To Be, or Not to Be … Notes on the Ongoing Shakespeare Authorship Debate : Harriet Staff : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation

To Be, or Not to Be … Notes on the Ongoing Shakespeare Authorship Debate : Harriet Staff : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation:

'via Blog this'

Day 190: New Play Tuesday! Henry VI, Part II

Oooh it looks like a map or a crown. Too bad the wordle is more interesting than the Henry VI plays so far...

Day 188: HA! Shakespeare movie mashups

Two Gentlemen of Lebowski by Adam Bertocci (source: wired.com)

William Shakespeare's Star Wars by Ian Doescher (source: wired.com)

William Shakespeare's Star Wars is a publication by Quirk Books, who did Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and  Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and was published earlier this month.

Day 187: Aww screw it

So it's like 40 degrees Celsius out there, which for all you Americans is Canadian for A MILLION FREAKING DEGREES. Seriously, it's not supposed to be this hot! So I can't think, let alone think about Shakespeare. I'M MELTING!!

Day 186: Where You Can See Shakespeare in Canada RIGHT NOW

                                                                                                                                                                             

SHAKESPEARE EVENTS HAPPENING IN CANADA:

                                                                                                                                                                          

St. John's NL: Cymbeline, Julius Caesar shakespearebytheseafestival.com

Halifax: Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing shakespearebythesea.ca

Moncton: A Midsummer Night's Dream breadnmolasses.com

Montreal: A Midsummer Night's Dream repercussiontheatre.com

Ottawa: The Merry Wives of Windsor fools.ca

Toronto: Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew canadianstage.com

Stratford ON: Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Measure for Measure stratfordfestival.ca

Winnipeg: Julius Caesar shakespeareintheruins.com

Saskatoon: The Comedy of Errors shakespeareonthesaskatchewan.com

Edmonton: King Lear, A Midsummer Night's Dream freewillshakespeare.com

Calgary: Titus Andronicus www.shakespearecompany.com

Vancouver: Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Measure for Measure bardonthebeach.org

Victoria: Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure vicshakespeare.com

Day 185: Shakespeare Quotes to impress people on the Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July, Americans! Here are some quotes to impress people over barbecues or fireworks or whatever you crazy kids are up to today. Oh, and I straight up stole it from this website, so do check out American Shakespeare Center (and if you're the admin of that site and you'd like me to take this time, please let me know). Enjoy!

Shakespeare Quotes for Your Fourth of July Party

Shakespeare loves Fourth of July. If you want to sound smart at your Fourth of July party and impress your friends, commit a couple of these quotes to memory and break them out at propitious moments. I am a foe to tyrants, and my country's friend. Julius Caesar: V.iv. I do love my country's good with a respect more tender, more holy and profound, than mine own life. Coriolanus: III.iii In right and service to their noble country. Titus Andronicus: I,i Who is here so vile that will not love his country? Julius Caesar: III,iii I thank you all and here dismiss you all, and to the love and favor of my country commit myself, my person, and the cause. Titus Andronicus: I,i Having my freedom, boast of nothing else. Richard II: I,ii Gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder, I gain'd my freedom. The Comedy of Errors: V,i Let's all cry peace, freedom, and liberty! Julius Caesar III,i This liberty is all that I request. The Taming of the Shrew: II,i Leave us to our free election. Pericles, Prince of Tyre: II,iv

Day 184: So I read Henry V...man, that guy's a dick

Minimalist Henry V, from my Minimalist Shakespeare series

I don't know if Shakespeare's Henry V is historically accurate, but if it is then Henry V was a jerk. He makes speeches that essentially amount to "Hey, don't blame me if I order my troops to murder all your babies and rape all the women." He has his friends killed for being thieving rogues, as though he's never even heard of hypocrisy or irony. Then he rallies troops into a potential suicide mission by saying, "C'mon guys. I thought we were friends!" (That's his famous "We the few, we merry band of brothers" speech.) Then he marries the French princess to consolidate power between France and England (she has no say in it) and when she asks him not to kiss her out of respect for propriety, he makes sexualized remarks and kisses her anyway (he doesn't kill any babies at least...well not babies). 

I guess a flawed moral compass does NOT magically correct itself once someone is given absolute power. Over all, he's heralded as a pretty good English king.

UPDATE: I realize I forgot to explain the above picture. Henry V has tennis balls. And leeks. I'm not even joking. It's hard to explain.

Day 183: New Play Tuesday! Henry VI, Part I

SCC English Henry VI Part I wordle

Wow. Talk about a lot going on. I think it's definitely time for me to start watching the BBC productions or something to keep these characters straight. Why did I plan the histories for the summer??? I'm an idiot.

Day 182: What I Learned (so far) from The Taming of the Shrew...or at least the adaptations

As I said before, I'm skipping The Taming of the Shrew for now to focus on the histories, so I haven't read it yet. But I have learned a few things about it, particularly about the adaptations it has inspired. Here are just a few:

Kiss Me Kate (1948 stage musical)

via wikipedia

The classic Cole Porter musical takes place back stage of a musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the actress playing Katherine is constantly fighting with her ex-husband, the director.

Kiss Me Kate (1953 film)

via moviepostershop.com

It's like the musical, but apparently with more hilarious domestic violence.

10 Things I Hate About You (1999 film)

Julia Stiles is a high school student being wooed by a young Heath Ledger with terrible hair but an endearing singing voice.  It also inspired an ABC Family TV show of the same name (which I didn't see because I'm a grownup).

The Taming of the Shrew (1929 film)

via wikipedia

This film starred real-life husband and wife Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford who were actually in the process of getting a divorce during the filming, so much of the fighting is probably pretty real, though Pickford later said she didn't think the performances were very good (especially Fairbanks') and the experience was one of her worst on set. Interestingly, the film was presented as both a talkie AND a silent film, as only certain theatres were equipped with sound in 1929, so some showings were silent while others were not.

The Taming of the Shrew (1967 film)

Didn't people ever get sick of seeing Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton playing an onscreen version of their real-life tumultuous relationship? Oh right, they did--Cleopatra. They were like the Brangelina of their time except that only one of them was good looking. Nonetheless this version remains one of the most watched version of the bard's play.

The Taming of the Shrew (2005 television adaptation)

This version, part of BBC One's ShakespeaRe-Told series, was directed by Sally Wainwright and starred Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle!) as a cutthroat politician seeking a husband in order to soften her public image.

Moonlighting (TV series) Season 3, Episode 7 "Atomic Shakespeare" (1986)

"Petruchio and Katerina" (aka David and Maddie) in Moonlighting "Atomic Shakespeare" (via The Most Unusual Weddings From Television)

And no discussion of Shrew adaptations would be complete without a nod to this episode of Moonlighting which cast David Addison (Bruce Willis) as Petruchio and Maddie Hayes (Cybil Shepherd) as Katerina, complete with a writing credit to William "Budd" Shakespeare. Watch the entire episode (via YouTube) below!