Professional Immersion Program at Cal Shakes

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What a striking blinding scene! #calshakes #kinglear #riotousknights #gloucester #hardtophotographwithstagelights (at Bentley Upper School)

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Excited to support the incredible work of our AL interns at 4-week Lafayette Conservatory. #calshakes #calshakespip #kinglear #riotousknights (at Bentley Upper School)

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2014 production management intern, Alex Liu, and 2014 artistic intern, Regina Fields, shared this selfie from yesterday. We’re always excited to hear that former Cal Shakes’ interns have stayed in touch!

Photo credit: Regina Fields.

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Perfect, fabulous, and fake. #gamenight #applestoapples #internevent

[cosmiicprince]

Me and owlberts drew a Hamlet comic based upon our favourite Jojo comic

We did it mostly from memory tho so some parts are wrong but w/e

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Claudius is by far the best part.

[shakespeaker]

Who are the Anti-Stratfordians?

People who think Shakespeare wasn’t actually Shakespeare, but that ‘Shakespeare’ was a secret pseudonym for someone more important and better educated, like the Earl of Oxford. 

See also: imbeciles.

[dukeofbookingham-deactivated202]

This

[thebookishgurl]

Not to piss anyone off, but why does this matter? The author is literally (and possibly metaphorically) dead.

[dukeofbookingham-deactivated202]

I feel like I have to address this. I tried not to, but I actually think it’s really important. Most of the people who make the argument that ‘Shakespeare wasn’t Shakespeare’ are doing so on the basis that the real William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon simply didn’t have the literary wherewithal to have written what are now the most famous plays in the English (or possibly any) language. They like to argue that because Shakespeare’s family wasn’t particularly wealthy or influential, and that he never got more than the Elizabethan equivalent of a grade school education, he couldn’t possibly be as well-read or as eloquent as the person who wrote Hamlet, or Macbeth, or what have you. 

The reason Stratfordians are so vehemently defensive of Shakespeare as himself is because (a) there’s literally no proof that he wasn’t exactly who we think he was and (b) we believe that it’s entirely possible that a man who was nominally ordinary became the world’s most famous playwright. If you take that away from him, you are doing the world a huge disservice, by reinforcing the idea that in order to have a significant impact on the course of history, you have to be wealthy or politically powerful or socially superior. I for one want to be able to tell any struggling middle school kid with average grades not to give up, because passion is more important than money or power, and he or she could be the next Shakespeare. 

So, that’s why it matters. 

[engrprof]

^^^This^^^

[melusineloriginale]

Yes. All of this. The Oxfordian authorship theory is rooted in classist, elitist attitudes that insist that a glovemaker’s son from Stratford-on-Avon who never left England couldn’t possibly have written 37 plays based simply on extensive reading and a great deal of imagination.

Also they have no conception of what “grammar school” actually means. A grammar school education in the sixteenth century usually included extensive study of rhetoric, philosophy, and history. Ben Jonson claimed that Shakespeare’s Latin was mediocre and his Greek nonexistent, but there were a wide variety of classical texts available in English translation during his lifetime and we can clearly see echoes of those translations in Shakespeare’s works.

Lastly, the Oxfordian theory is rooted in an 18th century forgery popularized by a man named Looney (pronounced Loh-ney, but WHATEVER). The best book I’ve seen on the subject is Contested Will by James Shapiro, which is marvellous and snarky and everyone should read it.

[gehayi]

Grammar school, in Shakespeare’s time, would have been for children between the ages of 7 to 14, and would also included learning Latin and studying the works of (among others) Ovid, Plautus, Horace, Cicero, and Seneca. A smattering of Greek would also have appeared occasionally on the curriculum. Oh, and Elizabethan grammar schools ran from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the summer and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the winter. The school week consisted of a five full days and a half-day on Thursday which continued for between 40 to 44 weeks of the year. This meant that the school boys spent at least 2,000 hours in school – more than double the current school hours.

Also, watch Brows Held High’s Kyle Kallegren’s explanation of what’s wrong with the Oxfordian theory here…and his and his friend Ven’s explosions over the same movie here.

[nestofstraightlines]

I completely agree. David Mitchell made the point on QI that Shakespeare comes from EXACTLY the position and level of education you’d expect a writer to come from. The most plausible origin of the man is also the only version of his life story we have literally any evidence for.

I guess the works of our other greatest writers likeDickens, Austen, Eliot, Chaucer et al were also secretly earls and duchesses as they apparently can’t possibly have been from the ranks of the educated middle classes as is claimed :/

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I don’t know our official opinion on this, but everyone here is pretty anti-anti-Sratfordian. Why couldn’t Shakespeare have been some random guy? Most people are.

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The flowers are blooming at the Bruns and June is just around the corner, which can only mean one thing: Cal Shakes’ season is in full swing. And with the season come our summer interns. Three have already started, so today we will introduce the two I have been able to nab for quick interviews.

Taelen Robertson (pictured above) Hometown: Camino, CA School: Taelen is currently taking a gap year before transferring to Bennington College in Bennington, VT  Department: Costume Design Favorite Shakespeare play: Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night What have you enjoyed most at Cal Shakes? “The weird things I get to make.” Such as? “A bow cod piece.” What’s up next? After she leaves Cal Shakes after the closing of Twelfth Night, Taelen will be working at a children’s theater summer camp teaching makeup.  If you could live in one historical time period, in which one would you live? “The French Revolution--Just in terms of the clothes.”

Jason Cohen (not pictured) Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania School: Carnegie Mellon Department: Stage Management Favorite Shakespeare play: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Why were you drawn to working at Cal Shakes? Jason’s background is in contemporary political pieces, and he was drawn to working on more classical shows. What are you looking forward to most this summer? “The sunsets in the mountains.” If you could live in one historical time period, in which one would you live? “The 1950s. I like suits.”

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Hands, everyone: how often do you get to see a Shakespeare performance at the Globe Theater on the banks of the Thames? For those of you who answered “not often,” and who don’t get to hop across the pond any old time, there is the Globe on Screen 2015 series. Globe on Screen broadcasts recorded performances of the current season at various locations across three continents. Currently airing are Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, Antony and Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar. For a rare look at the behind-the-scenes of a Globe production, watch the video above. And consider getting tickets to see a performance of one of the shows in San Francisco, Sebastopol, or Santa Cruz.

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Seattle Shakespeare Company’s ‘Othello’ fuses darkness and light

Seattle Shakespeare Company’s impassioned production of Shakespeare’s “Othello” runs at Cornish Playhouse through May 17.

Grab your galoshes, folks, and head to Seattle before this production ends on May 17!

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If you’re looking for a sly knock-off of your favorite playwright/poet, then the Improvised Shakespeare Company’s “play’s the thing” for you. The Chicago-based group of actors performs completely original plays, made up entirely on the spot, using the style, themes, and language of the immortal William Shakespeare. Watch one of their performances above or check them out and find their upcoming tour dates on their website. 

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A dingy New York bar might not seem like the appropriate setting for one of Shakespeare’s works–works that are usually performed high atop stages and set to operatic fanfare. But the Shakespeare Exchange, a New York-based theater group, has other ideas. The Exchange’s goal, germinated in 2013, was to produce videos of all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets, set in New York City, and filmed by and starring as-yet-unknown directors and actors. The Exchange’s hope was that the sometimes inaccessible sonnets would be more appealing to everyday New Yorkers if they incorporated familiar locales and scenarios–and were, as in Shakespeare’s own time, not reserved for the scholars. Sonnet No. 3, as seen above, is one example of the faithful and coherent nature of the adaptations, and it strikes the viewer as a testament to why Shakespeare adaptation continues to be relevant. The Sonnet Project has completed 102 films. The last film is slated for release in Spring 2016. Read about the project here or watch the sonnets on the Sonnet Project’s website. 

[george-harrison-marwa-blues]

April 28 1964 - Filming the Shakespeare skit shown during the ‘Around The Beatles’ special taped at Studio 5AB, Wembley Studios, London.

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51 years later, and these men still rock the tights. 

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“Do you think because you are virtuous, that there shall be no more cakes and ale?” -Sir Toby Belch, Twelfth Night

While there was no ale at Cal Shakes this morning, we did celebrate the Bard’s 451st birthday (and the 399th anniversary of his death) with red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting. Happy birthday, Shakespeare! We think you would approve of us eating cake at 10 in the morning. 

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Founder and director of Lenox, Massachusetts’ Shakespeare & Company, Tina Packer is an eminent voice in the pantheon of Shakespeare performance and criticism. In her new book, Women of Will, she explores the evolution of the female in Shakespeare’s works and analyzes the trends that transformed women from nagging shrews to brilliant heroines.  Listen to an interview with Packer on NPR here.

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OP or not OP? 

For David and Ben Crystal, British linguist and Shakespearean actor respectively, Shakespeare’s plays are best when performed in OP--or the original pronunciation of words in Elizabethan and Jacobean English. Watch above to finally understand why you’ve never gotten all those witty Shakespeare puns your college professors insisted are in the text. 

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Everything you need to know about Shakespeare’s lexicon to impress your dinner guests and Tindr dates. In one minute.  

Check out the rest of the ‘History of English’ videos on YouTube.

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Shakespeare: coming to a theater/museum/library near you

A First Folio of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Photo credit, The Associated Press

The Folger Shakespeare Library, the pre-eminent collector of Shakespeare manuscripts (and general hub of bardolatry), is taking the Bard on the road. In 2016, 18 of the 82 First Folios housed by the Folger Shakespeare Library will tour the United States and Puerto Rico, where they will put on display at various museums, libraries, and cultural centers. The First Folio, published in 1623 by John Heminges and Henry Condell, was the first collection of Shakespeare's plays. Published seven years after Shakespeare's death, the First Folio is invaluable; without it, 16 of his plays would be lost to posterity, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest. The tour will last a year, making 3-4 week stops in every state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Fittingly enough, each copy will be open to the "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet, probably the most famous and enduring of Shakespeare's soliloquies. To read the full article, or to find out where the First Folio will be on display near you, follow the link.