Joe McCarthy, Stephen King, and My Little Titus Andronicus
Plus: Handsome Dan in "Midsummer"
This newsletter has footnotes.1 If you prefer not to scroll down, click on the email headline to read in-browser and they will appear when you click on them. I use open access and gift links whenever possible, however you may still encounter paywalls. There are options. If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it and consider pledging a future subscription.
Quick Links
Riz Ahmed Hamlet roundup: “bold but empty,” “shaky,” “brief.” (clip)
I always say Shakespeare is not dead. He’s been kidnapped. You know, kidnapped by the establishment, kidnapped by intellectuals.
My Little Titus Andronicus is a real play that you can really do. (h/t Aili Huber, send your west-central Virginia high school students to audition)
This is where you drag off one of the ponies and chop off his head.
A homeschool pirate Tempest, “Duke Orsino is looking for the Britney to his Justin,” a sporty R&J, Hamlet in Antigone in Analysis + Catskill Shakespeare.
As Cruz began the writing process, she journeyed to the Hebrides, an archipelago off the coast of Scotland, to visit Macbeth’s grave and pay her respects.2
Greg Doran on Antony Sher and his new book + Venus and Adonis with puppets.
Sher wanted to die at their home in Stratford, with its floorboards salvaged from the RSC stage and walked on by Olivier and Gielgud…
“On the last day, he was so determined not to stay in bed, even though he couldn’t stand up. Before he lost his marbles, he’d quote Othello, ‘If it were now to die,/ ‘Twere now to be most happy…’”
Margaret Webster as a directing foremother via Joanie Schultz. (more)
Shakespeare and Stephen King, or What Does Juliet Have to Say About Carrie?
Patrick Ball on the audiences of tomorrow:
The American repertory theater model, the Guthries, the Oregon Shakespeare Festivals…is reliant on an older subscriber base. When I was doing “Hamlet” in LA, having a bunch of young women in their 20s on Twitter excited about a Shakespeare play is really fun for me.
Get thee to NYC, Borachio/Claudio and Margaret understudies, get thee to NYC.
Naeem Hayet (one of the Globe to Globe Hamlets) on Headlong.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Fringe Festival must have Shakespeare in it. NYC’s includes The Last Audition and Walter Schlinger’s Romeo and Juliet.
The Historical Shakespeare Editions website is amazing. (h/t Eric Johnson)
“There’s a really intense closeness between Rosalind and Celia that could read as queer — but they’re cousins. So it’s like…do we lean into that or not?”
Caridad Svich on 12 Ophelias + The Booth Variations + a Latinx Winter’s Tale.
Midsummer in Summerfolk via Exeunt.
San Pedro’s Shakespeare in the Park will be free next season.
“The owl was a baker’s daughter” story is super dark.
…and this dog, our dog (boola boola)
Recommendations
“A theater actor told me how his group’s production of George Orwell’s 1984 had been called off following this event.”
“…how do we, as both—whether we are artists or we are producers—judge our own work in the present, in real time, as we’re making it?”
Like this one.
There is an incredible history of 19th c. Shakespeareans traveling to research their productions. My favorite is Hawes Craven who went to Scotland with Henry Irving to research Macbeth and ransacked the British Museum for inspo. He did not, however, have a Dracula character named after him, unlike other Irving favorites.
The word of command with respect to the production of Macbeth first went forth in the month of July…the scenery was finally entrusted to Mr. Hawes Craven…searching the British and South Kensington Museums for authority for every article of costume, weapon, furniture, and domestic utensil-down to every nail, and button, and blade…Thus it comes about that the vessels in use in the banqueting-scene, for example, are all of them of correct design. They are exact counterparts of originals in the British Museum, while the patterns for some of the embroideries come from an eleventh-century cope at South Kensington…
Thanks for the mention!
The "Marlowe" quote is correctly attributed to Rep. Martin Dies of Texas, Early Chair of the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities in questioning Hallie Flannagan of the WPA Federal Theatre Project.
McCarthy came along later, after WWII.