Oh, I dig this… and this may be a harbinger for the future

So, found this really cool article from UK’s The Guardian

All the women players: cross-gender Shakespeare – in pictures

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Blessed

I live in Ventura County. And the past week here has been challenging.

Between a mass shooting and a pair of intensely damaging wildfires, my county has been hit hard.

I am lucky, so very lucky. I was personally untouched by both. Friends and friends of friends not so much.

I’m not a religious person, so I won’t say my thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected (and that phrase, quite frankly, has lost so much of its sincerity and power in recent years that I would be wary of using it anyway), but those folks are most definitely in my thoughts.

As–because of yesterday’s (and today’s observed) Veterans Day–is my late father.

I miss him and my mother. What is it like to have strength? Real strength? I wish I knew.

Instead, I can only take solace in knowing that I’m lucky. Blessed.

Outside the wind is howling, and the flames I’m sure are rising up again.

Be strong. Stay strong.

not-quite-Media Thursday: As You Like It at American Shakespeare Center

OK, so it’s been a while since I waxed rhapsodic over the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia (last week’s announcement about their Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries competition was more about me than it). Not that I’ve ever been there, but I totally dig their mission, and the podcasts by Ralph Cohen. Guy has the professional life I covet.

So when I was on the site last week to check out the SNC stuff, what caught my eye was this…

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not-quite Media Thursday: ASC’s Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries Project… TITUS!

No review today.

But maybe–just maybe–a preview.

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Media Thursday: a preview — 15 Men in a Smoke-Filled Room

No review for today, but rather a preview.

I’m now a part of another show. This one is a world premiere of Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room, by Colin Speer Crowley. The play concerns the 1920 Republican National Convention that nominated Warren G. Harding on what would become his successful run for the presidency (the run was much more successful than the presidency himself, as he died two years into office, amid many scandals revolving around members of his administration).

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As You Like It… a flashback

As You Like It.

Four years ago,  I was just returning from a three-year break from the Project. And the first play to get a discussion at that point was As You Like It.

And I’ve been thinking about that play a little lately.

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Media Thursday: “Lend Me Your Ears” Podcast from Slate

In this week’s “This Week in Shakespeare,” I mentioned the recent release of the latest episode of Slate Magazine’s “Lend Me Your Ears” podcast, which focuses on the nexus between Shakespeare and politics. This episode is focused on the play Richard II and the end of the Elizabethan period.

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The world in which we live

So, last night my wife, my son, and I went down to the local multiplex to catch Incredibles 2. (Good film, btw…). During the film, something happened that was…well, a little unusual.

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Media Thursday: Refugee Day — Shakespeare’s Globe

Yesterday was World Refugee Day.

On that occasion, Shakespeare’s Globe released a video of some of their actors reciting Shakespeare’s contribution to the play Sir Thomas More (one of the only bits that we have in his actual handwriting).

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