Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London: Return of the Bard » great travel with virtual vacations

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London: Return of the Bard

Virtual Vacation's mission is to explore the most beautiful places in the world and bring you the most beautiful travel pics on the Internet. Eric has posted some lovely pictures of the London Globe with a few tidbits of information about it.

Boom for Bard Jobs?

Boom for Bard Jobs?

Casting at Shakespeare fests doth steer up and down.
By Brad Weismann DENVER

Is the Bard in a boom? In certain respects, the answer seems to be yes. Nearly 100 organizations are listed as members of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America (www.staaonline.org), and many others specialize in classical theatre. As for whether this translates into more work for actors, the proliferation of companies makes it difficult to track job growth, even for Actors' Equity Association.

Royal Shakespeare Company - Chris Abele - Theater - New York Times

Royal Shakespeare Company Gets $5 Million From U.S. Donor

Is this what Shakespeare looked like at the age of 14?

Ben Kingsley has secured the rights to turn a novel about William Shakespeare into a movie and stage production. The actor will co-produce and star as the writer in the film version of Will, based on the upcoming historical book by Christopher Rush about Shakespeare's meeting with his lawyer on his deathbed.

Ian McKellen Sells Out (in ‘King Lear’) - Newsweek Entertainment - MSNBC.com

$2,295 a ticket? Now, That’s High Tragedy

Ian McKellen is a great—and famous—actor. ‘King Lear’ is great Shakespeare. Together they’re the hottest ticket in the country.

A Rose by Any Other Name: Adaptations of Shakespeare

The New York Public Library will present A Rose by Any Other Name, a series of free seminars, discussions, performances, and screenings inspired by the works of William Shakespeare, at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the Library for the Performing Arts (40 Lincoln Center Plaza).

The series will kick off at 6pm on Thursday, September 20 when librettist Arthur Laurents discusses the 50th anniversary of West Side Story. On Thursday, October 11 at 6pm, there will be a screening of Jerome Robbins' ballet, West Side Story Suite, with commentary by author Amanda Valli.

Among the many highlights of the series are discussions with playwright John Guare (October 4), choreographer Lar Lubovitch (November 3), theater critic John Simon (November 19), playwright Paula Vogel (November 26), and choreographer Peter Martins (December 6); a reading of the play Herbie: Poet of the Wild West, based on Hamlet (November 5); a panel discussion featuring designers Jane Greenwood, Natasha Katz, Ming Cho Lee, and Michael Yeargan (November 8); a reading of the re-written final act of Cymbeline, read by actors from Lincoln Center Theater's upcoming production of the play (December 10); and jazz pianist Dick Hyman's setting of Shakespeare's songs (December 12).

For more information, call 212-642-0142 or visit www.nypl.org/lpaprograms. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Wandering water buffalo named Shakespeare dies in car accident | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

Wandering water buffalo named Shakespeare dies in car accident

Ian McKellen: Every Inch a King (and Buff, Too)

New York Times:

By imagining King Lear’s age as “four score and upward,” Shakespeare gave an end-of-career ring to a taxing role that he could hardly have written for octogenarian actors. After all, Richard Burbage, the star of Shakespeare’s company, the King’s Men, was only 39 when he created the part in 1606. And centuries later, in the 1960s, Paul Scofield was a memorable Lear at just 40.

Yet what makes many regard “King Lear” as Shakespeare’s greatest mature tragedy is its unforgiving portrayal of an old man raging against the gods as his power, sanity and life gradually expire. And since actors too suffer the agues of aging, it is always touching to watch a master of the stage take on the role in the autumn of his career.

Now, at 68, it is Ian McKellen’s turn to do so. This week, he brings his Lear to the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater in an acclaimed — and, alas, sold out — new production directed by Trevor Nunn, his old Cambridge University friend."

The many faces of the Bard - Times Online

The many faces of the Bard

A surprising number of people believe someone else wrote Shakespeare’s plays. BIll Bryson analyses the theories, some more madcap than others, that keep the conspiracy bubbling

Nashville teacher can't pin Shakespeare down on religion - Nashville, Tennessee - Saturday, 08/25/07 - Tennessean.com

Nashville teacher can't pin Shakespeare down on religion

Playbill News: Shakespeare Gets Punked Out for Love Sucks at NYMF

Shakespeare Gets Punked Out for Love Sucks at NYMF

Love Sucks, the new punk-rock musical by Stephen O'Rourke and Brandon Patton, will receive its world premiere as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival this September.

Using Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost as inspiration, Love Sucks "is set in the burgeoning underground scene of the 1970's East Village," according to press notes. "Two competing rock bands, The [all-guy] Molotovs and [all-girl] The Guttersnipes, swear off love because they've lost too many musicians to jealous lovers. In order to stay focused on the music, each band member can have sex with someone only three times. But when the guys and girls meet up, their rule comes back to bite them in the ass."

Zee News - `Shakespeare most likely died of syphilis`

Zee News - `Shakespeare most likely died of syphilis`

Bill on Will - Times Online

Bill Bryson on Will

Who was he really? Bestselling author Bill Bryson, fascinated by the mystery of William Shakespeare’s shadowy life, tries his damnedest in a new book to establish the real facts of the Bard

A Midsummer Night's Obsession
Shakespeare troupes abound despite slings and arrows; Puck sees a shark

Shakespeare dumbed down in comic strips for bored UK pupils

Shakespeare's plays are being rewritten as comic strips for pupils who find his poetry boring, it emerged today.

Thousands of teenagers are to study cartoon versions of famous plays such as Macbeth which reduce finely-crafted passages to snappy phrases.

allAfrica.com: Kenya: Shakespeare Defies Time and Space (Page 1 of 1)

Kenya: Shakespeare Defies Time and Space

Just on its second year of study as a set book in Kenya's secondary schools, some critics still have misgivings on the suitability of William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.

The critics say the play's setting is alien in place, time and culture, having been written in 16th Century Europe. Some have also taken issue with archaic English in which the comedy is written.

KENNETH BRANAGH ADAPTS AND DIRECTS AS YOU LIKE IT
PREMIERING AUG. 21, on HBO


HBO Films presents director Kenneth Branagh’s imaginative adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic AS YOU LIKE IT, celebrating the enduring power of love in all its many disguises. Witty, playful and utterly magical, the story is a compelling romantic adventure in which Rosalind and Orlando’s celebrated courtship is played out against a backdrop of political rivalry, banishment and exile in the Forest of Arden – set in 19th-century Japan. The film debuts TUESDAY, AUG. 21 9:00p.m. ET/PT, exclusively on HBO.

Marking Branagh’s fifth Shakespearean screen adaptation, AS YOU LIKE IT features a cast that includes: Brian Blessed (“I, Claudius”), Romola Garai (“Vanity Fair”), Bryce Dallas Howard (“Spider-Man 3”), Kevin Kline (Oscar®-winner for “A Fish Called Wanda”), Adrian Lester (“Hustle”), Janet McTeer (HBO Films’ upcoming “Five Days”), Alfred Molina (“The Da Vinci Code”) and David Oyelowo (HBO Films’ upcoming “Five Days”).

For more information visit HBO.com to read an interview with Brannagh here:
http://www.hbo.com/films/asyoulikeit/interviews/index.html

And check out this preview on iFilm: http://www.ifilm.com/video/2875849

Scotsman.com Living - Performing Arts - Escaping Hamlet

Scotsman.com Living - Performing Arts - Escaping Hamlet

Hamlet (2005)

Hamlet (2005)

"Hamlet", the Derry Film Initiative production of 2005, is now available to view online here:
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-8957003244474950410

As Derry Film Initiative is a not-for-profit organization, and as everyone who contributed their time and talents to the production did so for nothing, it was decided by the producers and director that, rather than distributing the film commercially, it should be shared free of charge to reflect the spirit in which it was created.

Hamlet (2005)

Hamlet (2005)

"Hamlet", the Derry Film Initiative production of 2005, is now available to view online here:
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-8957003244474950410

As Derry Film Initiative is a not-for-profit organization, and as everyone who contributed their time and talents to the production did so for nothing, it was decided by the producers and director that, rather than distributing the film commercially, it should be shared free of charge to reflect the spirit in which it was created.

Michael Gerson - Ourselves in Shakespeare - washingtonpost.com

Michael Gerson - Ourselves in Shakespeare

Polish Radio – External Sernice - Shakespeare in Gdansk

Shakespeare in Gdansk
One of the week’s culture highlights is an International Shakespearean Festival in the Baltic city of Gdansk.

A Piece of Shakespeare's Birthplace on ebay?

Our Secretary of Education Chooses Harry Potter over Shakespeare; Lord What Fools These Mortals Be

Shakespeare in Chaps and a 10-Gallon Hat

If Buffalo Bill Cody had wanted to give his audiences a bit of high culture along with his Wild West shows, he might have come up with something like the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s rip-snorting treatment of “As You Like It.”

No holds bard: Teaching Shakespeare

by: JARREL WADE World Staff Writer, Tulsa World
8/1/2007

Active lessons stressed

A meddler may be who mixt Shakespeare and teens, but schooling those who teach the art yields gold.

Writing in iambic pentameter is no simple task, but teaching students to understand and enjoy Shakespeare in any meter is a feat many middle school English teachers and scholars of all levels fail each semester.

That is why Tulsa's branch of the English-Speaking Union hosted scholars from the the Folger Shakespeare Library from Washington, D.C., and others from around the country this week at the University of Tulsa's Zink Hall.

The Teaching Shakespeare Institute collected Shakespeare scholars from various fields of study and 30 teachers who learned new ways to teach Shakespeare in the program's three different styles of learning: scholarly lecture, teaching classes and teaching through performance.

Ruth Ann Willsey, chairwoman of the local English-Speaking Union's Shakespeare workshop, said the program brings together the country's most talented teachers to offer participants active, practical ways of teaching Shakespeare and the love of language.

"This has been so exciting for me. I can't believe how well it's going," she said. "I didn't do any exercises this morning because I was so tired" from Monday night's workshop, she said.

Michael LoMonico, Folger Shakespeare Library senior consultant, said the teachers who attended were among the best he has encountered through the program, which draws attention wherever it goes.

"We had people apply from out of Oklahoma that we didn't take because we wanted to concentrate on Oklahoma," he said.

About 23 of the institute's participants came from Oklahoma and seven came from out of state, including one from Idaho and another from North Carolina.

Amber Harrington, a teacher at Edison Preparatory School, said the program was intense, but it gave her an educational opportunity that is not specifically offered at many schools.

"I'm a drama teacher, so there isn't any professional development for me. I've never been to Shakespeare camp," she said.

Harrington and fellow teacher Miranda Johnson were performing in a scene Tuesday from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in which Caleen Jennings, professor at American University, told them to overact and have an action for each word to find individual meaning in the play.

"Leap in. Overact. Ham it up," Jennings told the enthusiastic participants. "We are our students."

She said the group was achieving the impossible with only two days devoted to acting and learning to teach Shakespeare from a stage instead of a book.

Lars Engle, chairman of the English department at TU, was a participant in the institute for acting but was also a faculty member who provided morning lectures and seminars.

"I tend to be teaching literature rather than drama, but we often use drama. We do little acting exercises in my classroom," he said.

Paul Stevenson, Edison Preparatory School curriculum specialist, said Tulsa was fortunate to get the institute to help improve local teachers' knowledge and teaching of classic literature.

"It's a real plum for Tulsa. It's something I think Tulsa can be proud of," he said.

Romeo and Juliet Have Cybersex in New Sequel to Shakespeare's Play

Romeo and Juliet Have Cybersex in New Sequel to Shakespeare's Play

Romeo Montague dies for Juliet and awakens in this age on a volcano in Hawaii, where he meets a wise Zen Master. So is the premise of James Edwards' new time-travel romance novel: "Romeo and Juliet: A Modern Day Sequel." In the story, Shakespeare's Juliet has reincarnated as a famous actress who falls in love with Romeo in an Internet chatroom. The story draws on themes from Zen Buddhism, Hollywood narcissism and new-age philosophy as the two star-crossed lovers recall their past lives in Egypt and Atlantis and overcome many obstacles to meet again

Shakespeare performances in Malta

This year the MADC is taking Shakespeare back to the Opera House in Valletta for the first time since World War II. "A Midsummer Nights' Dream", which is part of the Malta Arts Festival organised by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts, will take place on July 25, 27, 28 and 29, 2007. This production, which has an ecological twist, with support by Wasteserv, is being directed by Chris Gatt and co-directed by Denise Mulholland.

The set is being designed by installation artist Pierre Portelli and the costumes are being constructed by Lilliana Portelli and Pierre Stafrace. The production also boasts original music by Alexander Vella Gregory. The choreography is by Emma Loftus.

The cast of "A Midsummer Nights' Dream" includes Edward Mercieca as Bottom, Pia Zammit as Titania, Manuel Cauchi as Theseus/Oberon, Isabella Attard as Puck, Jean Marc Agius Cafa as Lysander, Faye Paris as Hermia, Matthew Gatt as Demetrius, Nerissa Pace as Helena and Coryse Borg as Hippolyta, as well as Alan Montanaro, Paula Fleri-Soler, Wesley Ellul, David Ellul Mercer, Lino Mallia and Martin Azzopardi.

The show is being made accessible to those young people and students who may not be in a position to shell out too much money for a theatrical production. Apart from the usual seats, there will also be a 'standing up' section, with tickets at only Lm2 / €4.66, which will allow people to actually be in the thick of the action. Tickets for "A Midsummer Nights' Dream" at Lm5 / €11.65 and Lm2 / €4.66 (groundlings) may be purchased from http://www.maltaticket.com/, Agenda, Exotique, Newskiosk and Bookends.

Illness Undermines Brooklyn-London Project - New York Times

Illness Undermines Hamlet and Tempest in Brooklyn-London Project

Illness has forced postponement of the Bridge Project, a joint venture involving the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Old Vic theater company of London and the director Sam Mendes.

From January to March, the project, employing a company of British and American actors in performances of a double bill of classics at the Brooklyn Academy, the Old Vic and at least one international theater each year, was to have brought Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and “Tempest” to New York. Both were to feature Stephen Dillane, who starred on Broadway in 2000 in the revival of Tom Stoppard’s “Real Thing.”

But an announcement from the Academy and the Old Vic said, “With great regret and due to personal reasons arising from family illness, Dillane has had to withdraw from the initial cycle of this three-year initiative.” As a result, the Bridge Project will open at the Brooklyn Academy in January 2009 with Shakespeare’s “Winter’s Tale” and Chekhov’s “Cherry Orchard,” after rehearsals beginning in New York in October 2008.

The productions will be directed by Mr. Mendes and star Simon Russell Beale as Leontes and Lopakhin.

lamonitor.com: The Online News Source for Los Alamos

Did Shakespeare Write Like a Girl?

Truly, madly magnificent: Ian McKellan in Australia as Lear

Taking on the Everest of acting roles, Ian McKellen gives us a King Lear to crown his brilliant career, writes Peter Craven.

It's one of the familar paradoxes of the contemporary apprehension of Shakespeare that, where the 19th century saw the labyrinth of introspection in Hamlet as the zenith of Shakespeare's art, since the time of World War I we've seen King Lear as the towering mountain in Shakespeare's work.

Signing Shakespeare

Students from the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are once again participating in the city’s annual Shakespeare event as part of “Celebrate Shakespeare Day” on July 28.

Citi Performing Arts Center is hosting that day in correlation with the July 24-29 professional performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” during “Free Shakespeare on the Common.” “Celebrate Shakespeare Day” is the conclusion to the center’s four-week Shakespeare education program. The Horace Mann students, who have been studying “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” will become actors as they perform for a crowd of thousands on the Boston Common.

The Juliet Letters

I received the following article from Andrew Anderson of Lier, Belgium

"The Juliet Letters" by Andrew Anderson

In these times of e-mails and text messages, the handwritten letter is fast becoming an anachronism. In the North Italian city of Verona however, this art form lives on through missives not written to a living person, but to Shakespeare’s Juliet, the girl with the most beautiful love story in the world.

Verona is the city of romance, where 700 years ago, the most famous love story of all time 'Romeo and Juliet’ first saw the light of day. All year round, you can see couples of all ages walking arm-in-arm around the historic centre, drawn irresistibly to the house on Via Capello known as ‘Juliet’s’. The balcony is far too modern to be where Juliet listened to Romeo’s declaration of love, but nevertheless draws large crowds.

Outside stands a bronze statue of Juliet. Tourists rub the right breast for good luck. No surprise that it is now considerably shinier than the left.

Since the turn of the last century, messages have been left at Juliet’s tomb in a former monastery about a 15-minute walk from Juliet’s house. But since the late 1930s, probably inspired by the film release of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, letters began to arrive addressed to Juliet. For many years, the custodian of the tomb, Ettore Solimani, answered the letters.

In the 1980s, a group of volunteers began to answer them, receiving a subsidy from the city for stationery and postage costs. The ‘Juliet Club’ was born.

The Club receive hundreds of letters a week in many different languages from all over the world. Some are simply addressed ‘To Juliet, Verona’, but the postman knows to deliver them to the Club’s Via Galilei headquarters. The letters are from writers of all ages and backgrounds. The emotions expressed are timeless, and many reflect how a particular issue or social movement shaped the writer’s feelings and perspectives. When the Club first started, a Turkish NATO commander and staff from local Chinese restaurants helped with translations. Nowadays, a network of translators around the globe works on the letters. The answers are always personal, and despite the sadness and loneliness often expressed in the letters received, the Club always tries to be positive and encouraging in their replies, signing off as ‘Juliet’.

Around Valentines Day they choose the ‘Juliet letter’, the most beautiful letter of the year. The event has become famous enough to bring artists and stars such as Andrea Bocelli and Franco Zeffirelli to the city to award the prize. The winning writer wins an all expenses paid weekend in Verona.

The Club now has more than 50,000 letters stored in boxes. A quick glance through them reveals how they have become a reflection of the changing times. The letters are from couples in love, and people looking for love. There are many people who write over and over again, presumably seeing Juliet as a sort of pen friend. The Club even once received an official wedding invitation.

Many write to Juliet the way children write to Father Christmas, hoping she can bring them the gift they desire the most – true love. A woman from the Ukraine writes: “I have an unmarried 27-year old daughter who is looking for a fiancé. Can Juliet help?”

There is a letter from a priest: “You do fantastic work. You and I both stand in service to love, each in a different way. God bless you”.

In 2006, two American sisters, Ceil and Lise Friedman put together a book which includes the stories behind about 75 of the letters received down the years, together with features over the volunteers who have worked for the Club. Ceil Friedman notes that in the early years, the writers of the letters were concerned with questions of race or class, or about a loved one who had perished in a war. In more recent times, the letters are more about personal feelings. The majority of the modern day letter writers are women. Maybe this is because women are simply more romantic by nature, or they simply believe that the letters will bring them happiness in their lives.

As a concession to modern day technology, the Club does now have an e-mail address. However the vast majority of correspondence is received by letter, and mostly handwritten. The volunteers who respond to the letters believe that this is because writing with a pen is still a more intimate process, requiring more concentration, and making it easier to express emotions.

Lise Friedman sums it up in her book. “It’s about suspending disbelief, and having a life of the imagination”.

Stratford puts Shakespeare back into festival

Stratford puts Shakespeare back into festival

The Stratford Festival of Canada is changing its name in an effort to demonstrate its commitment to the works of the Bard.The classical repertory theatre in Stratford, Ont., will go by the name the Stratford Shakespeare Festival beginning in November, with the launch of the 2008 season.

Branagh Adapts And Directs Shakespeare's 'As You Like It,' Debuting Aug. 21, On HBO - Starpulse News Blog

Branagh Adapts And Directs Shakespeare's 'As You Like It,' Debuting Aug. 21, On HBO

When the play really was the thing - The Boston Globe

When the play really was the thing - The Boston Globe

A review of:
The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America
By Nigel Cliff
Random House, 312 pp., illustrated, $26.95
and
Becoming Shakespeare: The Unlikely Afterlife That Turned a Provincial Playwright Into the Bard
By Jack Lynch
Walker, 306 pp., illustrated, $24.95

Orange County Premiere of Joe Calarco’s “Shakespeare’s R & J” at The Chance Theater explores intellectual and sexual repression in our youth

Orange County Premiere of Joe Calarco’s “Shakespeare’s R & J”

As its sixth production in its 9th Anniversary Season, The Chance Theater is pleased to present the Orange County Premiere of Joe Calarco’s “Shakespeare’s R & J,” a new adaptation of the tragic love story enacted by four school boys, from August 12 through September 16.

The play is directed by Patricia Ansuini, who last directed the Back Stage West Critic’s Pick production of “Coyote on a Fence” at The Chance Theater in 2006.“Shakespeare’s R & J” follows four Catholic school boys as they sneak out in the middle of the night to act out a forbidden play: Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. What starts as a light-hearted experiment gradually becomes more dangerous as these young men are allowed to explore what has been boiling under the surface all along. In this adaptation, Joe Calarco skillfully uses only Shakespeare’s words (from the play’s original text, and some sonnets) to tell the story of these repressed teenagers.

Shakespeare’s First Folio from Shakespeare's Globe


On 12 July, Shakespeare's Globe and the British Library launched a series of facsimile editions of individual plays from Shakespeare's First Folio, beginning with Othello, The Merchant of Venice and Love's Labour's Lost, the plays that are in repertory at Shakespeare's Globe during its 2007 theatre season.

One of the British Library's five copies of the First Folio has recently been photographed especially for the series. Further facsimiles will be produced to coincide with future Shakespeare's Globe productions.

Macbeth Film: The Weird Sisters Prophesy Blood From a Dance Floor

For four centuries William Shakespeare’s plays have been reinvented to fit contemporary sensibilities. But few recent efforts can match the Australian writer and director Geoffrey Wright’s brutal and thrilling new version, which envisions the thane of Cawdor as a longhaired, drug-addled gangster and his poisoned realm as a decadent MTV dreamscape of nymphet witches, smoky nightclubs and point-blank, slow-motion gun battles.

For a Midsummer Night, a Quick, Vibrant ‘Dream’

The faint of heart and the weak of limb have no place in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” this year’s Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey Outdoor Stage production in the bucolic Greek amphitheater at the College of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station.

Here's a note from Robert Savage

Shakespeare Defined (www.shakespearedefined.com), which just launched, is a version of the Complete Works with a difference -- it has over 400,000 "mousenotes" (context-sensitive word definitions) accessible simply by hovering one's mouse over a word.

The definitions were painstakingly mapped from Schmidt's "Shakespeare Lexicon".

Here's a sample page:
http://www.shakespearedefined.com/1henryiv/1henryiv.1.1.html

The goal is to help readers understand the plays, poems, and sonnets like never before.

I'll probably charge a nominal fee for the service in the near future, but for now it's free.

Hope you enjoy it!

Robert Savage

Kyogen meets Shakespeare: Nomura Mansai's take on Richard III

Kyogen player Nomura Mansai compares the works of William Shakespeare to a giant tree with a dense tangle of branches. "You need to trim the branches when presenting the works in a kyogen style, since it is a much simpler form of performing art," Nomura said.

So, Nomura is going to present Kuninusubito (Thief of a Nation), a kyogen-inspired play based on Richard III, at Setagaya Public Theatre in Tokyo later this month as something like a "beautiful bonsai tree."

Placing Shakespeare in an African context

The relevance of the works of William Shakespeare in the African educational curriculum often raises questions from various sectors. Why should Shakespeare be recommended as a national set-work year in and year out, when there are internationally renowned works from African writers like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka?

Victor Houliston, associate professor of English at Wits University says, "Shakespeare continues to be central to the English curriculum not only because of his unequalled influence on contemporary authors and his unparalleled fame as a writer, but because people throughout the world find that he tells their story, here and now."

However, schoolchildren can now have the best of both worlds. Nasou Via Afrika, a leading educational publisher in South Africa has partnered with Wits University to produce a series of books that marks an exciting new approach to teaching and learning Shakespeare in an African context.

"Instead of trying to 'Africanise' Shakespeare, we encourage learners to be inspired, by their enjoyment of Shakespeare, to read works by African writers that raise similar issues or develop similar situations. "This gives the text currency and links it to contemporary African issues which school children relate to and engage with," says Houliston.

"The book introduces the rich tradition of African literature while supporting the teaching of Shakespeare and the text is designed to enhance learners' understanding and enjoyment of the play."

The series offers the original text, together with line-by-line notes that explain the text and offer comprehensive background information. It includes a clear commentary after every scene and act and includes practical exercises.

Houliston's team includes experienced teachers such as Harriet Davis, Peter Farrands, Zwelakhe Mtsaka and Joanna Parmenter, all of whom have close connections with Wits.

Davis and Parmenter are graduates of the prestigious MA in English Education programme, developed by Denise Newfield of the English Department.

The first book of this innovative series, Macbeth, was launched at Cape Town Book Fair. The series will also be launched at the Seventh Triennial Congress of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa that takes place 25 June at Rhodes University, Grahamstown and a teachers' workshop is also scheduled to take place in Gauteng later this year.

Scotsman.com News - UK - Hubble, bubble Shakespeare's in trouble with history experts

Hubble, bubble Shakespeare's in trouble with history experts

Here's a "new" discovery by some "experts" in Scotland. The comments following the article are priceless.

Sword fights and sad tales? Must be Shakespeare | csmonitor.com

Sword fights and sad tales? Must be Shakespeare

For kids: Every spring, Denver's students get to participate in a festival honoring the world's most influential playwright and poet.

Drumbeats and tambourines echoed off the high-rise buildings and into the bright May sky, as excited students waved school banners through the air and chanted, "Will Power, Will Power – Shakespeare!"

It's the 23rd annual Denver Public Schools Shakespeare Festival, a day that honors the most influential playwright and poet who ever lived.

The Georgian Tbilisi State Pantomime Theatre to Stage Shakespeare’s Sonnets Silently

Dato Shalikashvili, director of the piece, started to think about this performance about one year ago, and he has been thinking about it till this day. During this time—five months already!—he has been working on it. The troupe rehearses the piece on stage, and Dato continues to think. It seems like he wants to make a perfect show. However, he has time to think till the day of premiere, June 27.

The genre of pantomime—like Shakespeare’s dramatic pieces—is always topical, right for any time, in any place. Classic is classic, and nobody can refute this fact. Today, when our life and the world around us changes its face, we can transform old things and show them in a new way. Shalikashvili a has peculiar view, and because of this his play is really original. Like a person of the Renaissance, he is trying to build new walls on a classical foundation.

Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended

from The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Who's on First?

This Shakespearean version was performed by the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey.

Fernando Meirelles to Direct Shakespeare Comedy Love's Labors Lost « FirstShowing.net

Fernando Meirelles to Direct Shakespeare Comedy Love's Labors Lost

The Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (City of God, Constant Gardener) is going to be directing a loose adaptation of the Shakespeare comedy Love's Labors Lost after he finishes his other film called Blindness. Announcing at Cannes in France, Meirelles stated “after I do Blindness’ which is a very dark story, I'll really need to do a comedy," which is an intereting direction for him considering how incredibly dark and deep both City of God and Constant Gardener are. Although Love's Labors Lost is originally a Shakespeare comedy, Meirelles’ adaptation will be based on the novel by Brazilian screenplay writer Jorge Furtado.

Kentucky Shakespeare Festival announces the 47th season of Shakespeare in Central Park.

Kentucky Shakespeare Festival will open the 2007 summer season on June 21, 2007 beginning with the professional production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. This play has enjoyed three other productions since its 1969 debut in Central Park.

The second production of the summer season will be the lighthearted comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, performed by the Festival’s high school theatre troupe, the Globe Players. Since its 1964 premiere in Central Park, the play has been produced seven times by the Festival’s professional acting company. This season marks the first time that the Globe Players will be performing The Taming of the Shrew.

In addition, the Festival provides accessibility to everyone with the return of Shadow Sign performances for both Measure for Measure and The Taming of the Shrew. Courtesy of the National Endowment for the Arts, the hearing impaired will be able to view signing actors as they shadow the other actors on select evenings.

Since 1960, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival has been dedicated to providing free, professional, classical theatre to the community. Performances are held at the C. Douglas Ramey Amphitheatre in Central Park. The park is located in historic Old Louisville at the corner of 4th and Magnolia. As tradition, all summer performances are free of charge and begin at 8:00 p.m.

All new this season is The Greenshow, pre-play entertainment and activities. Summer audiences can arrive early for madrigal singers, jugglers, sword fighters, music, Shakespeare Youth Academy performances, Shakespeare spoofs, and much more. The Greenshow festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. on select evenings.

Calendar:
June 20- Sneak Preview Measure for Measure
June 21-24, June 26-July 1, July 3-8- Measure for Measure
July 13-15- Measure for Measure Shadow Sign Performances
July 10-11- The Taming of the Shrew
July 12- The Taming of the Shrew Shadow Sign Performance
July 10-15- Pre-show entertainment in the Kids’ Globe at rear of amphitheatre
July 12 & 14- Professional child care provided during performance in the Kids’ Globe
June 22-23, June 28-30, July 6-7, July 10-15- The Greenshow

"Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Remixed" – new book about personality of love by Nigel Tomm

"Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Remixed" – new book about personality of love by Nigel Tomm

Shakespeare, Quick and Quirky. Huzzah!

New York Times

Shakesperience — the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey’s first gathering of middle and high school students from across the state — maintained a lively tone, with 123 teenagers and preteens, some in Renaissance costume and others in ripped jeans, shouting “Huzzah!” and otherwise making merry.

The event was one the theater and Rider University plan to repeat annually as part of a new partnership with the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington.

[more]

National Shakespeare Competition

16,000 Students Speaking Shakespeare!

In the English-Speaking Union's National Shakespeare Competition, 16,000 students and 2,000 teachers from across the United States participated in a curriculum-based program designed to help high school students develop their communications skills and appreciation of language and literature, through the study, interpretation and performance of Shakespeare's monologues and sonnets.

On the Shakespeare's 443rd birthday, the grand finale was held at Lincoln Center.

Congratulations to Adam Brown from the Youth Performing Arts School in Kentucky (First Place), Jeweline Hale from the Curie Metropolitan High School in Chicago (Second Place), and Kristopher Dean from the North Penn High School in Philadelphia (Third Place) and all the amazingly talented participants.

Click here to see Adam Brown's awe-inspiring performance of (1) Sonnet 130, (2) Shylock from The Merchant of Venice (Act III, Scene 1, lines 53-73 with cuts), and (3) his cold reading of Berowne from Love's Labour's Lost. With this brilliant performance Adam won a scholarship provided by the British American Drama Academy (BADA) to their four-week Midsummer in Oxford drama program in classical theater.

You can view the performances of the ten finalists here as well.

Shakespeare Gets Comic Treatment

The appetite of publishers for comic book - or graphic novel - versions of Shakespeare plays seems undimmed. But is this a valid way of introducing the Bard to new readers?

The Shakespeare Collection Comes to DVD August 14

Warner Bros. is getting literary in August!

Warner Home Video will debut a four title collection of William Shakespeare's most famous screen adaptations on August 14. Leading the group will be the long-awaited DVD debut of Kenneth's Branagh's Hamlet 2- Disc Special Edition, featuring a magnificent all-star cast. The collection also includes three other famous Shakespeare screen translations, all making their highly-demanded premieres on DVD -- Max Reinhardt's legendary production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which featured virtually the entire Warner Bros. stable of stars circa 1935, Sir Laurence Olivier's Othello, and the lavish M-G-M version of Romeo and Juliet starring Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer.

Shakespeare Comes to Calamity Creek

The mischievous villain, the pure heroine, and the well-intentioned hero -- all the components that combine to create a good ole’ fashioned Western melodrama. Costa Mesa High School’s production of 'Shakespeare Comes to Calamity Creek' delivered all of the above with a musical spin. Written by Tim Kelly, this upbeat musical catapults the audience into a time of prospecting and notorious outlaws. A traveling troupe of Shakespearian actors arrives in Calamity Creek only to turn this typical mining town upside-down.

Shakespeare play's marquee banner no habla Español

Spanish words on a marquee outside Wagner High School advertising a Spanish-language version of the Shakespeare comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream" — "Un Sueno en Una Noche de Verano" — were changed to English after the school received calls of complaint.

The production, which opened Thursday and ends with a matinee today, is using a script translated into Spanish by Wagner drama teacher Laurence Wensel.

The cast members, several of them native Spanish-speakers who are now bilingual, showed enthusiasm for producing the famous play in Spanish.

Open Letters Monthly » The Bard of Everybody

Garrett Handley reviews the Royal Shakespeare Company's revision of Shakespeare's First Folio.

Corrections: For the Record - New York Times

Corrections: Knock Knock

Here's a curious correction that appeared in the NY Times today:

A books column in Weekend on Friday, about several books on Shakespeare released to coincide with his birthday last month, referred incorrectly to the porter’s actions in “Macbeth.” He opens the gate; he does not knock on it.

Shakesperience brings the Bard down to Earth

Shakesperience brings the Bard down to Earth

When most kids think of William Shakespeare, the playwright they are studying in their English classes does not usually conjure up much excitement.

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey wants to change that and get kids excited about the Bard. So they invited kids to perform Shakespeare's works for each other in a day, highlighting the study of the playwright through performance.

NPR : Would Life Be Better If We All Spoke Shakespeare?

Talk of the Nation

Shakespeare died almost 400 years ago, but if blogger Joe Muldoon had it his way, we would all still speak like the Bard. Muldoon talks about his op-ed, 'We Can't All Be Shakespeare — But We Could Try to Be,' which appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune." Muldoon is joined by Gail Paster, head of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Shakespeare Books Reviewed in the New York Times

"Keeping the Faith With Shakespeare"

Willam Grimes reviews the latest Shakespeare books.

'Julius X' remixes Malcolm and Shakespeare

'Julius X' remixes Malcolm and Shakespeare in Detroit

How's this for confidence? In his play 'Julius X,' Al Letson Jr. dares to alter the way we think about two iconic figures, Julius Caesar and Malcolm X -- three, if you count Shakespeare.

'Julius X,' in its world premiere at Plowshares Theatre, re-imagines Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' as the story of Malcolm X's assassination -- and vice versa. Brutus and Cassius are renamed Brutus Muhammad and Cassius 10X. Like their Shakespearean counterparts, the chief conspirators are motivated by a jumble of jealousy, ambition and patriotism -- the latter meaning devotion to Harlem, the Nation of Islam and black people in general."

CTV.ca | Video game helps kids learn about Shakespeare

Video game helps kids learn about Shakespeare

Makers of a new video game are hoping students will become excited about Shakespeare by trading in their books for a spaceship.

University of Guelph English professor Dan Fischlin came up with 'Speare, based on the works of William Shakespeare, in an effort to get young people interested again in the literary legend.

As the character 'Speare, players must save the planet from evil ships that have captured the ancient text of Romeo and Juliet.

Did He or Didn’t He? That Is the Question - New York Times

Did He or Didn’t He? That Is the Question

The New York Times survey of professors of Shakespeare, conducted March 5 though 29, is based on a random sample of colleges and universities in the United States that offer degree programs in English. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 5 percentage points. Professors were sent an e-mail invitation to complete the survey online.

These are the survey results.

A Shakespeare play’s the thing - Newsday.com

A Shakespeare Play’s the Thing

THE BOOK OF AIR AND SHADOWS, by Michael Gruber. William Morrow, 480 pp., $24.95.

A man, a moll and a gun used to do the trick, but now thrillers come at you bulked out in learned controversy and scholarly intrigue. Blame it on "The Da Vinci Code" or "The Rule of Four" - take your pick. Sure, there are scams and cons galore in these blockbusters, but they don't involve knocking off the corner bank. There is much greater game afoot, usually involving world history. With "The Book of Air and Shadows," it's an unpublished play by Shakespeare, which, as one character effuses, "would be certainly the most valuable single manuscript, perhaps the most valuable portable object, in the world." Not many bank vaults can compete with that.

April Shakespeare Quiz

This quiz is from Sam Sacks and was posted on his blog, Open Letters.

There’s nothing quite like a good quiz to get the mental juices flowing, but they’ve become intensely problematic in this age of instantaneous Internet content at everybody’s fingertips. Google and Wikipedia and like sites are pirate-coves for the lazy and the cheatful, and so the monthly Open Letters quiz will rely entirely on the honor system: readers are expected to rely on their memories alone. And no quiz would be complete without incentive! The first reader to respond with the highest number of correct answers will receive a book in the mail, courtesy of the editors at Open Letters.
Email your answers to quiz@openlettersmonthly.com .

Roger Rees's Shakespeare: Verily a Stand-Up Kind of Guy

Roger Rees wants you to learn to stop worrying and love the Bard.

He arrives onstage in "What You Will," his new one-man show, with a bust of the playwright under his arm, and proceeds to talk to and about him in the flippant manner of one who is not impressed with the writer's body of work. As he notes with a conspiratorial sneer, there weren't that many people on the planet in Shakespeare's time.

"Anyone," Rees notes tongue-in-cheekily, "could get published in those days."

This contrarian prologue to the 90-minute piece, which had its premiere over the weekend in a brief run at Folger Theatre, establishes an easygoing accessibility and the actor's charming campaign to divest the appreciation of Shakespeare of any fusty traces of reverence.

Last Play at Royal Shakespeare Theatre

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre will hold its last performance this weekend before closing for a multi-million pound refurbishment.

The £100m transformation of the world famous listed building, which opened in 1932, should be completed by 2010.

Plans include a "thrust" stage for the main theatre, a 108ft (33m) tower at the entrance and a riverside walkway.

During the work, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) will operate at the nearby 1,000-seat Courtyard Theatre.

The last play before the refurbishment, the tragedy Coriolanus, will be performed on Saturday.

South African Musical Takes Shakespeare to Soweto

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters Life!) - Soweto Story, a new musical version of Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet set in a present-day Johannesburg ghetto, underscores the deep rich-poor divide that dogs post-apartheid South Africa.

The adaptation takes place in the storied Soweto township -- once a hive of anti-apartheid activity that has grown into a mix of tidy suburbs to serve a growing black middle class next to tin shacks for the poor majority.

The story follows Vuyani Kheswa, the contemporary Romeo, a poor young man from the Xhosa tribe whose love affair with the well-to-do Thandi Thwala, his Zulu Juliet, was doomed from the start because their families are taxi industry rivals.

Galway Independent

Shakespeare at An Taibhdhearc in Galway

An exciting production of the William Shakespeare classic 'The Merchant of Venice commenced at An Taibhdhearc last night (Tuesday).

The production is the first from a newly formed Galway drama group, Tungsten Theatre Company. The director, Frank Commins, is well known from his involvement with Clarinbridge Drama Group and Knocknacarra Amateur Theatre Society (KATS). He found Tungsten Theatre Company, after completing his Diploma in Drama at NUI, Maynooth."

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Bite-sized Shakespeare over lunch

Bite-sized Shakespeare over Lunch

LONDON (Reuters) - For office workers who may have suffered an indigestible diet of compulsory Shakespeare at school, Lunchbox Theatre offers a perfect remedy -- bitesized chunks of the Bard.

An enterprising theatre company in the heart of London serves up instant culture -- Shakespeare classics condensed into 45-minute shows that can be enjoyed with a beer and a sandwich.

Guthrie 'Merchant' Delivers the Goods

Women wield tremendous power in "The Merchant of Venice," even if they do needlepoint as a ruse to protect the egos of clueless men.

That is one of the points that is finely illumined in Joe Dowling's exquisite production of "The Merchant of Venice," which opened Friday with the divine Michelle O'Neill delivering an excellent performance as Portia.

The first Shakespearean play on the Guthrie's Wurtele Thrust stage, "Merchant" is elegantly designed by Riccardo Hernandez (his set features a floor inlaid with interlocking circles and gold-hued, cathedral-style doors ringing the half-circle world of the play); Paul Tazewell (gorgeous period costumes), and Matthew Reinert (lights). One can only guess at the budget for such sumptuousness.

Be It Padua or Illyria, Boys Will Be Boisterous:

Propellor's The Taming of the Shrew - Twelfth Night at BAM

Even advanced urban pack rats will be impressed by what the Propeller Company can cram into a single closet. Walk-in wardrobes on wheels are the scenic stars of this all-male London-based troupe’s boisterous and inventive productions of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” and “Twelfth Night” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

One Shakespeare play in 6 languages


The recreation of Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been brought to life in London by an infusion of multilingual performers from India and Sri Lanka, various Asian dance styles and acrobatics is a theatrical delight.

Here's a video clip.

Young Inmates Strut Their Hour Upon the Stage

By Marc Fisher

Banquo, brave and noble, wears dreadlocks, sleeps in a one-man cell and lives behind a towering fence of razor wire.

He describes himself as a 'fun and easy' guy who stands up for his friend Macbeth. But although Banquo sees through what Shakespeare calls 'the instruments of darkness,' Macbeth succumbs to his base desires."

Macbeth in Alaska: North by Northwest

The Southeastern Alaskan language Tlingit -- pronounced "klinkit" -- isn't especially full of sound and fury in the "Macbeth" of Juneau's Perseverance Theatre. But that's because in this production, which has been carefully imbued with Tlingit symmetry and ceremony by director Anita Maynard-Losh, the most bloody-minded speeches are rendered in English.

A political indictment of murderous ambition as a white man's game? That's seems like a reasonable conclusion as Jake Waid's Macbeth smoothly speaks Tlingit to his brethren, then turns to the audience and confides in English, "Stars, hide your fires; let not night light see my black and deep desires."

Yet it's not overt politics so much as two-faced secrecy that seems to be the issue in this faintly studious show, which fits beautifully inside the round Rasmuson Theater at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. (Pinpoint starlight even glows from the ceiling that undulates over the audience.) Shiftiness is hard-wired to this easy-to-follow bilingual format. Keep an eye on the convenient English surtitles of Johnny Marks's Tlingit translation for most of the cast, then get the straight hard plots and paranoia in English from the scheming couple.

America adopts the Bard:

"Shakespeare in American Life" at the Folger

The United States is in many ways an invented country. Founded by Englishmen and other Europeans seeking greater opportunity in the New World, the raw Colonial frontier lacked its own identity at first. Eventually, the early settlements matured, and new cities and a fledgling professional class arose.

Seeking the comforts of civilization as well as the stimulation of the arts, settlers found they still needed to import culture and cultural icons from the Old World to lay a foundation for the New. In many ways, the impressive body of work penned by English playwright William Shakespeare was drafted to serve as America's literary cornerstone.

The importance of Shakespeare in this country is now being celebrated by the Folger Shakespeare Library in a new exhibition entitled "Shakespeare in American Life." Co-curated by the husband-and-wife scholarly team of historian Alden T. Vaughan and Shakespeare specialist Virginia Mason Vaughan, the exhibit opened this week and will run through most of the summer.

Hebrew 'Hamlet' Gives the Bard A Few Turns

By Peter Marks Washington Post

In Omri Nitzan's Hebrew-language "Hamlet," the chair's the thing.

The one you're sitting on, that is. It and 169 others have been imported from Israel and installed for the occasion in the center of Signature Theatre's big new black-box space. They swivel 360 degrees -- a feature absolutely essential to appreciating the fleet and lively "Hamlet" that the Tel Aviv-based Cameri Theatre has brought to Washington for the week. [more]

Clues to Acting Shakespeare


From the author's introduction:

The intention of this book is to help the working actor discover and use specific skills for acting Shakespeare.There about acting Shakespeare, but most deal with historical, philosophical, or personal approaches to the characters.They offer interpretations of these characters that are often drawn from actual performances (e.g., Antony Sher's Year of the King But for the working actor struggling with blank verse, only a few of these books are of "immediate" or practical value. Several voice studies that illustrate theunion of Shakespearean text and developed vocal skills are the most useful. When preparing to act a role, the actor must learn to handle the language of the specific play so that the character will be truthful in both intention and presentation. Heightened language, as in Shakespeare’s plays, can be difficult, and failure to handle it effectively will quickly destroy an otherwise well-intended characterization. Therefore the actor must train the voice and then learn specific skills to handle this language. Once these skills have become practice, books that talk about acting Shakespeare are very helpful for character research and analysis. That few books are available to help the working actor gain the skills necessary to handle verse is not surprising. A coach or director cannot write about this process until he or she has worked with hundreds of actors and discovered successful techniques.

macbEth: the opera in South Africa


Theatre innovator Brett Bailey stages his extraordinary theatrical interpretation of Verdi’s opera ‘Macbeth’ in the amphitheatre at the Spier Summer Arts Season. Verdi based his work on Shakespeare’s dark drama of power, treachery, guilt and witchcraft. Bailey and composer Peter Louis van Dijk have cut about 45 minutes off the original to make a fast-paced, streamlined 90 minute piece rich in visual imagery.

Bailey has located the drama in a contemporary Central African state and says “Shakespeare’s play, located in a tribal society characterised by violent coups d’etat, tenacious political leaders, rebel insurgencies and a belief system rich in soothsayers and lends itself superbly to an African setting.”

An earlier version of this work played to sold out houses and critical acclaim in Cape Town (2001) and Pretoria (2002). Bailey says that his understanding of opera, of directing and of the post-colonial landscape of Africa have come along way since then and promises a much deeper and clearer theatrical and musical experience.

Conducted by Chris Dowdeswell, “macbEth: the opera” stars world-renowned baritone Fikile Mvinjelwa in the title role, and Nobulumko Mngxekeza as Lady Macbeth. The multi-media production also features dancers, actors and the Cape Town Opera Vocal Ensemble.

Presenters from London’s Barbican Theatre and from opera houses and festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland and France will be attending the opening night with an eye to buying the production.

“macbEth: the opera” is a collaboration between Bailey’s company – Third World Bunfight – and Cape Town Opera. Third World has been the resident performance company at Spier since 2004, where it has presented works such as Big Dada, Medeia and Orfeus. Several of the company’s pieces have toured abroad.

Cape Town Opera, the “Voice of the Nation”, have had huge successes locally and abroad with operas such as Porgy and Bess and The Magic Flute.

No opera would have the same impact without a live orchestra and the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra adds another dimension to this extraordinary representation of macbEth.

“macbEth: the opera” plays at the Spier amphitheatre between 15 -17 March and 21- 23 March at 20h00. For further information visit Spier’s website, http://www.spierarts.org.za/, or call Computicket or the booking office at Spier on 021 809 1111.

10 Questions for Mark Rylance

Mark Rylance spent ten years as artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, during which time he oversaw the launch of the South Bank replica of the Elizabethan playhouse and its rise to become one of London’s most recognised landmarks. "

We interviewed Mark for Shakespeare Magazine just as he took over the Globe. Now he answers some questions as he leaves.

Asians In Media magazine | Theatre: Indian version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream returns

Indian version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream returns

Following a sensational sell-out run at the Royal Shakespeare Company last year, Dash arts' Indian Dream, directed by Tim Supple, comes to the Roundhouse for a six week run; prior to a major UK and international tour"

Remixing Shakespeare's Sonnets Online

BookRags.com announces the release of the "Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-up," an interactive web application that invites users to remix Shakespeare’s sonnets to create entirely new poems.

The program lets users explore the structure of the sonnet form and rhyme Shakespeare’s lines in new and inventive ways."Students learn faster in a hands-on environment," said Jim Yagmin, co-founder of BookRags.com.

"The Sonnet Shake-up is a great tool for learning about the sonnet form, and it’s also great fun."Teaching Shakespeare has always been a challenge, and some teachers have begun using tools like the Sonnet Shake-up to bring excitement to the classroom.

"Moving around lines and creating a logical flow of ideas just as Shakespeare did 400 years ago—this tool lets my students experience Shakespeare, rather than study at him from afar," said Wendy Carpenter, a high school English teacher. Carpenter created an entire class assignment around the application.

"Students want to be engaged. Writing a sonnet from scratch is a dreadful assignment for them, but remixing Shakespeare online, that gets them excited.

"The Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-up is online at:http://www.bookrags.com/sonnet/

Skeletons Locked in Eternal Embrace: Could they be Romeo & Juliet?

It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love. Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in an eternal embrace and buried outside Mantua, Italy, just 25 miles south of Verona, the city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet.

After being found at the site where a factory is planned, people worldwide have speculated on the circumstances surrounding the couple's deaths. They are thought to have died young because they both had all their teeth intact. But beyond that, the skeletons are a mystery. Archaeologists announced Monday that they will move the entire block of earth the skeletons are resting in for further study and eventual display in a museum."

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Stars & Stripes: All the base is a stage for Shakespeare at Misawa

All the Air Force Base is a Stage for Shakespeare at Misawa Japan

By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Tuesday, February 13, 2007

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — With less than a week before the curtain opens on the Misawa Theater Guild’s production of “Romeo and Juliet,” Natalie Bilger has a lot of stitches to sew."

Not only is Bilger, 25, directing the Shakespeare play, she’s also the show’s seamstress, in charge of designing and sewing more than 20 Renaissance-era costumes.

Senior Airman Nathaniel Parry stars as Romeo, while Victoria Benson, a student at Edgren High School, plays Juliet.

Juliet’s costume, a green and yellow floor-length gown with a matching bodice, is almost finished, taking Bilger about a day and a half to complete. Bilger, a stay-at-home mom and wife of Staff Sgt. Joseph Bilger, said she’s a stickler for details, basing her costumes off of Renaissance patterns she orders from the Internet and altering them to fit the period.

Bilger said she learned to sew at 16 when she “accidentally” was put into a clothing design class in high school. She’s not sure seamstresses are a dying breed, she said, but a lot of people tell her, “I wish I knew how to sew.”

Shakespeare's Globe Announces Its 2007 Theatre Season

The three Shakespeare plays this season are all explorations of the promise and problems of his own moment, the late Renaissance. Othello and The Merchant of Venice are largely set in Venice – a city where East met West and where wealth and romance concealed commercialism and prejudice. Love’s Labour's Lost, is set in Navarre, where all the exuberance of young people in love with the world, each other, and the language they use to celebrate life, pours out unimpeded.

The three new plays celebrate tipping-points in history. They are reviving their great hit of last summer, Howard Brenton’s In Extremis, a love story about Abelard and Heloise. Jack Shepherd has written Holding Fire! for the Globe, an account of the Chartist movement, and a vivid, picturesque journey through early Victorian England. The third new play, We The People, recreates the moment in Philadelphia in 1787, when 50 men sat down over a long, hot summer, and wrote down what the United States could and should be.

Web Words Weightier than Shakespeare's in Australia

Studying the content of websites is considered more important in a senior school English curriculum than learning about Shakespeare's plays.

An expert group of English academics, teachers and professionals rated prose fiction, Australian writers and contemporary literature as the three most essential elements of an English curriculum for Year 12 students. "

BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Teachers split over Shakespeare

British Teachers Split over Shakespeare

Teachers have steered the Shakespeare curriculum for younger pupils in England away from Othello and Henry IV Part I in favour of lighter texts.

Laugh and Cry at Shakespeare in Bristol

Audiences will be given the opportunity to laugh and cry as both comedy and tragedy arrive in Bristol. Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory will feature a professional company performing two sharply contrasting productions at its Bristol home.


One of Shakespeare's greatest plays, Othello is the story of an African general in the service of the Venetian state. His love-match with the white Venetian, Desdemona, is undone by the malevolence of his closest aide, Iago, whose cocktail of professional, sexual and racial jealousy are deployed to lethal effect in one of the most powerful tragedies ever written.

In contrast, Much Ado About Nothing tells the story of Beatrice, who is unmarried, sharply witty, and unlikely ever to fall in love, least of all to the man she likens to 'a pestilence'. Benedick is a confirmed bachelor and keen to avoid any entanglement, most of all with the woman he calls 'Lady Disdain'. But their mutual friends have other ideas...

Shakespeare Schools Festival Goes for Another Guinness World Record

In 2005 the Shakespeare Schools Festival scooped a Guinness World Record for “the most people performing Shakespeare on a single day” during their “1 Night of Shakespeare” event in association with the BBC.

This year, until February 10, 25,000 young actors will re-enact some of the greatest stories ever told, as 1,050 schools across the UK have signed up for the biggest celebration of Shakespeare in the UK.