Welcome to Litsy!

🎭 So, yeah— I fell off the #Shakespeare2020Project back in March and never really was able to get back on track. But I will nonetheless do what I can in terms of reading the Tragedies before year‘s end and; keep The Bard in my reading rotation for the foreseeable future!

I‘m about to start this crazy banana pants play that features [checks notes] death, deception, romance and a HEA (?!)

I‘ve started both “Othello” and ‘Black Tudors‘ this week (and will continue to dip into ‘The Shakespeare Book‘)! I‘m hoping to read the Classic play through the lens of greater historical understanding (Instead of “revisionist history”, I like to think of it as “relevatory history”! )🎭

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The play definitely suffers from overexposure and, as I‘ve studied it, worked on it, seen it and, watched multiple film versions of it, I wasn‘t expecting to find anything “fresh” this time around but I was wrong! I became fascinated with the falconry terms embedded in the language and some of the editorial choices made in the new Folger edition 🎭

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🎭 Next up: “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet” are the 2 most popular of Shakespeare‘s plays and, have been since the metaphorical day they were written!

Image: Brand new Folger copy set against a facsimile of a folio text from the Globe Theatre

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This was one of the “noisiest” plays in my head as I was reading it! I imagined the stamping of Roman Centurions‘ feet, the forceful oratory, the insidious hiss of traitorous asides, the gut wrenching grief of those who suffered... But I also heard snippets if Wagnerian opera, Beethoven‘s 9th, and even Merry Clayton belting out that famous Rape/Murder refrain from the Stones‘ song, “Gimme Shelter”!

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I am ridiculously behind the #Shakespeare2020Project to the point where I can‘t realistically expect to catch up. This is where I left off and where I‘m picking back up; but from here on out, I think I‘ll just try to complete the Tragedies this year.

Bloodthirsty Goths and Ancient Romans, betrayals and revenge... It‘s like Quentin Tarantino wrote an opera! 🎭

I had to table #Shakespeare2020Project for nearly 2 mos. I just finished reading “The Taming of the Shrew“. I then watched the Globe presentation and was like, “Wait. They got married?! That was the point of Lucentio and Tranio switching identities?!“ I *totally* missed this while I was reading it. And apparently the other 80-zabillion times I've read this play! I'm laughing at myself, but I'm also recognizing how tired I really am. o_0

At a second-hand shop, I found an oversized book called, ‘Shakespeare's Characters and Scenes‘ (1888.) Considering that the cover has seen some abuse and many of the pages are foxed, I probably paid too much for it. OTOH, I fell in love with the prints inside! Most of the prints still have the tissue paper to protect them! Engravings from steel plates & a couple wood cuts. This print is from “The Comedy of Errors“ section.

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At the end of 3H6, how many people thought this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cphNpqKpKc4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3NDgLbCk...

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With the gardeners painting white roses red and, the Queen screaming, “Off with her head!“ the scene in Alice in Wonderland took a decidedly darker tone than I had previously read it with! I can't think that the references are coincidental to the War of the Roses and, I wonder how many other references I am missing!

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