It’s a tantalizing mystery: What was Shakespeare’s inspiration? What was the source of his talent? How on earth did he do what he did? Were his abilities and success the product of native talent forged by practice and honed by association and collaboration with talented theatre colleagues and great actors — or was he in… Continue Reading »
Star Trek owes a striking thematic and linguistic debt to William Shakespeare, as in classic episodes like “The Conscience of the King” and “The Defector.”
In many ways Simba resembles Prince Hal more than Hamlet, in that he’s also a headstrong prince who disobeys his father but ultimately learns to accept responsibility and claim his throne.
Ben Elton is no stranger to Shakespeare. The British author and actor played Verges alongside Michael Keaton’s Dogberry in Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 film Much Ado About Nothing. He incorporated Shakespeare — both the man himself and his words — into several episodes of his Blackadder TV series, which he co-wrote with Richard Curtis starting with… Continue Reading »
“What’s especially delightful about Love’s Labor’s Lost is that it’s a comedy about melancholy, a satire on youthful arrogance, intellectual pretension, and romantic naiveté,” writes Austin Tichenor.
John Barrymore is sometimes passed over in the lists of great Shakespeare actors, but he was an important transitional figure in our understanding of the evolution of Shakespearean performance styles, writes Austin Tichenor.
Austin Tichenor of the Reduced Shakespeare Company asks what it means to be a Shakespeare purist and attempts to interpret audience reactions.
It’s not unusual to see theaters sponsoring monthly or semi-regular meetings devoted to reading and talking about Shakespeare’s plays.
With a US audience of tens of millions in its TV release at the same time it was released in American theaters, Laurence Olivier’s film “Richard III” (1955) has left a lasting, sometimes hilarious, legacy in pop culture, from Peter Sellers’s lofty and amusing reading of the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” in Olivier’s style to modern-day TV villains who speak directly to the camera and win us to their side.
From the question “What are you?” (Countess Olivia) to “Tell my story” (Hamlet), Austin Tichenor looks at finding your identity and telling your story, through a decidedly Shakespearean lens.
