Guess Who's Coming to NYC?

Rob Ashford and Kenneth Branagh’s staging of Macbeth will make its U.S. premiere at the Park Avenue Armory in June 2014. Branagh, in his highly-anticipated New York stage debut, will star as the Scottish king alongside Alex Kingston as Lady Macbeth. Branagh has performed on various stages abroad and long been lauded as one of the great Shakespearean interpreters in film and television, but has never graced the New York stage until now. More Here>

African-American Shakespeare Company presents Merry Wives

The African-American Shakespeare Company, one of San Francisco's treasures, will present their version of The Merry Wives of Windsor from May 4-26 at the Buriel Clay Theatre in the African-American Art & Culture Complex.

Directed by Becky Kemper, this production is set in the 1960’s in the shared back yards of a city neighborhood, and adopts the style of the popular urban black theater movement known as the “Chitlin Circuit.”

March Madness Shakespeare-style

              

Our friends at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater are hosting a Shakespeare Showdown wherein you can select your favorite characters. Simply download the brackets or go to their site or their Facebook Page and join in.

                  

Glee Editions Shakespeare Collection

Glee Editions has collected monologues and dramatic excerpts for all Shakespeare 37 plays. While these are totally random, it is a wonderful collection of stage and film productions--all in one place.

You can see Antony and Cleopatra with Timothy Dalton and Lynn Redgrave or a 1976 Comedy of Errors with Judi Dench and Roger Rees.

There's even a 1998 Twelfth Night with Helen Hunt as Viola and Kyra Sedgwick as Olivia and Richard Burton performing the "To Be" soliloquy in the 1964 Hamlet.

Macbeth in Uganda

Using a lineup of Ugandan and British actors, the National Theater of Uganda is staging Macbeth in Kampala. British-born director, Tom Adlam played the title role and Rehema Nanfuka played Lady Macbeth. Also in the cast are Samuel Lutaaya as Malcolm and Brian Emurwon as Banquo.

Here's a review at the allAfrica website.

Shakespeare and Autism

Through collaboration between The Ohio State University Nisonger Center, The Ohio State University Department of Theatre, and the Royal Shakespeare Company, a unique opportunity has been created to study an exciting new intervention. The Hunter Heartbeat Method, created by Kelly Hunter of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has been used with children with autism spectrum disorders for the past 20 years. Over the years, teaching strategies and intervention methods have been refined and have been anecdotally effective in improving social and communication skills with children of all ages and across the autism spectrum. Read More

Othello: The Remix

Othello: The Remix returns to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater after a highly-praised run at Shakespeare's Globe in London last summer. The show runs from March 12–April 28 at Navy Pier.

Probably the best thing to say about this amazing production is simply watch the video trailer:

Bikini Shakespeare in Chicago

If you happen to be in Chicago soon, you might want to check out Bikini Theater's Tempest. 

Here's what the Gorilla Tango Theater says about the show:

Bikini Shakespeare returns with its latest installment, The Tempest! This island romp will feature the bikinis and speedos you can't resist, with the hilarity and poetry of Shakespeare. Watch as Prospero toys with the lives of some unsuspecting ship-wrecked courtiers, just as they had toyed with his in a time long forgotten. Magic, spirits, monsters, power, and love all come into play as Prospero spins a web of revenge and redemption.

If you want to know the "hidden meaning" behind this production, look at what director, Katie Horowitz had to say in the Chicago Reader.

Complete Works: a Web series

I'm not sure what to make of this, but apparently a group of folks have created a Web series called Complete Works. According to the creators, "We are creting a new, 14-episode comedy web series about the Finals of the American Shakespeare Competition."

Their Blog shows the progress of the filming which apparently ended in August 2012 and they are now in post-production. There is a bit more information about the project on their Facebook page.  Here's the plot summary from that page:

"Hal has been obsessed with everything Shakespeare since his "Henry the Fourth" birthday party. Now in his 20's, he's stuck at a technical college studying everything boring...until he sees a poster for the American Shakespeare Competition. Winning the ASC could not only pull him out of his humdrum Midwestern life, it could give him the performing career he's always dreamed of.

There's only one problem: Hal's never done an arts competition. And in this world, winning takes a little more than just art."

Stay tuned...

Terrence Howard and Sanaa Lathan to Star in Film Version of Macbeth

According to Eurweb,  Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan and Blair Underwood will be in a new adaptation of Macbeth. Howard will take the role of ‘General Macbett’ (sic) who will have an encounter with the ‘Weird Sisters,’ the spirit daughters of Africa that control the elements. Sanaa Lathan will play the role of ‘Lady Macbett.’ Entitled “Macbett,” the movie also stars Evan Ross, son of Diana Ross, and will begin filming in Jamaica and Puerto Rico in the fall.

Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre’s Lear Khehkwaii

The Fairbanks Shakespeare Theater will be touring a 90 minute version of Shakespeare’s King Lear inspired by Gwich’in language and culture, Lear Khehkwaii. The play is set in late 1800’s Alaska, a time when Alaska Native cultures were introduced to western influences and when the King James Bible (originated in Shakespeare’s time) was being translated into the Gwich’in language. Half of the script has been translated into the Gwich’in language and will be incorporated into the production and performed by a multi-cultural cast of eleven artists including native Gwich’in speakers, Alaska Native, Native American actors and FST company members. The project incorporates arts education and language revitalization through the live performance of one of the world’s greatest story tellers, William Shakespeare.

Much Ado About Josh Weedon

I don't know much about the work of Josh Weedon, but  there seems to be some buzz about his film version of Much Ado About Nothing. Here's the official site and here's the trailer.

Shakespeare Magazine is Back (sort of)

I've managed to salvage some of the original articles from Shakespeare Magazine and have posted them here.

I hope you find them interesting.

I'm back and will resume posting soon.

We Need a Little Shakespeare is the latest Post from the Folger's Blog.

LETTERS TO SANTA WRITTEN BYSHAKESPEARE CHARACTERS

All They Want for Christmas is Some Shakespeare

Putting the 'Mac' into Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times

Putting the 'Mac' into Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

It's widely considered rude to be playing with your iPhone during a theatrical performance -- unless the actors are doing the same thing.
A group of stage performers in San Francisco is producing a reading of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in which they will enact the drama by reading the text from their personal iPhones and iPod Touch devices. To make the experience more communal, the audience is invited to read along by downloading a special Shakespeare application that contains the full play.

The event -- which will take place Oct. 25 at the Apple Store in San Francisco at 1 Stockton St. near Union Square -- is organized by actor Ron Severdia, who runs the website playshakespeare.com.

Last year, Severdia launched an iPhone application that contains all of Shakespeare's plays as well as his poems and sonnets. The program, which was developed by the company Readdle, is available for free download from iTunes and features a keyword search function as well as auto-scroll capabilities.

"It's not a profit-generating thing. It's a loss generator, actually. But it's done out of the love of the work," said Severdia in a phone interview.

The actor said he first chose "Macbeth" for the obvious pun on the Apple brand of Mac computers. "That was the original joke and it sort of stuck," he said.

The performance, which is free, will feature 13 actors performing 40 different roles in the Scottish tragedy.

Severdia said he and his tech team are putting the finishing touches on a new version of the application that will have features like finding the nearest Shakespeare festival using GPS; searching by line numbers; and a new interface. He expects the new version to cost $1.99 to download.

-- David Ng

Putting the 'Mac' into Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times

Putting the 'Mac' into Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

It's widely considered rude to be playing with your iPhone during a theatrical performance -- unless the actors are doing the same thing.
A group of stage performers in San Francisco is producing a reading of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in which they will enact the drama by reading the text from their personal iPhones and iPod Touch devices. To make the experience more communal, the audience is invited to read along by downloading a special Shakespeare application that contains the full play.

The event -- which will take place Oct. 25 at the Apple Store in San Francisco at 1 Stockton St. near Union Square -- is organized by actor Ron Severdia, who runs the website playshakespeare.com.

Last year, Severdia launched an iPhone application that contains all of Shakespeare's plays as well as his poems and sonnets. The program, which was developed by the company Readdle, is available for free download from iTunes and features a keyword search function as well as auto-scroll capabilities.

"It's not a profit-generating thing. It's a loss generator, actually. But it's done out of the love of the work," said Severdia in a phone interview.

The actor said he first chose "Macbeth" for the obvious pun on the Apple brand of Mac computers. "That was the original joke and it sort of stuck," he said.

The performance, which is free, will feature 13 actors performing 40 different roles in the Scottish tragedy.

Severdia said he and his tech team are putting the finishing touches on a new version of the application that will have features like finding the nearest Shakespeare festival using GPS; searching by line numbers; and a new interface. He expects the new version to cost $1.99 to download.

-- David Ng

How Iago Explains the World - NYTimes.com

How Iago Explains the World - NYTimes.com