Episodes - Shakesplaining

Here, finally is the episode covering the last two productions of Julius Caesar. Emma and I talk about the NTL production that we just saw and ASP's production from last Fall. Here's the NTL trailer which you should really watch: https://youtu.be/micAGOYfmJs. Press photos: https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/julius-caesar-review-join-the-mob-for-this-absorbing-look-at-the-dangers-of-populism-a3753921.html Julius Caesar in text messages: http://community.sparknotes.com/2018/03/15/julius-caesar-as-told-in-a-series-of-texts/slide/5 Upcoming shows: Theatre@First Midsummer: http://www.theatreatfirst.org/shows/midsummer_nights_dream/midsummer_nights_dream.shtml Commonwealth Shakespeare Richard III: http://commshakes.org/production/richard-iii/ Praxis Stage Henry IV: https://www.facebook.com/praxis.stage Shakespeare slam: https://www.facebook.com/events/1128408060644841/

Photo of the stage at the Folger I went to Washington DC and visited the Folger Shakespeare Library on Shakespeare's birthday and while I was there caught a production of The Winter's Tale with my friend Ed. In the episode we discuss if actual bears might have been used for the famous stage direction "Exit, pursued by a bear." There's a tumblr thread that covers the basics, but....it's a tumblr thread and I wanted to go a bit deeper. Turns out, the primary evidence for this is a 2001 article by a scholar named Teresa Grant (GRANT, TERESA. (2001). White bears in Mucedorus, the Winter's Tale, and Oberon, the Fairy Prince. Notes and Queries. 48. 10.1093/nq/48.3.311-b.). I wasn't able to get ahold of this article BUT Grant weighed in on a minor flame war in the London Review of Books which you can read online here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n23/anne-barton/wholly-given-over-to-thee. Basically, another scholar wrote a book about Elizabethan Romances, got reviewed and was criticized fore her bear-skepticism. She responded with the anti-bear argument and then Teresa Grant added her two cents. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced the bears were used in this play, but it sounds like bears were a meme to 1610 Londoners and they were willing to accept them popping up wherever. Here also is the Washington Post review I mention in the episode.

This week's show is Much Ado About Nothing at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center.

Welcome back to Shakesplaining! This is the Actors' Shakespeare Project's first show of 2018, Richard III. A favorite play of mine. I mention two books in this episode: "The Sunne in Splendour" by Sharon Kay Penman and "The Bones of a King: Richard III Rediscovered" by the Grey Friars Research Team. Links on my website.

The last episode of the season. Check out my website Shakesplaining.com/episodes to see a graph of my heart rate during the show.

Praxis Stage's website: https://www.praxisstage.com/ Editorial about Commonwealth Shakespeare: http://www.wbur.org/artery/2017/08/04/three-cheers-for-free-shakespeare-but-not-for-the-class-system-in-the-audience

This year's Shakespeare on the Common put on by Commonwealth Shakespeare was Romeo and Juliet. Performances are free and run through August 6th.  Some media that is mentioned in the episode: The choose-your-own-adventure version of Romeo and Juliet is Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North: http://amzn.to/2qAPkdi. There's an online, crowdsourced play/read-through here: http://romeoandorjuliet.com/tagged/playthrough/chrono.  The movie Dangerous Beauty: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118892/?ref_=nv_sr_1 And a couple of the scholarly articles I skimmed about fencing in the play: Holmer, Joan Ozark. “‘Draw, If You Be Men’: Saviolo's Significance for Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 2, 1994, pp. 163–189. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2871216. Soens, Adolph L. “Tybalt's Spanish Fencing in Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 2, 1969, pp. 121–127. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2868996.

Songwriter Laura Mvula's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/lauramvulaVEVO Commonwealth Shakespeare's free Romeo & Juliet opens tonight at 8pm on the Boston Common: http://commshakes.org/performances/performance/162

The Shakespeare comedy show where a there's an extremely drunk actor on stage: http://www.shit-facedshakespeare.com/. Also, here are the links to Praxis Stage https://www.facebook.com/praxis.stage/ who's doing Julius Caesar in Cambridge Parks this summer and an affiliated group "It's a Fiasco" (https://www.facebook.com/ItsaFiascoCambridge/) who also do free outdoor Shakespeare.

Video of Mark Antony's speech: https://www.rsc.org.uk/julius-caesar/act-3-scene-2 Metro article: http://bit.ly/2sVwoLd Boston Globe interview with ASP's executive producer: http://bit.ly/2sRMftq

The podcast is not dead! Learn about Email Debt Forgiveness Day at http://emaildebtforgiveness.me/ and also listen to Reply All at replyall.limo

For details about the film see IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097499/

No new episode this week, just a reminder to go see ASP's The Tempest while you still can (http://www.actorsshakespeareproject.org/ for tickets) and enjoy this (late) video of Riker getting into a chair: https://youtu.be/lVIGhYMwRgs.

This episode looks at two productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and themes of exoticism. You can watch the trailer for Theatre for a New Audience's Midsummer at https://vimeo.com/103802510. Watch the complete production of the Globe's Midsummer including an interview with the director on the Shakespeare Lives website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03fv1wr. Read the article about exotic themes on JSTOR here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2871058.

NTL is doing an encore of their production of Hamlet staring Benedict Cumberbatch. Get all the details here.

Meet Julie, who has never seen or read Hamlet, until now.