Friday, October 26, 2007

Bringing the Author to Life

I got to meet Shakespeare the other day.  It was loads of fun to get to chat with him.  I bumped into him (OK, chased him down as he was on his way into the men’s room) at the Renaissance Festival.  It was great to finally get to meet the man face to face.


I am not much of an actor myself, and usually feel quite self-concious if I have to put on any sort of show on stage.  But I can sure see the value of letting students hear Shakespeare’s tales as if from his own mouth.

Have you ever seen these performances where the actor dresses up like the artist, and tells his/her story?  Which are some of the best you’ve seen?
Posted by poetically challenged at 13:55:15 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Shakespeare’s Cymbeline

I’ve recently been spending a fair bit of time rereading and studying Shakespeare’sCymbeline, mostly because I have been preparing to teach it last week and this.  Cymbeline is one of my favorite plays, so I spent a little time at my new blog writing about it.  Here are some links to those articles:




You can also visit the full index of all the things I’ve been writing about, if you are interested.

Posted by poetically challenged at 09:02:05 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Shakespeare

Sometime back at my blog full of top five lists, I made a list of my five favorites of Shakespeare’s plays.  Shakespeare teacher and Shakespeare Geek played along too, as did BloggingWriter in a comment at my original post.  It was fun to see the lists of people’s favorites.


At the moment, though, I am in the midst of reading and preparing Twelfth Night for class. This is probably my least favorite of Shakespeare’s plays.  I can’t stand Sir Toby and his gang.  It isn’t made any better for me that Malvolio is dispicable, and it’s so hard to sympathize with his shabby treatment at the hands of said sickening gang.  Sigh.  I always dread getting to this play.

There is a lot to discuss, with a lot going on in the text.  But ugh.  I just don’t like the characters.
Posted by poetically challenged at 05:19:01 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Richard II

I recently did a lecture on Shakespeare’s Richard II. I am not usually a big fan of the histories in general, and have never really quite connected much with Richard II in the past. But somehow, this year when preparing for the lecture, it really caught me. I enjoyed the play immensely.

Probably a good part of the reason I enjoyed the play this year was thinking back to when I watched the production of the play that has Fiona Shaw in the lead role. But also, I was able to find some connections with the local political situation and questions that the play seems to be probing. I suppose that is always part of the trick of reading well — finding that connection between one’s own situation and the text at hand. Perhaps, even, to find oneself in the text.

It doesn’t always happen, but it worked when studying Richard II for me this year. And it made it a fun read for me.

Posted by poetically challenged at 15:43:21 | Permalink | Comments (1) »