For anyone reading this blog for the first time, here is a brief recap of our project. During the fall of 2011, Chelsea and I were bored. We were finally comfortable in DC, but we spent our free-time bingeing on Netflix. We needed something to get us out of the house, something to strive for.
Randomly, Chelsea got us tickets to see Much Ado at the Shakespeare Theatre in DC. She was not excited about it. But then we went. And she enjoyed it much more than she expected.
That weekend we saw Anonymous, a movie highly recommended by my friend and Oxfordian expert Tom Regnier. Even knowing the author took some liberties with the actual history, we were fascinated.
The following week we saw an amazing production of Othello at the Folgers Shakespeare Theatre, and the idea for our project was born.
Over the next year, we traveled from New York City to Chapel Hill, from Cleveland to Staunton. For each of Shakespeare's 37 plays, we left the house, went to a theatre, and saw live productions of each. Before each play, we would compare Stratfordian and Oxfordian interpretations. Then we would sit back and enjoy.
This blog chronicles our journeys. I hope you enjoy.
Check out the Shakespeare Fellowship's excellent response to a recent book entitled: "Shakespeare Beyond Doubt." If this piques your interest, the Shakespeare Fellowship's webpage is an excellent resource for diving into the authorship debate!
Troilus and Cressida
Squirrel's Treehouse - Charleston, SC
November 21, 2012
Brad - A++
Chelsea - A++
Few things leave me speechless in this world; this production was one of those things. The actors, the script, the love - everything was amazing. But I am getting ahead of myself.
By the third month of our project, we had located a feasible, live production of every Shakespeare play. But as you can imagine, life interrupts. So, as Thanksgiving approached, one play remained elusive: Troilus and Cressida. Then the sky opened, the heavens sang, and a group of our friends --- best friends --- from Charleston agreed to put on a production of Troilus and Cressida.
I was told there were auditions. I was told there was a rehearsal. And I was told to bring wings and beer.
So, the day before Thanksgiving --- two full days before our deadline --- we got up, drove to Charleston, South Carolina, gathered some supplies, put on our finest, and anxiously awaited the curtain:
This video does not do justice to the performance. It is merely our tribute to an amazing group of friends who helped us complete our impossible dream.
- Brad-lus
Now for Chelsea's take. A-Maz-Ing! Best, and probably the tipsiest production we have seen!
Let me just start with a literary scholar Joyce Carol Oates quote so you see what these poor dears got themselves into:
"Troilus and Cressida, that most vexing and ambiguous of Shakespeare's plays,
strikes the modern reader as a contemporary document—its investigation of
numerous infidelities, its criticism of tragic pretensions, above all, its
implicit debate between what is essential in human life and what is only
existential are themes of the twentieth century. ... This is tragedy of a
special sort—the "tragedy" the basis of which is the impossibility of
conventional tragedy."
Yeah, its hard!
A quick synopsis of Troilus and Cressida: So, during the Trojan war, Troilus, a prince, falls in love with Cressida, the daughter of a priest. Trolius is helped in wooing Cressida by her cousin, Pandarus. Cressida's father, who is kind of a jerk, exchanges a prisoner for his daughter to a Greek commander. Troilus follows her to the Greek lord's, Diomedes', tent and overhears her saying she will be his lover. Troilus is crushed! Meanwhile, The Greek army is bummed and they think it is because their great warrior Achilles won't fight. Since he won't fight a less impressive warrior, Ajax has to fight Hector of the Trojans. When they go to fight a truce is drawn but the next day Hector and sad Troilus go into battle against Achilles. Achilles can't beat Hector in the battle but finds him unarmed later and slays him! Achilles then drags his body to the gates of Troy and the play ends with the whole city mourning him. It is a real upper!
Brad and I showed up at the theatre early and dressed for the caliber of this production:
Our tickets only cost some Chick-fil-a nuggets and 2 gingerbread men:
As for the acting, it was so incredibly unique. To cast Dobby the house elf as the sought after lady love, Cressida, was genius! And, the fact that they could get Sean Connery to be part of this when he is so busy is amazing. My favorite directorial choice may be to have Rachel's character spin whenever entering or exiting. I felt like I understood that character! The costume design was perfection. Beard, swords (or machetes in some cases), and toga's (or bathrobes) really made this production come to life!! Basically, I can't think of a negative thing. It was truly wonderful and I am so glad this is how we ended this year!
Also, this acting troupe lives here, how amazing is that?
It was all in all a great weekend!! Thank you for those who made this such fun!!
Henry VI - Parts I, II, & III
The Connecticut Theatre, Box 511 - Washington, DC
November 19, 2012
Brad - A
Chelsea - C
Property rights are like a bundle of sticks; similarly, going to a Shakespeare play is like a bundle of sticks. One stick is leaving the house, another eating dinner out, and still another sitting in an uncomfortable chair behind some unreasonably large man. Yes, we watched Rose Rage on TV at our house, but our evening included a majority of the sticks that comprise seeing a Shakespeare play live.
Since January, we'd been planning on seeing the Henry VI trilogy in November in New York City. The production date worked with our project, our wedding, and our dog --- he is very picky when it comes to play selection. Two weeks before the production dates, the theatre company moved the production to the Spring. The freakin Spring. Desperate times called for desperate measures. So, we decided to watch a video-taped production of Rose Rage --- an excellent two-play adaptation of the Henry VI trilogy.
The Hidden Room Theatre put the production on in August of 2012 in Austin, Texas. It got rave reviews, and luckily, someone video taped it. And put it on the internet. So, we did every part of going to a play except seeing live actors.
The ticket-taker ended up sitting in front of us, typical!
And we watched four hours of Henry VI. Because it is three parts, I will not spend time summarizing. Instead you can read about the Warof theRoses yourself.
The video quality was not great, but it wasn't bad. We could understand everything they said. This company decided to use men for all of the parts. Surprisingly, this was the first company we saw that used exclusively men. They did a great job. There were several fight scenes, and they were good. Also, this company makes all of its costumes using historic techniques. I am not sure why, but they looked good.
A great evening. A great play. A great night. Yeah, we watched a video of a live production. But we went out, had a great time, and watched a great play. It counts.
Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare Theater - Washington, DC
November 18, 2012
Brad - A
Chelsea - B
Ok, we are SO incredibly behind, I'm sorry. This thing called the holiday's happened and it kicked our butts. But, we made it through, including a Brink ski trip that involved no skiing and a vegan Thanksgiving! But, before we even hit Thanksgiving we shuffled our way to the Shakespeare Theatre to see Midsummer Night's. I say shuffled because we have seen 30 odd plays this year....it was wearing on me. I loved this project but sometimes I just wanted to stay home and watch a Real Housewives of somewhere instead of watch community theatre. But, this night it was worth it! The Shakespeare Theatre always makes things interesting so I'm glad we went!
Here is the premise...it's a weird one! So, there are 2 plots going on together. One plot: Hermia doesn't want to marry the guy her dad picked out for her because she loves someone else but her dad calls upon an old law that says she has to marry him or face death! Ok, so here is a confusing 4-some: Hermia loves Lysander, but her dad wants her to marry Demetrius, who also loves Hermia. Helena, Hermia's friend loves Demetrius. Got it? Hermia - heart - Lysander. Demetrius - heart - Hermia. Helena - heart - Demetrius.Oh, young love! They all escape into the wood basically all chasing each other.
Meanwhile, a group of actors decide they will put on a play for Hermia's family.
Also, meanwhile we are introduced to the people who live in the woods. Oberon is the king of the fairies and Titania is the queen. They are NOT on happy terms. Oberon decides to punish Titania so asks Puck (the only name I had actually heard) to help him trick her with a love potion. Uh-oh love potion, what confusion with ensure?! Well, Puck makes Lysander fall in love with Helena, Demetrius fall in love with Helena, and Titania fall in love with a donkey face from the group of actors.Totally makes sense. Well all of this leads to hilarity.
It ends with all being restored, a group wedding for the 2 couples, the actors put on their play, and Oberon and Titania make up. Confused? You should probably just find where it is playing.
This production was interesting. Instead of fairies and the woods. It was burlesque dancers and an old backstage of a theater. It was a different thought but it still seemed to work with the plot.
At one point in time there was a lady mud wrestling scene that was really funny!
The group of actors putting on the play in a play were definitely my favorite. The put on the worst play (and we have seen 37) I have ever seen and they were really really funny. All and all I enjoyed it! The Puck in this spoke like Alf, who eats cats, so that threw me off a bit but all of the actors were really good. Mainly, Shakespeare Theatre is a guaranteed good show, albeit a bit weird.
Here are the pic's we took. I feel like this post especially shows our lack of photography ability.
We also took some pictures at intermission. This is the snack bar, for Shakespeare lovers Falstaff is a very important character and also a large man!
I was also trying to show how great this theatre is, the wall behind me is completely glass and looks out on the center of Chinatown in DC. The picture doesn't show how great it is, but it is great!
King John American Shakespeare Center Staunton, Virginia November 3, 2012 Brad - A Chelsea - B We fell in love with Staunton, The American Shakespeare Center, and Joel at the Frederick House Inn in March. So, we decided to turn our last trip to the only replica Blackfriars Playhouse in Virginia into a whole weekend affair. So, we dropped the pup off at doggie overnight camp:
And then we headed out to Staunton. We decided to do a little wine tour on our way to Staunton, yes, Virginia has wine, and we were pretty impressed. About an hour outside DC, we stopped at our first vineyard.
Chelsea was not very impressed with the vines, but of course, it is well outside grape season. The wine was tasty, and our wine pourer was very talkative. In case you are curious, she has two pugs, dates the general manager of the local walmart, and teaches elementary. She was great. We bought a bottle of white wine and headed down the road.
About 45 minutes down the road we stopped at a much larger winery. This place was huge.
After taking the self-guided tour, we tasted ten wines, and Chelsea had a taste of the frozen-drink-esque Sangria and Bellini, at the same time.
Once I could drag Chelsea away from the tasting counter, we headed down the road, through Charlottesville, to our last stop at Blue Mountain Brewery.
Nice mid-drift, huh? This place was awesome. We got a flight with their nine unique brews.
Yes, I let Chelsea taste too, but this is what happened every time she sipped a new beer:
She liked the cider; I liked the rest.
De-lish-us. And as you can see, it was a beautiful day. But today would not end at a winery or brewery. It would end in Staunton. We got to our hotel at the Frederick House Inn. We went and got some dinner, enjoyed one of our bottles of wine, and headed to the theatre. Of course, before we went to the play, Chelsea read the Oxford book and explained the connections between Oxford and the play King John:
Then we headed to the playhouse.
So, King John: The King of France --- Phil --- approaches King of England --- John --- and tells him to give the English throne to the Arthur --- Art --- the rightful heir. John refuses and tends to the business of his kingdom, deciding a dispute between Robert Falconbridge and his older brother Philip the Bastard. During the dispute, John and his mom realize Phil the B is King Richard I's illegitimate child. John knights Phil-B and gains a viscious ally. So, Phil of France lays siege to Angiers (an English controlled city) and demands they recognize Art as the English King. John arrives and threatens war, but like most almost-wars, it is avoided because Phil's son and John's niece marry. Moral of the story: weddings can resolve international disputes . . . Enter trouble. Out of nowhere, a bishop arrives from Rome, tells him he appointed the wrong archbishop of canterbury, and tells him to recant. John refuses. From what I can tell, the bishop then issues a fatwa for John, forcing Philip of France to declare war. War rages in England. John goes back and forth on having Art killed, but Art accidentally dies trying to escape from a tower. Philip the Bastard non-consensually takes Louis the Dauphin's head. John ends up dying, and his son Henry takes the throne. So, most of the action in this production took place in the first half of the play. It was a epic first half, and the second half was a bit slower. But it was great. Chelsea's favorite actor from our entire project, the fellow that played Richard III, was awesome. There were no weak actors. The music was great. They did a rockin acoustic version of Van Halen's Jump. Like always, great cast, great music, great production. We headed back the next morning to pick up the pup.
He was tired but happy to see us. A great weekend. King Brad
Timon of Athens
Orangemite Productions - Dover, Pennsylvania
October 14, 2012
Brad - A Chelsea - B
Dover, Pennsylvania is roughly two hours from Washington, DC. This is a fact I would have never learned without having tried to see 37 plays in one year. And Dover, PA --- originally named Jonerstown after its founder James Joner, no kidding, Jimmy Joner --- is home to Shakespeare in the Barn:
This fall Orangemite productions produced Timon of Athens, a rarely produced gem, with significant Oxfordian overtones. So, the play was, indeed, in a barn.
And it was awesome.
So, Timon of Athens is a story that Ayn Rand would be proud of that amply demonstrates the fallacy of altruism. But I digress. Timon of Athens is a wealthy Athenian from Athens. The play starts off with Timon (the one from Athens, Greece) being carelessly generous with his funds. He throws a dinner party, and everyone shows up and eats his food, drinks his wine, and dances his dances. But then one of Timon's creditors demands repayment, and Timon learns he is out of cash. Timon goes to his "friends" to collect on the loans he gave, and all of his "friends" bail on him. So, Timon throws a second dinner party for the moochers --- read as, looters (for the Randian readers). At the second dinner party, Timon serves rocks and tells the hangers-on that they are all worthless. After that, he escapes to the woods and lives the life of a homeless woodsman. But he discovers buried gold. And he is suddenly rich again. The parasites learn about Timon's new wealth and they come a callin. He shoots them down, but he does fund an uprising against Athens. Then Timon dies. But the uprising is successful and the play ends with the new Athens leader reading Timon's epitaph.
So, from our seats, if you looked forward you saw this:
And if you looked to the right you saw this:
It was actually a great production. Some of the smaller parts were pretty rough, but the leads were all very good. Flavius, the advisor to Timon who tells him he is broke, was great. All of the actors were volunteers, and quite a few of them were still in high school. One of the most impressive things about the play was the direction. The director did a great job of editing the play to a manageable length while keeping all of the dialogue necessary to the play. Great job. And as you can see below, it was packed.
On the way home, we stopped at a pumpkin pyramid. We went on a hayride. We picked a pumpkin.
And then on the way home, we listened to Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967 five or six times in a row to try and figure out whether Walt died or not. Conclusion: No idea. Good work, Mr. Mayer.
