August 31, 2009

Readers,
I’ll be departing Wednesday to spend the Labor Day holiday in seclusion, finishing work on my epic, three-part Kushnerian play addressing the health care debate, which culminates in a barn-burning final act featuring all the celebrities and public figures who met their end in this the Summer of Death ( The Awl™) donning Mexican wrestling masks for a cage match in Limbo.
Or not, actually. I will once more — yet for the last time! Bittersweet! — be in Westport New York, on this trip to rehearse and ostensibly perform Henry V. We will take pains, be perfect. (Or at least as perfect as the sure-to-be-present hangovers allow.) And in our downtime we’ll be free to dawdle and luxuriate at the manse, affectionately called “granny’s house,” wherein we’ll catch up on some back issues of Us Weekly, perhaps take a dip in the pool, and what else, oh yeah, drink more.
As is custom, every summer there seems to be something of global or national import occurring on or around our time there. Hurricane Katrina, the beginning of the John Roberts confirmation hearings, Sarah Palin added to the McCain ticket. I shudder to contemplate what might befall us on this trip.
Anyhoo, updates will resume on my safe and sane return. Presumably!
Adieu!
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Shakespeare, Vacation | Tagged: all good things..., annual doings, excuses to drink, Westport New York, working vacations |
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Posted by ephemerist
December 20, 2007
Ah the sequel, the once unique idea that has become a ubiquitous Hollywood mainstay. Next to the big-budget remake, sequels often produce some of the most mind-searingly turdtastic travesties committed to celluloid. But then comes news that a project called Hamlet 2 will be bowing at Sundance: “In this rambunctious comedy, a high school drama teacher injects love and passion for theatre into his students by creating a musical sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.” It stars Steve Coogan and Amy Poehler, so ostensibly its will be funny. If it succeeds at Sundance (and if you can make it there, you can make it to worldwide distribution and huge DVD revenues) what other titles by the Bard could get the ironic sequel treatment?
- Two Gentlemen of Verona and a Baby. Valentine and Proteus have their skirt-chasing ways disrupted when a baby is left on the doorstep of their bachelor pad. With the help of their able-bodied servants, can these two gadabouts shape up and care for their new charge?
- Merry Wives of Windsor 2: Trophy Wives. Recent divorcees Mistress Page and Mistress Ford are eager to get back at their exes with the help of an old friend: John Falstaff (played by Tom Arnold).
- The Tempest 2: Climate in Crisis. In this animated feature, Prospero (voiced by Al Gore) once again picks up his magic staff in an effort to stop the melting of the ice caps, assisted by Caliban and Whiteout the polar bear.
- Othello 2: The Moor the Merrier. Technically a prequel, the film delves into Othello’s early years with his family, including the flatulent matriarch, Mama O. Hilarity ensues when Othello brings his girlfriend Desdemona home to meet the folks. All characters played by Eddie Murphy, natch.
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Movies, Shakespeare | Tagged: ideas: I'm full of them, sequels, the Bard |
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Posted by ephemerist
November 1, 2007
As a Shakespeare geek who used to be an anime/manga fan as a kid (outed!), I’d be lying if I said I weren’t intrigued by Self Made Hero’s Manga Shakespeare Series. Following successful adaptations of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, the company is planning to release versions of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in early spring.
In an interview with Newsarama, SMH’s Emma Hayley explains why the manga style meshes well with the works of the Bard:
The pacing and storytelling in manga is far more akin to performance. Shakespeare intended his plays to be seen and not just read. The manga medium is a good bridge between performance and text. There is also an aliveness and flow to manga which really grabs the attention of the reader, and can help to overcome the sometimes difficult language in Shakespeare’s plays.
This certainly has to be better than, say, a graphic novel version of Ibsen’s The Master Builder.
Self Made Hero, Shakespeare & Manga [Newsarama]
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Shakespeare | Tagged: adaptations, manga, nerdily we row along |
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Posted by ephemerist