Global Shakespeare Sharing

First off, I admit I have enjoyed becoming much more technologically literate through my BYU Shakespeare class. It started off with learning how to create and modify a blog (including modifying blogger templates with HTML), then how to use RSS feeds and cool sites like Google Reader, and recently how to connect to others that are talking about the things that I am also interested in. A few weeks ago, I made a breakthrough discovery of a group of professors in Spain working exactly on the topic that I was most interested in. They together had published a book about Shakespeare in Spain, which I have been thoroughly enjoying. I sent an ambitious email to one of the editors (in Spanish), hoping for a response, or help to direct my research further....

Posted by Erik on 1:10 PM · Comments (0) · Full article

Whoa, Shakespeare... everywhere...

Claude is a cheerful guy living day to day by a means that is unbeknownst to me. We met at a park a few weeks ago and occasionally have had a few short chats. Driving back to Provo this morning, I decided to drop off with him a small bag of bagels that I had received from my Mother-in-law (don't tell her I gave them away), and we started a conversation about the upcoming Halloween 'holiday' this year. Then something happened that took me off-guard... this affable, simple guy started to engage me in Shakespearian banter! The conversation went something like this: "So, whacha been up to man?" He asks anxiously, more genuine than most people. "I've just been studying", I respond, "and been teaching up at the MTC". "That's so great,...

Posted by Erik on 12:47 PM · Comments (3) · Full article

Children's Questions

I don't think that any normal second-grader could easily dissect the language of the master English-wielder. I too sometimes find it a little dense; yet studying Shakespeare this past semester I have come to love seeing how immediately the concepts he discusses influence my life. I have talked about justification, love, and other topics in the past, and have enjoyed seeing similarities that I have with people like Hamlet, Laertes, and Richard II. Shakespeare does so well at pointing out aspects of their character (that may not be all that great) of which I find I am also possessed. It does so well to see the flaws of others that one also seems to have in order to learn how to get rid of them. Also, recently I have been reading the first several...

Posted by Erik on 1:05 PM · Comments (0) · Full article

Comparative Translation

These are the three texts that I analyzed side by side (feel free to skip over them to the explanation afterward if you wish), of one of my favorite speeches by King Richard II, exhibiting the emotional, depressing experience of losing it all: Original: "What must the king do now? Must he submit?The king shall do it: must he be deposed?The king shall be contented: must he loseThe name of king? o’ God’s name, let it go:I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads,My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown,My figured goblets for a dish of wood,My sceptre for a palmer’s walking staff,My subjects for a pair of carved saintsAnd my large kingdom for a little grave,A little little grave, an obscure grave;Or I’ll be buried in the king’s highway,Some way of common trade, where...

Posted by Erik on 11:27 AM · Comments (3) · Full article

Richard II analysis: cinema production

So, after watching Richard II, I was pretty impressed with how the emotion was captured, but there were a few things I didn't favor so much. A few thoughts: MusicI was displeased by the lack of soundtrack in the production (BBC, 1978). It doesn’t occur at all, and the only other sounds that exist are the occasional diegetic trumpet blasts when the stage directions call for them. In this way it can be seen that fidelity to the text was one of the highest priorities in producing this version. A soundtrack could have certainly enhanced the emotional apexes that are high in this production. I wonder if it was a conscientious decision to leave music out, or if it was simply not an established thing to do at the time that this production was released. Cutting...

Posted by Erik on 2:22 PM · Comments (0) · Full article

Were Prospero a stage director, and I he...

I could think of a few really cool ways that I would set up the first Scene of Shakespeare's Tempest.  The Storm Begins:   Pitch Blackness would have to be the first thing, and we'd be using an indoor professional stage. No stage lights would appear at first; no little bits of light creeping in underneath the doors, etc, and somehow we would dismantle the emergency exit signs (hmm...): pure black. THEN, we turn on our handy leaf-blowers to imitate high winds sounds, and start the microphone-enhanced moaning and yelling of the crew-members aboard the ship we cannot see, Boatswain piping out commands a he does in the first part of the text. Thunder would then be imitated intermittently by spilling large bags of potatoes from...

Posted by Erik on 1:44 PM · Comments (0) · Full article