shakespeare as it sounded

This is cool--we saw a few weeks back a video of some scholars and actors discussing how the English language would have sounded in Shakespeare's day. They deduced this from some jokes that have gotten lost, plays on words, and etc. due to our modern improper pronunciation. And though they gave a few short examples of what it might have sounded like then, here's a link to a story on a guide published by the British Library that includes audio recordings of a few pieces.

Here is a bit from the Scottish Play, Act 2:

[EDIT: oops, I guess blogger won't let me embed clips from soundcloud. click the link above for clips from the scottish play, romeo and juliet, and one of the sonnets.]

I love how it sounds almost Northern or Yorkshire, and almost Irish, yet none of these. More clips at the site linked above.

pulp shakespeare

From the Hollywood Fringe Festival, 'Pulp Shakespeare.'

wm. shakes review

Got a great review from Stacy Nick in the Coloradoan yesterday for 'Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)' so we're looking to be selling more tix. Quoth Ms. Nick:

Next up, the play goes after perhaps Shakespeare's bloodiest play, "Titus Andronicus." The basic plot of the actual tale: When the emperor's daughter is raped, he cuts off the head of the rapist, cooks it into a pie and serves it to the rapist's mother. "Shakespeare" converts the story into a hysterical Julia Child-style cooking show.

If you find this in poor taste, you may be out of luck with this show. As Reeves notes after the cast raps its way through "Othello": "That was unsurprisingly offensive."

Come down and check it out! You've got three (very) white boys rapping, and what could be funnier than dudes dressing up like chicks?

Nothing. That is near the top of the comedy food chain, just edging out poop jokes, dick jokes, and fart jokes.

Oh, wait. Boob jokes are number one. Those will always rule.

Brooks Reeves as Romeo.

info:

Runs
January 7, 2011
TO
February 13, 2011
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.

Matinees (2PM):
February 6, 2011
January 16, 2011
January 23, 2011
January 30, 2011
February 13, 2011
Thursday:
January 20, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.

Location
Masonic Temple : Proscenium
225 West Oak Street
Fort Collins

Tickets
Buy Tickets Online
Ticket Info
Box Office : 970-221-6730

more shakespeare

All deep up in tech week for 'The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged' and so naturally Shakespeare references abound. Found this on one of my new favorite literature-related websites, better book titles.

It's pretty much what the title says: the author reworks famous book covers to better reflect what the books actually contain.

Here's the Scottish play.



Hee hee.

review -- Modern Muse's 'As You Like It'

Here's a review I wrote for the Post that just came out today. These guys are some talented actors, but the directors attempted to tell this story with a cast of only 6 people playing all the roles, and it just didn't quite work out.

Here's the lede, which i like :)

'For art to have value, an element of risk is crucial. And theater especially embodies risk, perhaps more than any other art form. Writers have editors, film actors get endless takes, and painters can literally cover their mistakes. But on stage, every performance has a life of its own, subject to a thousand factors that can alter the final result.'



The other strange choice they made was to set the play in rural Appalachia. Which is fine; I've seen some Shakespeare productions (and been in some, too) that were set in unexpected places and times. But good God, I'm sorry but i just can't listen to the Bard's words spoken like it's Bo and Luke Duke having a conversation with Boss Hawg. To wit:

'But even with the understanding that wigs, accents and body language must shift in order for audiences to get that the actors are playing someone else now, it's all so over-the-top that it's distracting. The accents are a straight-up Yankee interpretation of Southern trailer trash. And even if someone somewhere really does speak that way, and even if Appalachian dialect is the closest extant example we have of Elizabethan speech, it's nonetheless horrifying to hear Shakespeare masticated through a "Deliverance" style of parlance.'

Well, read the whole review, and maybe even see the show--there are some good performances in it, and if you don't mind the accents, there are some very funny and silly moments built in too. The dialect might not bother some people like it did me. Here's what Juliet Wittman of Westword thought.

Peace,
k