Category: Uncategorized

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.

College Shakespeare (in Boston)

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

Bard in Boston has been collecting a list of fall shows playing at some of our many Massachusetts colleges, including an all-female Taming of the Shrew, and a “a creative encounter with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, incorporating movement, music, martial arts, sound and song”

Maybe I’ll make it to some of these!  I really don’t see nearly enough Shakespeare, relative to how much is around me at all times.  Maybe some of the more North Shore schools will get added to the list?  I’m looking at you, Merrimack College …

A Dogberry Spinoff?

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

In this interview with Joss Whedon about the upcoming Much Ado movie we learn a couple of interesting bits:

  • Although the Shakespeare readings at his house have been going on 10 years and started during Buffy, Sarah Michele Gellar did not take part.  I expect he threw this in there because it’s a frequently asked question – she’s still arguably the most well known name to come out of that series (that is, outside the Whedon universe).
  • Nathan Fillion, cast as Dogberry, had never read Shakespeare before.  “People are thinking spin-off!” Whedon says.
He goes on to talk about how a Shakespeare movie is similar to The Avengers, but isn’t that what all directors and actors do when they’re interviewed?  Talk about how it’s all basically drawing from the same source?  I get his point – that both works are ensemble pieces, and you need to clearly understand and present why each character is there – but I wouldn’t call it a groundbreaking opinion.
What got me most curious was that spinoff idea.  Could you imagine that?  You take a well known cast of characters from a world where spinoffs and sequels abound (that being the comic/sci-fi world).  Then you drop some Shakespeare on them.  They don’t need to glorify the text like we do – they just want to see their favorite characters having new adventures.  So, why not?
We’ve talked about Shakespeare sequels in the past, but I don’t think we’ve ever done spin-offs.  What would a Dogberry spin-off look like?  Could you get a movie out of it, or a whole television series?

ProfShakespeare 1, Dark Lady 0

~ duane ~ 1 Comment
So the news of the day is somebody claiming that “Black Luce” mentioned in Henslowe’s diaries must have been Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady”.  The problem with these stories is that people who don’t follow Shakespeare will see it in the popular press and think, “Oh, interesting, well then I guess that’s an answer to that question.”  Meanwhile people with the slightest passing interest in researching Shakespeare will think, “Great, another unproveable theory – get in line.”

I think this theory is amusing because I heard it not from that link but from Twitter user “ProfShakespeare“, aka Grace Ioppolo, who I hope doesn’t mind me citing her research since she did a much better job than I ever would.  She also happens to be Founder and Director of the Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project, so why not get your information from somebody who deals with the original source material every day?

  • Online access to the manuscript of Henslowe’s diary so you can do your own detective work:  http://www.henslowe-alleyn.org.uk/essays/henslowediary.html
  • “Henslowe dined with Gilbert East & Peter Street, the Fortune’s builder, many times in summer 1600, during the building of that theatre.Henslowe’s records of dining with Gilbert East & Peter Street (from line 2)” http://www.henslowe-alleyn.org.uk/images/MSS-7/099r.html
  • Henslowe lists ‘Lewce Easst’ as a tenant at the Boar’s Head in 1604 (3rd line in second list, on 2nd half of page): http://www.henslowe-alleyn.org.uk/images/MSS-7/177v.html

Professor Ioppolo is hosting a conference (I assume – she calls it “my conference”) on the connections between Shakespeare and Henslowe in September:

Who invented Shakespearean theatre?Burbage & Shakespeare
and/or
Henslowe & Alleyn:
Who Invented the “Shakespearean Theatre”?
Saturday, 24th November 24th 2012, 10am-5pm
The University of Reading

http://www.reading.ac.uk/english-literature/aboutus/ell-shakespeare-conference-2012.aspx 

Geeklet Amazes Me

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Haven’t done one of these stories in a while.

Back in January, I told the story of working my kids (who are now 10, 8 and 6) through Julie Taymor’s Tempest on DVD.  Basically we’d do 10 minutes at a time, with me muting and pausing as appropriate, to explain what’s going on.

Well, we lost the momentum and it’s been awhile since I’ve popped that one back in.  Every now and then the kids would ask about it, but it’s one of those things you need to be in the mood for (which normally translates to “Just Daddy and the kids”, since my wife’s not a strong believer in using the minutes before bedtime as a teaching opportunity).

Well tonight the girls started cheerleading camp and it lasts an hour longer than the boy’s karate practice so we had some time to kill and in went The Tempest.  We start with the “Thou liest!” scene, as Ariel breaks up the jolly band of “pirates” Stefano, Trinculo and Caliban.

“Is that the guy who never stops talking?” my geeklet asks, as Stefano enters the scene.

“I suppose so,” I say to the unusual question, “He does talk a lot.”

Enter Trinculo.  “Is that the guy that doesn’t stop talking?” he asks again.

“Well, yeah, I suppose Trinculo talks more than Stefano…”

“But where is the white guy?”

“Who?”

“The white guy, the white guy who never stops talking.”

At this point Ariel’s spirit pops up behind Trinculo to yell, “Thou liest!” and I realize that in this interpretation, Ariel is entirely white.

“Oh, him?” I ask.  “Is that the white guy you’re talking about?”  I don’t really think of Ariel as never shutting up, but he’s clearly all white.  My geeklet does not seem satisfied.

Cut, a few minutes later, to king Alonso and his followers wandering around the island (and about to stumble across a magical banquet).  “There’s the white guy that never stops talking!” my son shouts, pointing at the screen.

At Gonzalo.  With his white hair. The guy who never stops talking.

My 6 year old son, having not seen this Shakespeare movie in over 6 months, remembers Gonzalo – a character arguably so minor that I’ve seen a production of this play where he was completely excised (and I wasn’t happy about it, I like him).

Wait, it gets better.

Cut to Prospera handing over Miranda to Ferdinand (and, luckily, I do not have to explain “virgin knot” to anybody).  My son asks, “Now, I know that she’s never seen another boy and that’s why she fell in love with him, but has the boy ever seen another girl? Then how come he fell in love with her?”

….ummm…..ahhh……is this really happening?  Is my 6 yr old jumping back into a lesson on one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays right where we left off 6 months ago?

These were just two examples.  I was also quizzed on the nature of Ariel’s invisibility and whether he was *always* invisible (except to Prospera), or merely chose to be invisible most of the time.
I am well and truly blown away, I have to admit.  Is it possible that my kids are actually paying attention to this stuff?

I love nights like this.

The Shakespeare Drinking Game

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

Ok, Huffington Post has to know that if they title a story that way, we’re gonna link it!

The Contemporary Shakespeare Drinking Game

Since the post is entirely just the rules of the game, I’m not left with much to copy unless I want to steal their content.  Go check out the rules and then tell me which are your favorite, and what rules you’d add to your own house version.   I like “shotgun a beer every time someone mentions a sword, dagger or blade but is holding a gun.”

As for adding my own?  Hmmm … “Drink once, and then bang your head on the nearest desk or table, every time the audience laughs where they’re not supposed to.”  In a production of Macbeth that I saw, Macduff delivered his “from his mother’s womb untimely ripped” line and Macbeth fell to his knees in what I’m guessing was supposed to be him struck down by the reality of the prophecy, but in practice came off more as “Oh I am having *such* a bad day!”  Climax of the play, and the audience laughs through it.