A Self-Evaluation of "The Shakespeare Product"

As part of my Shakespeare class at Brigham Young University, I'll be reviewing the quality of "The Shakespeare Product."  I will follow a format similar to what I used in a review of my classmate Jennifer Prusse's blog a few days ago.  Here it goes...

Posts
- Quantity: Throughout the semester I posted 30 times, and about half of those posts (14) were directly related to my theme of business in Shakespeare.  In a short period of 3 1/2 months, I think I've consistently managed to post valuable content to keep the blog interesting.

Shakepeare's Motives: Financial?

As I've explored the business side of Shakespeare's writing, I think I've unwittingly implied that because Shakespeare had financial incentives, his work or his motives are somehow devalued and his legacy is less significant.  I don't know that I've ever stated this outright, but I think we naturally associate money with greed and avarice and that may lower our estimation of a particular person.  I've wondered if my pursuit of Shakespeare as a product may draw criticism that I'm undermining the literary value.  As I considered this possibility, I arrived at two basic conclusions:

1) Producing plays was Shakespeare's profession, so there's no doubt that he was interested in the financial success of the plays.

When we think of Shakespeare's legendary stories, we like to think he wasn't just motivated by money.  But the fact that playwriting was his profession makes his interest in earning money inevitable.  He was creating a product, because that was his sustenance.

2) I don't believe that Shakespeare's desire for financial gain lessens the value of his work.

Many people love their jobs, but that doesn't mean that they would prefer not to get paid. With a great profession, it's possible to pursue both personal fulfillment and financial. Although Shakespeare certainly was trying to generate revenue, that doesn't mean that he wasn't fully invested in the quality or content of his writing.

Review of Jennifer Prusse's Blog, "Screenwriting Shakespeare"

"The Shakespeare Product" originated as part of a Shakespeare course at Brigham Young University.  As part of this course, I will be reviewing a fellow classmate's Shakespeare blog, "Screenwriting Shakespeare."  The thesis of Jennifer's blog is that although we can imitate Shakespeare's writing qualities in film or on stage, the medium of film requires a different writing process to account for its unique strengths.  

The Posts

First, I'd like to say that Jennifer has a great topic and her educational emphasis in cinema makes her highly qualified to research and write on the topic.  She has offered a variety of perspectives connecting screenwriting to Shakespeare, usually with at least three posts per week.  Her posts offer great insights into movie-making and screenwriting with a Shakespeare bent, as can be seen in her post on the effect of an audience.  One of the most unique and engaging elements of Jennifer's blog is that she has offered some of her own creative film writing in addition to her research on Shakespeare.  The creative writing, in combination with the research, creates an enjoyable dynamic in that we can see how she is using her research to improve her own skill.  A great example is the learning curve she's encountered as she attempts to find the perfect title for her script.  

Burbage Family and the Shakespeare Business Strategy

This blog explores the business-side of Shakespeare, with a central focus on the Bard and his works as a product.  Learn more about this central theme from a previous post.  

In yesterday's post, I suggested that although I've made some interesting observations about Shakespeare's probable business motivations, I had yet to find conclusive research to demonstrate this.  However, today I tackled my research with an excellent source, The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare (source info), and I found some useful information about the Theater Companies of Shakespeare time, including information about profit, business competition, and appealing to audiences.  In this post, I'll offer information about the following: 1) some of the key figures of the Theater Companies; 2) Shakespeare's participation in the business side of things; 3) insights regarding the performances that contributed to developing Shakespeare into a great product.

The Shakespeare Product: Revisiting its Purpose

Several weeks ago, I presented a hypothesis for my blog that suggests a connection between modern business principles and the proliferation of Shakespeare.  Today I wanted to take some time and reflect, re-evaluate, and make sure that I'm on the right course.  I'll review some of the areas that I've explored and how my research ideas have progressed.  

Early Stages

Although I attempted a variety of random, fun posts about Shakespeare, I realized early on that I wanted to pursue a connection between Shakespeare and business.  To begin, I went after the low-hanging fruit: simple, thematic plot lines or character interactions of Shakespeare that would relate to business scenarios.  At this point, my hypothesis was simple: 

Character and plot in Shakespeare can teach valuable lessons for real-life experiences in business.

Here were some of my efforts:

• I began with an investigation of existing materials and resources that make use of Shakespeare as a business tool.  In particular, I found that Henry the V is a business favorite for exemplifying leadership.  I also located a corporate training company called "Movers and Shakespeares."  After some investigation of this company's training style and emphases, I anticipated that my blog could approach Shakespeare from a similar perspective.
• I attempted a few different analyses that focused on the thematic elements of plays: how the characters treated each other, whether the results were positive or negative.  In particular, an analysis of The Taming of the Shrew demonstrates this experiment.  I also did a close reading of Othello as a leader that used a similar approach.

Names in Shakespeare

Today I'll be taking a detour from my usual theme, Shakespeare as a product, to pursue Shakespeare in a more creative direction.  The purpose of this post will be to explore another side of Shakespeare and complete one of the requirements for my Learning Outcomes.

Alice Anne

Since my wife and I just had our first child, names have been on my mind a lot recently.  In fact, the name we chose, Alice Anne (first and middle names, respectively), happens to have a close connection to Shakespeare.  I don't think that Alice has too much to do with Shakespeare, aside from a character in Henry IV, but Anne certainly meant a lot to him.  Many people recall that Anne was also the first name of Shakespeare's wife.  I can't say that we intentionally chose the same name for our daughter, but I'm pleased with the coincidence and the opportunity to blog about it.  The name Anne appeared in one of Shakespeare's plays, Merry Wives of Windsor.  Although I have not read the play, I understand that Anne was a beautiful young mistress that is sought after by several suitors throughout the play.  It makes sense that based on his personal interests, Shakespeare would depict Anne as the desirable, sought-after woman.  I can't say yet whether my Alice Anne will have the same effect on men.

For fun, I found a list of all of the names that appeared in Shakespeare's plays.  I don't have any grand intentions of researching the names and understanding the significance or symbolism of them, but I thought it would be fun to scan through and see the variety that Shakespeare incorporated.  I created a Word Cloud from the names, which you can view by clicking on the miniature below:

The Shakespeare Product: Status Update

The Shakespeare Product is an ongoing exploration of of Shakespeare's work, with an emphasis on the revenue-generating elements that make Shakespeare a product.  The blog began in January 2011, in an effort to fulfill course learning outcomes for a Shakespeare class at Brigham Young University.  Since the blog is driven largely by the course curriculum, I've created a new page entitled, "Learning Outcomes."  The Learning Outcomes page will serve two purposes: 1) To provide a comprehensive lists of posts and how they have met the requirements of my Shakespeare course; 2) To offer a "skeleton" of my research to anyone who participates in my blog as a reader.  As I still have several learning outcomes to fulfill, I'd be happy to receive any feedback regarding the direction I should take to complete them.

New Source Page.

This is a brief post to direct you to a new Source page that I added.  I've spent the last few weeks researching Shakespeare (and his writing) as a product, and the source page lists all of the resources that have appeared on my blog.  The source page includes a complete lists of published written works, as well as links that I have referred to in my posts.  Feel free to comment on my sources and suggests other works that might contain relevant information regarding Shakespeare and business.

The Viral Grapevine

This post is a continuation of my exploration of Shakespeare as a product.  This particular post is part two of a series on viral marketing.  You can read my first post on viral marketing here.


Viral Day 2
I'm excited to continue my connections between viral marketing and the emergence and proliferation of Shakespeare. In the brief research that I've already conducted, I've learned that, for me, learning about viral marketing is almost viral itself. This type of marketing is trendy and unpredictable--it makes for interesting research across the expanse of the internet.

Rather than falling into the trap of internet searches (although I'm sure this will continue to be a main source for information regarding the topic), I decided to see if any relevant books had been written on the topic. I recognize that it takes much more effort to write a book than to throw up a blog post, and consequently determined that a book would have higher quality research and sources to draw from.  At the local public library, I was able to find what seems to be the perfect book: Grapevine: The New Art of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, by Dave Balter and John Butman.

Connecting Shakespeare and Viral Marketing

As I continue my research of Shakespeare as a product, I want to address the question, "What business strategies did Shakespeare use to achieve success?" In this post, I'm going to analyze the modern phenomenon of viral marketing in comparison with some of the marketing strategies that made Shakespeare a success in the 18th century.  First, I'll offer some insights that I found in my research of viral marketing. Then I'll analyze a Shakespeare video game, which was an attempt at using viral marketing to promote Shakespeare Country.  Finally, I'll explore some of the marketing strategies that increased Shakespeare's popularity in the 18th century.

Viral Marketing
Some of the most powerful recent marketing and advertising campaigns in recent history have made use of viral marketing. This type of marketing relies information being spread person to person through social networks. A person watches a funny video at work, emails it to a few friends and posts it on Facebook, and each of these friends pass it on in a self-replicating process. A few of my favorite viral successes include the Old Spice commercials, "Where the Hell is Matt" sponsored by Stride Gum, and a recent spoof of viral videos (but successful viral video of its own right), Jennifer Aniston goes viral. Since viral marketing takes advantage of the social networking power of the internet, just one video made on a low budget can be passed on exponentially and reach millions of people. Connecting with others on the internet is effortless, mindless, and addictive--viral marketing thrives for just that reason.

Innovating in Business

In an earlier post, I posed the question, "What business strategies did Shakespeare use to achieve success?" I'd like to begin answering this question today, in the context of my blog's broader theme, which is defining Shakespeare as an entrepreneur.  I'll begin by telling a story.

About two years ago, I lived behind a traditional burger and fries restaurant called Chadder's.  The restaurant was brand new; it had taken the place of a previously vacant building. Chadder's seemed to be decently priced with good food reasonable traffic from college students who lived in the apartment complexes nearby. I assumed it would be successful based on the location.  I personally only ate at Chadder's once, but I enjoyed the food and would have willingly returned to the restaurant, until I moved to another part of town and forgot about it. Close to a year after Chadder's opened, I drove by the restaurant and saw that it had closed. I couldn't believe that the restaurant failed so quickly, although I imagine that the prices were too high for the average quality of food, especially with several other fast food franchises nearby. 

The Shakespeare Product: Purpose and Intentions

Today I wanted to take some time and re-evaluate the intentions of my blog, as well as set the course for its development.  I'll start by identifying where I've come from and the hypothesis that I've established.  Then I will identify questions that I'm looking to answer and objectives that I'm looking to fulfill.

Background
I began this blog with no real semblance of theme other than that I wanted to have fun learning about Shakespeare.  My natural inclinations have led me to pursue business-oriented themes and tie them back to Shakespeare. While following this business theme, my ideas and posts have still been somewhat scattered. I did the following:

• Read professional criticism on Leadership in Henry the V
• Analyzed elements of behavior change in Taming of the Shrew
• Performed a close reading to critique Othello as a leader
• Searched for the bottom line of A Winter's Tale
• Used two (Aesthetic Taste, Andrew Carnegie) different approaches to pursue the economic elements of Shakespeare

After two months, I've narrowed my research down to Shakespeare as a product.  I will continue the blog with a very specific interest in identifying how Shakespearean theater acts as a marketable, revenue-generating product.

Can Theater Sustain Itself?

In analyzing Shakespeare as a product, I've spent some time researching the costs and revenue of theatrical productions, from both current and past productions.  Since that research is ongoing and incomplete, I will address it later in a more substantial post.  However, I wanted to share an interesting idea on a similar note, that relates theater to the industrialist entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie.  In a New York Times article from 1904, writer John Corbin addresses the issue of whether or not the theater would be worthy of an endowment from a wealthy businessman such as Carnegie. He then gives Carnegie's take: "The only way to endow a theatre is to buy a ticket at the box office."  Corbin also quotes Daniel Frohman, who said, "An endowed theatre is only a fad.  It is for a class, and not the masses.  A play that does not appeal to the masses would not be a success."

Aesthetic Tastes in Shakespeare

Shakespeare plays, like any other type of commodity, rely on the economic principles of supply and demand.  However, discussing the supply and demand of theater just isn't as easy as discussing the supply and demand of milk, corn, rice, or some other agricultural product.  While these products might be considered necessities, theater is entertainment or luxury--which means that it's driven by the more subjective element of taste.  In this post, I'm going to take a closer look at taste, and how it benefited the Shakespeare product.  I'll rely on the help of the book Marketing the Bard, by Don-John Dugas, which I referred to in my last post.

Eureka

My explorations of the "Shakespeare" and "business" combination have yielded interesting results this semester, mainly focusing on interpersonal dynamics that appear in Shakespeare and can be applied to a corporate setting. Recently, though, I'm becoming more fascinated with the idea of Shakespeare as a product. A play is not a traditional, tangible product, but it certainly fulfills a need and generates revenue, so there must be something to it.  My searches of library databases, Google, etc. did not yield too many results for "product" and "Shakespeare," other than a handful of existing companies (electronic products, fishing tackle, you name it) that have borrowed the Shakespeare name.

HOWEVER...today I had a major breakthrough.  Using the library catalog, I found the perfect book: Marketing the Bard, by Don-John Dugas. The book is exactly what I've been hoping for.  Here's a small excerpt from the preface:

This book is about how theater managers, adapters, and publishers packaged Shakespeare's plays for commercial consumption, and how those reembodied artifacts affected Shakespeare's popularity.

The driving focus of the book is Shakespeare as a commodity, and I'm thrilled to read further and learn more of what Dugas has to say.  I've already read the preface, and I'll definitely start connecting the chapters to some of the close analyses that I do with the plays.

The Winter's Tale: Bottom Line

I wanted to approach The Winter's Tale by following the money.  Regardless of how great we consider the literary aspect of Shakespeare's plays today, I guessed that as with most business people, Shakespeare was driven in part by the "bottom line." (Money talks.) For this play, I wanted to determine how Shakespeare's fiscal incentives may have affected specific attributes of his "product," the play.  First, I began by conducting a close reading of Act 3, scene 2.  The obvious focal point of the scene is Hermione, wife of Leontes, who is accused of betraying her husband.  Despite the accusations, Hermione is strong and defiant, explaining that she values her honor more than her life.

Since Hermione is such an admirable character, I guessed that Shakespeare had particular motivations for including her in the play, and that maybe these motivations included some sort of fiscal incentive.  For example, I wondered if maybe a large percentage of his audience was female at the time of the play's showing (the year 1611), and he thought that by including a female character he would appeal to his audience demographics.  Or maybe some of his plays were commissioned by a female member of the Royal family, so he felt inclined to satisfy his employer.  My research was an attempt to discover Shakespeare's "bottom line" motivation.

Othello: Lessons on Leadership

Throughout my Shakespeare learning experience I have easily found elements in his writing that can apply in practical business settings.  Each of Shakespeare's plays offers a handful of miniature case studies regarding the universal desires, motives, and inadequacies that human beings have always had.  Othello in particular intrigues me; even knowing the disastrous ending I can't help but watch in amazement as malicious Iago slowly pulls Othello down to his end.  If Othello is taken as a business leader, what insights can we gain regarding communication, emotional intelligence, responsibility, or any other facet of business?

Today I wanted to examine Othello as a leader, with the help of an article by a man named Mark Stein that appeared in the journal Organization Studies.  In this post I will reflect on Stein's thesis, and then do my own close reading of a scene to find textual support for his thesis.  You might wonder why I'm performing a close reading when Stein has obviously already done so.  Since I agree with Stein's thesis, I thought the best way to agree with him would be to go to the text and find my own support for it.  In fact, I haven't read his entire article--I read enough to understand his position, but I ignored his textual evidence so that I could find my own without being influenced by what he had found.

Learning Outcomes Progress Report

1. Learning Outcomes --  I've done a good job of posting regularly and I've stayed pretty close to the "business" theme that I identified at the beginning of the semester.  I've been reading out of Tales of Shakespeare and Shakespeare in Modern Culture regularly, having read each chapter that corresponds to the plays that I've read for class.  I've also seen movie renditions of The Taming of the Shrew and Othello.  So far in the semester I have not done as much critical analysis as I would like, and that will be one of my main emphases for the rest of the semester.  I've had trouble maintaining the "dictionary" that I created (although I started strong), and I haven't completed my performance requirement.
2. Reading and Research -- This far in the semester, I read the complete plays of Hamlet, Henry V, and The Taming of the Shrew.  I also read about half of Othello and The Tempest, and I plan to return to those two plays for further analysis.  I've relied pretty heavily on business resources including Harvard Business Review, Movers and Shakespeares, and Shakespeare in Modern Culture (which contains a lot of practical business application.)  I haven't used as many traditional scholarly sources as I would like to (journals, etc.) but I'll focus on this more with the depth requirement for the second part of the semester. I do feel that I've made an attempt to identify the Shakespearean connections in my own life and research some of their significance.  (See Example 1, Example 2)
3. Links and Connections -- I've relied on several books (mentioned above) that have given me a better perspective of Shakespeare.  I've tried to make connection to my own life, specifically to my current job and future career in business.  I haven't connected with other blogs as well as I could in my posts, but I feel I've made substantial comments and suggestions that contribute to the class dialogue. 
4. Personal Impact -- Because of my job/career path, my personal interests (and blog, too) have focused pretty heavily on personal and organizational change efforts.  Shakespeare has a lot of application in this area because he so adequately portrays character motivations.  I think I could pursue this even further in my blog to really make it specific.  Since this is a topic that I spend so much time dealing with, my readings/interpretations of Shakespeare have been pushed in this direction as well. 
5. Personal Evaluation -- I think I've found creative ways to make my blog interesting and engaging.  I also think I've done a good job keeping up with the class reading/posting and contributing to class discussions and the overall Shakespeare discussion of the blogs.  I feel that my main weakness is in the area of critical analysis, both with traditional literary criticism and my particular theme of business analysis.  I need to make a stronger effort to devote at least one post per week to a strong critical analysis. 
6. Peer Influence -- I think Bryan Mulkern has offered some great feedback and suggestions for my blog, as well as offering great ideas in maintaining his own blog.  We had a great class discussion and he kind of inspired me to take my blog in several positive directions.  I also appreciated the discussions I had early in the semester with Claire and Chris because we were able to generate ideas and get a great start in the right direction.

A Review: Get Thee to a Nunnery

I'll be offering a brief review of Brandon Powell's blog, Get Thee to a Nunnery.  I'm happy to do this review because Brandon and I have sometimes blogged on similar topics during the course of our Shakespeare learning experience. 

1. Number of Posts:  15

2. Quality of Posts:  Brandon has done a great job of regularly posting with at least two posts a week.  He has covered a variety of topics in his posts--in particular, he has successfully incorporated (and critically analyzes) Shakespeare's influence on modern culture.  Some particular posts in this vein include The Simpsons and Julius Caesar, Henry IV Movie Adaptations, and Shakespeare and Rap Music.  His posts are high quality with well-articulated ideas on subjects that he finds interesting and his interests are easily passed on to the reader through his writing.  He has posted frequently and seems to have met a variety of learning outcomes, including critical analysis, sharing with other people, incorporating modern culture, etc.

3. Strengths:  I mentioned some of Brandon's strengths above.  In particular, I think he has a nice balance of critical analysis with fun and interesting modern culture observations.  It's clear that he's having fun with the blog, but also not taking it too lightly.  He has done an excellent job of posting on each of the different plays that he has read throughout the semester and finding different ways to approach each one, from movie reviews to scholarly resources.  He's also done a great job of keeping up with the reading schedule for the first part of the semester and completing his "breadth" requirement.

4. Suggestions:  My main suggestion for Brandon is to identify a theme that has begun to establish itself in his blog, and really emphasize that theme for the rest of the semester.  He didn't identify a particular theme with his learning outcomes, but I think it would be a great way to narrow in on his own Shakespeare "niche" and make his posts and blog stand out.  I also think this could help drive the blog for the rest of the semester and present opportunities for depth.  

Overall, I think he's maintained a great blog thus far and I'm excited to see where he takes it for the remainder of the semester.

Shakespeare Behind Bars

Today I was reading a book I got from the library, Shakespeare and Modern Culture, and it mentioned a documentary called, "Shakespeare Behind Bars."  Since 1995, Hank Rogerson has been visiting the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in Kentucky to direct Shakespeare plays with the roles acted by inmates.  The documentary tells the story of how Rogerson has directed various plays over the years and generally chooses ones that have strong themes of crime, grief, and repentance.  The documentary specifically follows the production of The Tempest, which is the play I am reading this week, so I've decided that I will watch it this weekend.  Check out the trailer for the documentary--it looks interesting and seems to be well done.

Origins

A few days ago, while playing the game Origin with some friends, I learned the meaning of the phrase "to wing it."  The purpose of the game is to guess the origin of commonly used expressions.  Similar to balderdash, each player makes up what they think would be the origin of the phrase, and the group guesses which explanation is correct.  Nobody knew the origin of the phrase "to wing it," so we all made up ridiculous scenarios--from chicken wings to the Wright brothers--about where the phrase came from.  The actual phrase comes from (you guessed it) Shakespeare's time.  To wing it referred to an actor that was playing a role without knowing the part.  During the scene, a prompter in the wing would help with the lines; between scenes, the actor would cram for the lines of the upcoming scene. 

Since "winging it" during a play meant improvisation on short notice, the phrase still has a similar meaning today.

An Interview with 13-year-old Abe Ogles

For part of my study of Othello, I thought it would be fun to do an interview with my younger brother, Abe.  I wanted to see what Abe knew and thought about Shakespeare, and also get his impression of Othello.  I also thought it might be a good opportunity to share some of my knowledge of Shakespeare and get someone else excited about his plays.  To help Abe prepare, I asked him to watch a brief summary video of Othello (I couldn't bring myself to ask him to read the whole thing.)  He watched the video and then we had the following conversation.

To begin, I wanted to see how much Abe knew about Shakespeare, and what his impression was.

Who is William Shakespeare?

Abe: He’s a writer/director.  He made plays that are really famous. 

Why do you think his plays are so famous?

Abe: Because they were acted out well, and probably because they were popular during his time.

Why do you think we pay so much attention to Shakespeare now? 

Abe: Because of so much attention that the plays got then. 

At this point I interrupted Abe to explain one of the reasons I think we still read/watch Shakespeare today, and that is because he treats feelings and behaviors that are timeless.  I explained to Abe that many of the emotions in the plays were relevant then, are relevant now, and will be forever, because they're part of the human experience.

The "Shrew," in Review

Just wanted to do a quick wrap-up of some of the things I accomplished last week during my reading of "The Taming of the Shrew."  Here's what I did:

• I read the play and watched a BBC theatrical rendition on DVD
• I read the short story version of the play in the Lambs' "Tales of Shakespeare"
• I analyzed the play using a business "Change Management" lens

I don't think I'm done with this play--I'd like to return to it for some more in-depth analysis later in the semester--but last week I was able to familiarize myself with the characters and plot and beginning thinking about the critical possibilities.

Using Shakespeare to Make Change Stick

In a recent post, I mentioned a company that uses Shakespeare plays for management training in business settings.  The name of the company is Movers and Shakespeares, and they've done very well consulting large organizations such as Pfizer, the U.S. military, JP Morgan Chase, The Boeing Company, and other big-name corporations. Browsing through their site, I was able to see that they use "The Taming of the Shrew" (which I am reading this week) for their training on Change Management. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the private content of their training--but maybe it's not so unfortunate after all.  I actually have a decent amount of exposure to Change Management because I work for a company, Change Anything, that helps organizations and individuals overcome tough problems and change for good.

Since I don't have access to the Movers and Shakespeares training, I'm going to create my own training, or at least identify a few important change concepts that I've learned from the play.  And rather than focusing on a business setting, I'm going to list a few ways concepts from the play that will help us sustain personal change.  To be fair, I'm borrowing some ideas from Change Anything; the application of these concepts to "Taming of the Shrew" is my original thinking, but the concepts themselves come from Change Anything.

Screenwriting, Sonnets, Blogs

Today Dr. Burton explained that when it comes to blogs, sometimes quantity is more valuable than quantity, simply because not every post is great, and the more you write the greater chance you have that some posts will be great.  Such is the case with Dr. Burton's sonnets (according to his evaluation, not mine).  This post is an attempt to follow his advice, and, by way of my self-directed learning, offer additional insight to his advice.  I've been reading a book called Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, by well-known screenwriting instructor Robert Mckee, whose students have included Peter Jackson, John Gleese, and 26 Academy award winners.

Here is what Mckee had to say about creative inspiration: "Creativity is five to one, perhaps ten or twenty to one.  The craft demands the invention of far more material than you can possibly use."

Mckee echoes the same idea, that we can't sit around and wait for inspiration and creativity to hit; we have to wade through the mediocre to get to the good stuff, which is exactly the case when blogging about Shakespeare.

Looking Back on Hal

I wanted to take a quick look at this week in review to make some notes about the play I read, Henry the Fifth.  In case you're short on time, here's a brief list of what I'll include in this post:

• My overall impression of the play
• A critical look at one of the scenes in comparison to the Ewe lamb parable in 2nd book of Samuel in the Bible
• A list of activities that I completed during my study of the play this week.

My Overall Impression
With that as a roadmap, I'll begin with my overall impression of the play: I really enjoyed it.  It seemed to me that this would be an action/adventure type play from the time period.  King Henry is the hero, he's honest, brave, intelligent, respects his people--the ideal leader.  His army is stuck in a tight spot, outnumbered 5 to 1, and he gives a classic pre-game pep talk to boost morale and lead them to victory.  (Sorry for the spoiler.)  And, like any good action/adventure film, there was some good comedy as well.  For my first reading of one of Shakespeare's histories, this was definitely a success.

Flash Scene Shakespeare

Class, this is the post where I detail some of my ideas regarding the Flash Scene Shakespeare.  First, I'll give Chris due credit because his idea originally led to the flash mob Shakespeare idea.  For those of you who haven't seen any flash mob events, check out Improv Everywhere's YouTube channel.  Basically we all get together and do some type of Shakespeare performance in a public area, to the surprise of the complete strangers walking by.  (The photo included here is of a famous annual no-pants flash mob--ours will be more conservative.)  At any rate, to this we'll need to brainstorm ideas for a performance that the the whole class can take part in.  Ideally, we would choose something that wouldn't single out anyone person, so that we can all be in this together (i.e. everyone gets to feel like an idiot).  We'll need to select a place and time, and everyone needs to come and be prepared.  So on with the brainstorming!  Please comment below.  I'll start with my ideas:

• We need to choose a public place--I'm thinking on campus or maybe at the University mall, or Walmart on a Saturday.  Something like that.
• Performance ideas: We all memorize the same monologue an simultaneously perform it

Signs of the Times

Galileo

Little did I know that Galileo Galielei--philosopher, astronomer, scientist--was, as my philosophy textbook puts it, "An exact contemporary of Shakespeare."  While studying philosophy, I serendipitously found myself learning about the life and times of Shakespeare.  Maybe a more appropriate title for this post would be, "Things I learned about Shakespeare by learning about Galileo."

Galileo's story is fascinating, and there are two characteristics of the time period that I gleaned from reading his history:

A Plea for Podcasts

While I am experienced in the art of downloading free podcasts from iTunes, I have to admit that I only ever search for sports-related entertainment.  (If you're interested, my personal favorite is ESPN's Bill Simmons, who does weekly shows about the NFL and NBA--he also writes a killer column.)  Podcasts are ideal for someone like me, because I find myself walking between 20 and 30 minutes every day from my car to campus and back.  So, Shakespeare enthusiasts, where do I go for the best of Shakespeare podcasts?  I'm not looking for theatrical performances of his actually plays--I'd prefer some color commentary/analysis, maybe some humor, something to shed light on my learning.  I've done some searching on iTunes already but I'd rather not fill up my queue with hundreds of pitiful podcasts so I am eagerly open to suggestions.

Donde esta la bibiloteca, Pedro?

Just got back from the library, where I spent an hour browsing through the Shakespeare shelves--nonfiction, young adult nonfiction, books on tape, DVDs, juvenile fiction--you name it.  I was willing to try anything that might promote my personal Shakespeare literacy campaign.  Truthfully, I wanted a Shakespeare "craft" book more than anything.  I was really hoping for ideas like how to make quills, how to make a Hamlet costume out of paper grocery bags, suggestions for using fake blood in at-home theatrical performances--that sort of thing.  The closest I came was a Children's book that the library catalog listed as "on order."  Maybe I'll suck it up and buy the book online myself.  In any case, I came home with two DVDs (The Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth, which I hope to watch over the 3-day weekend), a Modern Scholar lecture series of Shakespeare's comedies on CD, and four great books.

I'm mostly excited about the books, so I'll give you a quick rundown of their titles and what I expect from them.

Hamlet, not Ham Melt

Of all the Shakespeare plays, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark seems a logical choice to kick-off my "Shakespeare Literacy" campaign.  All of Shakespeare's works are famous, but I think Hamlet  is the most inescapable.  By my own observation, only Romeo and Juliet is more rampant in American culture.  I suppose the "romance with a bitter family rival" plot reaches a wider audience than "murder your family member and then commit incest."  If anything, I'm jaded by Romeo and Juliet because it's become so commonplace.  So if I'm going to start off with a bang, and I don't want to read Romeo and Juliet because pop culture has watered it down to almost romantic comedy status, Hamlet it is.

I managed to find a great, short, animated version of Hamlet on Youtube.  While the animation doesn't quite hold up to the standards of the bleached-blonde Kenneth Branagh production of Hamlet, it's a quick-hitter for all the famous quotes.  

You can watch the video on your own (the second and third parts are separate videos), but I'll give you a quick taste of my personal favorite quotes.  

And the top three are: