Shakespeare’s “Maag-Pehh” at Tallinn NO99 Theatre - BabelTallinn

Shakespeare’s “Maag-Pehh” in Estonia
By Giovanni Angioni

Until yesterday I thought the newest & most innovative theatre in Estonia was NO99. The actors & set decorators & directors that I would recommend as a complex visual masterpiece to any visitor of Estonia, on quite a high level.. Just go and see Nafta! and you’ll know what I mean

But yesterday I was really forced to evaluate my opinion. At least considering the Shakespeare MacBeth performance. Unless you’re a huge Shakespeare fanatic or a fan of Jaan Türnpu & Anne Toomik, or real banal modern theatre, don’t go there!

I actually like Shakespeare, although many people don’t. I’ve seen quite a lot of different versions of Hamlet & Merchant of Venice & R&J etc. Plus, I think I’ve seen quite a lot of theatre performances in general. What I like about Shakespeare are the huge possibilities it offers, one can practically do anything with it.

By the Book

George Washington University's Undergraduates Explore Print History at the Folger Shakespeare Library

Soundpainting Revisits Shakespeare

This French radio feature discusses my friend Leese Walker's company Strike Anywhere. She and her company did a Soundpainting at the class I teach at BAM. Take a listen.

Soundpainting was created by New York composer Walter Thompson in the late 1970s. It allies music, painting, poetry, puppetry, dancing and visual art. In the past five years, this new artform has successfully crossed the Atlantic, in part thanks to the efforts of Christophe Cagnolari and his Anitya troupe. Anitya premiered Macbeth on 6 November in Paris, in collaboration with the New York soundpainting group Strike Anywhere.

Teachers fight to save Shakespeare - National News - Dominion Post

New Zealand Teachers Fight to Save Shakespeare

Shakespeare's plays and other great works of literature considered too difficult for some pupils will disappear from classrooms under proposed changes to the curriculum, alarmed principals say.

Man re-arrested over Shakespeare book theft - ChronicleLive

Man re-arrested over Shakespeare book theft

BardBox

From Luke McKernan

There are tens of thousands of Shakespeare videos available on the Web. The emergence of YouTube and other video hosting sites, along with the spread of broadband and the availability of cheap video equipment, has led to an explosion in Shakespeare video production and distribution online.

BardBox is an attempt to bring together some of the best and most interesting of original Shakespeare-related videos on YouTube (as of July 2008 there were 19,000 videos on YouTube tagged with the keyword ‘Shakespeare’, and 27,000 searchable under the term ‘Shakespeare’ overall). The emphasis is on originality. YouTube makes available many titles which were created for other media (cinema, television, DVD) and which are often available from other sources. This is YouTube as a new mode of distribution, and although it has made many such titles available this way which would not otherwise be available to most, this side of YouTube does not provide original content - and such activity is, at best, of dubious legality.

BardBox instead concentrates on Shakespeare videos created for distribution on YouTube (launched on Shakespeare’s birthday, 23 April 2005) and other such sites. It comprises animations, parodies, recitations, auditions, promos for theatre productions, amateur records of stage productions, student work, school productions, mashups etc. Each post is named either after the on-screen title of the video or the title it is given on YouTube, and comprises the video itself, date (the date of posting if actual production date not known), credits (where available), cast (ditto) and duration, description with comment, plus link to its YouTube (or other) page. Each post is described under a variety of categories and tagged under the name of the relevant play.

YouTube Shakespeare has been generally dismissed as home only to facetious and repetitive parodies. BardBox contends that this is an exciting new departure for Shakespeare production, the best examples of which need to be identified, championed and studied. Any suggestions for inclusion will be most welcome.