Shakespeare Appropriation: Were the World Mine (2008)

While surfing Netflix this afternoon, I rediscovered Were the World Mine, a loose musical adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream that premiered at Sundance in '08 and which features the play's production as a central plot device. I haven't seen it for a good number of years (stumbled upon it on IFC a while back), but I remember finding it funny and irreverent and shocking and warm and wonderful--all the things that a good version of A Midsummer Night's Dream should be.

As far as I can remember, it tells the story of an outcast gay kid in an all-boy's school who gets cast as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He then decides to forge his own version of the magic flower, and uses it to win over an athlete he's pining after. This prompts him to go even bigger, and he uses it on his entire town in order to open their minds. Chaos predictably ensues. 

Searches through YouTube for clips seem to corroborate my memory that the music is pretty excellent. It also makes excellent and modern use of the whole "sexual liberation and chaos" theme that Shakespeare tackles in A Midsummer Night's Dream, often in unpredictable ways. 

Here's the trailer if you're interested, and as I mentioned above, it's on Netflix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygm_BmGYoJE

Shakespeare Adaptation: Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead

Tom Stoppard's 1960 play Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead takes two of Hamlet's background characters, Rosencratz and Guildenstern, and gives them a backstory. Throughout the play, Stoppard takes scenes from the original Hamlet and adds in his own storyline for Rosencratz and Guildenstern in between the Hamlet scenes in which they appear.

This adaptation can be confusing at times to read as the characters stumble through circular logic and logical fallacies while they basically accomplish nothing. However, the play is an entertaining read and does a good job of explaining what Rosencratz and Guildenstern could have been doing during the times that they do not appear on stage in Hamlet.

The movie adaptation of the play is cool to watch as well (the 1990 film)

Will the real Shakespeare please stand up?

In The 9 Lives of Shakespeare, Life One, Graham Holderness examines the circumstances around which Shakespeare wrote his famous plays and poems. Specifically, how and where he wrote, and what he was thinking. He writes that most people are interested in the "romantic idea" that Shakespeare wrote with a beautiful quill and scroll, in a secluded book-lined room. While we can some inferences about Shakespeare's writing habits, we have no actual knowledge about what they were like, Holderness writes.
The article seems to almost obsess over the fact that while we don't have his original manuscripts of the plays, we do have his signature on several legal, which apparently is a very big deal even though it doesn't provide us with any insight into his writing habits. The author does the same thing about a specimen of his handwriting that has been recovered. To me, it seems like a bit of an overkill to analyze the circumstances surrounding Shakespeare's writings simply based on a random piece of his handwriting.
Later in the section, Holderness overviews the two general (and very opposite) speculations as to Shakespeare's writing habits. Both go over every detail about what it was like for Shakespeare to write. One writer places Shakespeare writing carefully in the quiet countryside, while another writer believes he liked to write in the midst of the hustle-and-bustle of London, wandering the streets and writing at "break-neck speed." As Holderness cleverly concludes the first section: "Will the real William Shakespeare please stand up?"
The fact that it is possible for either of these completely opposite scenarios to have been the case makes it seem like maybe we shouldn't even try to speculate about what we don't know.
--J.D.

Group 2 Post

Shakespeare without his language:
In this article, Kennedy writes about the implications of foreign adaptations of shakespeare. He writes that, "Though the condition of Shakespearean studies is natural [Anglocentric] it has been unfortunate in at least one regard, for it has tended to cloak Shakespeare's vast importance in the theatre in languages other than English." Kennedy continues, reflecting that, "The cultural attitudes that inhere in the work, and that the Anglo-centered approach has assumed to be the common heritage of Shakespeare's art, require not only linguistic translation but also cultural adaptation when they are transferred to a foreign environment." This article continues, focusing on the importance of Shakespearean adaptations and their universal relevance to historical and political issues throughout the world.

Shakespeare in the Bush:
Laura Bohannon begins her article with the assertion that "...human nature is pretty much the same the whole world over..." and that, therefore, the core themes and ideas of Shakespeare are universally similar and relevant. However, Bohannon's position quickly changes and finally, she asserts that there is no way that Shakespeare's plays can be literally translated throughout the world because in certain areas, the concepts Shakespeare writes about are unheard of or the ideas he contemplates have different connotations. A quote from her trip best exemplifies this idea by the way the tribal elders interpret the situation in which Hamlet kills Polonious, who is hiding behind a curtain: "The old men looked at each other in supreme disgust. 'That Polonius truly was a fool and a man who knew nothing! What child would not know enough to shout, 'It's me!'' With a pang, i remembered that these people are ardent hunters always armed with a bow, arrow, and machete; at the first rustle in the grass an arrow is aimed and ready, and the hunter shouts 'Game!' If no human voice answers immediately, the arrow speeds on its way. Like a good hunter, Hamlet had shouted, 'A rat!'"

Group 1 Post

"Meaning by Shakespeare"

• This article focuses on describing the process of finding the meaning behind Shakespeare plays. Hawkes states that rather than having one concrete meaning intended by Shakespeare, the meaning changes constantly based on the present situation of the world and the person reading the play.
• "human beings are permanently involved in a continuing process of meaning-making, one to which all texts, as aspects of human culture, are always subject," pg.7

Shakespeare: A Tribute

•  Goethe begins by describing his views on the self-awareness of humankind and discussing the way that people approach the "unending path beyond" (pg. 1 paragraph 2). He then goes on to describe his hatred of traditional theater because "they [the plays] resemble eah other like shoes" (pg 2 halfway down).

Group 1 Articles Post

Meaning By Shakespeare: Terence Hawkes

In this article, Hawkes states that the meaning of a text is not a standard, definite message to be found, but rather something which may change for the individual depending on their culture, time period, and politics, thereby allowing conversation on this text to continue far after its creation. Additionally, Hawkes implies that Shakespeare may have felt similarly on this subject since in Hamlet, Hamlet's response to Ophelia about creating mischief is representative of Hamlet's use of the play, thus creating a new meaning for The Murder of Gonzago.

"Shakespeare: A Tribute"

• "this persevering wanderer remains our friend and companion while we observe and admire the other's gigantic strides, following his trail and comparing his stride with our own"
• "I stood there like a man blind from birth whom a magic hand has all at once given light"
• "I don't know who first had the idea of putting historical-political spectacles on stage...it was he [Shakespeare] who raised this type of drama to a level that we must still take to be the highest"
• "Shakespeare competes with Prometheus, imitating him by forming human beings feature by feature ...Then he brings them to life by breathing his spirit into them" 

Welcome to BU Global Shakespeares 2014

Here we are. Another fall, another round of Global Shakespeares. Across the river at MIT, the Global Shakepeares performance archive keeps growing. A new Global Shakespeares research center has opened up in the UK. Vishal Bhardwaj, on the heels of his Bollywood-style Othello and Macbeth adaptations, is about to release a Kashmiri-themed Hamlet.

And we, my dear KHC students, are about to embark on a transcontinental Shakespearean joyride. Please "follow" this blog and make time to comment on your classmates' posts.  Alumni from past years are welcome to weigh in if you like.