#calshakespip

Excited to support the incredible work of our AL interns at 4-week Lafayette Conservatory. #calshakes #calshakespip #kinglear #riotousknights (at Bentley Upper School)

Photo credit: Regina Fields.

A dingy New York bar might not seem like the appropriate setting for one of Shakespeare’s works–works that are usually performed high atop stages and set to operatic fanfare. But the Shakespeare Exchange, a New York-based theater group, has other ideas. The Exchange’s goal, germinated in 2013, was to produce videos of all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets, set in New York City, and filmed by and starring as-yet-unknown directors and actors. The Exchange’s hope was that the sometimes inaccessible sonnets would be more appealing to everyday New Yorkers if they incorporated familiar locales and scenarios–and were, as in Shakespeare’s own time, not reserved for the scholars. Sonnet No. 3, as seen above, is one example of the faithful and coherent nature of the adaptations, and it strikes the viewer as a testament to why Shakespeare adaptation continues to be relevant. The Sonnet Project has completed 102 films. The last film is slated for release in Spring 2016. Read about the project here or watch the sonnets on the Sonnet Project’s website. 

While there was no ale at Cal Shakes this morning, we did celebrate the Bard’s 451st birthday (and the 399th anniversary of his death) with red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting. Happy birthday, Shakespeare! We think you would approve of us eating cake at 10 in the morning. 

Founder and director of Lenox, Massachusetts’ Shakespeare & Company, Tina Packer is an eminent voice in the pantheon of Shakespeare performance and criticism. In her new book, Women of Will, she explores the evolution of the female in Shakespeare’s works and analyzes the trends that transformed women from nagging shrews to brilliant heroines.  Listen to an interview with Packer on NPR here.

For David and Ben Crystal, British linguist and Shakespearean actor respectively, Shakespeare’s plays are best when performed in OP--or the original pronunciation of words in Elizabethan and Jacobean English. Watch above to finally understand why you’ve never gotten all those witty Shakespeare puns your college professors insisted are in the text. 

Check out the rest of the ‘History of English’ videos on YouTube.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, the pre-eminent collector of Shakespeare manuscripts (and general hub of bardolatry), is taking the Bard on the road. In 2016, 18 of the 82 First Folios housed by the Folger Shakespeare Library will tour the United States and Puerto Rico, where they will put on display at various museums, libraries, and cultural centers. The First Folio, published in 1623 by John Heminges and Henry Condell, was the first collection of Shakespeare's plays. Published seven years after Shakespeare's death, the First Folio is invaluable; without it, 16 of his plays would be lost to posterity, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest. The tour will last a year, making 3-4 week stops in every state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Fittingly enough, each copy will be open to the "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet, probably the most famous and enduring of Shakespeare's soliloquies. To read the full article, or to find out where the First Folio will be on display near you, follow the link.