We’ll Call It The Imogen Rule

January 6, 2016August 29, 2018 ~ duane ~ 1 Comment

I’m not sure how I feel about The Globe’s decision to rename Cymbeline to Imogen, because in the words of director Emma Rice, “Imogen speaks three times more lines than Cymbeline so it really is her story.”

Ok, let’s go with that. Here’s how the rest of the plays shake up based on the Imogen Rule:

Hamlet gets to keep his play (well, duh). So do Richard III, Lear, Macbeth and Titus. Shame – would have been fun to name the play Lady Macbeth.

Sorry Othello, but I think we’ve all secretly wanted the play to be called Iago anyway.

Julius Caesar is now Brutus, much to the delight of high school students everywhere who never really understood why it wasn’t called that in the first place.

Ok, let’s take a vote, do you pick Antony or Cleopatra? Because under the new rules it can’t be both. Ready? … Antony wins. See, I would have said Cleopatra.

Same deal for the younger said… Romeo or Juliet? Romeo. See, again, I would have thought Juliet.

Henry IV Part 2 is now Falstaff, and this pleases the ghost of Orson Welles.

The Tempest is now Prospero, and I’m totally ok with that.

Ok, last one and then I have to go do useful things.

King John shall henceforth be known as? Bastard.

(* I got all my character line counts here, if you want to expand the list.)

The Desert Island Test

January 5, 2016March 9, 2017 ~ duane ~ Leave a comment

I’ve seen this question posed a variety of times in a variety of different sources, but I don’t think I’ve ever asked it.

If you were stranded on a desert island, what books would you take with you?

It reminds me of a short story The Bet by Anton Chekhov, about a man who goes into voluntary solitary confinement for fifteen years, who does nothing but read. At least he has the advantage of a regular supply of books as he works through them. In the desert island test you’re basically saying what books will you read over and over again.

You know what I’m going to ask, then, right?

If you’re on the “Shakespeare was meant to be performed, not read” side of the fence, is Shakespeare on your desert island list? Why?

For the record, a Complete Works has always been at the top of my list whenever I’ve pondered this question. The only debate to me is which form it should take — a First Folio, so I can appreciate the original? Or a deeply footnoted academic version so I bring with me not just Shakespeare’s text, but a few centuries of scholarship on the subject?

Shakespeare the Man from Stratford

December 24, 2015February 7, 2017 ~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Shakespeare the Man from Stratford

(to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)

Shakespeare, the man from Stratford,

Wanted very much to write a play.

So he packed himself off to London,

Where theatre occupied his days.

All of the other playwrights,

used to laugh and call him names (like Upstart!)

They never let poor Shakespeare

Participate in all their fame.

Then one foggy London eve

Ben Jonson came to say,

“Marlowe lost his last knife fight.

Can you pen a play tonight?”

Then all the playwrights loved him,

(Excepting maybe Robert Greene!).

“Shakespeare, the man from Stratford,

You should play before the Queen!”

Another Victim..err, I Mean, Follower

December 23, 2015February 7, 2017 ~ duane ~ 1 Comment

I mentioned recently that I’ve been taking steps to decorate my life with Shakespeare. By that I mean, not just keeping all my fun stuff piled in a corner at home, but having stuff about me that will allow strangers to strike up a conversation.

I know I posted this on Twitter, but can’t remember if I updated you all with an image of what my computer looks like now:

(Yes, that is my daughter’s Barbie hanging out next to it.) Two people have already asked whether I could have made the Hamlet work so that he was contemplating the Apple, but I think it’s too big to make that effect work. Instead I positioned him to look like he’d just taken a chunk out of the Apple. The real question is whether my ironic Lion King imagery comes through? 🙂

So this is the computer I carry around with me at the new office. Today after a meeting, one of my coworkers who I have not really had a conversation with asked me if I was a fan of Shakespeare, which of course struck up the usual conversation.

Did I ever tell you my rule about asking me Shakespeare questions? I always tell new people, once you get me talking about Shakespeare, seriously, don’t feel bad about just walking away. Because I will not stop.

In the span of the next maybe 3 minutes we covered Commonwealth Shakespeare in the Park, Twelfth Night, Lear, how they handled the nude scene (he asked), how they handled the storm, The Tempest, why it is first in the folio but pretty much the last thing he wrote and how depending on which angle you take it tells you entirely different things about the play and the playwright (which, by the way, I might have to make a blog post about because I never really considered that before), Anne Hathaway (both the actress and Shakespeare’s wife), and Penn and Teller.

At this point the poor guy is sitting back down at his desk but I’m walking distance from him so I keep circling back to add something I just thought of. After doing that two or three times I finally force myself to shut up because he probably doesn’t care about half the stuff I’m telling him at this point.

In other words it was awesome and I would do that a dozen times a day if people approached me :).

I Know What I’m Getting For Christmas, Part 2 [ Another Geeklet Story ]

December 23, 2015July 22, 2024 ~ duane ~ Leave a comment

It’s not that I snoop for my Christmas presents, my family just doesn’t appreciate how generally overly aware I am of my surroundings. If you say something, or you leave something laying around, chances are I’m going to notice it and connect some dots.

I like taking my kids through Newbury Comics. It’s a weird kind of, “Well yeah if I literally had money to burn, there’s a bunch of stuff I’d buy here” shop. I believe the word “kitschy” could apply to much of it. The kind of stuff you decorate your desk with at work.

One of the popular things you see there now, and really in lots of stores, is those “Pop” figurines? They’re kind of like bobble heads, although I don’t think they bobble. And they’ve clearly been licensed to everyone under the sun. Why oh why doesn’t their marketing department understand public domain? Because every time I see them I look for a Shakespeare, and there simply isn’t one.

So when my girls mentioned needing to go to Newbury Comics to shop for something, I didn’t really connect the dots. We found ourselves at a different mall that had a different, independent comic shop and one of my girls said, “We have to go in there!” but when I tried to follow she said, “Not you, Daddy! Mommy, come with us.” Again, I have no idea at this point. I know that there is no Shakespeare stuff in that store, though I’ve told them in the past generic things like, “Oh I like all this kind of stuff” so I’m sure they’re running with that theme.

They leave the store with bags and command me not to look. My middle daughter then begins quizzing me on which Star Wars movie is my favorite, and how I feel about the Clone Wars. When I tell her exactly how I feel about the prequels and she turns to my wife and says, “Mommy, oh no!” I figure out that I must be getting some sort of Star Wars prequel merchandise from her, and don’t think about it again.

Except for the fact that my wife hides my presents in the same general place that we hide the kids’ presents. So that evening I stumble across…. a blank Pop figure. I didn’t even know they made such a thing. I have no idea for sure if this is supposed to be for me or not, but I’ve got a hunch. Are they going to try to make me a Shakespeare pop figure from scratch?

Yes, that is exactly what they’re doing. Being kids, not very sneaky kids at that, they left him half finished on the desk downstairs in my office (/ their playroom) which confirmed my suspicions. Right now he looks like something out of the Walking Dead, but whoever is making it really did nail the ruff/collar around his neck so it’s obvious who he is, if you’re looking for it.

I can’t wait to see how the finished product turns out! I’ll be sure to post pictures.