Monday November 12 2012

Thanks to our new blog follower Alexander it has been an active week. Read his comments! And feel free to be inspired by them and post your own comments.  It’s just that kind of discussion this blog wishes to invite. For other interesting activities see below.

From Gregory Doran's Shakespeare Almanac:

• On November 5, 1605, Shakespeare and others were undoubtedly startled by what became known as the Gunpowder Plot for which Guy Fawkes’ Day has been commemorated since.  
• On November 8, 1623, two of Shakespeare’s friends John Hemmings and Harry Condell registered the first folio of the plays. Oh thank you thank you thank you! The price? One shilling bound, or five shillings, bound in calf skin.  In their intro they encouraged the public: “Read him, therefore, again and again.”  Oh, we do.

 Shakespeare sightings:

• There have been ads for various Shakespeare productions going on in Stockholm, including a stand-up version of Hamlet that we would dearly love to see but haven’t been able to arrange.
• Bill Bryson, writing about the history of houses and private life in At Home , continues to refer to Shakespeare:
• “…a typical London theatre like Shakespeare’s Globe could hold two thousand people – about 1 per cent of London’s population – of whom a great part were working people…”
• Shakespeare’s plays were usually performed around two in the afternoon because daylight was needed.
• In the Swedish answer to Harry Potter (sort of), Cirkeln, by Mats Strandberg and Sara Berggren Elfgren, the teenage witches use play rehearsals of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet as excuses for being away from home. Of course they’re really practicing their witchcraft skills.
• In the novel These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach:
• “The old bearer, Jimmy, hobbled up to the door, muttering like the porter in Macbeth…”
• Out, out, brief candle, life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player etc is recited at a funeral.  Of course you can identify this one
• And in the movie based on this novel, Hotel Marigold, the enthusiastic young proprietor of the hotel rather inappropriately but eloquently points out to his elderly guests that they have all “heard the chimes at midnight”. Any guesses? A somewhat less known play than the one above.

 Further, since the last report:

·         Watched: Branagh’s version of As You Like It.

·         Booked: 2 places at the Shakespeare conference in London in June. www.shakespeare.nu

·         Posted on Blogging Shakespeare: “O Kenneth Where Art Thou?” http://bloggingshakespeare.com/o-kenneth-where-art-thou

·         Of further interest: http://bloggingshakespeare.com/webinars/filming-shakespeare

·         Shakespeare Calling follower Harold Berglund’s art exhibit continues.  Have you spotted the Shakespeare connection? http://www.wiberg.com/haroldberglund/berglund2012/berglund2012.asp

Posted:

·         This Monday Report

·         Comments on Alexander’s comments