Looking for Shakespeare
Shakespeare is appropriated by educators and others to serve their own purposes (Allen, 1991, p. 42–43), whether they be to teach the heritage of English literature, to perpetuate the examinations system, the Shakespeare industry and its Bardolatry, or, in this case, to promote adolescent response. The perspective from which Looking for Shakespeare begins is that of an inquiry into the layers of personal meaning in the play: Shakespeare’s “open text” challenges participants to reassess and transform their perceptions and their worldview (Allen, 1991, p. 45). A four–week intensive theatre workshop for adolescents which began at New York University in 1999, the program was conceived for inner–city adolescents who may not have had any theatre background to get to know and to perform a Shakespeare play. We adopted an integrated arts approach, employing improvisation, role play, visual art, creative writing, movement and music to explore and illuminate the text.
The Shadow’s Shadow, or Gendered Ambition in Asta Nielsen’s 1921 Hamlet
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet was the subject of at least 13 silent films, yet Asta Nielsen’s 1921 Hamlet, directed by Svend Gade and Heinz Schall, was unique on several levels, with neither the play’s familiar language nor the visual icons one would expect. No film adaptation captures the tragedy’s thematic ambition as masterfully through the same interrogation of light and dark that the original play realizes through words. In this article, I explore the film’s strategic use of chiaroscuro in tandem with props and costuming and its continuing influence on the visual reception of Shakespeare’s play.
The Elizabethan Dumb Show : The History of a Dramatic Convention
1. Origins and Beginnings 2. Forms of the Dumb Show 3. The Classical Tragedies 4. Thomas Kyd 5. The 'University Wits' 6. Popular Plays of Legendary Heroes and Adventure 7. William Shakespeare 8. John Marston 9. Thomas Middleton 10. Romantic Tragicomedy