April 11-17: Willpower! Montgomery College’s week long festival

Willpower! Montgomery College’s week long Shakespeare  festival with free events, lectures, and demonstrations. I went to several of the events last year, which ultimately culminated into the American Shakespeare Center performance of “A Comedy of Errors”, and really enjoyed myself. So’ if you have the time, I can personally recommend checking it out.

Here are the details that were posted in our comment section just yesterday:

Greetings fellow Shakespeare lovers!

We’d like to invite you to attend WILLPOWER! – Montgomery College’s weeklong festival of performances, lectures, workshops, and master classes that celebrate the world of William Shakespeare. This year’s festival runs from April 11-17, 2011.

Our festival centers around our college performing arts series production of…

THE TEMPEST
Wednesday-Saturday, April 11-16, 8pm
Sunday April 17, 2pm
(run time – approximately 2 ½ hrs)
Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center
Montgomery College, Rockville Campus

Other featured events include:

Adrian Webber Memorial Lecture
“‘Oh Brave New World’:
Medicine, Magic, and Gender in Shakespeare’s England”
Dr. Stephen Greenberg, NIH, National Library of Medicine, Historian of Science
Wednesday, April 13th
1:00 – 1:50 p.m. TA Arena, Rockville Campus

“From Ghosts and Witches to Mathematics and Mechanism: The Nature of Science
and How It Has Changed Our World View since Shakespeare’s Time”
— Dr. Emmett Holman, George Mason University
Monday, April 11th
2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. TA Arena, Rockville Campus

“Solemn and Strange Music:
Discovering the Sounds of ‘The Tempest’” (workshop)
Mr. James Jacobs, WGBH 99.5, Boston
Tuesday, April 12th
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. TA Arena, Rockville Campus

See http://montgomerycollege.edu/willpower for the full schedule of events.

Except for performances of THE TEMPEST, all lectures and workshops are free to the public.

For more infomation, call KenYatta Rogers at 240-567-4001

April 9th and 10th: Maryland Shakespeare Festival Bare Bard of “As You Like It” This weekend

I’ve been lax on updating the calendar, but with the Spring season kicking off I am starting to get really excited. One reason for this excitement is the Maryland Shakespeare Festivals last Bare Bard of the season,  where they will be performing a play I haven’t seen yet, “As You Like It”.

Now if you haven’t seen a Bare Bard, give this one a chance. A Bare Bard is where the actors come from around the county with their lines memorized, meet up on Friday, and in 24 hours put on a full production. I’ve seen to many Bare Bards to count and REALLY enjoyed them all. It’s like seeing Shakespeare on a high wire without a net. There’s no sleepwalking these lines, they are freshly learned and the energy is raw. It’s fast,  loose, and a lot of fun!

April 9th at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 10th at 2 p.m. Sundays performance will include a talk back with the actors.

The Bare Bard performance space is located at All Saints Episcopal Church.

All Saints Episcopal Church

21 North Court Street

Frederick, MD 21701

See website for details

Links: http://mdshakes.com

 

DC-area Shakespeare explorers Meetup!

If you are looking to find other Shakespeare lovers in the DC area, then there’s a new Meetup group looking for you, called DC-area-Shakespeare-explorers.  Now I do not run in any type of academic circles of any type, and personally know no one interested in Shakespeare, so I am looking forward to checking this out.

 

To find out more about the DC-area-Shakespeare-explorers just follow this link:
http://www.meetup.com/DC-area-Shakespeare-explorers/

Click here for their upcoming events calendar:
http://www.meetup.com/DC-area-Shakespeare-explorers/events/calendar/

A new Spring Season, and soooo many plays..

Hello – A new Spring Season, and soooo many plays…
I am still going to the plays, but have not had time to update this website (Mid-Summer in Olney ROCKED!). This is not a good thing. The one nice thing about maintaining this web site was I never missed a free play, and other events. It was an excuse to maintain and share my Shakespeare Calendar, along with meeting people of like interest along the way.

So I would like to throw out there a thought. Who would like to help with this website and calendar??

I get emails from companies asking for promotion, and users commenting on existing material, but I just don’t have the time anymore.
If you google maryland shakespeare OR  Washington dc shakespeare, you will find this website on the first page of the search, so this website is worth the effort.

So if you are local, and have an interest. Or if you are part of a Shakespeare Company Maryland, DC, Virginia, or Pennsylvania and want to be able to add your promotions here, send me an email from your companies address..

Thanks
Jamie@marylandshakespeare.com

This Weekend! 2 Hamlets, 2 Midsummers, an “Alls Well” and an R&J!!!!

Sorry for not posting much this week but, wow! This week has been WAY to busy. I had planned to see Hamlet at the Folgers this week, and missed that one, and almost was in a position to miss the Maryland Shakespeare Festivals Midsummer night’s Dream. But the theater God’s have prevailed, the stars have aligned, and MSF’s Midsummer is on my agenda for tonight (Saturday 8pm).

But this weekend is rocking for our area with 2 Hamlets, 2 Midsummer’s, an “Alls Well” and an R&J!!!! That’s a choice of 6 different plays. The Maryland Shakespeare  Festival is my pick for he weekend, but you can’t go wrong with any of them.

This next week will be nuts with long nights and long hours at work (till Thursday)  but I’ll try and keep to my regular posting schedule.

But in the mean time, I’m going to be in Frederick for Midsummer Night’s Dream (Favorite play performed by my favorite company). So If ya see me come and say HI.

Here’s the link for: The Maryland Shakespeare Festivals “Midsummer Night’s Dream

Check out the calendar for event details.

Mondo (Titus) Andronicus: The Legend Lives On

Mondo (Titus) Andronicus as performed by Molotov Theatre Group has come and gone, but the legend of this brutal and beastly adaptation lives on. The play has been finished for a couple of weeks now and the Washington Post is still finding reasons to point it out:

“Molotov’s most recent production, “Mondo Andronicus,” was a quick and dirty adaptation of Shakespeare’s goriest play that included self-mutilation, stabbings and the startlingly realistic removal of a tongue.”

And this is actually part of a positive review for a very unique theater company. This type of theater is not for everyone, but thrill seekers will love it, and anyone that saw Mondo Andronicus will most likely never forget it.

Link: Molotov Theatre Group. of Washington DC

Link: Washington Post article: “small theater: Molotov Theatre Group”

Link: Maryland Shakespeare review: Mondo Andronicus and the Grand Guignol: A Blood Splattering Opening Night.

Shakespeare and the Mystery of Three: Loves Labour’s Lost

There’s a mystery afoot, and very much an enigma it is. I’ve searched the internet, and cannot find the answer, or even a mention of what I have questioned. I have searched Google books, with it’s millions of volumes and none allude it. Could it be that no one has ever noticed it before? Or as Sherlock Holmes said in A Scandal in Bohemia “You see, but you do not observe“? I’m sure others have thought about it in passing, but has no one ever stopped to examine my little conundrum?

Here is my question, why is Shakespeare’s “Loves Labour’s Lost” so fixcated on the number “Three”? Three for example is mentioned only 8 times in both Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caeser. Three is mentioned merely 9 time’s in Shakespeare’s longest play Hamlet. Macbeth has an unlucky 13 mentions. And Yet in Loves Labour’s Lost three is mentioned 47 times! Why?

I saw the play performed by the Maryland Shakespeare Festival in Frederick, and mentioned in the talk back afterward that I had noticed three was mentioned quite often. A couple people acknowledge that it does seem to pop up a lot, but they never really thought about it, and couldn’t see any significances. But 47 times? Even if three was considered a magical number back in the days of yore, 47 times is a lot of Mojo.

Here’s a short comparison:
Three is Mentioned 47
God is mentioned only 32 time
Two 13
Four 12
Five 9
Six is not mentioned once, so we will count the single Sixth found as 1
Seven? No seven, but 1 seventh
Eight 0
Nine 5

I’ve searched though the plays text, and can’t find any particular reason for the number three, other then maybe Shakespeare was having a “I think I’ll use the number three a whole lot” kind of day.
Examples:
The King has 3 companions, who are there to study for 3 years
“You three, Berowne, Dumain, and Longaville,
Have sworn for three years’ term to live with me”
Note: He also has ADRIANO DE ARMADO whom is there to study as a 4th but is never considered one of the “Three” companions

* Princess has 3 Ladies in waiting
* The Nine Worthies were:
3 Pagan: Hector,  Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar
3 Jewish: Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus
3 Christian: King Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon
* “And then, to sleep but three hours in the night”
* “You three, Berowne, Dumain, and Longaville, Have sworn for three years’ term to live with me”
* The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages since
* “nor no penance; but a’ must fast three days a week”
* “The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. There’s the moral”.
(Do you really want to keep reading these examples?)
* “three farthings: three farthings remuneration”, “And, among three, to love the worst of all!”
* “he came, one; saw two; overcame, three. Who came? the king”
* “Honey, and milk, and sugar; there is three”
* “By Jove, I always took three threes for nine”
* “Great Hercules is presented by this imp, Whose club kill’d Cerberus, that three-headed canis”
* “With three-fold love I wish you all these three”
* I have vowed to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three years.”
* ADRIANO DE ARMADO: I am all these three.
MOTH: And three times as much more, and yet nothing at
all.

And there is of course many more references, but nary a significances.

“The Shakespeare Cryptograph™”
Forget the Da Vinci Code, there is a real live mystery to be solved and one that I have yet to find an answer to. A conundrum that I have spent way to much time on (A couple hours at least). Yes, we have our own “Shakespeare Cryptograph™”. Why “Cryptograph? Because all the cool names like Shakespeare Code, Shakespeare Enigma, Shakespeare mystery etc. are all taken, and If I’ve stumbled onto a mystery that could bring down nations, and discredit religions, I want to make sure I can copy-write the name for the eventual movie.

So if you have any idea what all this means, or why I am even spending my time on it, please feel free to let me know.

Loves Labour’s Lost: Complete text

Word count tool that I used to find the number of times a word is used:
http://rainbow.arch.scriptmania.com/tools/word_counter.html

FREE: Shakespeare’s Birthday Lecture 2010: Jonathan Bate at the Folgers April 26th – “The Good Life in Shakespeare”

Jonathan Bate

Shakespeare’s Birthday Lecture in Washington DC
Jonathan Bate on “The Good Life in Shakespeare”.
Professor Bate will discuss the Epicurean tradition through As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale, and Measure for Measure.

Everyone knows I love the word FREE! Well here is a free lecture by the author of several books on Shakespeare who also does features for BBC’s Radio 4. I really wish I could make this, but I have to travel on business that week and will be out of town. But will definitely make it if plans change.

From the Folgers web site: “Jonathan Bate, professor of English at Warwick, will speak on “The Good Life in Shakespeare” and about the Epicurean tradition, with an emphasis on the plays As You Like It, The WInter’s Tale, and Measure for Measure. He is the author of The Genius of Shakespeare and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.”

http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2329

Monday, Apr 26 at 8pm

Tickets: Free

April 24th and 25th: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – A Maryland Shakespeare Festival “Bare Bard”!

The Maryland Shakespeare Festival is celebrating their last “Bare Bard” of the season with Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’m overjoyed they’ve chosen to do Midsummer, but saddened by the fact that the another season has come to an end. I’ve been following the MSF’s for two years now and have seen them do ten plays, eight of them as Bare Bard’s. I really should thank them for fostering much of my love of Shakespeare. For Showing me that Shakespeare is not just some stiff old white guy bleating some uncomprehendable, un-understandable, and totally nonsensical dialogue.  Instead they helped to show me that in reality Shakespeare can be fast, loose and funny at times. And weighty, dark, and deep at other times.

Yes I have seen Shakespeare performed by various other companies, and enjoy seeing the different takes, views, and ideas that they all bring to the same material. But the Maryland Shakespeare Festival has always seemed more like a down to earth, community based Shakespeare Company. Not to mention, the actors in the Bare Bards come from around the country to perform with the MSF on a voluntary, and unpaid basis. Simply for the learning experience, training, and the chance to do something they obviously love. They are always friendly and chose to hang around after Sundays show for an open discussion, and to answer any audience questions.

I really didn’t intend to write all this, but when I saw this was going to be the last Bare Bard of the season, it kinda took me back those last two years and all great plays I’ve seen. And in reality if I didn’t write about it here, then who would I tell? Considering all my friend’s are watching American Idol, and Dancing with the Stars (Yech), while I’m re-reading A Midsummer Night’s dream in anticipation of the next Bare Bard.

Link: Maryland Shakespeare Festivals – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

April 24th at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 25th at 2 p.m. Sunday’s performance will be followed by a celebratory cake-cutting ceremony with Shelly Aloi, representing the mayor of Frederick, and a post-show discussion.

Shows Ending in DC: STC’s Acclaimed Henry V and Richard II

Michael Hayden as Henry V

This is the Final weekend to catch what has become a highly acclaimed set of Shakespearean plays this season,  Henry V and Richard II. There has been an almost uncountable number of write ups about these productions, most of the attention being placed on Michael Hayden, who plays the lead rolls in both these plays. I’ve seen Henry V a few time now and this was definitely one of the best.

Link: Shakespeare Theatre Company of Washington DC

Here’s a link to a recent Washington Post article about the plays and Michael Hayed

Link to my first visit to the Sydney Harman Hall to see Henry V