Flowers of Shakespeare

Sometimes there’s a need for special kinds of floral arrangements. For example, one might be organizing a medieval or Elizabethan event and want flowers to go with the party theme. This isn’t as hard as it sounds. In some cases quite a bit is known about the kinds of flowers and plants that were commonly used for various purposes during certain historical eras.

As a jumping off point, let’s look at some of the blossoms that were widely grown and used during Shakespeare’s time. He mentioned quite a few in his various works. You could make a lovely mixed bouquet or arrangement by combining some of these different flowers. Among these are buttercup, calendula (also called pot marigold), carnations, columbine, crab apple, daffodil, daisies, the Florentine iris, honeysuckle (also known as woodbine), lilies, and various kinds of primroses and their relatives, such as the cowslip. During the Elizabethan era, people were familiar with different kinds of violets. They often referred to these as heartsease or johnny-jump-ups.

So far as roses are concerned, they were widely grown during Shakespeare’s time. Apparently this would have been one of his favorites. He does mention them about seventy times. He wrote about the musk-rose, the Provencal cabbage rose, and the eglantine or sweet-brier rose in particular. In addition, he alludes to the white rose of the House of York and the red roses that symbolized the House of Lancaster. He also makes reference to the Tudor rose—which resulted when the two roses were united to create this rose.

In addition to these blooms, Shakespeare mentioned any number of herbs that would be suitable for such arrangements. Examples include fennel, rue, thyme, lavender, savory, marjoram, mint, and wormwood.

During Shakespeare’s time, people wore garlands and chaplets of blossoms made from flowers for special occasions. They were especially popular for funerals and weddings. They symbolized grief during funerals, and joy for nuptials.


For additional details on these flowers and their use in Shakespeare's works, I refer you to a classic book, "Shakespeare's Flowers." Written by Jessica Kerr with wonderful illustrations by Anne Ophelia Dowden, this was published by Johnson Books, a division of Johnson Publishing Co. Originally published in 1969, it was reprinted in 1997. Kerr was educated at the Roedean School in England, and studied at the Royal College of Music in London. She placed all the plants within the historical context of their time. Part of the royalties from the sale of this title go to the Folger Library in Washington.DC as stipulated by the wishes of the Kerr estate. Pleaes see the link at the top of the page on the right.

Pregnant pause for swell role

By Peggy Woodcock, Chester Chronicle

PLAYING a pregnant character on stage is not fun for anyone - especially if you are a man! But that's what Simon Scardifield has to do in A Winter's Tale which moves to the Liverpool Playhouse next week. PEGGY WOODCOCK talked to him.

ACTORS do like to prepare for a role. But few will have gone to the lengths that Simon Scardifield did prior to his appearance in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale at The Lowry, Salford Quays, this week and the Liverpool Playhouse next week.

For he is playing a woman. A pregnant woman. And that's what led to him rolling cosily on the floor with several mums-to-be at a National Childbirth Trust meeting.

He said: 'I've never been pregnant - obviously! - and I needed to get an idea of what it felt like. So I had a bump, not just a cushion but something more realistic filled with birdseed and strapped to my shoulders.

'At the NCT meeting I found talking to the pregnant women a great help. I'm not a method actor but I was very aware that the audiences would be full of experts so I needed to make it as realistic as possible.'

Scardifield is one of an all-male cast for this production by the company Propeller which for the past seven years have been captivating audiences with their energetic versions of Shakespeare's greatest plays - with never a woman in sight.

He said: 'Women weren't allowed on stage in his time so Shakespeare was actually writing these women's roles for men, or youths, and often for a particular one. I had that in mind when I tackled the role.

'It has taught me a lot about being an actor. I have always thought I had to use a large amount of myself in any role but this is different. As to childbirth, it's amazing the pain women expose themselves to, and the huge responsibility afterwards.'

Scardifield has worked extensively in the theatre, notably with the Royal Shakespeare Company, English Touring Theatre, Shared Experience, and in Stephen Daldry's An Inspector Calls in the West End, and he has television and film credits ranging from Casualty to High Heels and Low Lifes.

In this, his third production with director Edward Hall, son of Sir Peter Hall and founder Propeller, he plays Hermione, queen to Leontes. It's a haunting mix of tragedy, mystery and comedy which follows events as a man wracked with inexplicable jealousy destroys family, kingdom and himself. But the chain reaction leads to a miraculous ending full of hope.

Said Scardifield: 'It's a fantastic play but not an easy one. The first half runs as a dark, fast-paced thriller while the second half is completely different, packed with knockabout comedy, but then returning to the first heavy mood.

'One of the successes of this production is to marry the two halves so the audience can see how they go together. The cast do all the music and sound effects, even lighting, so the audience can see the whole process and they seem to love it.'

He will be wearing his eight month baby bump for the production, that is, until he gives birth.

He said: 'Happily this takes place off stage! I should stress, though, that I won't be wearing a wig or shaving off my chest hair. None of us taking female roles try look or sound like women. We let the words speak for themselves, as they did in Shakespeare's day.'

Canberra theatre captions Shakespearean show

A Shakespearean production in Canberra is to be captioned for people with hearing impairments, in what is thought to be a first for Australian theatre.

The Canberra theatre will use two screens on either side of the stage to caption this Saturday's matinee performance of the Bell Shakespeare Company's The Wars of the Roses.

The theatre plans to caption one session of each of this season's performances.

Markia Hetenyi from Better Hearing Australia says captioning can benefit people with even slight hearing difficulties.

"A lot of people who have an acquired hearing loss don't realise for many, many years after the hearing has started to deteriorate, so there will be people in the audience on Saturday who don't realise that they've missed a lot of what has been said until they look at the screen and they say, 'oh i didn't realise that there was that line first'," she said.

Podcasting News: New Podcast Reveals Mysteries of Shakespeare

A new podcast promises to reveal the mysteries of Shakespeare. The podcast feature excerpts from author Mark Anderson's new book "Shakespeare" by Another Name, which examines the puzzles that have long haunted the identity of history’s greatest author.

Sir Derek Jacobi, a world-renowned Shakespearean actor, recommends the book as "full of enlightened and reasoned research in the quest to provide material for a rational and honest debate in the Shakespeare authorship question."

Author Anderson thinks podcasting is a great opportunity for authors. "Despite the fact that not many authors are doing it today, it seems to me that providing free audio excerpts of one's book is a great way to get potential readers interested in the story. I'm no marketing person, but podcasting seems tailor-made for the book business.

Want to know what Podcasting is? Look here.

Chung Ching School in Brunei Remembers Shakespeare

By James Sim

Bandar Seri Begawan - Students and teachers of Chung Ching Middle School last Saturday celebrated the birthday of one of world's greatest writers, William Shakespeare, at the school premises. As a tribute to the king of dramas and poems, Chung Ching Little Theatre played out a murder scene from Shakespeare's "Othello" to a spellbound audience, with help from their teachers Shanthi Thomas, Kavitha Vijayakumar and Jane Thomas. The celebration also saw a presentation of two soliloquies from Shakespeare's masterpiece "Hamlet" - a Form I student re-enacting mad Ophelia and a Form 3 student playing out Hamlet's dilemma. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE OF NEW JERSEY
INVITES ASPIRING THEATRE PROFESSIONALS TO “TAKE THE SUMMER ON”

Summer Professional Training Program provides valuable experience for aspiring actors, arts administrators, designers, directors and technicians

Madison, NJ – The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is now accepting applications for acting apprenticeships and internships in all areas, designed for young adults ages 18 and older. Both are part of the Theatre’s Summer Professional Training Program, now in its fifteenth year, which gives aspiring actors, young theatre artists and technicians, and future arts administrators valuable opportunities to develop their skills under the auspices of a major professional theatre. The 2005 training program, with the theme “Take the Summer On!” runs from May 29 through August 15. The application deadline is May 13.


Acting Apprenticeships

The rigorous 11-week Apprentice Program provides students at the college level and above with classroom training, valuable performance experience, mentorship by skilled actors and directors, and essential exposure to all aspects of professional theatre. Acting apprentices study Shakespeare’s text, experiment with various approaches to performance, participate in scene study classes, and receive professional movement, stage combat and vocal training. This year’s faculty members are working professionals who teach at SUNY Purchase, Wagner College and the University of South Carolina. Each week includes three full days of classes that create a crucial framework for the actor’s experiences at The Shakespeare Theatre and beyond.

Supplementing the regularly scheduled class days, apprentices also take part in Sunday Morning Seminars and Master Classes, a series of workshops and classes that are conducted by guest and resident theatre professionals. A variety of specialized topics are explored, including career management, audition techniques and headshot and résumé tips, to name only a few.

In addition, apprentices gain valuable technical and administrative experience by assisting in the scene shop, costume shop and in the various offices of The Shakespeare Theatre. In the evenings, participants may function on “running crews” for the Theatre’s Main Stage productions. Some apprentices may perform on the Main Stage in smaller roles or focus on their own performance work.

As a troupe, the apprentices present three Performance Scene Nights, one Fight Night and a Final Project to an audience comprised of the entire summer company and invited guests. There is also an opportunity for some apprentices to participate in Late-Night Projects, directed by resident directing interns, and the annual Late-Night Cabaret, a unique variety show performed for an audience of company members and Shakespeare Theatre subscribers.

“This program is certainly not for everyone,” comments Brian B. Crowe, resident artist and director of education. “It’s rigorous and intense and there is not a lot of ‘down-time,’ but in the end, each participant will know if this is a career that he or she has the passion to pursue full time. Every autumn, I get calls from apprentices, who, upon returning to school, are amazed at the impact this program has had on them. They see a vast improvement not only in their skills, but also in their confidence and self-awareness.”

Internships
Behind the scenes, the Intern Company is comprised of experienced early-career individuals in non-performance fields. From carpentry to design, costumes to box office, and fund-raising to education, The Shakespeare Theatre’s internship program puts aspiring artists and technicians side-by-side with working theatre professionals, where they gain valuable hands-on experience and important professional contacts. Internships are offered in 21 areas of concentration, and select internships are available prior to and following the regular Summer Professional Training Program dates.

Nurturing young artists and aspiring theatre professionals

Over the years, participants have come from around the globe to The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s Summer Professional Training Program. Alumni hail from Japan, England, China, Australia, Turkey and from throughout the United States.

Many members of the program return year after year, working their way “up the ladder” at The Shakespeare Theatre. In fact, nearly 20% of The Shakespeare Theatre’s current full-time, year-round staff members are alumni of the Summer Professional Training Program. Among them are associate artistic director Joe Discher; director of education Brian B. Crowe; assistant production manager Denise Cardarelli, information systems manager Roderick Lapid; and assistant to the artistic director Paige Blansfield.

Individuals enrolled in the program are mentored by seasoned professionals, gradually being presented with larger roles or greater duties as they prove themselves. Says Crowe, “The Theatre has a strong commitment to developing long-term, ongoing relationships with young artists — something that is rarely seen in summer training programs today.”

He continued, “These days there are so few opportunities for this type of ‘through-the-ranks’ training. That is unfortunate, since this mentoring approach is such an important part of the theatrical tradition. University and conservatory programs, for all of the valuable training they offer young people, cannot provide the intense, hands-on experience that this kind of professional theatre program supplies.”

Enrollment information

Tuition for the Apprentice Program is only $1,475 for the 11-week-long program. There is no tuition fee for the Internship Program. The majority of internships are unpaid, but a limited number of stipends are available in certain areas. Housing, if required, is $840 for the 11-week program (waived for commuting students) for both apprentices and interns. Equity Membership Candidate points and college credit are available.

For more information or a Summer Professional Training Program application, call Jake Berger, associate director of education, at 973-408-3806 or e-mail JBerger@ShakespeareNJ.org.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

By Alastair Macaulay

The Royal Shakespeare Company's new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is an audience hit, comic and unusually picturesque. It also gleams from an intelligent combing of the text: so that the designer Stephen Brimson Lewis makes us more aware of the characters' talk of stars and planets (we see a whole galaxy swell and fill the night sky), and the characters have jokes that are newly rooted in the lines - so that when Flute/Thisbe lets out an embarrassingly long fart, the pay-off comes when Bottom now says: 'Let Thisbe have clean linen.' The lines are spoken according to best RSC principles, with impeccable attention to line-endings and slow monosyllables. The production is memorable above all for its Bunraku-style use of puppets: to Bottom, the fairies all hold out small baby or cherub dolls - when the head of one of them detaches itself, it's as strange a vision as the witches bring to Macbeth. Fairy silhouettes and human shadows abound, so that Puck's final line 'If we shadows' strikes home.

For the Love of Shakespeare Sonnets--A Marathon

William Sutton will be performing his second sonnet marathon at the Rose Theatre Excavation site in honour of Shakespeare's birthday April 23rd, 2005. It starts at 12 noon and there will be short breaks after sonnets 51 and 103. Audience is free to listen and leave quietly during the performance. Admission is FREE.

This link will tell you how to get there: http://www.rosetheatre.org.uk/map.htm

When Brits do Shakespeare, there's quite a lot to 'Like' : "


MEANING NO DISRESPECT to our fine American actors, there's just something so incredibly satisfying about hearing British actors intone Shakespeare.

The lilt, the cadence, the seemingly effortless ease with the Bard's circumlocutions, they all seem so alive in the mouths of the Brits.
Nowhere is this more evident than in 'As You Like It,' a production of the Theatre Royal Bath and the Peter Hall Company hosted by Best of Broadway at San Francisco's Curran Theatre.

Already a hit in England and elsewhere around the United States, this 'As You Like It,' which opened Wednesday, is easy to like thanks, in large part, to the crisp execution of the dialogue. "

They Come to Praise Brutus

DURING his working vacation away from Hollywood, Denzel Washington may be willing to go without the luxury trailer, but the bodyguard stays: a very large bearded man leads the way to the small room in the Belasco Theater where Mr. Washington, in a long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans, is relaxing before afternoon rehearsal for 'Julius Caesar.' The show is still in previews, but in the corner, there's already a bin full of letters from fans who have seen the show; the theater had to hire extra security to handle the mob that waits for him each night after the curtain falls."

Denzel Washington in Julius Caesar: A Review from Newsday

NEW YORK -- "Brutus is an honorable man," says Mark Antony during one of the more famous speeches that pepper William Shakespeare's blood-soaked "Julius Caesar," now being revived on Broadway. Yet watching Denzel Washington's curiously detached performance as Brutus (one of the co-conspirators who kill the fabled Roman emperor), enigma is more the word that comes to mind.

Washington, the reason this revival was mounted in the first place, has a magnetic, forceful screen persona suggesting strength and warmth at the same time. Yet on stage, at least in this aggressive, modern-dress production directed by Daniel Sullivan, the actor comes across as subdued. His voice, while strong, lacks variety, producing a monotone at odds with the other, more vocally acrobatic actors on stage. Brutus is a man in the middle _ torn between his loyalty to Caesar and his devotion to Rome. The man's searing internal conflict should find its way to the surface. Here it produces a slightly furrowed brow and a tentative portrait.

Sullivan's tough-minded production is agreeably straightforward, despite his placing the play within an odd time frame. A decaying ancient Rome is atmospherically realized in designer Ralph Funicello's crumbling set, but it's also a world of cell phones, metal detectors, briefcases and machine guns. These conspirators are white-collar terrorists, all dressed in business attire. Washington, a sparkling stud in his left ear, makes a stylish entrance in a gray suit offset by a crisp blue shirt.

Best of the lot is Colm Feore, a fiercely manipulative Cassius who woos Brutus with the ardor of a true believer. Among the others, Jack Willis, as a burly, almost comic Casca, and Patrick Page as a particularly unctuous Decius Brutus, stand out. As the title character, William Sadler is suitably hearty and personable, yet drawn with enough shading to make the man's egocentricity show through.

The dramatic high point of any "Julius Caesar" should be Mark Antony's famous eulogy for Caesar, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen," a not-so-subtle call-to-arms that will make the rabble rise up against the men who killed Caesar. Sullivan stages it dramatically, with the actors spilling into the theater's aisles and standing in the boxes above the stage. Eamonn Walker's Antony is a striking, brooding presence who can command an audience.

Women in "Julius Caesar" are generally forgotten creatures and that's the case here, although Jessica Hecht as Brutus' helpmate and Tamara Tunie as Caesar's wife do some high-velocity emoting.

"Julius Caesar" is not the most subtle of Shakespeare's plays, particularly as it drives toward a violent conclusion in a series of battle scenes. At the Belasco Theatre, they consist of actors wearing camouflage fatigues and running back and forth across the stage while constant explosions and gunfire pierce the air. This could be one of the noisiest productions of "Julius Caesar" on record. Washington handles these final moments well. He has an athletic grace and precision when it comes to the character's determination to fight the good fight to the end. And there is a nobility in the death of Brutus. Yet it's the actor's interpretation of the man's life that is the puzzlement. In the end, Washington's Brutus remains opaque, more of a question mark than a real person.

Lorin Wey: Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain

In Mid 2003 Lorin Wey, a former Vienna Boys Choir member now turned professional soloist, recorded for Tadpole Music a programme of songs set to texts by Shakespeare, chiefly by English composers from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. Some of the songs are well known, others unfamiliar: all are beautifully sung and accompanied variously by instruments including lute, theorbo, viol, recorder, harpsichord and piano.

As accompanists, he is joined by his brother Terry (piano and harpsichord), Johanna Valencia (viola da gamba and recorder), Stewart McCoy (lute and theorbo), Markus Wey (recorder) and Richard Carter (viola da gamba).

NSU theatre to present Shakespeare montage

A marvellous musical with the most tremendous heart

The storyline is based on Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, with the four leading men all taking a vow of chastity so they can better concentrate on making a good start in their new country. Naturally, it is not long before Eros � in this case the Eros in Piccadilly Circus � is sending his mischievous arrows flying, and the foursome find themselves falling in love with a quartet of memorably spunky women who give them a far from easy ride."

Theater Review--
Coriolanus': A Warrior Whose People Think His Behavior Is Heinous

Oregon Shakespeare Festival set to kick off 70th year

ASHLAND - The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will open its 2005 season, and its 70th year, next weekend with four productions including a world premiere by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Schenkkan.

``By the Waters of Babylon,'' a bittersweet romance by Schenkkan, will open at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 27 in the New Theatre. William Shakespeare's ``Richard III'' will open at 8 p.m. Friday in the Angus Bowmer Theatre.
And two comedies will open Saturday, both in the Bowmer: ``The Philanderer'' by George Bernard Shaw at 1:30 p.m. and ``Room Service'' by Allen Boretz at 8 p.m. Schenkkan's new play is one of two that will premiere in Ashland this year. The other is 'Gibraltar' by San Francisco playwright Octavio Solis, whose 'El Paso Blue' was staged by the festival in 1999. Solis developed 'Gibraltar' in collaboration with seven festival actors. It is scheduled to open in July.

The season will run through Oct. 30 and will include 11 productions and 773 performances. It is dedicated to former artistic director Jerry Turner, who died Sept. 2, 2004. Turner led the festival from 1971 to 1991.
The festival's outdoor season will open in June with Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' and 'Love's Labor's Lost' as well as 'The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus' by Christopher Marlowe.

Shakespeare's Rose theatre to rise again after centuries under London silt
British acting's aristocracy unite to resurrect Bard's first stage, immortalised on film"

SHAKESPEARE GOES TO PARIS: How the Bard Conquered France
by John Pemble

The French were so appalled by the vulgarity of Shakespeare’s plays that it took them 300 years to come near to an accurate translation. The item of Desdemona’s on which the plot of Othello hinges could not be mentioned on stage because mouchoir was too coarse a word to be uttered — or heard — in the Comédie Française. It was not until 1829 that Alfred de Vigny first risked the M-word, but that still left the question of the strawberries with which it was decorated, and fraise was considered an even lower word. The handkerchief was thus referred to as being decorated with “flowers” until well into the 20th century

Davidson College Exhibition Showcases Royal Shakespeare Company's Collection for First Time Ever in U.S; March 7 to April 15
DAVIDSON, N.C., Feb. 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- Audiences for the Royal Shakespeare Company's upcoming performances at Davidson College will also enjoy an opportunity to see an unprecedented exhibition showing how the world-famous troupe prepares for opening night.

The RSC is shipping more than 100 concept drawings, costumes, models, paintings, and prints from its archive in Stratford, England, to Davidson for an exhibition entitled "Break Thy Leg: Art and Design from the RSC Collection."

The March 7 to April 15 show will be the first time the RSC has ever staged an exhibition of its memorabilia in the United States. Co-curators David Howells, curator of the RSC Collection, and Brad Thomas, director of Davidson's Van Every/Smith Galleries, will present a gallery talk about the show on Tuesday, March 8, at 7 p.m. in Davidson's Belk Visual Arts Center.

For more information about the talk, or the exhibit, contact Bill Giduz, director of media relations, at 704-894-2244 or bigiduz@davidson.edu.

MEG RYAN TACKLES SHAKESPEARE

Movie sweetheart MEG RYAN will make her SHAKESPEAREAN debut on the big screen in a new movie that pokes fun at Hollywood stars who attempt to become thespians.
The WHEN HARRY MET SALLY actress will play a movie star who is cast opposite top theatrical types as the lead in a Broadway, New York, Shakespeare play, according to trade magazine HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

The WALT DISNEY film will be called THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME.

Playbill News: Royal Shakespeare Company's Summer 2005 Season Announced

Kevin Spacey to make Shakespeare debut

Actor Kevin Spacey is to make his UK Shakespearian debut in the autumn.

The Hollywood star, who is the artistic director of London's Old Vic will play Richard II at the London theatre. Oscar winner Spacey's first role acting was playing the messenger in Henry VI on the New York stage in 1981. Richard II will kick off the theatre's second season with Spacey at the helm, after initial productions which have been met with mixed reviews.

REED - Patrons and Performances

Professional performers of all kinds in England and Wales toured to provincial towns, monasteries and private residences before 1642. The Records of Early English Drama project (REED) is discovering fresh evidence about medieval and renaissance entertainment for publication in volumes for all English, Scottish and Welsh counties.

The REED Patrons and Performances Web Site is designed to include a wide range of data about professional performers on tour in the provinces – their patrons, the performance venues they used and the routes they took across the kingdom.

Shakespeare Playing Cards from ProsperoArt.com

• Shakespeare Playing Cards have a different quote from Shakespeare on each card.
• Every play by Shakespeare is quoted.
• Quotes on all of the number cards contain a reference to that number in their quote.
• Each of the four suits of the deck represents a different dramatic temperament. For instance, all of the heart card quotes represent themes of love and romance, diamonds: wealth, spades: intrigue and the clubs: war.
• Shakespeare Playing Cards feature an art historical pastiche on the Aces, face cards and Jokers, with images from the old masters such as Michelangelo and Rembrandt.

After 47 years, conscience passes the test

GYPSUM, Colo. A high school graduate has confessed to cheating on an English literature test 47 years ago.

Eagle Valley High School Principal Mark Strakbein said he received a one-page, handwritten letter from a 65-year-old grandmother of five who admitted that she and a friend stole the answers to a Shakespeare test in the fall of 1957.

"I know it makes no difference now (after 47 years), except maybe this will keep some student from cheating and help them to be honest-- conscience never lets you forget--there is forgiveness with God, and I have that, but I felt I still needed to confess to the school," she wrote.

Strakbein did not release the woman's name but said he confirmed that she graduated in 1958 from Eagle County High School, which has since been consolidated into Eagle Valley High.

Scottish MPs: Shakespeare Was Wrong About Macbeth
LONDON (Reuters) - Macbeth was not the ambitious, cold-blooded murderer Shakespeare described in his play but a popular king who ruled over a peaceful land, a group of Scottish parliamentarians said Thursday.

They want to restore the reputation of the 11th century king of Scotland, who has been stained with villainy ever since Shakespeare's play was first performed 400 years ago.

'He (Macbeth) was perceived as a good king who stabilized the country and has since been maligned by Shakespeare's play,' said Scottish Member of Parliament, Alex Johnstone. "

Inmate Hal Cobb rehearsed for his role as Prospero in "The Tempest." In the documentary "Shakespeare Behind Bars," Cobb, who electrocuted his pregnant wife by throwing a hair dryer into her bath, appears tormented by his crime.

Curt Tofteland, producing director of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, created the prison theater program. He appears in the documentary. (BY FRED HAYES)
 

'Shakespeare' at Sundance

PARK CITY, Utah -- In Louisville, Derby fever means jockeying for box seats to the Oaks and the Derby. Conversations usually begin with, 'Got your Derby horse?'

At the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, festival-goers bond by standing in line and asking: 'What movies have you seen?' 'What's good?' 'Seen any stars?' And of course, 'Where's Bob?'

At Derbytime, B-list celebrities live in a rarefied atmosphere, moving in limousines and entourages.

At Sundance, the most prestigious independent film festival in the world, A-list stars can be spotted standing in line for a movie, dancing in clubs on Main Street or dining at one of Park City's restaurants, including Zoom, owned by Sundance founder Robert Redford.

Here, amid the hyperactivity of screenings, deal-making, night-clubbing and celebrity-spotting, a documentary about Kentucky prisoners who perform Shakespeare played to full houses at every screening and left audiences with a new perspective on Kentucky and the power of theater to transform human beings.

Bard's lady lovely

Out of the few scraps that history has left him, local playwright Vern Thiessen has fashioned a flesh-and-blood portrait of a fiercely independent woman. Shakespeare's Will, now running at the Citadel Theatre, is Thiessen's take on the life of the shadowy Anne Hathaway, whom Shakespeare married when he was only 18, left behind when he went to London to make his way in the theatre and retired to spend his last five or six years with in Stratford. He also, famously, left her his "second best bed'' in his will.

Fargo students have their own versions of Shakespeare

FARGO, N.D. - For Anna Pieri, William Shakespeare evokes a copper tree.

For Meena Tadros, the Elizabethan author's works are best captured in a satirical newspaper.

And for Maria Sauvageau, sketches from the Sistine Chapel add meaning to the Bard's poetry.

Teaching Shakespeare to high school students is never an easy task. Too often, students stumble over 'thee's' and 'o'ers' and puzzle over his poetic forms.

English teacher Judy Cooper says students are more afraid of Shakespeare than anything. 'They're intimidated by it,' she said."

London troupe tackling Othello

Paul McCleary says he has it 'real easy' for this week's production of 'Othello' by the Actors From the London Stage company: only two roles to play in the production.

Based at the University of Notre Dame, Actors From the London Stage performs Shakespeare's plays with casts of only five actors and with few props and without costumes or sets. Men play women, women play men, and, sometimes, an actor will converse with him- or herself as multiple characters in a scene."

Acorn dishes up blue-plate Bard in Portland Maine

The language is the thing.

Acorn Productions continues its 'Naked Shakespeare' series at the St. Lawrence Arts and Community Center in Portland by focusing all the attention on the words of playwright William Shakespeare."

Tragedy at the Manoe: Romeo and Juliet in Malta

Text and Theatre at Stratford upon Avon
from Joanne Walen Shaxpur@aol.com

The 2005 Shakespeare: Text and Theatre program at Stratford upon Avon is scheduled for Monday, July 4 to Saturday, July 9, 2005 (arrive Sunday, July 3, depart July 9 in the afternoon). I am "guesstimating" the price this year will be no more (and probably less) than last year's tariff of $1275. That price includes 6 nights' lodging in Bed and Breakfast guesthouses (including breakfast), tickets for 5 plays in Stratford, course cost, visits with RST actors, and a group cocktail hour and dinner.

The play schedule proposed is as follows (a nice mix of Shakespearean comedies, gunpowder plot plays, and a new play in The Other Place): A New Way to Please You (Middleton, Rowley, Philip Massinger), Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, The American Pilot (the new play in TOP), and Sir Thomas More (Shakespeare, Munday, Chettle). The attendance at the plays is augmented by pre-performance lectures and post-performance discussions presented by resident Shakespeare scholars. Our study of the text and performance choices is further enhanced with visits by the RSC actors who come to our group as guest speakers and talk about their roles in the plays we see.

Final cost for the program will depend on the number of participants and the current rate of exchange. There is a minimum (and maximum) of 15 required for the course to make.

If you think you might be interested in taking part in this exciting venture, or if you would like further information, please contact Joanne Walen at StratfordUK2005@aol.com or at my home number 480-807-5114. I will keep you posted as the course takes shape, and you can make a final decision about attending when details are finalized.

The Winter's Tale, The Watermill Theatre, Newbury

Somehow it does not matter that The Winter's Tale is more complex than any single production can fully realise. As with so much of Shakespeare, we find our breath taken away by the originality of its human relationships, its theatrical situations, its violent emotions and above all its piercing imagery, so that to return to the play in the theatre is often to feel we are experiencing it for the first time."

Shakespeare’s Sonnets in new Finnish translation

A new Finnish translation of William Shakespeare's Sonnets appeared on Monday under the title Nautintojen ajan aarre (The name is taken from the line 'Where all the treasure of thy lusty days' in Sonnet II). The translation is the work of author and scholar Kirsti Simonsuuri, and the volume has been published by Yliopistopaino.

The process of translation took a total of around five years, but Simonsuuri had other research work and some fictional writing going on at the same time, as well as teaching duties at Helsinki University, in England, and in Holland."

Friends, Generals and Captains of Industry,
Lend Me Your Ears
By BRUCE WEBER

QUEENSTOWN, Md. - The Air Force generals were hard on Brutus. The consensus was that he acted with deadly force when other avenues were open to him. He made a bad decision, they said - at least as it was portrayed by Shakespeare - to sanction and lead the conspiracy to murder Julius Caesar.

"Brutus is not an honorable man," said Lt. Gen. William R. Looney III, one of 20 or so senior Air Force officers and executives - mostly two and three-star generals and their civilian equivalents - gathered at the Aspen Institute for a daylong leadership seminar here. "He was a traitor. And he murdered someone in cold blood."

And though General Looney acknowledged that Brutus had the good of the republic in mind, Caesar was nonetheless his superior. "You have to understand," the general said. "Our ethos is to obey the chain of command."

Best of the Bad Guys

RIGHT off the bat, British actor, director and playwright Steven Berkoff sets the scene for his latest offering, Shakespeare's Villains: A Masterclass in Evil.His greeting is permeated with Alfred Hitchcockian creepiness. This is unintentional; he is not even trying to step into character. 'Maybe I just naturally come across as evil,' he says. "

Susannah York brings the Bard's ladies to Ark's stage
One-woman show gives life to range of playwright's women

Though Susannah York's new show, 'The Loves of Shakespeare's Women,' patches together speeches from many of the Bard's most famous female characters, reviving Ophelia is not on the agenda. "

British Shakespeare Association Biennial Conference 2005
Call for Papers

The British Shakespeare Association exists to enable Shakespearean academics, theatre directors and actors, as well as teachers, writers, and community groups from a wide variety of backgrounds, to explore the study and performance of Shakespeare in ways that cross traditional academic, cultural, and institutional boundaries.

The second British Shakespeare Association conference will be held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in September 2005. Bringing together people with diverse interests in Shakespeare from all parts of the British Isles and around the world, it will include academic papers, panel and seminar sessions, as well as performances, workshops, and opportunities for discussion on all aspects of Shakespeare’s life, works, and afterlife.

Shakespeare & Company plans Spring Tour

Lenox – Shakespeare & Company’s annual Spring Tour of Shakespeare for 2005 presents Julius Caesar, which will join 22 other professional theatre companies, selected by the National Endowment for the Arts, to participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation – a major arts-in-education initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest.

Complete Casting Announced for Broadway's Julius Caesar
Complete casting was announced today for the all-new Broadway production of JULIUS CAESAR, starring two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington as Brutus. The cast also stars Colm Feore as Cassius; Jessica Hecht as Portia; William Sadler as Julius Caesar; Tamara Tunie as Calphurnia; Eamonn Walker as Marc Antony and Jack Willis as Casca. "

BBC to screen Shakespeare season

Leading television writers including Bafta Award-winner Peter Bowker and North Square creator Peter Moffat have been enlisted by the BBC as part of a large scale initiative aiming to bring Shakespeare to a wider audience.

Later this year the Corporation will be screening four programmes inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth but not featuring the actual text. Influenced by the success of last year’s adaptations of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the 90-minute films place Shakespeare’s plays into a contemporary context

Making ‘Hamlet’ fun in Malaysia

IMAGINE that ‘Hamlet’ is not the Prince of Denmark. Now imagine that his real name is Tengku Hamid Badiuzzaman Ibni Tengku Kintan, a British-educated Malay nobleman. Or Lee Ham Let, the young heir of a multi-million-ringgit matchstick company.

Michael Radford rehearses Al Pacino as Shylock. 

PopMatters Film Interview: Bring It Alive: Interview with Michael Radford

Michael Radford sits at a table set near a window. The morning's grey light is cast on him as if he's posed, his close cropped gray hair and dark sweater composing a kind of portrait -- precise, quiet, assured. The director best known for Il Postino has recently tackled another project as attentive to tone as theme and character, William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Set in 16th century Venice, the film follows the complicated relationships -- the fealties and tricks -- between the merchant Antonio (Jeremy Irons) and his beloved friend Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes). When Bassanio asks Antonio for money in order to court the lovely (and very wealthy) Portia (Lynn Collins), Antonio borrows it from the Jewish usurer Shylock (Al Pacino), bitter after years of abuse from the Gentiles, who abhor but make use of his money lending services. When Shylock's daughter Jessica (Zuleikha Robinson) runs off with a Christian boy, the father is distraught, and he takes out his vengeance on Antonio, in a debtor's court: he hopes to exact literally from his client the price they agreed on, the famous "pound of flesh."

Shakespeare's Bottom pinched by Levi admen

Its stylish adverts have helped to launch -or relaunch - the careers of countless actors and musicians over the past two decades. From Marvin Gaye to The Clash, Nick Kamen to a struggling young actor called Brad Pitt, many have enjoyed the benefit of the so-called "Levi's effect".

Now the jeans manufacturer is to give William Shakespeare's career a boost after turning to the Bard for its latest television campaign.


Amanda Sudano is Titania in the new Levi's advertisement
In a marked departure from its usual formula of using pop music soundtracks to create a cool, rebellious image, Levi's new advert is an excerpt from Shakespeare's romantic comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, complete with original Shakespearean dialogue.

The commercial, to be launched on Valentine's Day, is based on Act III Scene 1 of the play and stars Amanda Sudano, daughter of the Seventies disco diva Donna Summer, as Titania. It shows a romantic encounter between Bottom and Titania, queen of the fairies, set in contemporary Los Angeles.

Although the language is complex and archaic, Levi's says it is not worried that it will go over the heads of young jeans buyers.

"I think we underestimate young people today. Our research shows that they understand it immediately," said Kenny Wilson, brand president for Levi's Europe.

He said that Levi's chose A Midsummer Night's Dream as the basis for its new advertisement to be different and stand out: "It demonstrates independence and freedom of thought. Young people appreciate the fact that it's not the same as anything else on television."

Levi's is hoping the £21 million campaign will help reverse a seven-year decline which has seen its sales plummet by 42 per cent.

Industry experts say the company has been hit by a series of unpredictable changes in taste.

"For a period in the late Nineties denim became unfashionable," said Louise Foster, of the fashion trade magazine Draper's Record. "501s - Levi's flagship brand - in particular suffered from the so-called `Jeremy Clarkson effect', the association with men in middle youth.

"But when demand for denim returned Levi's found itself caught between cheap jeans and cooler, more expensive designer brands such as Diesel."

In the ad, Bottom exits a factory walking past a gang of older men wearing unfashionably high-waisted jeans. One of the men says, "Bottom, thou art changed, what do I see on thee?", as he grabs Bottom's loose fit 501s.

The focus switches to Titania, a waitress sweeping up in a cafe, who says: "What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?" She is mysteriously drawn out on to the street towards Bottom, exclaiming, "Mine eye is enthralled to thy shape". The ad ends with Titiana whispering to Bottom: "I love thee."

Was Shakespeare gay, children?

A campaign aimed at encouraging children to question whether William Shakespeare was homosexual has been defended by the head of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The campaign, launched by the Schools Out! lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group, aims to teach children in schools about historical figures and their sexuality.

Other famous figures on the Schools Out! website - backed by a Department for Education and Skills grant - include Florence Nightingale, King James I, Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci."

ecoShakespeare: Shakespeare and ecology

The 2005 meeting of the British Shakespeare Association at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 1-4 September 2005 will include a seminar for 'Shakespeare and ecology' led by Gabriel Egan (Loughborough University) and Kevin De Ornellas (Queen's University of Belfast).

The most pressing social and political problem of our time, ecological degradation, has had virtually no impact upon Shakespeare studies to date. Debates about how the countryside and animals are exploited by humans are apparent in Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatic and non- dramatic writing, but, since their productive forces were not sufficiently developed to make the widescale changes that we've become capable of, it is easily but wrongly assumed that ecological concern emerged only in the last 50 years. In fact, arguments about how to define the natural in contradistinction from the human, about the proper relations of these two spheres, and the ideological and political purposes to which arguments about nature might be put have long been apparent in literature and drama, as work on the Romantics has shown."

The New York Times Sunday Book Review

Essay: Who Owns Shakespeare?

By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: January 23, 2005

Will in the World,'' the biography of Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt, was on this paper's best-seller list for nine weeks. Its publisher, W. W. Norton, estimates that out of 200,000 copies in print, 150,000 have been sold. With its intense yet informal prose, wealth of historical material and illuminating textual analyses, the book paints a vivid picture of Elizabethan England and Shakespeare's place in it.

But whether it belongs on the nonfiction list, where it was, or the fiction one, is a matter of some debate. Outside of his astonishing body of work, the playwright didn't leave materials of the kind biographers have traditionally relied on. So in order to unite the Shakespeare who left a will and one surviving letter with the Shakespeare who wrote ''Hamlet'' and ''King Lear,'' Greenblatt took imaginative leaps. The result is a book shot through with ''might haves,'' ''could haves'' and ''may well haves,'' chief among them that Shakespeare's father might have been a Catholic and an alcoholic and that Shakespeare could have seen the execution of a Jew accused of treason, which may well have affected his characterization of Shylock in ''Merchant of Venice

Variety's Review of Shakespeare Behind Bars

What brave new documentary is this, that has such conviction in it? 'Tis 'Shakespeare Behind Bars,' an arresting account of inmate thesps preparing and performing a production of 'The Tempest' at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in La Grange, Ky. Pic could find appreciative auds in limited theatrical furloughs prior to global tube airings, and may later be used as a teaching tool in theater, sociology and criminal science disciplines."

Husband's suicide evokes comparisons to Shakespeare play

It's being compared to the tragic ending of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."

Italian television reports that a man in northern Italy killed himself out of grief over his ailing wife, hours before the woman came out of a four-months-long coma.

So Rosalind, the daughter of an exiled duke, hides behind the verbal dexterity she practices with her cousin Celia (the pouty, flirty Rebecca Callard) and a fool named Touchstone (Michael Siberry, who evinces a lively wit). This Rosalind has a sharp tongue that surprises even herself, and Rebecca Hall renders Rosalind's often complicated language with a wholly comprehensible sense of its meaning.

 

Director's daughter poses as she likes it

In his lucid new production of 'As You Like It,' Sir Peter Hall - the renowned British director who has been the head of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre - casts his daughter, Rebecca, to play the starring role of Rosalind. It's blatant nepotism, but nobody seems to mind much.

That's because Rebecca comes by her talents honestly, showing the same fluency with Shakespeare as did her father and her brother, Edward, the director who made waves in New York last year with audacious productions of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and the Henry VI trilogy."

Film Threat - Reviews
Another review for Shakespeare Behind Bars. He gives it 3 1/2 stars.

Sundance Diary--SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS


SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS follows an all-male Shakespeare company working behind bars at Kentucky’s Luther Luckett Correctional Complex. For one year a cast comprised of convicted felons rehearse and perform a full production of Shakespeare’s last play, The Tempest, a play fittingly about forgiveness.

Marking their seventh year as an acting ensemble in the film, the inmates cast themselves according to their lives and in relation to the crimes for which they are serving a prison sentence. Just as in Shakespeare’s day, men play all the female roles. They swear that the roles “pick them”, and this proves to be an uncanny truth, as many of the men experience powerful epiphanies while exploring their characters. Twice a week, the inmates work with volunteer director Curt Tofteland, who pushes them to find their own truth within each part.

Shakespeare’s Globe Announces UK Tour of Faith-Based Schools

In the same week as the chief inspector of schools speech on citizenship, Globe Education announces a national tour to visit both multi-faith and single-faith schools. The tour will visit eight cities and 63 schools including Muslim, Catholic and Church of England single-faith schools.

Globe Education’s Magic in the Web tour is inspired by the clash of faiths in Shakespeare’s Othello. In workshop performances, five actors will work with students to explore the play’s issues of justice, judgement and forgiveness. This is Globe Education’s first UK tour.

Following the performance, students will be asked to design two handkerchiefs which feature in Othello. The first, the ‘handkerchief of love’, is Othello’s first gift to his new wife Desdemona and is ‘spotted with strawberries’ (act III, scene VI). The second, a ‘handkerchief of peace’, is offered to Othello by Desdemona to soothe him when he believes she has been unfaithful. This handkerchief will draw on students’ own interpretations of peace.

Handkerchiefs in many Islamic lands were objects of far greater beauty and size than the modern European equivalent. These finely embroidered cloths were important symbols of status and dignity.

The Magic in the Web project is free to all schools. It follows a year-long exploration of Shakespeare and Islam at the Globe in 2004.

The tour will include five Islamic schools. Earlier this week David Bell questioned whether such schools equipped their pupils for living in modern Britain.

Simon Russell Beale: A performer at his peak.

Simon Russell Beale can justifiably be called the best actor of his generation. Now he is tackling Shakespeare's trickiest tragic hero - Macbeth at London's Almeida Theater. He talks to Paul Taylor.

Playbill News: Public Theater to Offer Two Summer Productions at the Delacorte

Two productions will be offered this summer at Shakespeare in Central Park. The New York Times reports that both As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream will be presented in summer 2005 at the Delacorte Theater. The stagings will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Public Theater.

The Rivals' Mark Lamos, a Tony nominee for his direction of Our Country's Good, will helm Shakespeare's As You Like It, which will run June 25-July 17. Outgoing Public Theater producer George C. Wolfe will direct the second summer Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Dream is scheduled to play the Delacorte Aug. 9-Sept. 4.

Summer 2005 will mark the first time in four years that the Public has presented two separate Shakespeare productions. Public Theater executive director Mara Manus told the Times that increased donations for the Public's 50th anniversary will allow two productions this coming summer. 'Financially, we're in a much better place,' explained Manus"

KBYU-FM Presents "About Shakespeare"

About Shakespeare is a new radio series from KBYU-FM. Listeners will get to know a host of guest scholars as they speak about issues from Shakespeare and family life, to Shakespearean comedic themes, Shakespeare and film, the task of the Shakespearean actor, period performance practice compared with modern expectations, Victorian painters and their attraction to the dramatic moments in Shakespeare, and more. Drawing on the literary, historical, and thespian expertise of BYU faculty and other experts in the field, the series is hosted by Sharon Swenson of the BYU Department of Theatre and Media Arts.

Hear it online at www.kbyufm.org/streaming Thursday’s at 9 p.m. beginning January 13

Shakespeare never suffered from Syphilis, story challenged by Indian

Dublin - A shocking story has appeared in press that William Shakespeare was suffering from syphilis. Even earlier many authors attempted to malign him on some pretext or the other and gave a negative view of his early life. Some of them even went to the extent of doubting his credibility as a playwright. Their main purpose seems to be destructive.

In this connection, we sought for the comments of Dr. Raj Baldev, Cosmo Theorist from India, and also because of his special interest in the literature of Shakespeare, which has been teaching to his students for a few years.

Dr. Raj Baldev gave his comments from New Delhi - 'Nothing could be more unpardonable and unforgivable than the act of disgracing the great personality like William Shakespeare, the great English Playwright, leveling a wild allegation against him that he was suffering from syphilis."

Sheik Meets Shakespeare

Would Caliban have been more at home in the mangrove forests of the Sunderbans than on the island in The Tempest? Or was Puck a "pakhi" before he morphed into a fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

The first few pages of Kalyan Ray's debut novel Eastwords give a glimpse of an enticing land and a fascinating narrative. Here, Shakespeare pops up on Indian shores and hobnobs with our own Sheikh Piru, straight from the pages of Parashura's Ulot Puran.

Eastwords is a novel that the professor of English literature in Morris College of the US has written between semesters and bundles of answer scripts.

Crash pad: Tempest goes to Cyclorama

Boston Theatre Works was gearing up to present The Tempest at its home base, the Tremont Theatre next to the Wang.

That was until a car drove through a windowand onto the stage, forcing the theater to close and leaving the company without a venue for its production of Shakespeare's late comedy.

But all was not lost: Thanks to some creative thinking and assistance from the city, ``The Tempest'' will play as scheduled, but in a different venue: the Cyclorama at the Boston Center of the Arts, starting today

Shakespeare set to a can-can

Anyone who has read the plays of William Shakespeare knows there is a mesmerizing musicality to his Elizabethan verse that has never been matched.

But Alaric Jans hears the music beyond the words. As resident composer at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, he has created music for 25 plays and is currently working, along with lyricist Cheri Coons, on the upcoming production of 'Measure for Measure.'"

Royal Shakespeare Company's King Lear Begins Previews Jan. 13

The Royal Shakespeare Company, criticized for abandoning a regular London home when Adrian Noble pulled them out of the Barbican Centre, is — under Michael Boyd — colonizing the West End with a vengeance.

Corin Redgrave previews his King Lear at the Albery beginning Jan. 13, following the RSC’s Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet at the same address. And the Playhouse, Arts and Soho theatres are also preparing to welcome the Stratford-siders.

Shakespeare's Writings Indicate He May Have Had Syphilis

Shakespeare's name usually inspires thoughts of kings, fairies, lovers, wars and poetic genius--not syphilis.


Infectious Diseases Society of America - However, some passages in his plays and sonnets indicate that the Bard may have suffered from one or more venereal infections, according to an article in the Feb. 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.

Although syphilis is relatively uncommon now, it was rampant five centuries ago, transmitted from country to country by sailors, soldiers and merchants. Symptoms of syphilis can include genital lesions; rashes on the torso, palms, and soles of the feet; neurological problems; and destroyed facial tissue. Shakespeare alluded to sexually transmitted disease (STD) symptoms--and treatments--in several of his plays and poems, including Troilus and Cressida, As You Like It, and Sonnets."

FalconTheatre: The Comedy of Errors meets Aerosmith

It's a “Crazy” case of mistaken identities, sex, drugs and rock and roll as the Troubadour Theater Company send up the Bard with their raucous new parody of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors mixed with the music of American rock icon, Aerosmith. So “Walk This Way” to experience the “Sweet Emotion” of Shakespeare because when the Troubies are in town, you “Don't Wanna Miss a Thing!”

Oh, Shakespeare!

By E.G. Porciuncula
Inquirer News Service

Editor's Note: Published on page C4 of the January 10, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


REPERTORY Philippines is shaking up Shakespeare in its first offering for 2005, 'Oh Romeo,' a farce with music by Ephraim Kishon.
The play has Joy Virata as director and an all-star cast: Pinky Amador, Michael Williams and Miguel Faustmann.
'It's a great combination of high literature and low comedy,' says Virata, 'a mix of the author's dialogue in modern language and lingo, and lines in the Shakespearean style.'
The proof of the spoof is this premise: What happens if Shakespeare's Romeo (Williams) and Juliet (Amador) didn't die, but instead lived through a modern-day type of marriage with all its ups and downs? Shakespeare (Faustmann) himself will help solve this riotous riddle."

Shakespeare's gifts to a modern world: SHAKESPEARE AFTER ALL by Marjorie Garber

She has a way with Shakespeare

NEW YORK -- When people tell Lynn Collins she is going to be the ultimate Shakespearean actress of her generation, her response is crisp and logical.

''Why do they have to put 'Shakespearean' in front of that?' she shoots back."

Studio France- Shakespeare Workshops

Studio France is hosting Shakespeare workshops in France, an hour North of Toulouse. Julia Wilson-Dickson, a world famous specialist in her field of voice and dialect, spends a week teaching students to celebrate Shakespeare, not fear it. This workshop is perfect for actors and is about giving you more confidence in your voice, and ways of using it to make the words come alive with honesty and realism"

Chortler - Something About Hamlet

(Ed note: This is a joke)

Today we present the first in our series of Shakespeare adaptations for the modern cinema.

Something About Hamlet

Hamlet (screen genius Adam Sandler) offers a riveting performance as a carefree, party animal living the good life when he is informed of his father's death and mother's marriage to his Uncle Claudius (Bill Murray). Claudius, who has taken over control of the business empire belonging to Hamlet's father, immediately orders Hamlet home. Hamlet's funds are cut off. Unable to return to the college life he loves, he accepts a tidy sum to court Ophelia (the lovely Kate Hudson wearing far too many clothes.) But her brother Laertes (ferret-like Will Ferrell) suspects Hamlet's carnal intentions and schemes to break up the relationship. Meanwhile, Hamlet's friend Horatio (high-strung Ben Stiller) sees Hamlet's father's ghost (overacted by a bored Patrick Stewart) and freaks out in his most hilarious neurotic episode since "Along Came Juliet."

Hamlet eventually has a reluctant conversation with his father's ghost, who informs him he must renounce his slacker ways and get a job in order to save the family business and wrest control from his evil uncle. However, Hamlet decides instead to fake a nervous breakdown, giving him time to work on his murder mystery screenplay. Suffering from severe writer's block, he decides to use his father's actual murder as the template for his languishing literary endeavor. The scene in which he speaks to the skull of Yorick during a brain-storming session, moving it from side to side for improved reception while inquiring, "Can you hear me? Can you hear me now?" is vintage Sandler.

The plot gets complicated as Claudius prepares to send his seemingly deranged and extremely annoying nephew off to England to a secluded drug rehabilitation clinic. Hamlet quickly finishes and discreetly sells his screenplay. Claudius comes across Hamlet's direct-to-video movie on HBO, and is furious that he has not been included in the credits of this unauthorized biography. Hamlet catches Claudius on the phone with his lawyer, and considers killing him right then and there, but decides against it. Instead, he confronts his mother, Gertrude (lantern-jawed Glenn Close in a familiar role) about possible copyright infringement. But Hamlet suddenly sees the ghost of his father again and freaks out Sandler-style in one of the funniest scenes of the entire movie. However, this convinces his mother that drug rehab might indeed be a wise option.

So Hamlet is hurriedly sent off to England. While in route, he discovers his film has been pirated and bootleg copies are being sold on the Internet. He immediately returns home to file a lawsuit. But back at the castle, Ophelia is grieving the death of her father and the emotional abandonment by Hamlet, and like everybody else in this neurotically depressing movie, she freaks out, and drowns herself in one of the film's more poignant scenes. A sharp departure from Kate Hudson's typical genre of “feel-good flicks,” this scene leaves the viewer bummed out and bemoaning the waste of good eye candy.

In a petulant fit, "metrosexual poster child" Laertes vows revenge and plots with Claudius to kill Hamlet with a poison letter opener (with an inlaid jade handle.) Claudius also secures a poison keg of beer, just in case. Hamlet arrives home -- as Ophelia is being buried -- and tells Horatio that Uncle Claudius has set him up. Hamlet then confesses to having Rosencrantz (Carrot Top) and Guildenstern (Howie Mandel) whacked in retaliation. Horatio (Stiller) freaks out (again). Later, in a welcome bit of comic relief, Laertes suddenly falls through the door and challenges Hamlet. Highly irritated by Laertes' whiny voice, Hamlet goes into a rage, getting into a room-clearing brawl. After an intense struggle over the letter opener, he stabs Laertes in the hand with it.

Gertrude, unaware of the poisoned keg kept in reserve in case Laertes is too big a wimp to finish Hamlet off, succumbs to the seductive allures of an ice-cold keg and poisons herself, too. Dying in a drunken stupor, she confesses Claudius' treachery and Laertes nods in silent affirmation lest he be pummeled again. Hamlet then confronts his Uncle Claudius about intellectual property, as Claudius cynically assaults him with noogies in a way only Bill Murray can. Indulging the audience, Hamlet kills Claudius with a tire iron and finishes off the keg, expiring with a loud belch of satisfaction.



The preceding piece was donated to Chortler by the Marshall Dunn Satire Emporium.

"SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS" TO PREMIERE AT SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL


The Philomath Films documentary about the Kentucky Shakespeare's program Shakespeare Behind Bars has been selected as one of 16 documentaries (out of 624 entries) for the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

The 90 minute documentary follows the nine month long process of bringing William Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, to performance.

Shakespeare Behind Bars is the only North American Shakespeare Company contained within the walls of a medium security adult male prison. Shakespeare Behind Bars uses an original practices approach to producing full length productions using the First Folio Text with the male inmates playing all the roles.


Below is the blurb from the Sundance Festival site:

Shakespeare Behind Bars
U.S.A., 2004, 92 Minutes, color

Take Shakespeare's final play The Tempest, with its violent seas, windswept island, crucial connection to nature, and underlying theme of forgiveness, and bring it into a prison, the ultimate venue of confinement. The result is an extraordinary story about the creative process and the power of art to heal and redeem--in a place where the very act of participation in theatre is a human triumph and a means of personal liberation.

In Hank Rogerson's revelatory trip into and around this prison production, we embark on a year-long journey with the Shakespeare Behind Bars theatre troupe. Led by Shakespearean volunteer director Curt Tofteland, whose innovative work with Luther Luckett inmates began in the mid-1990s, the prisoners cast themselves in roles reflecting their personal history and fate. Their individual stories, including information about their heinous crimes, are interwoven with the plot of The Tempest as the inmates delve deeply into the characters they portray while confronting their personal demons.

Shakespeare Behind Bars is a tremendously moving film, where the protagonists are not merely defined by their crimes but are afforded dignity and a fresh chance to look truth in the eye, and embrace it.— Diane Weyermann

Producer : Jilann Spitzmiller
Cinematographer : Shana Hagan
Editor : Victor Livingston
Music : James Wesley Stemple

Screening Times
Friday , Jan 21 11:30 AM Prospector Square Theatre SHKBR21PD
Saturday , Jan 22 1:00 PM Screening Room, Sundance Village SHKBR22SD
Sunday , Jan 23 12:45 PM Broadway Centre Cinemas V, SLC SHKBR23BD
Sunday , Jan 23 11:30 PM Holiday Village Cinema II SHKBR232L
Wednesday , Jan 26 10:00 PM Holiday Village Cinema IV SHKBR264N
Friday , Jan 28 8:30 PM Holiday Village Cinema II SHKBR282N

Juliet's Balcony 

Veronese want Romeos to stop

City officials want to stop people posting love letters on wall of Juliet's balcony

Imagine if Romeo had text-messaged his love to Juliet. Romantic? Not, says the founder of Verona's Juliet Club.

Giulio Tamassia is upset that city officials want to stop people from posting their love-letters on a medieval wall outside Juliet's house, known to tourists as Casa di Giulietta.

Chewing gum is the culprit, says city official Andrea Spiazii. It's hazardous to the walls, and one of the means used by people to post their letters to the wall.

The city estimates it will take four months to rid the gum from the walls, and unfortunately, in the process, the thousands of letters already there, will be thrown in the trash.

But the city doesn't want to discourage visitors from coming to the legendary house, so it has decided to provide lovelorn pilgrims with plaster boards to post their heartfelt messages.

Thought is also being given to setting up a giant screen in the house's courtyard to display text messages sent via cell phones.
These novel ideas are a Shakespearean tragedy, says Tamassia. Text messaging kills the romantic mood, and that shouldn't be the case in one of Italy's most famous houses. The letters are a tradition that must be preserved and which can not be substituted by technology, he adds.

Imagine the possibilities: 4 ME U R THE 1.

Shakespeare Society Holds Ian McKellen Film Retrospective

The New York-based Shakespeare Society, which has hosted film retrospectives of the Bard-related work of Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom and Derek Jacobi, will give Ian McKellen the star treatment on Feb. 7."

Kathakali version of Julius Caesar staged- The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A solo act of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar using the techniques of Kathakali theatre was staged here on Tuesday night.

The one-hour performance by noted actor Suresh of Margi Kathakali School depicted some of the dramatic moments in Shakespeare's play culminating in the assassination of the Roman dictator and his horrid realisation that those who conspired against him included his friend Brutus.

"Though Kathakali versions of King Lear and Othello had been tried earlier, the present one seems novel in many ways. Here we used the technique of pakarnnattam , by which the same actor becomes different characters," Suresh said.

Shakespeare Authorship Studies Conference

The Shakespeare Authorship Studies Conference will convene from April 7 - 10 at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon. Notable speakers will include Michael Cecil, the 8th Marquess of Exeter and the present Lord Burghley; Prof Edith Friedler; Prof Alan Nelson; Prof Elizabeth Eckhart; Prof Kevin Simpson; Prof Roger Stritmatter; Prof Ren Draya; Dr Michael Delahoyde; Dr Eric Altschuler; Prof Jon Wyneken; Mark Anderson; Richard Whalen; Dr Jan Sheffer and many others.

'TEMPEST' TELLS ABOLITIONIST'S STORY

THROUGH SHAKESPEARE'S 'The Tempest,' playwright Tom Ziegler brings Fanny Kemble to life. Her name doesn't ring a bell? Well, see the play 'Mrs. Kemble's Tempest' at the Walnut Street Theatre through Jan. 23, and her story unfolds.

Shakespeare's story of one woman's turbulent life sort of parallels Kemble's. 'Kemble's Tempest' illustrates her battle with smallpox, and the dissonance and dismay she felt upon discovering that her Philadelphia-born husband was one of this country's largest slave owners."

The Merchant of Venice review by Frank Kermode: Our Muddy Vesture
This movie version of the play will just about do. It has most of the virtues and most of the faults endemic to such ventures, but it exposes the latter less grossly than some. As Shylock Pacino succeeds as any good, experienced actor should, and Jeremy Irons is appallingly sad as Antonio, just as he promises to be in the opening line of the play. He cannot understand why he is so sad but the film all too insistently offers a complete explanation. Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio shows us why the Christians in this play are, on the whole, such an unlikeable lot. Lynn Collins as Portia looks as good as she ought to, and redeems some tiresome moments in the early scenes by being startlingly good and grave in the trial scene. Since the piece is set in Venice there is a lot of photography, and some of the results are indeed beautiful. The movie runs for 131 minutes and feels longer, partly no doubt because quite often nothing strictly relevant is actually happening � and certainly not because it includes boring quantities of Shakespeare�s text."

Merchant of Venice 

Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons 

Al Pacino plays Shylock as a man whose grief equals his viciousness.

 

The New York Times Review

The Merchant of Venice: Putting a Still-Vexed Play in a Historical Context

By A. O. Scott
Directed by Michael Radford (best known for "Il Postino"), "The Merchant of Venice," which stars Jeremy Irons, Al Pacino, Joseph Fiennes and Lynn Collins, is better-than-average screen Shakespeare: intelligent without being showily clever, and motivated more by genuine fascination with the play's language and ideas than by a desire to cannibalize its author's cultural prestige.

Shakespeare in Malta

Shakespeare made an appearance in Vittoriosa last month at the Lorenzo Gafà Boys' Secondary School annual Prize Day.

Staff and students of the school presented excerpts from The Merchant of Venice in Maltese, translated by Cyprian Dalli, following months of rehearsals during school breaks.

The school band and choir, made up of staff members, students, former students, parents and friends of the school performed and were followed by a less traditional but energetic breakdance show.

The effort and commitment put in by staff and students to ensure a successful Prize Day production was praised by the Education Minister, Dr Louis Galea, who in a short speech said the performance was a successful start for this scholastic year.

Prizes were then presented to prize winners by the Director-General of Education, Dr Cecilia Borg.

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

BY JOHN ANDERSON

As Shakespeare's plays are divided into comedies, tragedies and histories, one really has to ask: What is "The Merchant of Venice"? Shylock's ruination, his denial of the "pound of flesh," is among the more poignant - and disturbingly opaque - of the Bard's human catastrophes. Yet, it is surrounded by an almost slapstick sensibility concerning Portia's betrothal; antic, subordinate characters; and the almost obligatory mistaken-identity shtick that ends the play.

To the Letter: An exhibit at the Folger Library looks at the art of correspondence in Elizabethan England":

Teaching students to teach Shakespeare
By Tatiana Zarnowski, December 19, 2004

The college students could barely keep a straight face as they hurled eloquent insults at each other.
'Vile worm, thou wast overlooked even in thy birth,' one young woman snarled, quoting William Shakespeare's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor.'

Reciting and acting out the Elizabethan insults helps high school students relieve stress and expend energy, says Susan Biondo-Hench, an English teacher at Carlisle High School.

'When you have kids who really need to get up and get physical, this really works,' she told a group of about 20 future teachers who got a course in teaching Shakespeare to teens last month at the high school."

Barenaked Ladies take on the Bard
at the Stratford Festival of Canada

December 8, 2004 . . . Barenaked Ladies, the Juno Award-winning Canadian pop group, will be shaking up Shakespeare in the 2005 Stratford Festival season.

The band will be writing five song settings and incidental music for the 2005 production of As You Like It, directed by Executive Director Antoni Cimolino and designed by Tony Award-winner Santo Loquasto with lighting design by Steven Hawkins and sound design by Jim Neil. This show begins previews April 27, opens June 4 and runs until October 30. The band will record the instrumental music and Festival actors will sing the songs during performances. "

Sufi or not Sufi? Was Shakespeare a Muslim?: There's an old joke about William Shakespeare being an Arab - how else, it explains, can you account for the name, Sheikh Zubair. Certainly the playwright's preoccupation with despotic leaders, times of civil unrest and bloodshed fit in perfectly with the tempestuous nature of contemporary Arab politics.

With 2004 marking the 400th Anniversary of the Bard's famous Moor, Othello, the Globe Theatre in London has organized an extensive season, titled simply 'Shakespeare and Islam.' Renowned authors, scholars and creative artists are contributing to a unique program of events from October to December, with gatherings ranging from talks, masterclasses and readings of rarely performed texts, all designed to engage with a cross-cultural audience.

Stars out for Merchant of Venice Premiere

Stars of stage and screen arrived for the London premiere of The Merchant of Venice on Monday evening.

The Shakespeare adaptation, directed by Michael Radford, stars Al Pacino, Joseph Fiennes and Jeremy Irons, with Lynn Collins as Portia.
Prince Charles attended the event in his role as president of the Prince's Trust youth charity.

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey

ILLYRIA, A NEW MUSICAL BASED ON SHAKESPEARE'S
TWELFTH NIGHT, MAKES ITS REGIONAL THEATRE PREMIERE
AT THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE OF NEW JERSEY

MADISON, NJ - "Let the merriment and the mirth prevail!" From November 30 through December 26, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey presents the regional theatre premiere of Illyria, an exuberant new musical adapted from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel, with book, music and lyrics by Peter Mills.

Girl, disguised as boy, steals the hearts of both the lord and the lady in this festive comedy of unrequited loves and mistaken identities, directed by audience favorite Paul Mullins. Bursting with beautiful ballads and rollicking refrains, Illyria is a theatrical gem for all ages.

Performances are Tuesdays through Sundays at the company's Main Stage in Madison. Tickets for Illyria are $36 to $58, with discounts available for groups of 10 or more. For tickets, call 973-408-5600 or visit www.ShakespeareNJ.org.

Itching to recharge those acting batteries that come part and parcel with the intimacy of a live audience, Denzel Washington has signed on to portray Brutus in a forthcoming Broadway production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.”
The play is set to begin rehearsals in late January, while previews are tentatively scheduled to begin at the Belasco Theater in early March, with an opening in April.
 

Et tu, Denzel? Oscar Winner Washington to Star as Brutus in Broadway Julius Caesar

Two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington is set to star as one of the most noted of political and personal betrayers, Brutus, in a new staging of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar coming to Broadway in March.

Shakespeare's Globe reveals 2005 season

'Kung Fu' a very different spin on Shakespeare

October 22, 2004

BY MARY HOULIHAN Curtain Call


The fancy footwork and the equally fancy word magic of Shakespeare meld in Will Kern's action-packed Shakespeare Kung Fu. Best known for the long-running "Hellcab," the playwright weaves a tale of betrayal and revenge created out of lines and short passages from all of Shakespeare's plays and a few sonnets.

Because he's lifting all the dialogue, Kern says he has trouble taking a writing credit. "I put the story together and I created the characters out of the words, but none of the words are mine. I think Shakespeare would have liked it, though."

Marc A. Nelson directs the Mary-Aarchie Theatre production. Previews are Wednesday and Thursday, with opening night set for Oct. 29. Performances continue through Dec. 11 at the Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph. Tickets: (312) 742-8497.

Seeing Shakespeare through Japanese eyes
Director Yukio Ninagawa brings his own take on Hamlet to Scotland this week, writes Ben Walters

For a land and culture often deemed to be enigmatic and unknowable, Japanese treatments of Shakespeare can be surprisingly illuminatory experiences. From Akira Kurosawa’s King Lear-based film, Ran, to the RSC’s Japan-flavoured production of Coriolanus last year, the land of the rising sun and England’s bard have proved to be intriguing bedfellows.

Shakespeare in Malta

Punches and pinches..."Dan Mhux Shakespeare" at St. James

Billy Bob Thornton finds 'The Bard' "bullshit"!