[ Twice now in the last couple days another Shakespeare blog has linked me first while simultaneously offering something of independent value that I want to link back.  We are not all ganging up to play link exchange, it’s just kinda working out that way. ]

When I was in college writing for the theatre group known as New Voices, I had no theatre experience.  I didn’t know how to format a script.  I’m pretty sure that for my very first play I messed up “stage left” and “house left”.  What they gave us to work with was a bare stage.  Your walls were black, and your only objects were black wooden boxes.  Anything else you carried on and off with you.  If you put something on a box it was a table, if you sat on it it was a chair, if you put two together and lie down it was a bed.  That’s how I learned to write, and one of the ways that I learned to love the idea of telling your story entirely in what the characters say.

With that I point you to JM’s discovery, When Burbage Played:

When Burbage played, the stage was bare
Of fount and temple, tower and stair,

Two broadswords eked a battle out;

Two supers made a rabble rout;

The throne of Denmark was a chair!

Thanks to Katie for pointing out this mini-series of Macbeth comics from Hark, A Vagrant.  Cute ideas, not really fall-down hysterical.  Adult language, be warned.  The “our kids” strip seems to demonstrate a pretty key misunderstanding of the play, but maybe I’m being picky.  I like the King James joke best and totally don’t understand the “clothes too big for him” joke.  Have fun.

Had an interesting thought today.  Was pondering a situation where I’ve met someone, they’ve heard about the Shakespeare Geek thing, and this person says, “Quote something.”

What’s the first quote that comes to mind?  No fair thinking about it, no fair with the followup questions like I’d normally do (“Oh, geez, something from the tragedies or would you prefer a comedy?”)

Reason I ask is that, when it occurred to me, the quote that came to mind was “If we shadows have offended think but this and all is mended that you have but slumbered here, whilst these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme no more yielding but a dream, gentles do not reprehend.  If you pardon, we will mend.”  That surprised me, because normally I don’t go for Midsummer like that.  If I’d been asked the question like this I think I would have said I’d pull out some Hamlet, Macbeth, or possibly Tempest.  But not Midsummer.

Whether that’s because I just watched Were the World Mine, I don’t know. That’s not how it first came to mind.

What about you? No fair thinking about it. Quote something first, then ask why that one.

Hi Everybody,

This post goes out primarily to those folk reading Shakespeare Geek on RSS and maybe not coming to the web site regularly.  I’ve got a survey up in the left nav over there for a couple weeks trying to be democratic about the whole “make money” thing.  On the one hand I hate to do it, because it feels cheap.  I do this because I love it, and putting a price tag on it is difficult for me. But on the other hand, I’ve put a lot of time and effort into creating what I hope has been of significant value for a lot of people over a good number of years now, so it’s pretty silly of me to let that value languish on principle while others don’t think twice about slapping together less content of poorer quality and sticking a price tag on it from day one.  (Besides, more income means more budget to buy stuff, which I can then review or give away as promotional materials.  And I’ve got no shortage of ideas about what I’d like to do, believe me, it’s just a simple matter of resource management — I dedicate X amount of time for Y profit, so if Y goes up, my motivation for increasing X goes up accordingly.  It’s not like I’m expecting this to suddenly take over my day job, but it does have to pay for itself.)

So could I beg a favor?  I put up some choices about what people would find least offensive, as far as money raising goes — banner ads, affiliate links, merchandise, tip jar — and even included a “None” option for the folks that want to express that particular desire.  Could I get two seconds of your time to come and click on it?  The more votes the better the indicator.  I’d rather have people click “None” than not click at all, you know?  At least that way I know.  Be honest, because I am going to implement something. 

Thanks! Sorry for the  interruption.

We’ve been talking about Julie Taymor’s Tempest, starring Helen Mirren as a role-reversed Prospera, since 2008.  Last year when Disney’s Miramax division went defunct, the fate of this project was up in the air.

Well, I’m happy to report that it looks ready for release in December under the Touchstone banner, instead.  Hurray!  Article doesn’t have much other than an explanation of the plot, but it does have a picture of Prospera if you’re interested.