Shake & tumble

Luminary Digital Media’s new iPad version of The Tempest includes: expert commentaries, a full-length audio reading synchronised with the text, illustrations, podcasts and video from The Folger Shakespeare Library’s collection, and ties in a Facebook group to discuss the play. It’s also fully customisable, so you can turn features off and on.

immortallonging:

Now on the BBC Player:

David Owen Norris and guests compile a playlist for the bard. Choosing Shakespeare’s favourite songs are the renowned Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells, RSC director Greg Doran and musician Lucie Skeaping.

The music ranges from a lullaby…

A thorough run down of all the Shakespeare related programmes on radio and TV as part of Shakespeare Unlocked. From the fantastic The Shakespeare blog run by Sylvia Morris.

Check out Bell Shakespeare Company’s YouTube channel for behind-the-scenes cast interviews and the Macbeth trailer. Macbeth runs until the end of June.

As awesome as Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep (who I love love love) starring in Romeo and Juliet sounds, I’d prefer to see them tackle Much Ado About Nothing.

My Shakespeare, and in particular the Banquo data visualisation, would be a lot more interesting (and dare I say relevant?) if it didn’t limit itself to only Twitter, Flickr and eBay (eBay really? I don’t get it).

Another part of BBC’s Shakespeare Unlocked season, radio adaptations of some of Shakespeare plays, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest (plus a repeat of A Midsummer Night’s Dream):

“From Sunday, Radio 3 will devote its weekly Drama on 3 slot to new radio adaptations of three classic Shakespeare plays. The sequence starts with Twelfth Night, one of the Bard’s classic romantic comedies. It has a little bit of everything here: unrequited love triangles, drunken comedic characters, wilful pricking of pompous characters, sequences of jokes based on the double meanings of words and phrases, and of course a cross-dressing character (which, as all actors would have been male in Shakespeare’s age, can only leave us guessing at the physical work needed for a man to play a woman who is passing herself off as a man).

The cast is incredibly strong — David Tennant (Malvolio) and Rosie Cavalliero (Maria) grab all the headlines, but Ron Cook’s Sir Toby Belch is glorious. And while the big names dominate the part of the story that sees uppity servant Malvolio tricked into believing that he is loved by his mistress, the main plot’s more romantic undertones are beautifully served by Naomi Frederick as Viola/Cesario, Paul Ready’s Orsino and Vanessa Kirby’s Olivia.

- Scott Matthewman, “Unlocking Shakespeare on radio”, The Stage. For more on the BBC Radio 3 season of performances, click here.

An interview with World Shakespeare Festival artistic director Deborah Shaw.

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‘Shakespeare’s voice, says Shaw, is supposed to set people free…’

linthenerd:

shakespearean:

A list of useful Shakespeare related apps. I’d add the Manga Shakespeare and IDW apps to the list. The latter allows you to download the first 2 issues of Kill Shakespeare for free.

And I would wish the “Shakespeare Made Easy” and “No Fear” REMOVED from this list. No. No. No. No. No. Teaching the translation is NOT teaching Shakespeare. Allowing the translation condescends. But I’ve ranted this before…

I stand by the inclusion of No Fear Shakespeare. As someone who has taught Shakespeare for a number of years, any tool that helps a student understand what’s going on is useful. I’m not saying only use them, I’m saying use them in conjunction with reading/performing Shakespeare’s play-texts. Furthermore, sure they’re translations (and I’ll admit they aren’t all fantastic), but any production/adaptation of Shakespeare is also a translation - one person’s interpretation of the source text. As long as teachers point this out to students before they use No Fear (and other tools like it), then I have no problem with their use in the classroom. I’m an advocate at using whatever is at your disposal when teaching Shakespeare (I know I do), including film, pop culture, graphic novels, children’s literature etc. It’s one of the reasons I created this blog - a veritable catalogue of fun and informative items to use when I teach. What I am against is 1) bad teaching practices, where teachers can’t be bothered to put in any effort to teaching something because it might be difficult and 2) lazy students who can’t be bothered to learn - which is often because they don’t understand. I’m sure the folks at thatsnotshakespeare probably won’t agree with my defence of No Fear, given their recent posts, but that’s what makes the world interesting, the variety of opinions. ;)

renkris:

30 Apr

at Princess Anne Theatre

120 minute preview followed by onstage Q&A with cast and crew, guests to be announced.

A list of useful Shakespeare related apps. I’d add the Manga Shakespeare and IDW apps to the list. The latter allows you to download the first 2 issues of Kill Shakespeare for free.

Homer Simpson (and more…) as the modern Shakespearean fool.

Timon of Athens with Simon Russell Beale. Yes! I’ve not seen it on stage yet! It better be part of the next season of NT: Live.