Read through the Bard in a year
Thanks to members of our Shakespeare 2020 Project Facebook group for these additional Henry VI Part 2 resources:
Thanks for Dan Hainsworth for letting us use his Shakespeare icons, as shown above right.
Enjoy these Henry VI Part 2 images from the Folger Shakespeare Library. Find more here.
Thanks to Hailey Bachrach, who is providing the video introductions for all three Henry VI plays.
Hailey Bachrach is a PhD candidate at King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe, where she has also worked as a research assistant to the Globe Ensemble. She is also a dramaturg and drama critic, and her writing has appeared in Shakespeare Bulletin, Shakespeare Newsletter, Shakespeare’s Globe Blog, American Theatre Magazine, Oregon ArtsWatch, among others.
Many thanks to my friend Joey Bianco of Whim Wham for the animated video elements.
Thanks to members of our Shakespeare 2020 Project Facebook group for these additional Henry VI Part 1 resources:
Thanks for Dan Hainsworth for letting us use his Shakespeare icons, as shown above right.
Enjoy these Henry VI Part 1 images from the Folger Shakespeare Library. Find more here.
It’s our first play, so let’s jump right in. Here is your video introduction to Twelfth Night, provided by Professor Murray Biggs.
Murray Biggs was born in England, raised in South Africa, and educated there and at Oxford. In 1986, after ten years’ teaching at MIT, he moved to Yale where he is now a semi-retired professor of English, Theater, and Film. He has published some 30 articles, many exploring the relations between text and performance, and directed over 40 stage productions, mostly with undergraduates, including 16 plays by Shakespeare, three of them twice. He lectures around the country on various aspects of drama.
More personally, Murray is my college professor and dear friend. Deepest thanks to him for agreeing to record the first introductory video for the Shakespeare 2020 Project.
Many thanks, also, to my friend Joey Bianco of Whim Wham for the animated video elements.
Thanks to members of our Shakespeare 2020 Project Facebook group for these additional Twelfth Night resources:
Thanks for Dan Hainsworth for letting us use his Shakespeare icons, as shown above right.
Enjoy these Twelfth Night images from the Folger Shakespeare Library. Find more here.
I’m just back from seeing Portland Center Stage’s tremendous three-person, all-female production of Macbeth. In the program, a quote from the show’s director Adriana Baer caught my eye: “I had a wonderful teacher in 7th grade who believed that in order to understand Shakespeare, it should be read aloud. She helped us see that the plays were meant to be performed, not just read silently on a page…”
This is, of course, is a familiar sentiment about Shakespeare. Shakespeare is meant to be performed, not just read. I was thinking about this topic last week—before I read saw the show and read the program note—so it was funny to have the issue so quickly brought up.
Yes, of course, Shakespeare is meant to be performed. So why would I (WE, my friends!) take on the project of reading Shakespeare’s works in a year? Although I agree Shakespeare is best in performance (the poems aside), it’s not always possible to see his plays—and certainly not his complete works—on stage. Theater is expensive, and good luck finding a local production of King John in most communities. Reading Shakespeare off the page may not be ideal, but it is possible—an important start.
Along the way in our reading adventure, I hope you will read passages aloud, maybe even with friends. I certainly will. And I’ll try to post as many videos as I can of Shakespeare in performance. (Speaking of which, for a limited time PBS has an all-black production of Much Ado About Nothing available for streaming!)
Excited to be reading with you all in a little over a month!
(Also, in case you were wondering, the show was EXCELLENT. Three amazing performances, fast-paced, and well staged.)
Welcome to the Shakespeare 2020 Project. I envision this as a public reading group. Read the complete works throughout the year, or just drop in for your favorite plays or poems. You can choose to receive emails (never more than two per week, promise!) with updates on what we are reading, what is coming next, and so on. Along the way, we’ll have videos, artwork, film recommendations, and more about the Shakespearean works we encounter together.
Here’s how this came about: I wanted to read the complete works of Shakespeare in 2020. Although I’ve read and/or seen the occasional Shakespeare play performed over the years, I haven’t read the complete works for 20 years. If I was taking this on, I thought it would be fun to invite everyone else to join me. Whoever wants to. If you want to go all-in and read along with me the entire year, I would love that. If you want to join in occasionally, that’s great too. All are invited, at any level.
Let’s do this! We start January 2 with Twelfth Night… use the form to sign up for email updates.