Shakespeare

When I was 13, my parents dragged me to see

the Peter Hall film of Midsummer Night's Dream.

I resented the mandatory education until it started,

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

Now that sure helped me focus on the iambic pentameter.

From that point on, I drank the Shakespeare Kool-Aid.

I really do believe that the modern understanding

of subjectivity, time and experience,

and the English language itself,

came into being through these plays.

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.

Tolstoy says Shakespeare was a mediocre hack.

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]

After playing Julius Caesar, Claudius and Duncan, I worry that I am being typecast as "the old guy that everyone wants to stab."

But my real bliss isn't acting Shakespeare,

it's speaking meta-Shakespeare, saying something about the Plays.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

(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)

Palpable Hit cast and scene list

Edge Media review Killian Melloy

Theater Mirror review CJ Williams