That Bard... At It Again

It's amazing to me that, whatever the situation, you can find a Shakespeare quote that fits.

Today's America?

O nation miserable,

With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered,

When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again?

And that ill-luck-to-name-it Thane's play is just too, too quotable nowadays:

It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

 

Brought to my attention by Ron Charles, former book critic for the murdered Washington Post. An interesting take on the recent shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

Threats

Perhaps you've heard about NYC's Public Theater production of Julius Caesar, which features a Caesar dressed as a Trump lookalike?  

This costuming gives Shakespeare's brutal killing scene  - always upsetting - added, um, political bite.  Obviously controversial.  Let's be clear though, the production does NOT celebrate this murder.  It's presented as a bad step in a tragic direction for the play's world.  

Pros and Cons...

Personally, I think trump costuming in combination with graphic stabbing was a bad idea - though fair game artistically - but it just seems too violent for an ugly and potentially violent time.  The recent shooting of baseball-playing Republicans (which the theater company couldn't anticipate) underlines the violence which we all feel simmering.  On the other hand, many people are genuinely worried about a slide into authoritarianism - and a Juilus Caesar / Trump helps clarify those issues.  Kinda a think-piece, this production.  Certainly folks are thinking about it.  But... a completely different quibble: doesn't the trump-look make the audience giggle at first appearance?  I'll have to reread the play because I can't remember if that would be appropriate or not.  I'd like to see the production, which is the only way to evaluate it.  

Artistic choices...

Anyway, that NYC company has had serious push back - including loss of some funding and a huge public fuss.

Believed public domain image - Julius Caesar

But!

Our local Shakespeare company has gotten death and rape threats!
(They're producing one of the Bard's comedies and Quixote - not a toga in sight.)

Maybe it's not surprising that people capable of vile emails don't read theater programs carefully.  And, know what? writing vile emails is free speech and their right... just not the threats part.  (Threats get sent to the FBI.)  

So please support theater.  Even controversial theater.  Because free speech matters.  Art matters.

Read further articles HERE.  Or get a ticket to see the Bard locally HERE.

Shakespeare certainly is keeping up with today's politics isn't he?


ADDENDUM: I corrected the name of Shakespeare Dallas' production, just Quixote, no Don.

Film Fest - Gnomeo & Juliet

Very very funny spin on the Shakespeare classic - with great twists on some of the Bard's famous lines.  My favorites?  2B or not 2B (gotta see it) and "Out! Out" "Down! Spot."

Books on Shakespeare

I've just been introduced to a new (to me) book on Shakespeare...  The clearest, most concise, and most pleasurable such I've come across.  A good starting place for anyone interested in the man behind the words: Shakespeare by Bill Bryson.

I particularly like the sanityof his discussion of much-argued-over aspects of the Bard, like"Was Shakespeare really Shakespeare?" (I fought this battle with a relative every Christmas until we agreed to hang up our arguments unresolved.)  There's a great review of Bryson's book at Shakespeare Geek.  Here I'll quote Shakespeare Geek, quoting Bryson: "There's no evidence that Shakespeare owned any books!" is countered with "Then he must not have owned any pants, because there's no evidence of that either!"  There's something wonderfully sensible and funny about that pants rebuttal - sense and humor fill Bryson's Shakespeare.


Other Bard books?   Here's the short stack from my library, filed under "S" for "Swan of Avon":



Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber, which talks about the life-n-times and scholarly arguments, then goes through each play, discussing, among other things, difficulties for directors in interpretation. 


Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom.  Bloom is a literary scholarship freight train... plowing his way, heavily laden, through miles literary debate.  I suspect he's a bit old fashioned now in his own interpretations, but tough to argue with the 2:20 Express, ya know?  Interesting, opinionated reading.

The Friendly Shakespeare by Norrie Epstein.  All things Bardish in quick, quippy sections with illustrations.  Fun and informative.


Exit Pursued by a Bear by Louise McConnell.  A companion volume where you can look up terms, actors, facts. Handy reference.  (And great title!  Also the a title for a new play Kitchen Dog Theater just Read... earlier post here.)

Will In The World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt.  Best described as a speculative or fictional biography - in fact, there's so little documented of the real Shakespeare and so much, um, interpolated here,  let's just call it a novel, huh?  A fun read that gives a feel for the period.  As likely to be strictly accurate as the film Shakespeare in Love.  Both are fun though.


    

Butchering Shakespeare

Looking for a speech from Othello, I happened upon a website (can't find it now) that "translates" Shakespearian into English.  A sample follows, below:

CASSIO (in Bardish): Reputation! Reputation! Reputation!  Oh I have lost my reputation!  I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.

Hard to, you know, get the gist of that, isn't it?  I mean, what's the fuss about?

CASSIO (new and improved):  My reputation!  My reputation!  I've lost my reputation, the longest-living and truest part of myself!  Everything in me is just animal-like.

Oy.

Phew!

The first review for As You Like It, from Fort Worth's newspaper, is a good one.  All the performances are praised and kind mention is made of the set... so I'm happy.

Go see for yourself!  Tickets HERE.

I Like It!

I watched Trinity Shakespeare's As You Like It last night... really liked it.  Always a relief, after working on a show, to like the result, but this production is, I think, good Shakespeare.  Strongly cast, well acted and directed, and looks great, with a nice set (if I say it myself) and gorgeous lighting and 1900's costumes.  The clowns are excellent: foolish/wise Touchstone and melancholy Jaques.  While Rosalind and Celia... shoot! all the actors are good.  But the astonishing part is that the production captures the giddiness of love at first sight, the silly, dizzy delight - and goofiness! - of infatuation.

Quick!  Dash off to TCU to see this charming (air conditioned!) summer Shakespeare.  Playing in repertory with "The Scottish Play" or as we called it "Mackers."  (It being thought unlucky to say the name out loud in a theater: you know, "Macbeth."  Sssh!)  I haven't seen this yet, but the set is terrific.

Did you know the phrase "too much of a good thing" is the Bard's?

Designing in Model

Recently I tripped over an unexpected hazard in designing a set first in model, then drawing from that to create the construction drawings needed to build it.

Ya gotta rip the model to shreds.

I found myself, gently, delicately, holding-my-breath carefully cutting apart the model so that I could trace out all the (too many!) trees.  Then just as delicately trying to glue it all back together.  Next time - I vowed - I'll photocopy each piece just before I glue it in.

I learn something every day.

As You Like It - Trinity Shakespeare Festival

Runnin' Around

The designer's life seems to go in tide-in, tide-out cycles.  Suddenly from (snowed in) quiet sketching I'm now in a nutsy runnin' around period.

Yesterday I saw the Boeing Boeing set in Fort Worth for the first time post-snow... construction has leaped forward - all the walls and doors are in place now.  It was Fun With Fabric Day... I got to look round the discount fabric warehouses for set-sofa upholstery (also found great '60s curtain fabric).  Today I pick up my apprentice and my paint chips and drive back to Fort Worth to start painting views of Paris on the walls.  Meanwhile, there's a Shakespeare crying out to be sketched and I think modeled.  (Some shows are drawing shows, some are model shows.)  And - after some very helpful notes from a reader - I need to make last adjustments to my Alice book...  so my on-going struggles with book formatting will go on on-going a little longer...

Busy, busy.