June 2 - June 8, 2024
The day is hot...
Image of the Week
My twin on Twitter. We turned 34 this week, celebrate by following him. Most of his posts are related to evolutionary biology, epidemiology, and data science rather than Shakespeare, but when the worlds combine – see this tweet re-writing Merchant with Portia spiders – it is incredible. He once stuck a Shakespeare reference into a review of Loaded Doritos.
For the first time in Stratford Festival history, all its Shakespeare productions are directed by women
At the Festival Theatre on Monday, the season officially opened with the Bard’s romantic comedy “Twelfth Night,” helmed by veteran actor Seana McKenna. Two days later on Wednesday, director Esther Jun’s “Cymbeline” opened at the 600-seat Tom Patterson Theatre. And on Sunday, a new production of “Romeo and Juliet,” helmed by American director Sam White, will open at the Festival Theatre, concluding a busy opening week here in Ontario’s de facto theatre capital.
Watch a conversation about Twelfth Night with Seana McKenna1 who has been in the play at Stratford twice before, first as Viola in 1985 and then as Olivia in 2006.
Book News: Straight Acting & The Playbook
Straight Acting
Will Tosh’s Straight Acting opens with a fleet-footed history of Shakespeare’s sexuality as presented in the scholarly literature and closes with Tosh’s own conclusion that Shakespeare was ‘bi rather than gold-star gay’.
The Playbook
Shapiro wraps the story of the Federal Theater and Dies’s committee around five chapters dedicated to individual Federal Theater shows, like the “Macbeth” that a 20-year-old Orson Welles directed in 1936…
Read an excerpt from that chapter. The Library of Congress also has plenty of fascinating material on that Macbeth, including the lighting cues.
Duran Durantony and Cleopatra.
With Tears Augmenting the Fresh Morning Dew
Holland’s Romeo is introduced to the crowd first via screen…Like a boxer entering the ring, he steps on stage — and then starts weeping…Then, Holland utters the word “Rosaline.”
…The play’s action also fails to line up with the text at points, like when the Nurse desperately calls on Romeo to stand up after Juliet discovers he has murdered her cousin, Tybalt. Because each actor is speaking the lines into a standing mic, he is, awkwardly, already on his feet.
I’m not sure what to do with the information that Demi Moore’s chihuahua enjoyed this production but if you come up with a witty chihuahua/R&J themed tag line please share. I went down a “Yo quiero reBELLious subjects” rabbit hole with no success, learn from my mistakes.
“Othello was presented as a Black Civil War general – serving for the South…”
Italics theirs, questions mine.
It’s all a lot to ask of Addison, who has only had three weeks to refill his Shakespearean tank since leaving it all out on the Civil War battlefield (and Desdemona’s neck) in “Othello.
This isn’t it.
Ukrainian King Lear at the RSC
‘A powerful transformation of society is taking place - we are changing, the world is changing. The Shakespearean spirit has given us the strength to continue, we do not give up.’
When Russia invaded Ukraine, thousands of people found refuge in the small town of Uzhorod in western Ukraine. Local director Vyacheslav Yehorov saw the parallels between the refugees’ experience and the themes of King Lear, and involved them in the creation of his play.
Ralph Fiennes: School Yourself
Watch Ralph Fiennes tell a group of Montessori students,"Because you are drifting, the work you've done on the lines isn't doing much.” He also visited a school in Liverpool earlier this year.
Revisit my 2021 deep dive into Ralph Fiennes’ Henry VI connections.
ACT Contemporary Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare Company may merge
Public Theater Takes Shakespeare in the Park Out on the Town
After bowing and posing for selfies, the actors joined the crew in tidying away set pieces and folding canopies. “I love it,” Varín Ayala, an actor, said. “In any other show, I’d go, ‘Ew, I don’t want to strike,’ but it’s a part of the experience.”
Samuel Pepys Diary – June 4, 1661
From thence to the Theatre and saw “Harry the 4th,” a good play.
“Per L&M footnote, this was Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I, being played by Killigrew's company at the Vere Street theatre.”
I highly recommend signing up for Pepys’ Diary emails. The chances of my sitting down and reading all the diaries are slim-to-none, and even listening to such esteemed Shakespeareans as Ken Branagh reading them holds limited appeal.
However, as occasionally email missives I’ve found them delightful. There are frequent tidbits of fascinating theater history and Pepys lapses into halfhearted Latin/French to disguise his peccadillos. The Diarys span from 1660-1669, the emails are currently in 1661 but one doesn’t need to start at the beginning to enjoy.
Unrelated to Twelfth Night, Seana McKenna tells a beautiful story about actor Nicholas Pennell. His shoes were left in his Stratford dressing room after he died and are still there.
From his obituary: “With characteristic diversity, Mr. Pennell was scheduled to appear this year at Stratford as Duncan in "Macbeth," as Sir Jaspar Fidget in "The Country Wife" and as Emperor Joseph II in "Amadeus." When he was unable to attend the beginning of rehearsals on Feb. 20 because of his illness, he sent a message to the company expressing his regrets for missing what would have been his 24th season and reaffirmed his belief in the redemptive power of theater.”
He died on February 22.
I failed to track down more info about the shoes, but the search led to this interview with the Slings and Arrows creators featuring a poster of Pennell as Hamlet. The interview also mentions the documentary “Robin & Mark & Richard III” which looks amazing and I cannot find anywhere.