December
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2167 Tuesday, 7 December 1999. From: Linda Graceffo <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 06 Dec 1999 14:58:52 -0500 Subject: Q: Teaching I am a masters student attempting to develop an interesting method for teaching Shakespeare. It's difficult for students on the secondary level to appreciate Shakespeare when they're trying to interpret the meaning of the language. Only beyond that difficulty can an appreciation of Shakespeare emerge. Presenting Shakespeare with modern English obviously makes it easier to grasp. Altering the setting to accommodate present day society would also bring understanding within the grasp of a much larger population. Do you have any suggestions as to how Shakespeare might be taught to high school students that will bring them closer to the inner Shakespeare? Can you recommend any web sites or educational software which might be helpful? Below are two which I thought might be useful Opening Night, Emphasis: Drama Story-telling; Creative Writing Opening Night draws it's inspiration and visual appeal from the British stage, with actors, settings, props, and sound effects designed for the classic Sherlock-Holmes-type mystery. This title features photo-realistic actors, including aristocrats, sleuths and chimney sweeps who appear in castles and tea rooms, Stonehenge, the Tower Bridge and other actual sites. Opening Night offers intricate stage and editing options which simulate the feel of a real theatre. The user can manipulate a huge number of sets, sound effects, lighting types (floods or footlights), and props. They can arrange furniture, barrels and plants, put books or food on tables, and even have the actors sit down, stand up, curtsy and perform other movements. Changes in any of these elements are automatically updated in the playbill and script. This software arrives with a CD, which offers an inside look at the workings of a real theater, providing a solid support for a class drama unit. Hollywood, price Emphasis: Storytelling; Drama Hollywood allows students to plan, write, and script their own animated stories and movies. Students can choose from an range of sets, add characters and start typing. A well-designed, straightforward interface offers step-by-step guidance throughout, with endless storehouse of story starters, plot twists, and dialogue suggestions-all completely customized to each character
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2166 Tuesday, 7 December 1999. From: Vince Locke <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 06 Dec 1999 11:54:59 PST Subject: 10.2153 Q: Flags over Globe Comment: Re: SHK 10.2153 Q: Flags over Globe >When a flag was flown outside the Globe Theater what did Black - Red - >White > >Mean? I am at a lost.... comedy, History, tragedy > >Jeannie Since theatres were forbidden from advertising their plays, they raised flags from their roofs that signified what sort of play was being performed that day: white was comedy, black was tragedy, and red was history. Vince Locke Eastern Michigan University
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2165 Tuesday, 7 December 1999. From: John F. Andrews <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 06 Dec 1999 11:29:21 -0500 Subject: The 2000 Gielgud Award Festivities I'm pleased to announce that the 2000 Gielgud Award ceremony will take place on January 16th at 7:00 p.m. in London's historic Middle Temple Hall. We'll salute Shakespeare as the poet a recent BBC survey identified as "The Man of the Millennium." In that context we'll pay tribute to Sir John (whom we're expecting to attend, even though he's now approaching 96) as the dramatic artist who has probably done the most to keep the classical tradition vibrant for 20th-century audiences. We'll then honor Kenneth Branagh, our fifth Gielgud laureate, as the actor, director, and producer who is probably doing more than anyone else today to extend Sir John's legacy and convey a continuing appreciation for Shakespeare to future generations. You'll perhaps recall that the Gielgud Award was established in April of 1994 to mark its namesake's 90th birthday and preserve Sir John's "character" and heritage with "golden quill" (Sonnet 85). The first three presentations of John Safer's gleaming trophy took place at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, with Sir Ian McKellen (1996), Sir Derek Jacobi (1997), and Miss Zoe Caldwell (1998), as recipients. Our most recent ceremony occurred on May 17th at Broadway's Barrymore Theatre, where the Guild's 1999 awardee, Dame Judi Dench, was earning her first Tony in "Amy's View." Participants in that sparkling program, which was emceed by television journalist Robert MacNeil, included performers Keith Baxter, Brian Bedford, Zoe Caldwell, Hal Holbrook, Ronald Pickup, Christopher Plummer, and Toby Stephens, director Sir Richard Eyre, producer Rebecca Eaton (who brings us "Mobil Masterpiece Theatre" and "Mystery" from WGBH/Boston), and playwright Sir David Hare. We're expecting a cast of at least equal eminence in January, and we've already received commitments from actors Keith Baxter, Richard Briers, Richard Clifford, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Derek Jacobi, and John Sessions. We're also expecting to welcome producer David Parfitt (who gave us "Shakespeare in Love"), composer Patrick Doyle (who has composed the music for "Henry V," "Much Ado About Nothing," and several other films), and a broad array of the honoree's other friends, professional associates, and loved ones. It gives me great pleasure to report that in addition to the Middle Temple festivities-a 90-minute potpourri of Shakespearean vignettes, music, anecdotes, and tributes, to be followed immediately by an elegant buffet reception-there will also be a special afternoon preview screening of Kenneth Branagh's long-anticipated film of "Love's Labour's Lost." Those who sign up for the 2000 Gielgud celebration will have a choice of times- either a 1:30 or a 3:30 showing, each accompanied by a light reception- and they'll have a chance to enjoy the comforts of BAFTA's beautiful Princess Anne Theatre at 195 Piccadilly. I'm delighted to acknowledge that these arrangements are being made possible through the generosity of Intermedia and Pathe, the film's U.K. producer and distributor, respectively. For those not familiar with it, BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) is the organization that bestows the U.K.'s counterparts to the U.S.'s Oscar and Emmy awards. In addition to the hospitality the Guild and its guests will be receiving from BAFTA, moreover, we'll also benefit from the cooperation of a wide array of other institutions, among them The British Council, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The English-Speaking Union, The National Press Club (Washington), The Royal National Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, Sadler's Wells, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Shakespeare's Globe, The Shakespeare Institute, The Shakespeare Society (New York), The Shakespeare Theatre Association of America, The Society of London Theatre (the organization that bestows the annual Olivier Awards), The Theatre Communications Group (U.S.), and The Theatre Museum. As most readers of the SHAKSPER list will of course know, the site of our January Gielgud presentation, Middle Temple Hall, is one of the four Inns of Court that Shakespeare would have known and visited, and it has two significant connections with the playwright's work. First, the garden beside Middle Temple was the site the dramatist chose for the scene (II.iv in "Henry VI, Part 1") in which he depicted the commencement of the Wars of the Roses. And, second, the Middle Temple dining hall was the setting for a production of "Twelfth Night" on February 2, 1602, that remains our earliest surviving record of the play's being performed. In all likelihood, the author of the comedy that Middle Temple resident John Manningham noted in his diary for this date would have been among the actors who presented it. Because Middle Temple can accommodate no more than 300 -- many of whom will be dignitaries, friends of the honoree, and luminaries of the stage and screen-we're expecting the 200-225 tickets that we'll be selling to go quickly. We'll hope, then, to hear soon from SHAKSPER subscribers who'd like to attend. For further information-including a roster of price categories (listed either in dollars or in pounds sterling), a special 15% discount offer, and order forms that permit attendees to register by e-mail-please direct your inquiries toThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Many thanks, John Andrews
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2164 Tuesday, 7 December 1999. From: Roy Flannagan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 06 Dec 1999 12:23:37 -0500 Subject: 10.2146 Re: Shakespeare and Milton Comment: Re: SHK 10.2146 Re: Shakespeare and Milton >Nancy Charlton wrote: > > >Dom Saliani responded to Roy Flannagan's posting: > > > >>I shared Roy Flannagan's post concerning Shakespeare and Milton with a > >>friend Nina Green, who is interested in this period. In her response to > >>the posting, she cautions Flannagan on the identity of Alice Spencer: > >> > >>> Alice Spencer was the widow of Ferdinando > >>> Stanley (d.1594), Lord Strange and Earl of Derby, not the widow of > the Sir > >>> Edward Stanley whose tomb is at Tong. > > > >Would Lady Alice have been a Spencer of the Herberts and Spencers of > >Penshurst? > >She was the daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe, Northamptonshire. >I don't know offhand whether there's any connection. > >Dave Kathman >This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Yes, there is a connection between the Spencers of Althorpe (Lady Di's folks) and the Spencers of Penshurst (or at least with Sir Philip Sydney), and Edmund Spenser. The literary connections between Lady Alice, Dowager Countess of Derby, of Harefield, and nearly every great poet and playwright who existed during her lifetime are extraordinary. She married Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange and then Earl of Derby, in 1579. She and her husband became Spenser's Amaryllis and Amyntas, and Spenser dedicated Teares of the Muses to her. Ferdinando was a friend of the Earl of Essex, and he was the patron of Lord Strange's men, who staged Titus Andronicus. Ferdinando was also, oddly, King of the Isle of Man (as Earl of Derby). Lady Alice was praised by Thomas Nashe; John Marston write a masque in her honor; and she probably danced in at least one of Ben Jonson's masques (see William B. Hunter, Milton's Comus: Family Piece [Troy, NY: Whitstun, 1983]: 14). Lady Alice's second husband was Thomas Egerton, who became Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, who was, of course, connected with his secretary, John Donne. Milton creates a connection with Sydney by calling his aristocratic entertainment for the Lady Alice Arcades. Roy Flannagan
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2163 Tuesday, 7 December 1999. From: Martin Jukovsky <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 6 Dec 1999 14:43:09 -0500 Subject: 10.2112 The Language of Shakespeare Comment: Re: SHK 10.2112 The Language of Shakespeare >I am quite interesting in Shakespeare's play, and I would like to know >whether you have some information about the language of Shakespeare in >plays such as Henry IV. I am particularly analysing the first part of >Henry IV, and all the things related to syntax, semantics, phonology, >graphology and morphology in that part. Do you know where I could find >some information related to that? > >Thank you very much. >Frank (from Spain). I highly recommend A SHAKESPEARIAN GRAMMAR by E.A, Abbott (the author of FLATLAND). The third, revised edition was published in 1870, and Dover Publications, in New York City, reprinted it in paperback in 1966. It is 511 pages. Unfortunately, the Dover is way out of print. It's worth a diligent search through used bookstores to find it (I have). As Abbott says in the Preface to the first edition, "The object of this work is to furnish students of Shakespeare and Bacon with a short systematic account of some points of difference between Elizabethan syntax and our own." Martin Jukovsky Cambridge, Mass.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Web site: http://www.channel1.com/users/martyj/