There’s a wonderful little theory or legend concerning Cymbeline, and more importantly his daughter.
Innogen.
Yeah, not a typo.
Much Ado About… dramaturgy and older brothers
OK, I’m not a guy to blow my own horn or call too much attention to myself (much to Lisa’s chagrin). But what the hell…
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Theatrical Review: These Paper Bullets
Last weekend, I took my wife Lisa and fifteen year-old son Jack, down to the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, California, to catch These Paper Bullets, the self-proclaimed “Modish ripoff of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.” Much Ado is a blast, Lisa’s favorite Shakespeare comedy, AND a play I’d seen recently (up in Ashland earlier this month). How would this Modish Ripoff stand up?
Quite well, actually.
Review: Much Ado About Nothing by the Independent Shakespeare Company at Griffith Park, Los Angeles
A couple of weeks back, I took my wife Lisa and son Jack to Los Angeles’ Griffith Park to catch some free outdoor theater (#ShakespeareSetFree) by the Independent Shakespeare Company, for the first of their two summer productions, Romeo and Juliet. If you were around for that one, you know I found it to be very enjoyable. I wasn’t the only one: that production will be returning after the current production, Much Ado About Nothing, runs its course at the end of this month. But I digress. This past weekend, Lisa and I headed back to the woods for a little Nothing, or Much Ado.
Podcast 87: Much Ado About Nothing: Directorial Concepts, Casts, and Wrap-up
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This week’s podcast concludes our two month-long discussion of Much Ado About Nothing, with a directorial concept and cast, as well as a wrap-up of the play.
Continue reading “Podcast 87: Much Ado About Nothing: Directorial Concepts, Casts, and Wrap-up”
Much Ado About Nothing: the wrap-up
Ah, Much Ado About Nothing winds down and comes to a close.
So here we are at the end of our two-month journey. And what have we learned on this trip?
That sometimes nothing is nothing. Sometimes nothing is nooky. Sometimes nothing is noting. That it’s important to listen, but not to overhear (unless you’re a cop). Oh, and don’t call the lead cop an ass.
And what do we think?
Much Ado About Nothing: By the Numbers
Much Ado About Nothing
So here’s the numerical breakdown…
Much Ado About Nothing: midpoint
Using Professor Rodes’ midpoint theory, let’s take a look at Much Ado About Nothing.
There are 2633 lines in in the play, which means the midpoint is at line 1317, or at Act Three, Scene Three, line 9. Now, Rodes’ theory postulated that you could find (within twenty lines either way) a speech that perfectly summed up the major theme of the play. The 20-line leeway was to help remove the differences in prose line lengths between individual editions; in a play with as much prose as Much Ado (77% of the lines are prose; only The Merry Wives of Windsor has more prose), this forty-line window is all the more important.
A Podcast Delayed
The regularly scheduled podcast for today (Episode 87–Much Ado About Nothing: wrap-up and directorial concepts) is delayed until next weekend.
If you’d like to be a part of that podcast, send me (either through the comment thread below, the contact form, or the Facebook or Twitter pages) your directorial concept and cast. Get ’em to me by Wednesday night, and you’ll be immortalized on MP3 (OK, so that’s a bit of an overstatement… but you will have my eternal gratitude… OK, I’d appreciate it).
See you then!
Much Ado About Nothing: foreshadowing
Looking back on Much Ado About Nothing, I’m seeing some interesting, very subtle bits of foreshadowing.