Rival Actors Sparked Fatal 'Shakespeare Riots' : NPR

Morning Edition, July 2, 2008 · Shakespeare's works inspire strong emotions both on stage and off. Co-host Renee Montagne kicks off Morning Edition's three-part Shakespeare series with a conversation with author Nigel Cliff about his book The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama and Death in 19th-Century America, which tells the story of an argument between two actors that led to a deadly riot."

Hollywood Heavyweights Fly in for a Reel Taste of Shakespeare

Hollywood heavyweights Anthony Hopkins, Keira Knightley and Gwyneth Paltrow are coming to Ireland to film a major movie version of Shakespeare's King Lear.

The film is being directed by Michael Stern and he promises more stars are going to be announced for the production which will bring some Hollywood glitz to the country.

The film will not be a modern adaptation and will remain faithful to the original Shakespearian language.

Macbeth - 2008: A Bunny, Too, Can Strut and Fret Upon This Stage

What’s up with the guy in the rabbit suit?

This is not a question you expect to ask while watching “Macbeth.”

But there he was, confoundingly, an energetic little fellow dressed as a fuzzy white rabbit — tall floppy ears, powder-puff tail and all — scrabbling away in front of a gray concrete wall in the TR Warszawa production “Macbeth: 2008,” staged in the roofless tobacco factory near St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. A giant video projection of a beautiful bald woman loomed above Rabbit Man. It looked like the bald woman was nibbling on a white chocolate bunny as she spouted her cryptic prophecies about Macbeth’s future.

William Shakespeare first folio gets £435,250 - Telegraph

William Shakespeare first folio gets £435,250

A rare first folio of Shakespeare's plays, regarded as the most important book in the history of English literature, has sold for £435,250 at Christies.

What Shakespeare can teach us about Blogging

When Shakespeare was writing during the Elizabethan period, two types of dramatic style were merging together to form an exciting new voice. Previous to this, London theatre audiences were served up either the traditional Tudor morality play of slapstick allegory and farce, or the more rhetorical academic play based on classical Roman drama. Usually shown in universities, the latter were perhaps not much fun.

Yet Shakespeare was an innovator, and sensed that the audience of Elizabethan England was changing. So he decided to dip into both styles of writing and add in some of his own wit and intellect, to create a new type of play which audiences both wanted and responded to. In short, the new commercial theatres were demanding new content, and Shakespeare and his contemporaries endeavoured to fill the gap.

So what’s all this got to do with blogging?

Keira Knightley to star in film of King Lear


Keira Knightley is set for a busy year.

She will play Cordelia, the youngest daughter of the King, who will be portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Gwyneth Paltrow is tipped to take the role of Regan, Lear's treacherous middle daughter. His eldest daughter, Goneril, is yet to be cast.

The $35 million film was announced at the Cannes Film Festival and will feature epic battle sequences, according to its makers.

Interlochen :: College of Creative Arts :: 2008 Theatre Workshop

Interlochen Theatre Workshop for Educators: Shakespeare in Performance

The Interlochen Theatre Workshop for Educators will address techniques for bringing Shakespeare to life in the classroom and on the stage. Discover practical strategies to make 17th century text accessible to your 21st century students through theatrical performance techniques. :: College of Creative Arts :: 2008 Theatre Workshop

Hamlet at The Factory - Secret Shakespeare

Tim Carroll’s production of Hamlet for The Factory theatre company takes audience participation to a new level. It asks its audience members to choose the cast - who plays who - to sit on stage and even to provide the props.

The result is an energetic and enjoyable rush through the Bard’s most performed play, at some of the most unusual and beautiful venues in the capital.

What if Shakespeare wrote The Hokey Pokey?

If Shakespeare had written the "Hokey Pokey":

O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinsistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
Mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wild release from Heaven's yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the Poke -- banish now thy doubt.
Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.

ShakespeareScene

444 years after Shakespeare’s birth, specialist publishing company, Ashokan International Ltd is publishing a brand new magazine entitled ShakespeareScene.

The twice yearly colour magazine will be launched in mid-May and will be a well designed publication for the public and Shakespeare enthusiasts around the world. It will include news about the times of Shakespeare, interviews and articles plus a great listing of productions and festivals due to take place over the summer
.
Available from specialist outlets in the UK and Borders and also from its web-site www.shakespearescene.com

Verdi vs. Shakespeare in a ‘Macbeth’ Showdown: Call It a Draw

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
New York Times

There are two gripping productions of “Macbeth” in New York right now.

The darkly theatrical, cinematic staging directed by Rupert Goold and starring Patrick Stewart opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and is now at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway.

Then there is the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Verdi’s operatic adaptation of that Shakespeare drama, a breakthrough work for the young Verdi, first performed in 1847. The Met’s grim, boldly updated production by the director Adrian Noble, which opened in October, returns on Friday with a new cast, led by the baritone Carlos Álvarez, the soprano Hasmik Papian as Lady Macbeth, and, in the crucial role of Banquo, the formidable bass René Pape. James Levine conducts.

Henry VI: World-class Orgy of Gore and Humour

Charles Spencer reviews Henry VI pts 1,2, 3 by the RSC at the Roundhouse, Camden

By common consent, these early plays by Shakespeare aren't a patch on Richard II, the two parts of Henry IV and Henry V. Indeed, scholars are still divided over just how much of the Henry VI trilogy Shakespeare actually wrote.

Henry VI brings a sense of shivery mystery to the stage

But there is no feeling one is watching crude prentice work in Michael Boyd's knock-out production of this trilogy about England's bloody Wars of the Roses, a thrilling all-day orgy of gore-dripping violence, gallows humour and craven betrayal.

Were the World Mine: Shaking up Shakespeare

Were the World Mine closes the 10th Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on a musical, fantastical note. The movie, which director Tom Gustafson expanded from his short film Fairies, takes the familiar scenarios of high school angst and adolescent crushes and gives them a wonderful musical spin, complete with elaborate sets and choreography.

Cleverly borrowing from A Midsummer's Night Dream in ways Shakespeare could have never imagined, the movie centers on Timothy (Tanner Cohen), a gay student at a private school who harbors a secret crush on rugby star Jonathon (Nathaniel David Becker).

With ‘Cardenio’ the Shakespeare Scholar Stephen Greenblatt Brushes Up His Playwriting - New York Times

With ‘Cardenio’ the Shakespeare Scholar Stephen Greenblatt Brushes Up His Playwriting

THERE are classes on Shakespeare at Harvard University that students are happy to see dismissed early, especially when the spring weather grows as enticing as Titania’s bower, or the gossips at Lamont, the undergraduate library, have some unusually esoteric knowledge to impart.
Not when Stephen Greenblatt is teaching.

One of the country’s top Shakespeare scholars, Mr. Greenblatt, the Cogan university professor of the humanities, enjoys rock star status on campus. His lectures are legendary, and gaining admission to one of his limited-enrollment seminars is an academic brass ring.

But on a Tuesday afternoon last month he had to cut short his seminar on “Hamlet” to be on time for his maiden voyage into making theater. Professor Greenblatt, 64, has written his first play, “Cardenio,” a collaboration with Charles Mee, and was expected at the opening rehearsal.

Theater: Many faces of Macbeth | csmonitor.com

Theater: Many Faces of Macbeth

Despite its timelessness, Shakespeare's "Macbeth" has proven difficult to precisely date. Scholars disagree, but it's presumed that the play was written between 1603 and 1606. This year, however, a slew of innovative new stagings of "the Scottish Play," each with wildly different visions of the piece – one turns the famous witches into male monsters, one depicts them as ghostly nurses, another does away with them altogether – are proving that "Macbeth" is easier to update.

Lose the language and you lose Shakespeare | Books | Guardian Unlimited

Lose the language and you lose Shakespeare

Shakespeare Patron Emerges, Ghostly - New York Times

Shakespeare Patron Emerges, Ghostly - New York Times

Supermarket Shakespeare

O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt,Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
That would be the '20 per cent off' leg of lamb in the freezer section Hamlet is trying to defrost in time for Sunday lunch... And that's pretty much the kind of thing you can expect to bump into if you go to Supermarket Shakespeare in Lee Green this weekend and the beginning of next week.

Teatro Vivo are presenting Supermarket Shakespeare, exactly what it sounds like as the six-strong team of actors will be performing Shakespeare in a supermarket. They are going to be in the Lee Green branch of Sainsbury's, adding extra value to your shopping as they perform extracts from the bard's sonnets in the loose produce, biscuits, dairy and fish aisles.

Southwest Shakespeare Company attempts World Record with Shakespeare Marathon - Phoenix Arizona Events Arts, Entertainment and Events in the Phoenix Scottsdale Mesa East Valley Communities

Southwest Shakespeare Company attempts World Record with Shakespeare Marathon

Southwest Shakepeare Company has decided to take on their most challenging role yet, they are presenting a 5 day reading of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, 24 hours a day, with back to back plays, sonnets and poems written by the Bard himself.

Shakespeare 24

Shakespeare 24, an extraordinary worldwide day of performance. Beginning in New Zealand and ending 24 hours later in Hawaii, youth theatres and school groups will stage abridged plays at 7pm in their respective time zones on Wednesday, April 23rd 2008, Shakespeare’s birthday.

Japanese director Kurita to feature at German Shakespeare festival

Neuss, Germany - A production of The Winter's Tale in Japanese is to feature at the annual festival in Neuss, Germany devoted to the plays of William Shakespeare, organizers said Friday.

Japanese director Yoshihiro Kurita has been engaged with his Japanese version of the Winter's Tale, the first time Kurita's production will be shown in Germany. English supertitles will be displayed for the benefit of non-speakers of Japanese.

Shakespeare to be Cloned for Upcoming Festival!


By Mistress Ann Hathaway
April 01, 2008

In what was described as the “ultimate marketing tool,” backers of the proposed Shakespeare Chattanooga festival have announced that they have obtained a sample of the playwright’s DNA and will clone him.

“We fully expect that he will write a whole new canon of plays and sonnets,” said one SC board of directors member. “Titles such as The Merry Wives of Red Bank and Much Ado About Nooga have already been proposed.”

Speaking under condition of strict anonymity, the same source revealed that a secret expedition was sent to Stratford-on-Avon to dig up a bit of the Bard. Posing as members of Chattanooga’s elite SWAT team, they pretended to demonstrate how the site could be protected against marauding Christopher Marlowe-lovers, while actually doing a micro-excavation that successfully extracted the genius’s genes.

“It was pretty easy, really,” the source revealed. “Those Brits have watched so much Law and Order they’ll believe anything.”

Asked about the famous curse engraved on Shakespeare’s tomb (Good Friend for Jesus sake forbeare/To digg the dust enclosed heare:/Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones/And curst be he yet moves my bones), the source commented, “Well, none of us appears to be curst yet…although several have reported feeling like the Black Death after the red-eye plane trip home.”

adn.com | Life : Convincing cast succeeds in putting Alaska spin on 'Othello'

Convincing cast succeeds in putting Alaska spin on 'Othello'

Shakespeare's church found in Shoreditch - This Britain, UK - The Independent

Shakespeare's church found in Shoreditch

Shakespeare's "lost" local church in London may have been found – beneath some flower beds and cracked paving stones. New research has pinpointed the site of the old church of St Leonard, which was the centre of worship and burial for many of the leading actors and personalities of the Shakespearean stage, including the Bard himself. A study of archive material has revealed that much of the building may still exist, buried underground in an extraordinary time capsule.

Kasie speak has replaced the Elizabethan English, but the stories are still very ‘Shakespeare’

Macbeth in Mzansi? That’s right. William Shakespeare is in South Africa and breathing new life into local television. But, should we care?"

Shakespeare Goes Digital

LONDON (Reuters) - A U.S. and British library plan to reproduce online all 75 editions of William Shakespeare's plays printed in the quarto format before the year 1641.

The Bodleian Library in Oxford and Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC have joined forces to download their collections, building on the work of the British Library which digitized its collection of quarto editions in 2004.

In the absence of surviving manuscripts, the quartos -- Shakespeare's earliest printed editions -- offer the closest known evidence of what Shakespeare might actually have written, and what appeared on the early modern English stage.

The project is designed to make all of the quartos, many of which are only accessible to scholars, available to the wider public.

The process of downloading the quartos will begin next month and take a year to complete.
Online visitors will be able to compare images side-by-side, lay one facsimile on top of the other, search plays and mark and tag the texts.

As well as highlighting more minor differences between copies of the same quarto, the digital database will also make it easier to study the often wide discrepancies between quartos, including some of Shakespeare's most famous lines.

"There will be countless new ways for scholars, teachers, and students to examine the quarto texts, particularly of 'Hamlet'," said Folger director Gail Kern Paster.

"You find out all sorts of things -- about how the copies went through the press, and also about the printing process," she added.

Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more between about 1590 and 1613. He died in 1616.

Mistress Shakespeare - The New York Review of Books

Mistress Shakespeare - The New York Review of Books:

Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer reviewed by Stanley Wells

It is now over two hundred years since the discovery of a love letter written by William Shakespeare to his future bride, Ann (or Anne, or even Agnes) Hathaway. Along with it came a silk-tied lock of the poet's hair and verses bearing eloquent testimony to his love:"

Mistress Shakespeare - The New York Review of Books

Mistress Shakespeare - The New York Review of Books


Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer reviewed by Stanley Wells

It is now over two hundred years since the discovery of a love letter written by William Shakespeare to his future bride, Ann (or Anne, or even Agnes) Hathaway. Along with it came a silk-tied lock of the poet's hair and verses bearing eloquent testimony to his love:"

11 Shakespeare e-books in Macedonian Published

Creative Commons Content Portal for Macedonia published Macedonian translations of eleven Shakespeare plays as downloadable e-books, made available by the renowned storyteller and translator Dragi Mihajlovski.

The e-books have been published in weekly batches of two to three PDF-files between the 8th of February and the 20th of March 20, 2008. The following plays have been published under the Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Macedonia license:

Комедија на забуни (The Comedy of Errors)
Веселите жени од Виндзор (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
Ромео и Јулија (Romeo and Juliet)
Кротењето на опаката (The Taming of the Shrew)
Тимон од Атина (Timon of Athens)
Од влакно ортома (Much Ado About Nothing)
Ричард Трети (Richard III)
Со сила убавина не бидува (Love's Labour's Lost)
Танте за кукуригу (Measure for Measure)
Кориолан (Coriolanus)
Секое зло за арно (All's Well That Ends Well)

Hath Shakespeare been a tourist in Venice?

It is a question that has perplexed literary scholars for years: how could Shakespeare display such intimate knowledge of Venice in his plays without ever having visited the lagoon city? Now Italian academics have challenged the widely accepted view that the Bard never travelled to Venice but gleaned information from Italian merchants who came to London on business.

The Haunted


The New Yorker Review of Macbeth with Patrick Stewart at BAM by John Lahr

Among the many contemporary things that Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” exploited in its day—the accession to the throne of the first Scottish king of the British Isles; the King’s fascination with witchcraft; the climate of terror that followed the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament—the most significant for us is the Elizabethan public’s newly acquired appetite for hair-raising eloquence. “It was addicted, one might say, to the fortissimo eloquence of inner lives magnificently tortured,” Ted Hughes writes, in his introduction to “The Essential Shakespeare.” To the verbalization of tragic frenzy, Rupert Goold’s inspired modern-dress Stalinist version of “Macbeth” (starring Patrick Stewart, at BAM’s Harvey Theatre) adds a scenic and sonic frenzy that is symphonic in its orchestration and its penetration. Goold’s brilliant production team—with Adam Cork’s soundscape; Lorna Heavey’s smash-cut video and projections; Howard Harrison’s moody lighting design; Anthony Ward’s brutalist set—unsettles the senses and sets the stage for the deracinated and the uncanny. It infuses Macbeth’s crepuscular world with the kind of fear that makes your tongue taste of brass.

Shakespeare does Kodiak Island

A shaman marries a Russian Desdemona and an Aleut Othello. Behind them lies the mysterious and moody landscape of southwestern Alaska. In front of them awaits misconception and murder.

It’s an age-old story brought to light in Edgeware Production’s Alaska adaptation of Shakespeare’s "Othello."

Teach Children Shakespeare at Four, says RSC

Shakespeare should be taught to children as young as four, before they have become intimidated by the language, the Royal Shakespeare Company says. Introducing the works of Shakespeare to teenagers is too late, the RSC will argue.

Shakespeare Marathon & 15,000 liters of “blood”

Do you love Shakespeare, fancy English history and have 1,389 minutes plus to spare? If so, a unique opportunity is available, thanks to a mammoth project by the Royal Shakespeare Company, in what has been described in The Guardian newspaper as “One of the greatest events of modern theatre”.

All eight of the bard’s history plays, covering 100 years of English history, are currently being performed at the RSC’s home in Stratford upon Avon (until 16 March) and then between April 1 and May 25 in London at The Roundhouse. The plays are Richard II, Henry IV Parts I and II, Henry V, Henry VI Parts I, II and III, and Richard III

Shakespeare with 'No Fear,' no flavor
A bowdlerized Bard, by any other name, smells. Off with his head, he who dares rewrite the immortal lines

.

Inmates at California Men's Colony trade prison yard drama for Shakespeare

London Shakespeare Workout Prison Project puts the Bard behind bars

Didn’t Shakespeare Write Hamlet? —Not in France

In search of the perfect Hamlet - Times Online

As David Tennant prepares to play Hamlet, the Times's theatre critic names his top ten actors in the role, but is still waiting for someone to play it perfectly

Hamlet at the Symphony — North Carolina Public Radio WUNC

Hamlet at the Symphony on North Carolina Public Radio

Recently in Raleigh, the North Carolina Symphony and the School of the Arts in Winston-Salem teamed up to perform a new interpretation of Hamlet. The production features music by Dimitri Shostakovich and text by William Shakespeare. David Brower reports."

Uganda: Shakespeare in Mabira

Public's Shakespeare in the Park Presents 'Hamlet' with Easton & Stuhlbarg (baltimore.broadwayworld.com)

Public's Shakespeare in the Park Presents 'Hamlet' with Easton & Stuhlbarg (

Christiaan Weijts - Radio Netherlands Worldwide - English

'The day Juliet Capulet Wrote Back'

'The day Juliet Capulet wrote back', by Christiaan Weijts, is a story within a story, using a dialogue with one of Shakespeare's most famous characters to bridge time and space.

Listen to it here.

An 'Othello' for Alaska

Hamlet 2008 in the Philippines:
Stripping Shakespeare’s most celebrated work

NPR: In Fair Glendale, the Bard's Super Bowl Play

NPR: In Fair Glendale, the Bard's Super Bowl Play

phillyBurbs.com Blogs | Would Shakespeare like Hillary Clinton?

Would Shakespeare like Hillary Clinton?

Coterie’s ‘Macbeth Project’ offers a radical take on Shakespeare

Patrick Stewart - Macbeth To Boldly Go Where Shakespeare Calls

This ‘Macbeth’ Goes for the Gore

“Out, damn’d spot! Out, I say!” has never had quite this much resonance. Pity the poor crew at the Two River Theater doing the cleanup that surely follows each performance of a new, unrelentingly bloody “Macbeth,” on stage in Red Bank through Feb. 10. Conceived and directed by Teller, the quieter half of the comedy-magic team Penn and Teller, and Aaron Posner, Two River’s artistic director, the show oozes, drips and squirts forth a river of crimson horror.

Ian McKellen's King Lear to Be Shown on TV, DVD: Theater News on TheaterMania.com

Ian McKellen's King Lear to Be Shown on TV, DVD

Howls and Wonder: Shakespeare on Love - New York Times

Howls and Wonder: Shakespeare on Love - New York Times

MaineToday.com | Out Going: Naked Shakespeare at Wine Bar

Naked Shakespeare at Wine Bar

Shakespeare's Birthplace made from Shredded Wheat

AS STRANGE sites go, a replica of Shakespeare's birthplace made completely out of wheat sitting proudly on Denton Island, has to be one of the strangest.

Cereal company Shredded Wheat has donated the life-size sculpture to the town after it was used as part of a Best of British Landmark exhibition.

Newhaven in Bloom applied to the company for one of ten sculptures after they were no longer needed and hope it will act as a tourist attraction for the town.

The house now stands proudly by the river on Denton Island and can be seen from the Swing Bridge and from the main road around the town, as well as by people going to South Downs College.

Newhaven In Bloom Chairman Robert Robertson said, 'We are absolutely thrilled to have been given this unique wheat sculpture.'

As soon as we started to put it up it aroused interest from the passers-by.'

I know it is going to be an added attraction to the town and we would like to thank Shredded Wheat for their kind donation.'

Rhodes College | Calendar of Events

Shakespeare in Color: A Symposium on Macbeth and African American Performances and Appropriations

The symposium is presented in conjunction with Hattiloo Theatre's production of Shakespeare's Macbeth (opens Jan. 18) and Opera Memphis' production of Verdi's Macbeth (opens Jan. 26).

Free and open to the public, the symposium will draw together national scholars and local performers in a conversation about so called "non-traditional" casting of Shakespeare's plays. Speakers sharing their research on this topic include Ayanna Thompson (Arizona State U.), Peter Erickson (Williams College), Amy Scott-Douglass (Denison U.), Marguerite Rippy (Marymount U.) and Milwaukee composer Wallace Cheatham.

Directors of the Hattiloo and Opera Memphis productions also will participate in discussions. The symposium is sponsored by Center for Outreach in the Development of the Arts (CODA). Contact Scott Newstok at newstoks@rhodes.edu.

Also view:
http://hattilootheatre.org/index.php

http://www.operamemphis.org/season.cfm?aID=60

Hamlet 2

Dana Marshcz (Steve Coogan) is an actor. Well, he was an actor, and an absolutely terrible one at that. After squeezing his way into a handful of god-awful blink-and-you-miss-it TV roles as a young man, we join him a little further down the line, as the drama teacher at West Mesa High in Tucson Arizona. Whatever Dana Lacks in talent, he frantically tries to make up with his ludicrously ambitious and downright ridiculous school theatre remakes of American modern movie classics. With his last two disastrous stage adaptations (‘Erin Brockovich’ and ‘As Good As it Gets’) crucified as usual by the school paper’s fearsome 13 year old critic Noah, Dana is reduced to a blubbering wreck. But as Dana feels like he has nothing left to give, Noah inspires Dana to write something new… Something original…

SHAKESPEARES

SHAKESPEARE PIZZA DELIVERS

Whatsonstage.com – London theatre tickets, discounts, news and reviews

London Theatre--Bard to the Bone: All-star Shakespeare

Cymbeline at Lincoln Center

John Cullum, center, as King Cymbeline in the Lincoln Center Theater production, with Phylicia Rashad, right, as the Queen.


Love, War and Betrayal in Busy Lives of the Estranged

Just about everyone left living at the end of Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” is onstage for the play’s crowded climax. And just about everyone has a surprise or two to disclose.

The queen is not doing so well, the good doctor informs the king, but wait till you hear what she just told me! The Roman general’s page, a willowy young man, is revealed to be neither Italian nor a man. Those rustic, dirt-begrimed warriors? Royal blood runs in their veins. The presumed dead are really living, the presumed living declared dead.

The Latah Eagle: Like Shakespeare? Here's your chance to play your favorite character

Like Shakespeare? Here's your chance to play your favorite character

Teachers TV Shakespeare Week

3 - 9 December

A week of programmes dedicated to Britain’s greatest playwright – William Shakespeare. We focus on the different ways teachers can help their pupils embrace difficult texts. Programmes on offer include:

Teaching with Bayley: To Learn or not to Learn
In this programme John Bayley and Nick, a deputy head of English, develop a range of strategies to engage the students based around a more patient and explicit explanation of the lesson objectives. On John's advice Nick also plays to the students' particular learning styles, asking the class to represent the plot of the play either in words, music, as a rap song or in pictures. As a consequence, the class is much more focused.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/3048

Macbeth in the Classroom
Language is always the hardest aspect of teaching Shakespeare to young people, but this series aims to overcome such difficulties by focusing on key teaching ideas and techniques that will engage pupils with Shakespeare.

KS3 Macbeth in the Classroom 1 - http://www.teachers.tv/video/132
KS3 Macbeth in the Classroom 2 - http://www.teachers.tv/video/2733

Macbeth
This highly acclaimed 1998 production places the action in a contemporary and gritty setting, with the self-destructive Macbeth and his Lady reborn in an industrialised and apocalyptic war zone.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23752

KS3 English: The Tempest – Drama Strategies
RSC Learning Network teacher Jude Graham uses drama strategies to compare the character of Prospero in two key scenes of the Tempest. She helps a class pinpoint key changes in the plot by examining the rhythm of Shakespeare’s poetry, and uses improvisation to help the class further understand the character’s motives.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23577

KS3 English: The Tempest at Bolsover School
It’s The Tempest, but not as we know it. Year 9 students at The Bolsover School use rap, break-dancing and Gamelan music to tell their own version of Shakespeare’s play. Between extracts of the show, break-dancer and rapper Charlie takes us through the rehearsals and classroom preparations.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23598

KS3 English: Much Ado in the Classroom
English teachers across West Berkshire are pinning their hopes on drama strategies in a bid to improve the results of students taking their KS3 Shakespeare paper. According to English consultant Frances Gregory, teachers have often taught Shakespeare's plays as books to be read rather than plays to be performed. Frances believes Much Ado is a gift for drama strategies, as students can readily identify with two key scenes showing conflict between Benedict and Beatrice.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23542

KS3 English: Much Ado at Brays Grove
Students from Brays Grove Community School join forces with MOPA Theatre Company to perform a 15-minute version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, featuring themes of evil, comedy and love. The cast of volunteers is selected from a watching audience of Year 9 students. While only a few words from the actual text are used, students are encouraged to express their reaction to events in their own language.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23581

KS3 English: Richard III – RSC Approaches
Jacqui O'Hanlon from the Learning Department at the Royal Shakespeare Company offers practical strategies for teachers of Richard III in a specially commissioned workshop for Teachers TV. RSC practitioner Rachel Gartside takes the teachers through collective role plays, encouraging them to find words to connect to the dilemmas faced by their characters, and offering an egalitarian way to tackle the nervousness of reading in public.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23564

Big ambitions for Shakespeare’s Globe in 2008 | Official London Theatre Guide

Big ambitions for Shakespeare’s Globe in 2008

Dominic Dromgoole has announced an ambitious new season for Shakespeare’s Globe in 2008, which kicks off earlier than usual on 23 April, Shakespeare’s birthday, with the tragedy King Lear.

Presented under the banner Totus Mundus, thought to have been part of the motto of the original Globe – Totus mundus agit histrionem (The whole world is a playhouse) – the season comprises four Shakespeare plays, two new commissions, two touring productions and one new production by a visiting company.

BBC to Air All 37 Shakespeare Plays

LONDON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The BBC is embarking on an ambitious project to produce new versions of all 37 of Shakespeare's plays over the next 12 years, employing an ensemble cast.The BBC originally presented Shakespearean works 30 years ago in a widely heralded seven-year series.This time around, the BBC enlisted Oscar-winner Sam Mendes to produce the entire series. Among the notable stars being called upon to act in the Bard's plays are Judi Dench, Jude Law, Ian McKellen and Kate Winslet, The Sunday Telegraph reported Sunday.

A Rebellious Bard on Display in Australia

It's shaping up as a subversive year for the Bard in Melbourne in 2008. Around Easter, two women will play Venus and Adonis, and by year's end, 10 men from Bell Shakespeare's first-ever all-male cast will try to make sense of senseless violence

Shakespeare in China: "Only in dreams will Shakespeare meet our Super Boy"

While a number of small independent companies are making commercial comedies about current social issues, the National Theater Company of China performs Shakespeare's classic A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Poly Theater until November 11.

Shakespeare in the Round-and-Round

Bawdy face of the Bard’s London - Times Online

Bawdy face of the Bard’s London - Times Online

A long-neglected document started this writer off on his latest piece of literary detective work

The story begins with a sheet of greyish paper, housed unceremoniously with others in a cardboard box at the National Archives in Kew. Though slightly mouldered at one edge, it is in remarkably good condition after nearly four centuries. It is mostly filled with the handwriting of an unknown Jacobean law clerk, but what makes it special is the rather hurried-looking signature at the bottom: “Willm Shaks”.

Nicholas Hytner talks about Much Ado ...

Nicholas Hytner talks about Much Ado

The artistic director of the National Theatre talks to Heather Neill in detail about Much Ado About Nothing, his new revival starring Simon Russell Beale and Zoe Wanamaker, which previews at the Olivier Theatre from 10 December. More info: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk "

Winston-Salem Journal | Unkindest Cut

Unkindest Cut

To require studying Shakespeare or not to require: That is the question

Something is rotten in the state ... of North Carolina. Actually, the rottenness goes well beyond North Carolina, but the problem particular to our state is the subject of a recent report out from The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, in Raleigh. The report discloses the appalling truth that about half the colleges and universities in North Carolina, public and private, will grant a bachelor's degree in English to a student who has never taken a course in Shakespeare. O, what men dare do! ... What men daily do, not knowing what they do!

Shakespeare NJ Hosts Costume & Prop Sale 10/20 (BroadwayWorld.com)

Shakespeare NJ Hosts Costume & Prop Sale 10/20

Photo Flash: Shakespeare Theatre Company Gala Celebration (BroadwayWorld.com)

Washington's Shakespeare Theatre Company Gala Celebration

The Associated Press: School Halts `Shakespeare (Abridged)'

The Associated Press: School Halts `Shakespeare (Abridged)'
MESA, Ariz. (AP) — It was supposed to be a two-hour Shakespearean comedy show attended by 700 sixth- through 12th-graders.

But it was not to be.

About 40 minutes into a touring company's performance of "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)," a Higley Unified School District official halted the show Monday at a performing arts center.

The Critics Are Raving About Shakespeare's Greatest Hits!

Filthy Shakespeare

In high school, when Miss Grundy rubbed your adolescent nose in Shakespeare, she was perhaps unaware that the Bard of Avon had ye pottye mouthe.

With more than four centuries of language shifts and Shakespeare's unmatched genius for puns and double-entendre, most readers today, unlike those of his time, skim past it.

But help has arrived in a book, "Filthy Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Most Outrageous Sexual Puns" by Oxford PhD Pauline Kiernan.

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.