Self-Love: It's Just Another Lifestyle Change

Well, I decided I wanted to be able to participate in “Project the Second” conversation over on the Facebook group, so I leapfrogged past a couple unread works* to jump into Hamlet with everyone else. Well not quite with everyone else. The schedule starts that play on April 19th, and I was still finishing up with King John.

(I may be willing to skip unreadworks, but I am not constitutionally able…

To recap from yesterday: inductions are a thing in Elizabethan drama, and Taming of the Shrew starts out with one of ’em that features drunkard and beggar Christopher Sly.

Here’s the bare-bones recap. Lord (with hunting party) stumble across a sleeping Sly and decides to play a practical joke on him. So when Sly wakes up again, he’s been installed and dressed up as lord of the manor, with all…

One of the fun pieces of these few months in Project the Second is the chance to contemplate the different levels of relationship I have with different titles in Shakespeare’s oeuvre. So far, I’ve read plays that I’ve read before but never seen (Julius Caesar), plays I’ve read and seen before (Titus, Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night), plays I’ve read and seen and taught before (R&J, Richard 3),…

So what do you call it when you nest a Shakespeare Project within a Shakespeare Project?

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Before the History: A History

So before I start posting my reflections on individual slices of my experience rehearsing my first-ever Shakespeare play*, I thought it’d be worth giving a little context around the company I’m working with and this particular production. Join me beneath the jump to meet Striving Artists! (more…)

I have a pain upon my forehead

So, wasn’t this new getting-cast-in-Shakespeare adventure going to prompt me to do a whole lot more blogging? Well, yes it was, till I mildly concussed myself a few short days after that last entry, there. So I’ve been limiting my screen time. (Obvs.) (more…)

Wonder of wonders: I got cast! (more…)

Looking through a New Lens

I’ve been watching, reading, thinking about, and collecting Shakespeare for years. But tonight I did something brand-spanking-new in my Shakespeare fan-girlishness: I auditioned for a Shakespeare production! (more…)

Feast or Famine: Finally planning to move the needle!

It’s been interesting to watch the ebbs and flows of my show-collecting pace over the years of The Project. When I first started, I was able to add new shows pretty quickly, because almost every available production would be for a show I hadn’t collected yet. Then, after I got the more popular entries under my belt, the pace slowed down. But I was still able–for the most part–to get at least one…

Pick Yourself Up, Dust Yourself Off…

…and start all over again!

But not tonight. Tonight I’ve already restarted the “everyday blog” with a bit of a meditation on the stage managing adventure I’ve recently closed out. And since that was Sondheim, not Shakespeare, there’s not a whole lot more I should say about that over here.

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A Dotted Lear: A quick book review of Gareth Hinds' King Lear graphic novel.

(Happy New Year! ‘Tis the usual busyness at work and in life, but I’m slowly getting myself in gear again for blogging.)

I’m trying to decide whether I should be more straightforward in how I title my book review posts — which is what tonight’s post is. It would certainly be clearer if I put the author and title under review in the post title. Clearer but also rather more boring. For tonight, I…

"If music be the food of love, play on..."

I have to admit, I’m grateful NaBloPoMo ended when it did, because I have a choir concert this weekend and have been in rehearsals every damn night. Which is fun and rewarding and worth it and all, but is not the kind of schedule that lends itself to blogging.

And yet, the Will4Will habit is one that I don’t entirely wish to break. So, below the jump, a few performances of

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Tragedy on Tragedy #ShakesMOOC #somanyfeels

It’s November 30th, which means only one more post to complete my NaBloPoMo pledge. Unfortunately, I’m not feeling particularly inspired. Instead, having finished reading King Lear and commenced watching the Eamonn Walker/Zoe Tapper Othello today, I am feeling bit on the verge of gutted.

And things haven’t even gone bad yet in Othello….

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(Book Review) Classical Comics: Midsummer Night's Dream

I’ve finally finished the second of the two graphic novel adaptations of Midsummer I checked out from the library: Classical Comics‘ “Original Text” version of the play.

That phrase “Original Text” is crucial, for it points to the way that this company takes a different approach to creating a Shakespearian on-ramp than Stone Arch Books did.

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Thinking about Lear, Cordelia and the Fool for #ShakesMOOC: My Sweet Fool

Re-reading King Lear for the #ShakesMOOC has me very much aware of how long it’s been since I looked at this play. I know I read it senior year of high school, and it mighthave been included in my senior seminar in college. I know I haven’t looked at it since, because it did not feature in my graduate studies, nor has it been a play I’ve added to my “collection” as of yet.* So: best case…

A new First Folio: "For the Discerning Reader's Christmas List"

Mr. Mezzo and I have a shared Pinterest board called “Dear Santa,” where we park photos and links of things that we’d enjoy receiving as gifts, should some enterprising, computer-savvy elf be looking for ideas.

I know: how very postmodern consumerist of us!

Anyhow, anyone want to bet the expression on my Mr’s face if I were to add this to my online wish list?

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A Bard for Every Age

(I’m still in medias res on all the source material for future posts I summarized back on Saturday. Ah, the tragic costs of having to attend to one’s job and family obligations!* But the obligations of NaBloPoMo continue through the end of the weekend, so I’ll be digging into the memory-banks tonight.)

I’m remembering a moment when I was very strongly reminded of how tempting it is for us to…