Category: Uncategorized

Most of the posts in this category are simply leftovers from a previous era before the site had categories. Over time I plan to reduce that number to zero and remove this category. Until then, here they are. I had to put something in the box.

Iago Does Not Exist

~ duane ~ 3 Comments

I love a good “Hey look at Shakespeare *this* way” theory, and the TV Tropes brought me some new ones to play with. Hat tip to Michigan Shakespeare Festival for posting about this on their Facebook page!

How about the idea that Iago doesn’t exist?  That he is just the personification of the individual evil side of each character?

He’s the incarnation of that voice within every person’s mind, which is why it’s so easy for him to trick everyone into believing what he says. He’s not saying it — they’re thinking it. Emilia is just a klepto with self-esteem issues; Othello is suffering from paranoia (or, if you hold that his seizures are real, he’s also having epileptic hallucinations); Roderigo is generally unstable; Cassio has a serious drinking problem… the list goes on.

Now, obviously we’re out of the realm of what Shakespeare may have actually intended – there’s no way he had the narrative to even think of something like this.  But in terms of modern interpretation, could you pull this off?  I wonder whether some sort of weird version could be made where there is no Iago character, but instead each of the characters listed above takes turns reciting Iago’s appropriate lines as if schizophrenic.

How many scenes does Iago have by himself?

There’s a few more good theories on that page (like Horatio being a hired assassin sent by Fortinbras) that maybe we’ll get to another time.

This Geek Hath Had Good Counsel — A HUNDRED SHIRTS!

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

If you didn’t see the email, or the Facebook posts, or the Twitter tweets… our Shakespeare is Universal campaign has reached its goal, with 3 days to spare!  If you’re one of those 100 you will get your shirt, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining our cause.  As I wrote in a previous email this wasn’t just an opportunity to go fishing for funds, this was a bit of a crisis of faith on my part, and I’d really convinced myself that if after all these years I couldn’t find an audience of 100 people who were willing to make a real world commitment to what we were trying to do here?  Let’s just say I was seriously thinking about how I’d be spending my time going forward.

BUT!  That’s all in the past, because you do like Shakespeare, you really really like Shakespeare, and I am a very happy geek heading off into the weekend.  I will stop checking my dashboard every 3 minutes like I’ve been doing for the last 3 weeks, and I will sleep soundly.

Thanks again.

Please note that the campaign does not officially end until sometime Monday afternoon (the page actually has a counter), so if you planned on buying a shirt you still have time to do so.  Of course you won’t get to ride the rollercoaster that we all just did of not knowing whether they’d ever exist!  You’ll just know you’re getting yours.  And that’s ok, too.  Shakespeare for everybody!

Happy Shakespeare Mother’s Day!

~ duane ~ 3 Comments

In honor of our moms, this week we imagine what Mother’s Day cards might have been like from Shakespeare’s characters.  Shakespeare is a bit like Disney in not giving us very many mothers to work with, but we do our best.

Happy Mother’s Day!

“Dearest Mother, I can not begin to tell you how thankful I am that you did not pluck your nipple from my toothless gums and dash my brains out.” 

“Mom, I know you don’t always like to express just how much you care about me, but I know you do because you died of grief at the end of our play.  Offstage of course.  Love, Romeo.” 

“To The Woman Who Raised Me As If I Were Her Own Daughter,   I’m totally crushing on your son Bertram, could help me hook that up?” 

“What would I do for you, Mother?  I would spare Rome, even if you did embarrass me in front of Aufidius and his friends.” 

“For A Wonderful Mother-In-Law on Mother’s Day.  Sorry about the Tybalt thing Mrs. Capulet, I totally understand why you tried to have me executed.” 

“You Are The Queen, Your Husband’s Brother’s Wife, and Would It Were Not So You Are My Mother.  Happy Mother’s Day. “

Clandestine Geekery

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Waiting in line at the bank today, one woman spots somebody else she knows and they have a mini-reunion. I don’t catch the names but it’s not long before I hear #1 say to #2, “Are you still doing any theatre or music?”

My ears perk up.  Theatre?  I suppose they coud mean musical theatre.

#2 replies, among other things, “Right now I’m working with the Burlington Players…”

I pull out my phone and google the 2013-2014 for the Burlington Players to see if there’s any Shakespeare on the bill, giving me a wide open excuse to invite myself into the conversation (and look like a complete stalker).

Alas there is not.  39 Steps. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  Although I do spot (later) that their teen program did something called “Reviving Ophelia.”

<shrug>  That’s the kind of geekery I do for you folks.  I smell even the hint of something Shakespeare to talk about and I’m all over it. 😉

The Shakespeare Geek blog has been around since 2005, making it the oldest continually active Shakespeare blog today. Shakespeare is Universal represents our biggest fund-raising effort to date. For almost eight years and almost three thousand posts I’ve tried my best to make a place where everyone can talk about everything related to the subject of Shakespeare. If you’ve found my sites and products useful and interesting, I would greatly appreciate your support so that I can continue to do even more. Thank you.

All Good Things …

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

I heard a great piece of advice once in an entrepreneurial podcast.  The host said, “If you think you have a good idea, it doesn’t matter if you can find a hundred people that tell you its a good idea.  Go out and find a hundred people who will give you money for your idea, and then you have something.”

The last couple of weeks have been something of an experiment.  I’ve played around over the years with different ways to fund my little Shakespeare addiction here, running ads over in the side bar, doing some affiliate linking, stuff like that.  Always nickel and dimey stuff.  I’ve always had merchandise but it’s always been one-off stuff and I’m lucky to see 2 or 3 sales in a month.
So when I spotted Teespring, billed as “Kickstarter for T-shirts”, I thought “This might be worth a shot.  By getting the volume up we can keep the price down, and everybody wins.” So I took my most popular image (To be or not to be, translated into different languages) and brought the quality up to standard by consulting translators, adding languages, and cleaning up the design.  Thus was born the Shakespeare is Universal campaign.
The big question was, after eight years of posting over two thousand times on the subject of Shakespeare, do I have a “good enough” idea here that I’ve gathered those magical 100 loyal followers who would indeed pay real money for the value they receive?
As I write this, the answer is no.
The game’s not over, not for five more days.  We might still make it.  If I look at the last two weeks as purely a lesson in business and marketing it’s been enlightening.  I’ve reached out well past my comfort level in self-promotion, to be certain.  I’ve hounded celebrities for endorsements.  I’ve tried to rally the troups on Twitter and Facebook and email to feel like they are a part of a cause.  Every day I watch that number go up, I get a little thrill and wonder immediately, “Ok, what did I *just* do that made that happen?”
But I could equally step back and think, “You know, I launched this whole thing on Shakespeare’s Birthday, my biggest traffic day of the year by far.  In the best circumstance we could have crushed that 100 goal on the very first day.”  I think we got about 15.  I don’t even want to begin to do that math, to consider how much those dedicated fans cost me.  It would not be a very balanced equation.
I don’t know how I feel about this.  I know that I put real effort into this and my other sites and projects. They cause me real world stress. They cost me real world time and real world money.  It’s been an amazing experience, and I’ve done and learned a lot of things.  
But is this something that I can keep up forever?  Especially now, with the knowledge that such a large audience out there just really doesn’t care all that much whether I’m putting in the effort or not?  
That, I have to think about.  

The Shakespeare Geek blog has been around since 2005, making it the oldest continually active Shakespeare blog today. Shakespeare is Universal represents our biggest fund-raising effort to date. For almost eight years and almost three thousand posts I’ve tried my best to make a place where everyone can talk about everything related to the subject of Shakespeare. If you’ve found my sites and products useful and interesting, I would greatly appreciate your support so that I can continue to do even more. Thank you.