Open Source Shakespeare?!

So, this is pretty much the most awesome thing in the world…if you are a shakespeare nerd like me.

Open Source Shakespeare has all the plays (you can sort by category, number of lines, see a character list or just search), has a concordance for looking up words, and plenty of awesomeness.

/nerd.

A needed book on Shakespeare

I have just stumbled across thisbook: Evoking Shakespeare, by director Peter Brook.

Want.

When I was a teenager, growing up and wanting to be an actor and reading Shakespeare (I was an odd kid that way, I liked reading Shakespeare), I would often come across references to the Productions of Peter Brook, and would often see pictures of his visually stunning productions. His 1971 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (with Ben Kingsley and Patrick Stewart) was pictured in almost every book. An almost bare stage, and faeries flying (literally, the actors were wearing contraptions that were tied into the flies), or sitting on clouds above the stage.

When I began actually thinking about Shakespeare, I became a bit of a purist, thinking that it had to be performed in period costumes. Fortunately, I’ve softened on that considerably. And I find now, that those images of Brook’s productions freed me to think of Shakespeare in many different ways.

So, picking up this book at some point is going to be pretty necessary. Because we all know about my weakness for Billy.

This again?

So, in a round-about way, this post is a lesson in how to make Phil blow a gasket.

I found myself with some time to kill before work today. So, I went into an Indigo to look around. As usual, their selection of books related to theatre, plays or writing were limited (that’s usually the case, but I like to check, just in case). Finding myself disappointed, I wandered over to the biography section. Now, this happens occaisionally, though there are few biographies that I’m interested in. Its rare that I pick something up. But if I do, chances are its a biography of Shakespeare (yeah, I know. nerd). I do have several different biographies and related books already, but for some reasin (nerd), I can’t resist more of them. Granted, I have a weakness for books as it is…but books on Shakespeare…now that’s something I will almost always want to read. So…into the Biographies section I go.

I look. I look some more. There’s one book, that has a picture of Someone on the cover and in big letters “SHAKESPEARE”. So, I get in closer (it was on the bottom shelf) to take closer look. And this is what I see:

Click on the picture to see it in full size.

See the title?

“Shakespeare” by Another Name. The life of Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, the Man who was Shakespeare.

Now, this is one of those “arguments” that always gets my back up. I could go on and on about this one, citing various scholarly works - at least at first, until my ire raises enough that I start frothing at the mouth and spouting obscenities - which I admit wouldn’t take long (last time I was clocked at only 0.0007 seconds of rational rhetorical arguement before several words beginning with “fu-” and others that end with “-unt” were uttered. I never said I was a great debator).

So, seeing this book, you can understand the few options that were open to me. I had two:

1. Fly into a rage and begin tearing this abomination of a book to pieces with my teeth.
2. Blog about it.

Clearly I very wisely chose the latter. Though it was close.

Audition News: the plays/Roles

So. Got the cast list today for the Forward Theatre shows.
First up: Hamlet.

Now, for some reason I had got it into my head that I might possibly play Claudius. I don’t know where I got that into my head, but hey…it would be nice, right?

No dice on that one. The role for Hamlet is: Polonius.
Yeah. that’s right. Ophelia’s father.

I have mixed feelings about that. Mostly because…the character of Polonius is referred to by everyone as an old man. In fact, he’s considered by most of the characters to be a useless, doddering old man.

Now, my casting in this role is likely due to the young age of the rest of the cast. At 36, I’m probably one of the older members of the cast.

Now, of course, Polonius dies at the beginning of the second half. Which leaves me free to play the Gravedigger. Which, I suppose is alright.

After that, I have the role of Cornwall in King Lear. That could be fun, since the character is described in some synoposis texts thusly: “Cornwall is Regan’s brutal husband, vicious and savage when thwarted in his efforts to seize ambition”.

So yea, that could be fun.

After that…They are doing Romeo and Juliet, which places me in the role of the Prince and the Apothecary.

So, although these aren’t the roles I thought I wanted, I suppose that in the long run…they ain’t bad for my first experience with the company.