Stags, ads, and witches tags
Plus: The Parr Shakespeare Prize
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🚨Do you know a fabulous high school teacher who could use $10,000? Are you a fabulous high school teacher who could use $10,000? Nominations for the 2026 Parr Shakespeare Prize are due July 27th at 11:59 P.M and applications are due August 23rd2🚨
One of my college professors, the brilliant David Scott Kastan, is once again a judge, and I get to take this yearly opportunity to thank my 7th grade Shakespeare teacher, Jane Mallison. She not only taught me to love Shakespeare, but continues to patiently correct my spelling, a subject she literally wrote a book on.
Thank you to Brian Eugenio Herrera from #TheatreClique and Maxon Davies from The Shakespeare Forum LA for including Shakespeare News in their newsletters! NY Classical Theatre too!
Look, get your money, but can we all agree that this is a WILD advertisement?3
Suspicious stags in As You Like It.
Laoutaris and Arshad present the case that Shakespeare’s representation of a wounded, weeping and ‘sequestered’ stag in the play is a bold reference to the Earl of Essex, an allusion that would have made the play too seditious to print.
What’s your favorite tricolon crescens in Shakespeare?4 via Sam Leith
Cynthia Nixon on Romeo and Juliet.
Macbeth and Much Ado as a pair:
Both begin with a return from a war and coming back to a domestic space, and explore themes of the military, male culture, the power struggle and the role of women. However, the stories take different turns after their soldiers’ initial welcome home.
A Macbeth poem and yes, please wear the Globe as a skirt via Edel Semple.
Q: I doubt you plan to stage, say, King John.
A: …I actually LOVE King John — I find it to be a totally relevant political thriller!
Still no harm in carving a couple into the back of your flats if you’re doing Macbeth. You know. Just in case.
“Bos’ Hamlet means well but has his head too far up his ass to actually do well.”
Tony Kushner on Steven Spielberg:
I’ve said many times, the artist that I think he most resembles is Charles Dickens. It’s very easy to condescend to Dickens, but Dickens is a second only to Shakespeare.
Judi Dench can do two lines of Macbeth and it is still entrancing.
The most important shows from the last 20 years of British theatre via Exeunt.
I absolutely loved Ian Rickson’s relatively uncelebrated 2011 Young Vic production of Hamlet and I think I would probably genuinely call it my favourite theatre production of the last 20 years. Its basic thesis was that it was (kind of) set in an asylum and Michael Sheen’s Hamlet was definitely ‘mad’, but it was all incredibly beautiful, there were points where he recognised the destruction he’d wrought in his madness and was devastated by it.
Bad news from Theater at Monmouth.
Good news from Shakespeare & Company, the newly formed Georgia Classic Theatre, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, and Kerrville’s Shakespeare in the Park.
Merrihew is stepping in at a time of great financial stability, as the organization has recently paid off its mortgage and has experienced strong box office sales over the past two years.
Recommendations
We almost had a Kevin Hart/The Rock Odd Couple.
© 2026 Kate Pitt. All rights reserved. No reproduction without permission.
Like this one.
Gary Parr had a fabulous 10th grade Shakespeare teacher. He also occasionally lends out his First Folio, which is an incredibly nice thing to do if you’ve got one. Booping a First Folio = 10/10.
I’m reasonably sure that this goes against current advice to market the arts as a wellness product.