Shakespeare
When I was 13, my parents dragged me to see
the Peter Hall film of Midsummer Night's Dream.
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I resented the mandatory education until it started,
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It was gorgeous, hallucinatory,
Oh my god, Helen Mirren and Diana Rigg in knee-high go-go boots,
Ian Holm materializing and disappearing as Puck,
the young Judi Dench/Titania COMPLETELY NAKED in green body paint
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Now that sure helped me focus on the iambic pentameter.
From that point on, I drank the Shakespeare Kool-Aid.
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I really do believe that the modern understanding
of subjectivity, time and experience,
and the English language itself,
came into being through these plays.
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But I'm constantly arguing with my skeptical inner voice
that the Emperor has no clothes -
that maybe the Shakespeare obsession is just a pretentious cult.
Progressives like Ernest Crosby (1905)
say Shakespeare was a royalist lackey,
a snob who despised the common people.
I agree with George Orwell that they are wrong,
but you gotta admit they have a point.
I can't stand the North Korean passivity, the worshipful Bardolatry of so many modern audiences.
I've acted in several fproductions
[Capulet in Romeo and Juliet 2012, Caesar in Julius Caesar 2017, Claudius/Ghost in Hamlet 2019, Duke Frederick/Corin in As You Like It 2022, Duncan in Macbeth 2022]
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After playing Julius Caesar, Claudius and Duncan, I worry that I am being typecast as "the old guy that everyone wants to stab."
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But my real bliss isn't acting Shakespeare,
it's speaking meta-Shakespeare, saying something about the Plays.
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I want to nail a Lutheran protest to the stage door:
we shouldn't have to submit to a priesthood to interpret this for us.
metaShakespeare
my story on stage malfunction in Richard III
If I had to explain why Shakespeare matters,
I'd point to Red Sox announcer Dennis Eckersley.
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Florid invention,
passionate new words and idioms:
Language is born
when some uninhibited wise-ass
just has to make it up.
The Witches' Curse (feat. Brother Blue)
Double Bill
Double Bill is a meta-Shakespeare showcase of short scenes,
performed April 28-May 13, 2023, Theatre@First, Unity Somerville
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Double Bill is a meta-Shakespeare extravaganza.
Short scenes on the Plays, how to inhabit them, and how they inhabit us.
Come for a fast-paced garage-punk show
Tolstoy vs Orwell rap battle for and against Shakespeare,
what Toussaint L'Overture thought of the Tempest,
and hilarious scenes on the awkward collision
of 16th Century politics with modern progressive theater.
Sonnets
The New York Shakespeare Sonnet Slam
has been doing open-mic readings
of all 154 sonnets for years,
but starting in 2020 they opened it up to mini-videos.
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I've done five so far, 149 to go.
guerrilla dramaturgy
A "jackdaw" is a folder of primary sources,
used in British schools as an interactive alternative to lectures.
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You give people a bunch of original sources,
and let them piece together the meaning of a historical event.
I've done a bunch for various shows.
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I love watching audiences poring through my booklets before curtain.
I can't believe I'm getting away with this,
hijacking the way they think about the play before a line is spoken.
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(Click on the green rectangular buttons to pull up the PDFs)
Trailers
It's a great exercise to make video trailers.
If I had to advertise a Shakespeare play,
how would I describe it in a three-minute video?
A Palpable Hit
In 2016, I created a showcase of Shakespeare's best fight scenes with Daniel Berger-Jones, Marge Dunn, Sarah Gadzowicz, Dalton Gorden, Cameron Gosselin, Angie Jepson,
Gabriel Kuttner, and Omar Robinson.
Omar and Angie did the fight choreography, Daniel, Sarah and Gabriel did the stage direction, and we all brainstormed creative ways
to spin the scenes.
MacBeth kills Young Siward, first in a broadsword fight, then rewound to
a second version with a single pistol shot.
Charles the Wrestler in a lucha libre mask,
Lady Anne pulling a sword on Richard,
Banquo running interference for Fleance.
Damn it was good. (click on buttons for PDFs)
Rehearsing Banquo vs. Murderers,
Gabriel Kuttner (Banquo) vs. Michael Anderson, Daniel Berger-Jones, Marge Dunn
Rehearsing Lady Anne vs. Gloucester
Marge Dunn (Lady Anne) vs.
Gabriel Kuttner (Richard)
Arsenal Fan TV
I send in video commentary
dropping Shakespeare quotes
to the indy fan channel Arsenal Fan TV
after matches.
Live chat responses from the Arsenal fan base:
"who is this old American twat quoting Bible verses?" "Dafuq is this guy saying?!"
"Loool I love this guy. Man did a monologue".
Arsenal 3 Man Utd 1
April 23, 2022
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I sent in a video from the Chorus in Henry V
after Granit Xhaka's thunderous goal.
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Arsenal Fan TV mashed it up with London rapper Roadman doing an equally inspired smackdown.
I can die happy now.
Brentford 0 Arsenal 3
September 18, 2022
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Bastard, King John II.2
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Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,
As we will ours, against these saucy walls;
And when that we have dash'd them to the ground,
Why then defy each other and pell-mell
Make work upon ourselves, for heaven or for hell.
Arsenal 2 Aston Villa 1
August 31, 2022
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Adam, As You Like It II.3
Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you?
And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant?
Why would you be so fond to overcome
The bonny prizer?
Man Utd 3 Arsenal 1
Sept. 4, 2022
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Salisbury, King John, V.2
But such is the infection of the time,
That, for the health and physic of our right,
We cannot deal but with the very hand
Of stern injustice and confused wrong.
Arsenal 2 Fulham 1
August 27, 2022
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Helena, All's Well That Ends Well I.1
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Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.
What power is it which mounts my love so high,
That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?
January 15, 2023
Tottenham Hotspur 0 Arsenal 2
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Richard III's address to his troops
Act 5, scene 3
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If we be conquer'd, let men conquer us,
And not these base lackey peasants, whom our fathers
Have in their own land beaten, bobb'd, and thump'd,
And in record, left them the heirs of shame.
January 9, 2023
Oxford United 0 Arsenal 3
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Richard III, 5.3
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Go, gentlemen, every man unto his charge
Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls:
Let us to't pell-mell
If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.
January 3, 2023
Arsenal 0 Newcastle United 0
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Gentleman, King Lear, 3.1
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That things might change or cease;
Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage,
Catch in their fury and make nothing of;
December 31, 2022
Brighton Hove & Albion 0 Arsenal 3
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Queen, Richard II, 5.1
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Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodged in thee,
When triumph is become an alehouse guest?
December 31, 2022
Arsenal 3 West Ham United 1
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Northumberland, Henry IV, pt. 2, 1.1
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In poison there is physic; and these news,
Being sick, have in some measure made me well;
And as the wretch whose fever-weak'ned joints,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
Out of his keeper's arms,
Let heaven kiss earth! Let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage
Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
October 1, 2022
Arsenal 3 Tottenham 1
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Richard III, 5.3
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Remember whom you are to cope withal;
A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways,
A scum of base lackey peasants,
Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit,
Had hang'd themselves, poor rats: