The Bill / Shakespeare Project presents: This Week in Shakespeare, for the week ending Monday, October 20th, 2014

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This week’s news review includes rhetorical devices link Shakespeare and Katy Perry, Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female production of Henry IV, the passing of Paul Honan, Shakespeare JavaScript, and Love’s Labor’s Won by the Royal Shakespeare Company. PLUS our usual recap of this week’s daily highlights in Shakespearean history.

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Much Ado About… Noting (and no that’s not a typo)

Yesterday, we took a look at nothing. At least the meanings and number of uses of the word “nothing” in Much Ado About Nothing. And “nothing” was pretty interesting.

But here’s the thing: there’s more to it than “nothing.”

Hear me out.

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Much Ado About… a concord dance around “nothing”

OK, so it’s called Much Ado About Nothing. A great fuss or trouble (“ado, n.; 2 and 3” OED Online. Oxford University Press, September 2014. Web. 15 October 2014.) about nothing.

But what is “nothing”?

And how important is it to the play?

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Much Ado About … Fashion

Yesterday, we started to talk about the large number of references to clothing and apparel in Much Ado About Nothing, and I alluded to a couple of things that I didn’t discuss in detail before calling it a night. So when we left off, I had just mentioned that the word “fashion” is used more in Much Ado than in any other play in the Canon.

So how many more?

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Much Ado About … Clothes?

As I’m reading through Much Ado About Nothing again, I’m catching more and more references to clothing and fashion. So much so that I started to look for it in particular:

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Aragon Family Dynamics: Weak Villain, Weaker Prince?

A couple of days back, we took a look at the family dynamics of the family of Leonato, the Governor of Messina, our central family of Much Ado About Nothing. Today, let’s take a look at the other family unit, the dysfunctional fraternity that is Don Pedro of Aragon and his (half-) brother, Don John the Bastard.

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The Bill / Shakespeare Project presents: This Week in Shakespeare, for the week ending Monday, October 13th, 2014

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This week’s Shakespeare news review includes American Shakespeare Center’s Ralph Cohen (that’s Dr. Ralph to you) receiving the Sam Wannamaker Award, Mike Daisey taking on “The Great Tragedies”, Georgia Shakespeare’s shutting down, “Much Ado About Something,” and Whatever Happened to Love’s Labor’s Won?. PLUS our usual recap of this week’s daily highlights in Shakespearean history.

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Messina Family Dynamics: Links to the Past

So we have one major setting of Much Ado About Nothing: the home of the governor of Messina, Leonato, and the surrounding grounds. We do have a few scenes in the town (and on the streets) of Messina, but mostly we’re in the family home of Leonato.

And what of this family unit?

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Podcast 86: Much Ado About… Bawdiness

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WARNING: as it concerns the bawdiness of Much Ado About Nothing, the following podcast contains mature subject matter, adult language, and adolescent humor… if you’re quickly offended or blush too easily… just stop listening now. No. Really, this one isn’t for you.

This week’s podcast continues our two month-long discussion of Much Ado About Nothing, with a deep, oh so deep dive, thrusting as it were, into the well of bawdy in the play.

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch gets it right (again)

[technically, this isn’t about Much Ado, but there is a connection… and it’s worth taking the tangent…]

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an article today, entertainingly written, titled “Shakespeare’s Comedies: 8 ways to tell them apart.” It’s a smart, fun little piece.

There’s just one element missing.

The visual.

I’ve mentioned the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the past, discussing their great and very successful use of infographics to explain the plays of Shakespeare (in coordination with the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis). It would be awesome to see them turn this content into a graphic as well.

Regardless, it’s worth a read.