BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays

Subject: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Cool Beans
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 10:06 AM

Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays performed live was neveer a lifelong ambition of mine until a few years ago, when I got close. Now I have only four to go; "Measure For Measure," "The Winter's Tale," "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and, strangely, "Othello." I'll take care of "Measure for Measure" this summer at Stratford, Canada.
Are any other Catters working on this, or have already filled out their life-list?
Movies don't count. Nor does having read the plays. High school, college, community and professional theater productions all qualify.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: jacqui.c
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 11:24 AM

That is something I would like to do, but don't think that it will happen.

I have been lucky enough to see a number of the plays at the Globe over the last few years, in a theatre based on those in use in Shakespeare's time, complete with wooden benches, an arena for standing audience and a roof open to the sky. Absolute magic!

Measure for Measure is a great piece, I hope that they play it seriously when you see it - at the Globe Rylance played it for the comedy aspect, which didn't work for me at all - I was very disappointed.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Jeanie
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 01:31 PM

I agree wholeheartedly about the Globe, Jacqui. The atmosphere there is like nowhere else. I love the closeness of the audience to the action and to each other. Best of all is being a 'groundling'. The best value 5 pounds you can spend in London. I love their "original practices" productions, where they take away the back panels and you see the actors getting ready before the panels are put back on before the start of the play.

I got tantalizingly close to one of *my* Shakespearean ambitions earlier this year. I was due to do a day of speech training there with the Globe's 'Master of Voice' Stewart Pearce, learning about the vocal techniques he teaches the casts for projection in that unique auditorium, which would have meant standing and speaking on that wonderful stage - but the day was cancelled at the last minute because there weren't going to be enough participants. Keeping fingers crossed that the opportunity will come up again.

I'm still working on seeing all the plays. Some of them are so rarely performed. Where did you manage to see Henry VI, Richard II and King John, Cool Beans ?

I doubt I'll ever perform in anything like all of Shakespeare's plays, but I'm working on that, too. I'm going to be in my fifth one (The Merchant of Venice) in April, and am directing 11 year-olds in the Shakespeare4Kidz version of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' for July. We've just started looking at the script and songs, and they love it - especially the Mechanicals.

The 'Reduced Shakespeare Company' show, where you DO see all the plays (sort-of !) is coming off, sadly, next month - the longest-running comedy in the West End. I did manage to achieve an ambition there: appearing on a West End stage. I was picked from the audience to go up and be screaming Ophelia when they do their 'Freudian Hamlet' sequence. (Anyone who has seen the show will know the bit I mean). That was one of the most fantastic experiences of my life. Oh, how I would love to repeat it ! Our seats were right in the front row and when we arrived in the theatre and walked across the front to get to them, I looked out into the auditorium and imagined what it would be like to be looking out from stage height and how great that would be. The gods were certainly smiling, because that is exactly what was to happen. I was going to post this story on the 'lifetime's ambitions' thread a couple of days ago, but everyone else was talking about close encounters with badgers and the like, and my story would have been out of place. So I'm glad to have the chance to tell it here. I can still feel that thrill of being on stage in such a place, with a full audience and under the spotlight, screaming away. (I 'gave it my all' and screamed so long and so loudly, they had to alter their script !)

I have also stood on the stage at the theatre in Stratford-on-Avon - but minus an audience that time - a thrill to be there and to see backstage, but the Reduced Shakespeare experience was undoubtedly the best !

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Raedwulf
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 01:56 PM

Jeanie - You spoilt my line! Yes, I've been in the audience for the RSC & I'd've been off & running as soon as they they said... Sad to hear they're off next month. Maybe I'll make the effort to get up there before they go.

If the speech training session comes up again, please do let me know & I'll likely add one to the number to make cancellation less likely... (And how are you, m'dear? Long time no speak, wicce!)

Regards,

R

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 02:09 PM

it was my ambition from being a kid to experience the whole cannon.

I think I saw most of them - during a convulsive effort at the end of the 1980's.

I haven't seen Henry VIII. i have it on audio tape. Mind you I'm lucky in that I don't live more than a couple of hours drive from Stratford on Avon.

I saw the three Henry 6's compressed into two by the touring English Shakespeare Company - Michael Bogdanov's thing. he did The Henry's Henry 4 (1&2) Henry 5 and then Henry 6 as described. then the next year, he did The Wars of the roses - Richard 2 right through to Richard 3 - taking in the Henry's. Brilliant stuff.

However it worked out rather strangely in some ways because of course Shakespeare didn't write them as a soap opera, and Richard 2 is of course when he he was a brilliant mature playwright - fully in control of his technique - whereas Richard 3 was pretty much his first big hit and he was chucking in everything beheadings, battles, drowning in malmsy butts, all impossible to stage in any age - but lots of fun. so it devolved from his best play to his - attempt at a slasher (shall we say).

anyway all the best in your quest to see everything - a worthwhile project! Have fun!

all the best

Big Al Whittle

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Blowzabella
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 03:12 PM

I haven't seen anywhere near enough Shakespeare plays, but I agree wholeheartedly with the comments about the Globe. It is such as pecial place. I was lucky to be given a comp to see Romeo and Juliet there last year (a friend of mine was one of the theatre musicians) - I had never been before and it didn't matter that I was on my own, except that there was no-one else who I could wholly share the experience with. It was a gorgeous balmy July evening, the play was fantastic and an evening I will never forget.

I'd love to be a Groundling, but don't think my back would stand it! For a fiver, it is the best value of anything anywhere - never mind in London!

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: alanabit
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 03:26 PM

I can't even get near this. I have sen MacBeth a couple of times, I have also seen two productions of The Tempest. Others have been A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tweflth Night, Pericles (a rare one that), Julius Ceaser and The Tamaing of The Shrew. The last one, regrettably, was in German. So the Bremen Shakespeare Company pulled off a very fine production of (in this day and age) a very difficult play, with plenty of wit, but alas none of the marvellous poetry. They then blew it with the last line, when the actress playing Katherina finished her closing speech and gave the line,"Manchmal es wundert mich wie dumm wir Frauen sind!" It pissed me off all right, but the women in the audience were seriously annoyed about being patronised and talked down to like that.
You guys are making me homesick. Maybe I will get to see something when I visit the UK in September.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 13 Mar 05 - 04:01 PM

You would think in a city (DC) with two excellent Shakespeare companies of its own plus regular visits by the Royal Shakespeare Company that I'd be close, but strangely enough I haven't taken advantage of the opportunities. OTOH just within the last couple of months I've seen "Two Gents" and "Romeo and Juliet" at the Folger (helps to have a cousin who works **at** the Folger), so maybe I should get on a roll.

A couple I have seen: "Henry V" with Harry Hamlin in the title role (Shakespeare Theatre Free-For-All), "Othello" with Patrick Stewart in the title role (also Shakespeare Theatre), "Midsummer" at Arena Stage years and years ago (high school days).

Of course, if you count satirical versions I can add in the Shakespeare's Skum takes of "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" from the Maryland RenFest...

-- Gary

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Cool Beans
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 08:38 AM

Not only have I seen all three Henry VI plays, I saw them all in one day. The Royal Shakespeare Company performed them in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as part of residency at the University of Michigan. Teh day began at 11 a.m. and ended after 11 p.m., with a lunch break and dinner break. The following night they did "Richard III." By then the actors were pretty beat; it made for a hoarse "A horse, a horse...." And the actors and audience applauded eahc other hearilty when it was all through.
I saw "Richard II" and "King John" in different years at the Stratford Festival of Canada, in Stratford, Ont. I livein suburban Detroit, between Ann Arbor (45 minutes away) and Stratford (three hours away).
And I have seen the Reduced Shakespeare Company doing "The Complete Works..." at the Criterion in London. The Globe was closed at the time but I did get to see it form the outside.
The Globe Theatre company came to Ann Arbor a year ago and I saw Rylance's "Twelfth Night" which was excellent.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 09:03 AM

My aunt had the same goal, and it meant some travelling. She was a teacher in San Diego and had summers off and regularly visited her family in the Pacific Northwest, so timed her trips in order to be a a regular at the Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She also made several nice side trips to Santa Fe.

I think she managed all of them, probably a couple of times each, by the time died.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 09:36 AM

I think Henry VIII is the only one I've never seen. Seen the Scottish Play too many times (after Dench/McKellan at the Donmar Warehouse realised I had seen the definitive). Also Titus once (once too often!).

No desire to see the History Plays any more, always enjoy seeing the comedies again.

RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 02:27 PM

The Globe is certainly a convincing venue, but on the artistic front some of their ideas have been a bit iffy. On the whole I'd say their productions haven't matched up to the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park. I'm not sure what the problem has been - maybe Mark Rylance has just had to make the best of some awkward compromises thrust upon him for non-artistic reasons. (Eg the all-women Much Ado last year.) The best open air production I've seen yet was a touring version of Twelfth Night last year, with Wayne Sleep.

I still have four to go, but White Tiger, my daughter, who has just turned 13, will have seen nine within the next couple of weeks, and 11 before the summer's out. I should think she's entitled to claim that as some kind of record.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Cats
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 03:34 PM

Jon and I did the whole of the histories in a week a few years ago, by the English Shskespeare company, and it was mind boggling. I've seen all of the plays with the exception of Troilus. The highlight had to be an all male production of Pericles.. it made the Rocky Horror Show look like a child's tea party!! I have one very tentative link to the globe; my house was built in the same year as the original Globe was opened and somewhere I have an invitation that says, we are invited to the official opening... oh what you can do with a computer!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 12:25 AM

They are like the #36 bus ~~ wait for hours and then 3 come along at once: by which I mean that for years the only one I had never caught up with was King John, & then 3 productions came my way within about 6 months. Not entirely sure, mind, whether or not I've managed all 3 parts of Henry VI.

Wonder sometimes which I have seen most productions of ~~ I have always seen as many as came my way; & as a critic for last 43 years, still working for an online Shax journal, & living and working from Cambridge 1968-about·2000 for the Guardian, The Times, Cambridge Review, Plays & Players, &c, with all the student Shax's + Camb Theatre Co at the Arts &c, there have been many.

Most has been 12N, I think probably; or maybe MND. But then, I ask myself, how many 12N's, e.g. have I seen over my 80 years (or say 67 as a regular theatregoer) ~ 30? 50? 100? more? Impossible to count.

& how many Ben Jonson's Alchemist, for that matter? 10? 20? 50?

Mind in a whirl ~~ think I'll go back to bed...

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 12:34 AM

BTW re post above before mine; ~~ I hate all-male Shax productions. If interested in reasons, see my columns in Early Modern Literary Studies [the online journal I ref'd above] for Sep 2003

http://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/09-2/gromyrev.html

& May 2005, para 4

http://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/11-1/revmgmca.html

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: DMcG
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 03:18 AM

I wonder about the objective, really. I was discussing something like this a few days ago are a result of that new film about whether Shakespeare really write all the plays [which as it happens I believe he did and cinema-fluff isn't likely to change my mind]. Anyway, the agreed view of the conversation is that it is not really of any relevance: the plays are great because they are great plays, not because a particular person wrote them. As the risk of upsetting affectionados, I would say that around half of the Shakespeare plays do not really reach the 'greatness' mark, and they are carried by the brillance of the other half. As an unscientific assessment take a sample of anything dealing with Shakespeare as a whole - public surveys, plays taught in schools, numbers of performances, film adaptations, even academic literature - and I think the evidence is clear that, for example, 'Pericles' and 'Romeo and Juliet' are not really in the same league.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 04:52 AM

Nor are they, DMcG, in 'the same league' as one another. R&J's deficiences, so far as it is deficient, are due to its being an early work before Will had got his tragic muse entirely matured as in the great works; but it is replete with beauties and excellences nonetheless. Pericles, otoh, tho having striking parts, is one of those messy attempts at patchwork, probably by collaborators, which never really hangs together, with several narrative absurdities which distract from what virtues it has. Vain to bracket these two plays together quite like that as 'failures', IMO.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: DMcG
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 05:26 AM

No, I'm not saying any of the plays are failures, by any means. But I think it is worth remembering that many artists of all kinds, including Shakespeare, were trying to make a living from what they did. I have little doubt that there were times when he had a successful play running while knowing that it had a natural end-of-life approaching and so he had to start work on something else to be ready in, say, 3 months. Sometimes you can still achieve great things that way, but there's always the risk of ending up with something that is not as good at you would like. That's true now in theatre, and no doubt it was always true. It's exactly the same with the infamous second CD/play/book syndrome.

So in short: seek out and enjoy great plays/books/scupture/arts/song, by all means, whatever that means to you. The author will often be a good guide. But having that author is not enough to make it great.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 06:51 AM

BTW ~ going back yet again to Cats of 14 mar 05: if as he says he has an invitation to the opening of the original Globe, and a house dating from that year, both he & his dwelling must be pretty old: 430+ or so years old, and house 412!

M~M

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 09:38 AM

The new movie proves through special effects that Shakespeare was a fake. It even shows a guy saying so to a rapt audience of modern people.

From the director of "2012" and the co-writer of "10,000 BC."

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 09:49 AM

Funnily enough I walked past the Globe last Tuesday (I was in London to visit a couple of art exhibitions). I'm not a great theatre-goer, but I have seen a few of his plays, notably "Hamlet" with Richard Chamberlain starring (Birmingham UK, late sixties).

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: EBarnacle
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 11:41 AM

As always, Lady Hillary and I attended Shakespeare in the Park in Central Park this summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. The basic problem I have had with the selection is that most companies focus on the most popular ones and very rarely bother with the others.

Lady Hillary, Jennifer and I will be mushing though the untimely falling snow this evening to see the 2 hour Shakespeare.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Cool Beans
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 12:00 PM

I finally did make it, about three years ago with "The Winter' Tale" and "Two Gentlemen of Verona," the former at Stratford, Ont., and the latter outdoors in Royal Oak, Michigan, a few miles from where I live. They keep coming up with new plays attributed to Shakespeare (old play, new attributions) but I'm not counting them.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: EBarnacle
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 01:16 PM

In addition to the NY Shakespeare Festival, we have several good companies around here. In the [rare] event we are unable to get into the Delacourt in Central Park, there are several good companies which perform pay what you wish productions in the park. In addition, there are several college and amateur companies. I have seem some of their performers in more expensive venues further on.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: kendall
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 01:20 PM

I would love to see one play at the Globe.I've been a fan of the Bard most of my adult life, and I quote him often. Right, MtheGM? I don't always remember to use quotation marks though. So, purge me.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 01:36 PM

This is something I've thought would be an interesting pursuit, reading the plays then seeing them performed. I haven't managed it, but with this new silly film Anonymous, perhaps more films of the plays will appear. I'll settle for film, because I don't have the income or the access to all of the plays.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 09:33 PM

I have seen several, and some more than once. I have read some I would not want to see if they were free!

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 12:28 AM

Ah there you make a mistake. Some are performance pieces =- they really work as pieces of theatre, without being particularly good reads - Richrd 2 is a bit like that. A play where sod all happens, butnevertheless a crown is lost and stolen by (really) abit of a shit.

Its funny stuff.

Much of it only works in the theatre. Like the narrator chap in henry 5, telling you about the battle. when you are seeing a great actor tell the tale fdom the stage - it works. When you are watching a video - part of you is thinking this is a bit like the news with nobody doing a video to illustrate it.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: EBarnacle
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 09:15 AM

Well, we didn't make it last night. The power went out in our town about 2 PM so the show was cancelled. I hope that means postponed for a week or two. Power came back about 2 AM.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 01:35 PM

Cool Beans -- Congratulations and Well Done That Man!

I've seen maybe half a dozen Shakespeare plays, and have been fortunate enough to see them in Stratford-upon-Avon as well as in Stratford, Ontario (and other places as well).

Saw Titus Andronicus (in Stratford, Ontario) as a teenager, without having read it first or having any idea how gory it is. I found it very upsetting (and took it out on my poor mother, who had been kind enough to organise the trip for us two to see it. "How sharper than a serpent's tooth...!")

Unfortunately, my husband had Shakespeare ruined for him by school and now detests it, so my odds of seeing all the plays are quite small -- unless I became absolutely determined to do so -- which I confess is unlikely, even though I think it a worthwhile goal.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: kendall
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 01:44 PM

I don't know how anyone could ruin great literature. We were exposed to the Bard, and Dickens in high school. Some hated Tale of Two Cities, I liked it, and Shakespeare sank into my memory for ever. Maybe I'm the odd ball.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 08:42 PM

Big Al, Yorkshire Yankee, Titus Andronicus is the one I was thinking of when I wrote that there were some I wouldn't want to see. It's partly the gore, but many of Shakespeare's plays are gory. Beyond that, though, there is the rape. I don't find rape entertaining.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 10:14 PM

Never rush to judgement with Shakespeare CL. He's worth the benefit of the doubt.

When i was young, I couldn't afford theatre tickets, and videos weren't invented - so I knew Shakespeare through reading him. Even studied him at college.

Since seeing the plays - all my opinions have been reversed - the ones I thought were great, well they weren't great theatre. Theones that bored me and where nothing much seemed to be happening have nearly all been electrifying.

Great actors and directors, they see things differently from your English teacher. they are looking for creative opportunities, and Shakespeare is full of them. The poetry, the realism, the speech, the dialogue and so much fun!

I had the great joy of seeing in the Swan at Stratford, Deborah Warner's direction of Titus. Possibly the greatest version ever. Brian Cox as Titus. Richard MacCabe kicked off his career in that production. You came out of the theatre that night, and your heart sang. You felt privileged.

Of course I can't guarantee, you will make out as well as I did. Let Shakespeare run with it though. Titus - a man who will do anything to appease his enemies, and his enemies are just persistently cruel and ruthless.

But have you never watched Psycho, or Frenzy, or M, or an episode of Inspector frost. Shakespeare is at least as worthy an artist as these creators.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 10:50 PM

Al, I've watched all of those except Inspector Frost. That was when I was much younger. Now i don't think I would watch them again. I am also a lot more choosy about the mysteries or suspense novels I read. I can no longer handle novels about rapists and other sex criminals, stalkers, child abusers, torturers, etc. (and their seem to be a lot of those books being written now). Years ago my mother expressed a distaste for entertainment that focused on similar subjects. Now I feel the same way, though I didn't then. This is not a criticism of Shakespeare, his plays, or the tastes and choices of others, merely a reflection of my feelings right now. Perhaps those feelings will change again in the future.

Getting back to the topic of this thread, I think it is wonderful that some people have pursued, and in some cases achieved, the goal of seeing all of Shakespeare's plays. There was a time when I had hoped to do that, too. When I have an opportunity to see one of his plays, I will consider it and its subject matter.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 12:23 AM

A slight drift ~~ or perhaps not:

Which plays of Will have any here acted in? I am no professional, but a longtime keen member of good dramsocs, and have won award at amdram festival [not in Shax though]. By my recollection, I have played Lucio in Measure For Measure, Malvolio and Sir Andrew Aguecheek in different productions of Twelfth Night, Oswald in King Lear...

Any of you? Are there any professional thesps with Shaxn experience on Mudcat?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 07:21 AM

always loved this story about Titus:-

'A beautiful glimpse of the wit of Noel Coward whilst watching Shakespeare's harrowing tragedy 'Titus Andronicus'. Vivien Leigh was starring as Lavinda, who in the play, has her hands and tongue cut off to stop her from revealing the name of her attackers. At one point Lavinda holds a stick between what remains of her arms, to try and scrawl the names of her assailants in the sand. Alas the grip was not quite right, and the stick slips and cartwheels across the stage... "tut tut, butter stumps" chuckled Coward.'

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: GUEST,Paul Slade
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 08:21 AM

I've seen all Shakespeare's plays live on stage, though it took me half a lifetime to do it. I completed the project in 2009, and wrote a magazine article about it, which you can find in PDF form here.

Oh, and I've since seen the disputed Double Falsehood/Cardenio live on stage too - just to be on the safe side.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 09:10 AM

Great, Paul. Well done. It has never been an actual project of mine; it's just the way my theatrical life has fallen out.

BTW could not quite read the name of that magazine in which your feature appeared. What was it, please?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Jeanie
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 10:47 AM

I'm glad to see the reappearance of this thread, and great to see so many Shakespeare enthusiasts here. I was interested to re-visit my original post on this thread from way back in 2005. You asked if any of us are actors, Michael. Back then I was just about to perform in my 5th Shakespeare play (The Merchant of Venice). Before that, I had been Viola in "Twelfth Night", Hermione in "The Winter's Tale", Lady Montague and a (female) Friar (=nun) John in "Romeo & Juliet" and First Witch in "Macbeth". Since then, I have also been the Doctor in the same play - open air, pouring rain on several occasions and very glad that I was wearing a big hat (Lady M in her nightgown was not so lucky).

Last year I was also indirectly in a Shakespeare, in a tour of "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead", which was terrific fun, as Gertrude and mostly cavorting around as one of the players. I count myself so fortunate to have had these experiences. Actually performing in the plays adds an extra dimension to an understanding of them and it is a totally open-ended exercise with always something more to discover.

Back in 2005 I wrote that I had just started directing 11 year-olds in a Shakespeare4Kidz script of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". That went so well that a couple of years later we did "Macbeth", written by the same company. If any of you are looking for ways to make Shakespeare accessible to primary school children, I thoroughly recommend Shakespeare4Kidz. (www.shakespeare4kidz.com).

It's so funny how things evolve. Since writing that post six years ago, I left that job and returned to drama school at Rose Bruford and one of my regular jobs now is going into schools giving Shakespeare workshops for that company.

I envy your having seen the Deborah Warner production of "Titus Andronicus", Al - I've recently been reading about it and the way they played the scene when Lavinia is first discovered in her terrible state. I love your Noel Coward story, too ! One of the things about Lavinia is that she can be seen to be a metaphor for the Roman Empire and its decline.

I've just embarked on a MA course at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford and am right now researching the imagery in Act 1, which subliminally hints at much of what is to happen later on - so it's very timely that this conversation about Titus has come up.

I've been watching the BBC version, with Trevor Peacock ("Jim" who says "No, no, no, yes" in "The Vicar of Dibley") as Titus. I only realized it was him after Titus had said "Nay", then I couldn't get it out of my mind ! I really think Mrs. Cropley, maker of those wonderful cakes in Dibley, should have turned up when he served the pie at the end !

Still working on seeing all the plays, but making headway....

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: EBarnacle
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 11:12 AM

Clearly and cheerly, one of Shakespeare's great virtues is that the quality of his writing shines though many lesser stagings and enhances innovative stagings.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: GUEST,Paul Slade
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 12:39 PM

The magazine was Shakespeare Scene, but I'm not sure if it's still around. I only managed to complete the canon because the RSC was kind enough to stage a Complete Works season a few years back.

The other thing I'd love to know is: Are there any actors who've appeared in every one Shakespeare's plays? Or are close enough to a full set to make it worth ticking off the last couple for that reason alone?

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: Will Fly
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 12:52 PM

I haven't seen all the plays - by a long chalk - but I've been lucky enough to see some wonderful productions over the years, particularly when I lived in London.

Memorable ones include:

Peter O'Toole as Shylock and Dorothy Tutin as Portia in "The Merchant of Venice" - Theatre Royal, Stratford-on-Avon, RSC, 1960

Donald Sinden as Malvolio, Judy Dench as Viola in "Twelfth Night" - Aldwych Theatre, London, RSC, 1970 (I think)

Peter Brook's direction of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - Aldwych Theatre, London, RSC, 1970

All alive in my memory as though it were yesterday.

Subject: RE: BS: Seeing all of Shakespeare's plays
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 05:09 AM

Forgot to include Amiens/musical-director in AYLI in my above list of parts I have played. Details of how I approached a 'hippy' open-air production by setting songs to folk airs on the Blow Thou Winter Wind thread.

~M~