New Bard-novel: The Final Act of Mr Shakespeare by Robert Winder

I’ve been chattering a bit about Bill Cain’s play, Equivocation, of late (here and here), and it turns out that a new novel has hyst been published dealing with similar themes; namely, how a fictionalized Bard might have handled an onerous commission with dangerous political overtones, and what his real opinions might have been on [...]

To stage high concept, or not to stage high concept?

That is the question posed by NYC-based theatre critic David Cote in a blog article published by the Guardian UK entitled, “Most Stagings of Shakespeare Don’t Go Far Enough”.
Quoth Cote, after taking Wall Street Journal theatre critic Terry Teachout to task for “grousing” about concept staging in a Big Thing interview:
I also wince at conceptual [...]

Was the Bard in Rome during the "lost years"?

And speaking of the was-Will-a-Catholic question, news is breaking all over the ‘net this morning that the English College in Rome has uncovered guestbook signatures which may have been scribbled by Himself. Here’s from the London Times:
According to Father Andrew Headon, vice-rector of the college and organiser of the exhibition, the names can be [...]

Online Database of Shakespeare on Film, Video & TV

An item of great interest to Shakespeare-on-film buffs: The British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC) is developing an international database of Shakespeare on Film, Television and Radio.
Here’s their initial write-up:
In 2005 the BUFVC, through its association with the Open University, was the recipient of a three-year Resource Enhancement grant from the Arts & Humanities Research Council, [...]

Hamlet's Understudy

Every avid theatregoer knows the pain, sooner or later, of having bought tickets to some performance specifically because of a certain actor, only to discover, upon arrival, that the actor has gotten sick or been injured, and the role is to be played by the Understudy. I’ve never (personally) had that happen with a Hamlet [...]

11 Great Regional Actors named Lunt-Fontanne Fellows

The Ten Chimneys Foundation in Wisconsin, founded by legendary theatre couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, has launched a fellowship program for the nation’s top regional actors. Here’s the description from the foundation’s site:
In the summer of 2008, eleven of the most prestigious and accomplished regional theatres in the country were invited to nominate multiple [...]

Rare Shax texts to go to Globe Theatre

A collection of rare texts by William Shakespeare, currently in the possession of US playwright John Wolfson, is to be donated to the London Globe theatre upon Wolfson’s death.
Read the rest of the story here.

American Players Theatre to build a Black Box

In my review of the OSF’s Othello, I mentioned how Stephen Hemming’s Iago in the American Players Theatre production back in the early 90s was my benchmark performance. Indeed, I think my first exposure as an adult (post-college) to professional Shakespeare was at the APT–that would have been in the early 80s, and it was [...]

Shakespeare on Toast…?

As I understand it, the title of this new book by Ben Crystal, Shakespeare on Toast, which tries to make the Bard understandable to the hoi polloi, comes from that revered British culinary concoction, beans on toast. (I was about to make a snarky comment to the effect that only those barmy Brits could come [...]

Ewan McGregor on playing Iago

Ewan McGregor on playing Iago:
And here is McGregor appearing on the British interview show “Parkinson” talking about his role:

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