reaction every time. “Hey daddy to be or not to be that is the question!” This was different. Of course I immediately tried to teach him the next line, but “whether ’tis nobler” is right off the bat some pretty hard words for someone that can’t even read yet.
I’ll keep working on it. I may start calling him Edwin Booth.
Here’s a quick game for a weekend day. Surely we’ve all experienced a certain amount of rationalizing that goes with our Shakespeare, whether it came from casual conversation or directly from our teachers. What am I talking about? I heard an old stand by this morning about Juliet being 13 – namely, “Oh, well you see, that was the typical age for a girl back then to get married.”
Really? Back when, exactly? The late 1500’s when Shakespeare was writing? Or something more in the 14th century, based on Porto’s original? If the latter – then why did Porto have Juliet as 16 instead? (I think I have those facts right, this is off the top of my head). If Shakespeare was talking about his own time, what’s it mean then that at 18 he married a pregnant woman nearly 10 years older than him?
Or instead is it that we read Shakespeare, we think “Well, whatever he wrote has to make sense, therefore this love story about a 13yr old has to make sense…so we’ll tell ourselves how it makes sense.”
Then there’s the “second best bed” that he left to his wife. Surely you’ve heard people tell you that “Oh, well you see, this was commonly done – the *best* bed was the guest bed, of course, and the second best bed would have been their wedding bed.” Really? Has anyone ever seen independent confirmation of that, or is that just wishful thinking?
Then of course there’s the whole gay thing. Sonnets written to a dude? Of course they were, that’s how people talked back then! It was perfectly natural for one guy to write love poetry to another guy!
I’m curious, this fine Saturday morning … can we make a list of those? More importantly, can we decide once and for all which are right and which are just wishful thinking?
These guys are in the running for $10,000 to bring Shakespeare to those who can’t physically attend the theatre.They need your votes to win. Please vote for them once per day Jan 4 – Feb 28. And if you REALLY want to help, please repost this. In your blog. Facebook. Wherever!
How To Vote
1) go to http://www.refresheverything.ca/shakespeareinhospitals
2) go to the bottom of the window and click “Join Refresh Everything”
3) Fill in the sign up info (name, age, valid email address, password, retyped password, prove you’re not a robot, click ‘done’)
4) Hit “vote for this idea”
5) Repeat each day
6)TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO DO THE SAME!