Blogging Shakespeare

By MC Lars The second episode of MC Lars’ venture into Shakespeare’s writing addresses the Sonnets, including their cultural and historical background, Shakespeare’s inspiration, and their relation to the blues genre in current music.     The views expressed in this post are the author’s own

Rapper MC Lars has launched a new youtube series in which he summarizes classic literary works. This week he addresses William Shakespeare’s 1608 tragedy “King Lear”, engaging with plot, themes and rounding off with raps about blindness and filial ingratitude. Series produced by MC Lars and Bryan Atchison. Beat by SMP Productions (http://smphq.com). Video and […]

By Layla Moallem Sonnet 130 This single is the outcome of a beautiful encounter between Layla and the highly acclaimed musical producer and Balkan Beat Box founding member Tamir Muskat. What started as an improvised session in Tamir’s studio, in which Layla found herself rapping Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 onto Tamir’s beats – became a long […]

QUESTIONS By Jillian Snyder   Jillian Snyder is a Ph.D. student at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and was one of the recipients of a Sir Stanley Wells Shakespeare Studentship, via the American Friends of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The award meant she could work in the archives and libraries in Stratford-upon-Avon for just […]

Solving Mysteries in the SBT Archives: Ethel Webling and Herbert Beerbohm Tree By Ella Hawkins   Tucked away in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Rare Books strongroom is an item that has until recently been shrouded in mystery: a unique edition of Julius Caesar with an undocumented origin, purpose, and past. The item features printed pages […]

Shakespeare performed live by actors 1,600 miles apart in world first through university’s ‘Stargate’-style cyber stage By Hannah Smith, press officer. An act of Shakespeare has been performed live by drama students in Finland and the West Midlands thanks to a life-sized digital portal. Coventry University’s performing arts school teamed up with students in the University of […]

The Plays We Overlook: The Two Noble Kinsmen By James Cappio Is there any play in the canon less known than The Two Noble Kinsmen? And not just because of what Moe the bartender did to the manuscript in The Simpsons (see illustration). There it is on the title page of the 1634 quarto: “The […]

In the Raspberry Hills Library English Book Circle the question has often been raised of how much we can accept things done to the classics. Can Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law really do that to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson?  Can Laurie R. King really have a feisty young Marry Russell marry an aging […]

How good is your own theatrical imagination as you read a play by Shakespeare or one of his contemporaries? Have you ever wondered how to communicate the possibilities of live theatre to other people, perhaps a group of students? Have you ever wondered where to look for guidance before directing or acting in a play? […]