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message 51:
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Candy
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Mar 09, 2009 07:35AM
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All this is giving me such a good feeling about this group! :-D
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Bruce,
"Try reading Charles Lamb's takes on the plays published at the height of the Victorian era . . ."
Not easy, since Lamb died in the reign of William IV. What "takes on the plays" do you mean? Surely not the essay "On the Tragedies of Shakespeare", which is merely critical of contemporary acting styles.
Sorry Martin - must have dredged the wrong name up from my memory - I was thinking of a volume of Shakespeare that I ran across a few years ago - my recollection was that it was done by a husband and wife - I thought the name was Lamb - totally edited versions - imagine Othello without sex and adultery as a theme - one page summaries of plays with anything controversial in Victorian eyes removed - what a nightmare
Follow up - It is Charles Lamb. Charles and Mary Lamb - written in 1807, but the one I saw had illustrations by Rackham from 1899, so I think I can be excused for thinking it was Victorian. Apparently it was written for children which explains the ways that the tales were presented. On the other hand, I will never forget my 8 year old on the phone to her best friend the day after seeing The Tempest - "Oh Ciara, I saw Shakespeare yesterday, he's so funny" - I think audiences of any age can appreciate the work if its presented well.
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I love your daughters comment, thats hilarious.
Mod
Holy Tangent Batman!
Oh look what I found at Wikipedia:
CliffsNotes (formerly Cliffs Notes, and often, erroneously, CliffNotes) are a series of student study guides available primarily in the United States. The guides present and explain literary and other works in pamphlet form or online. Endorsers say the guides help readers understand complex works, while detractors say they let students avoid even reading them.
CliffsNotes was started by a Nebraska native named Cliff Hillegass in 1958. He was working at Nebraska Book Co. of Lincoln, Nebraska, when he met Jack Cole, the co-owner of Coles, a Toronto book business. Coles was also the publisher of a series of Canadian study guides called Coles Notes. Jack Cole offered the American rights to Hillegass.
Hillegass and his wife, Catherine, started the business in their basement at 511 Eastridge Drive, with sixteen William Shakespeare titles. Cliffs Notes now exist on hundreds of works. The term Cliffs Notes has now come into modern usage, as a noun for notes of a similar nature to the original Cliffs Notes books.
John Wiley & Sons, a publisher of scientific and technical publications, bought Cliffs Notes in 2001 from IDG Books.
We did a delight version of the Tempest that year with Irwin Apfel, the son of the well known director Libby Apfel, in the role of Prospero. My good friend Jack Zerbe played Caliban, (think a gorgeous Frankenstien in diapers) and our Ariel was played by an actor whose name escapes me now, who was also an arialist by training and spent most of the play floating 15 feet above the stage. Both of them made much of both my kids after the play. And, both my kids saw at least 2 Shakespeare plays multiple times every summer, as well as Marlowe, Shaw, de Molina, and lots of others. It was a wonderful experience for them, and part of why I loved being involved in the Festival so much.
Good Lord woman, you've been busy! I just got all of your updates. What did you think of Bloom? I thought his comment that Shakespeare and the Bible were somehow sui generis when it came to literature was fascinating. That each informs every other work of literature that came before and after them. That, for example, no one can write about the issues a young man faces without taking into account Shkespeare's Hamlet, and that noone can read such work, without Hamlet influencing the reader.
Mod
What an incredible experience it must have been to be so involved in the Festival. I kind of feel like getting involved in something like that..I bet I could slouch out of a lot of housework that way!
I am fond of Bloom. I feel like he is a kind of uncle or grandfather. I like him because he embraces the S&M in literature, and under and over tones of difficult subjects. Plus, he is earthy and organic. He isn't a tepid intellectual, and at the time I first was introduced to his work, he was so refreshing compared to the kinds of philosophy and criticism I had been smothered in during art school. (Deconstruction)
I think he articulated the mysterious feeling of a contemporary audience to feel as if..."how did Shakespeare know this"...when you could take almost any practice, and theory...and you could probably find it in his work. Bloom points out the sense of humbleness that "modernism" seems to lack towards tradition. Hey, I'm all for irreverence...but I think Bloom articulated the transcendent in great works of storytelling better than most fans.
Matthew wrote: we should be able to confront each other and still part as friends.I was encouraged to participate in GoodReads by an acquaintance who said that the great thing about discussing books with relative strangers is that one can say that a particular book or play or poem is absolute rubish without putting a lifelong friendship at risk. So, here I am.
Well, good news: his group now has 169 members.Perhaps someone knows how to send a message to the two new members asking that they join us for the next reading.
Whoa. Okay, I stopped by randomly and was excited to see that maybe I'd have a chance to join in on the next "group read" but this thread was entirely overwhelming! I'm not even gonna put my two cents in....can y'all just post an announcement once you decide what you're reading so then I can decide whether to lurk or to comment?Cheers.
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I think that just making an announcement is a lovely idea...and voiced here earlier.
It's so great to hear from another "voice"
Cheers!
Mod
I've looked at ideas and did some thinking and observation.
What I'm hearing is the overwhelming idea of switching out alternating a more obscure play with a popular play.
This would mean...that going by the quick ideas that a few of us shared here and MacBeth had 3...count em'...3 voices.
Cymbleline had 4 voices...but it is far less popular play for performaces and familiarity. And Winter's Tale had 5 voices.
Winter's Tale was nominated 5 times, but it's not really a more popular or well known play compared to MacBeth.
So what I see is...
Plays: Nominations:
MacBeth 3
Hamlet 2
Winter's Tale 5
Cymbeline 4
It would seem to me, if we are to choose a play more familiar/popular...
MACBETH IT IS!!!!!!
Then maybe Cymbeline...or Winter's Tale such as the next.
What do you wild and crazy Shakespeare nerds have to say...hip hip hooray?!!!
Proposed Discussion Guideline:
MacBeth March 27, 2009
March 27: Act 1, Scene 1: A desert place.
March 29: Act 1, Scene 2: A camp near Forres.
March 31: Act 1, Scene 3: A heath near Forres.
April 2: Act 1, Scene 4: Forres. The palace.
April 4: Act 1, Scene 5: Inverness. Macbeth's castle.
April 6: Act 1, Scene 6: Before Macbeth's castle.
April 8: Act 1, Scene 7: Macbeth's castle.
April 10: Act 2, Scene 1: Court of Macbeth's castle.
April 12: Act 2, Scene 2: The same.
April 14: Act 2, Scene 3: The same.
April 16: Act 2, Scene 4: Outside Macbeth's castle.
April 18: Act 3, Scene 1: Forres. The palace.
April 20: Act 3, Scene 2: The palace.
April 22: Act 3, Scene 3: A park near the palace.
April 24: Act 3, Scene 4: The same. Hall in the palace.
April 26: Act 3, Scene 5: A Heath.
April 28: Act 3, Scene 6: Forres. The palace.
April 30: Act 4, Scene 1: A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron.
May 2: Act 4, Scene 2: Fife. Macduff's castle.
May 4: Act 4, Scene 3: England. Before the King's palace.
May 6: Act 5, Scene 1: Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle.
May 8: Act 5, Scene 2: The country near Dunsinane.
May 10: Act 5, Scene 3: Dunsinane. A room in the castle.
May 12: Act 5, Scene 4: Country near Birnam wood.
May 14: Act 5, Scene 5: Dunsinane. Within the castle.
May 16: Act 5, Scene 6: Dunsinane. Before the castle.
May 18: Act 5, Scene 7: Another part of the field.
May 20: Act 5, Scene 8: Another part of the field.
Some online sources for text:
http://www.literaturepage.com/read/sh...
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/in...
http://www.asksam.com/ebooks/releases...
If we all agree ...or just succumb...heh heh...then we'll post a new thread with the reading guideline and "no spoilers" warning again...and some online links etc etc.
Oooo excellent. I love MacBeth. Out out dammned Spot! (By the way, have you heard the one about the dog... Never mind.) Candy, as moderator, maybe you could put that thingy at the top of the page to indicate the book we are reading and when.
Macbeth: nice choice.
Serahrose, please please post. There is really nothing here to be overwhelmed by.
Candy The Scottish play would be perfect.
And Serahrose welcome to GR and I hope you do decide to participate. Another voice from NH would be welcome.
Mod
Wow!This will be fun. As I mentioned earlier, I've performed in Macbeth twice but both productions were in 1995 (God, I feel old) and I don't think I've picked up the script since then (though I've seen it on stage a few times in the interim). It will be very interesting to revisit it in this format.
And yes, once we're done, back to the obscure stuff! Roller coastering the plays' fame is a great idea. Though Cymbeline is in a funny position. In the mid-1990's, every theatre company in the nation seemed to notice that Cymbeline was Shakespeare's most obscure work and decided -- almost simultaneously -- to do it. So, throughout the latter half of the last decade, American companies and Shakespeare festivals were positively inundated with performances of Cymbeline!
Personally, I prefer Pericles.
Matthew, Undoubtedly, you must have been cast as Fleance!
Bruce,You are very sweet but no. In one production, I was Banquo and in the other, I was Malcolm. Oh, and I was 21. Interestingly, I have always felt that they were the best and worst performances I ever gave. I completely connected with Banquo, figured out some very strong interpretive choices, and feel that I could still be playing him today. Malcolm, I never understood and never wrapped my mind around. Whenever I see a good performance as Malcolm I always wonder, "What's this guy getting that I missed?"
As an actor, I have always played older than my real age. Due to my receding hairline, my beard, my bass-baritone voice, and something people seem to feel about my bearing, I tend to read on the old side. Throughout my 20's, I played characters in their 40's. Malcolm was the last character I ever played younger than myself.
I'd vote for Winter's Tale (if there's still voting going on) but since we just did a "problem play" -- maybe for the sake of variety, go to a tragedy like Macbeth?Says the person whose made all of...3 comments...my half cents?
Mod
Hi, all, I lurked through the group's extensive discussion of AWTEW and look forward to joining in the Macbeth discussion. I'm just curious why you didn't choose the next play by Goodreads poll. Did I miss that in one of the posts?Ray
Welcome, Ray! Great to have you with us.
We heard that goodreads polls were conducted using diebold voting machines, which we greatly distrust.
Mod
Urp...gee...that would have made good sense to use the feature of a poll on Goodreads. I am sorry to say I had no idea there was one. That would have made great sense, heh heh. Next time?
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