Any Shakespeare Buffs?

[haparnold]

Mrs. Hap says I'm a glutton for punishment. I don't know if that's true, but I do like taking on challenges.

After achieving my goal of reading a book per week for 2020, I decided my 2021 reading challenge would be to read the complete works of William Shakespeare (or the complete works attributed to William Shakespeare, if you're into authorship questions). So far I've read Twelfth Night, Henry VI Part I, and am about halfway through Henry VI Part II.

Honestly, I've been surprised at how readable I find them now, compared to my freshman English Lit class efforts at struggling through a play or two. They also get more readable as you read more of them-- you get a feel for Shakey which makes it easier to get sucked into the play.

So, are there are any other Shakespeare buffs out there? We pipe smokers tend to be pretty literate, so I wouldn't be surprised to find a couple of y'all on board.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Not a big reader myself, but I did enjoy Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Othello.

 

[musicman]

It's been a while, but I used to very much enjoy reading Shakespeare. I always felt that he was one of the only playwrights whose works made for good "off stage" reading (IMO, Shaw is another). Maybe it's time to dust off the complete works and read a play or two myself.

 

[haparnold]

I always felt that he was one of the only playwrights whose works made for good "off stage" reading

Agreed. It's one thing to write a good play, and another to write a readable play. My favorite has long been A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. It's very readable.

 

[chilipalmer]

So, are there are any other Shakespeare buffs out there? We pipe smokers tend to be pretty literate, so I wouldn't be surprised to find a couple of y'all on board.

"O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention, a kingdom for a stage, princes to act and monarchs to behold the swelling scene!"

I discovered the Bard in high school and have been an avid student ever since.

Cheers,

Chili

 

[Chasing Embers]

Agreed. It's one thing to write a good play, and another to write a readable play. My favorite has long been A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. It's very readable.

I found Goethe's Faust like that as well.

 

[verporchting]

My favorite is that one set in Denmark where the dude is looking at a Yanik meerschaum pipe carved like a skull and saying, “to buy or not to buy, that is the question.”

Or maybe that was something else? ?

 

[Chasing Embers]

My favorite is that one set in Denmark where the dude is looking at a Yanik meerschaum pipe carved like a skull and saying, “to buy or not to buy, that is the question.”

Or maybe that was something else? ?

Alas, poor Yanik! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.

 

[kcghost]

I've read several of Shakespeares plays. I particularly like King Lear.

 

[Kingsley]

My grandfather taught college courses on Shakespeare and surrounding media for years and years, so naturally, I will gladly read through his collected works if it’s around.

 

[wyfbane]

Have to wade through the first joke to get to it, but it is worth it...

I like Shakespeare a lot, but don't know him as well as many. I have 3 books of Shakespeare from the late 1800s that are magnificent.

 

[sablebrush52]

Up until Covid cancelled the 2020 season, I'd been attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival every year for the past decade. I've completed the canon at least once. I've always understood Elizabethan English without difficulty. Middle English...well...
I've read the majority of his plays and some of his sonnets. Glorious sound, color and rhythm to his language, Shakespeare greatly expanded the English language of his time.
For a lighter view I recommend watching Slings and Arrows, and if you have Britbox, the streaming service from the BBC and ITV, be sure to check out Upstart Crow.

 

[haparnold]

@sablebrush52 if you haven’t seen Masterpiece’s Hollow Crown series, that might tide you over until in-person Shakespeare resumes. I think I’ve only seen two or three, but they were really excellent.

 

[anantaandroscoggin]

In High School, one class did a King Lear re-write into a scene cutting as a Western they titled Valley of the Hogs.

Back in the late 1970s I got a theater pass from the USO to go see an all-male British touring company performance of As You Like It.

I seem to have several different editions of the Complete Works, and have collected several (but no where near all of the set) of those tiny leather-covered individual play editions.

 

[mikestanley]

I considered it but, decided "not to be". I have a problem with slings and arrows. ; )

Mike S.

 

[verporchting]

Sable, the Shakespeare company in Ashland is just incredible! I’m jealous that you get to attend every year.

We accidentally stumbled upon it once many years ago purely by accident. We were on a vacation just wandering aimlessly around Oregon and hadn’t heard of Ashland or the company but were fascinated with the whole experience. We just and stopped right there for several days and soaked in plays and performances, explored restaurants and pubs, little art house theatres. It was fantastic. We still get the newsletters and try to follow what is happening so that if we get an opportunity to dash out for a few days we can catch a performance.

 

[mso489]

I read some plays for classes in high school and college, and some on my own, and I had an excellent course in Shakespeare on Film in grad school. There's a reason five or six plays get all the theater performances and film, but even the less known plays have that amazing language. I'm no Shakespeare scholar, and I suppose the plays could have been written by some of the other suspects, but I think a brilliant hyperkinetic son of a glover in Stratford on Avon could have easily read enough and known enough to do these. People are so foolish about formal education. There are so many examples where it didn't help or wasn't needed. I suspect if the glover's son had gone to Oxford, they'd have wrung the language out of him.

 

[sablebrush52]

Sable, the Shakespeare company in Ashland is just incredible! I’m jealous that you get to attend every year.

We accidentally stumbled upon it once many years ago purely by accident. We were on a vacation just wandering aimlessly around Oregon and hadn’t heard of Ashland or the company but were fascinated with the whole experience. We just and stopped right there for several days and soaked in plays and performances, explored restaurants and pubs, little art house theatres. It was fantastic. We still get the newsletters and try to follow what is happening so that if we get an opportunity to dash out for a few days we can catch a performance.

Glad you able to make it to the OSF. What's happening there, or was until the Covid pandemic killed the 2020 season, is nothing short of amazing.

The OSF is America's largest and oldest revolving repertoire company. In addition to staging 3 to 4 Shakespeare plays a year, the Festival stages modern plays, experimental work and commissions new plays every year. They have an ongoing American History series. Two plays from that series, All The Way and Roe, went on to long, Tony award winning runs on Broadway.

And to think that it all grew out of a high school teacher's desire to get his students interested in Shakespeare by having them put on a play.

 

[stokesdale]

I'm not, but back years ago when my wife and I were in Chapel Hill to watch a basketball game, we accidentally ran across Shakespeare in the buff on the UNC campus...



This isn't one of the actual pictures we took of course, my wife was totally embarrassed...I stayed and watched for a while though

 

[tschiraldi]

I don't know that I could be called a "buff", but I do enjoy his work. I've even acted in a few of his plays.