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Author Archives: Sylvia Morris
Shakespeare in the Park
Unlikely as it seems given the weather, people have been performing outdoors in Britain for hundreds of years, well before the building of purpose-built theatres in Elizabethan London. The medieval mystery cycles were performed in many towns and cities on mobile … Continue reading
Posted in Shakespeare on Stage
Tagged costume, Green Stage, outdoor theatre, Shakespeare, York Mystery Plays
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Emptying the stage: experimenting with Shakespeare
It is up to us to capture [the audience’s] attention and compel its belief. To do so we must prove that there will be no trickery, nothing hidden. We must open our empty hands and show that really there is … Continue reading
Sight and blindness in Shakespeare
One of the most striking items discussed in the BBC’s radio series Shakespeare’s Restless World earlier this year is the reliquary containing the eye of an executed Jesuit priest. It appealed in a number of ways: its gruesome history, the … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World
Tagged blindness, British Museum, execution, eyes, Gunpowder Plot, Jesuit, King Lear, Macbeth, Shakespeare's restless world, Shakespeare: staging the world
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Becoming a courtier: Castiglione, Shakespeare and Richard III
Earlier this week Amanda Vickery, in her radio programme On… Men, looked at the concept of the ideal man, defined in Italy in the sixteenth century, which remained a standard for centuries. You can listen again here for a few … Continue reading
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare's World
Tagged Amanda Vickery, Castiglione, Richard III, The book of the Courtier, Thomas Peacham, Urbino
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O this learning, what a thing it is!
Last week the biennial International Shakespeare Conference was held at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. With only space for two hundred and thirty, places are strictly limited. Now technology is being used to open this exclusive conference up to anyone … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy
Tagged Backdoor Broadcasting, JISC, Open Shakespeare, Shakespeare Institute
3 Comments
Updating Timon: Simon Russell Beale at the National
Theatre programmes don’t often include an article written by the leading man in the production. Most actors and directors let their work speak for them, and drawing attention to their past successes might be courting disaster. Actors can be a … Continue reading
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare on Stage
Tagged London, modern dress, National Theatre, Shakespeare, Simon Russell Beale, Timon of Athens
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Opening the Olympics: Danny Boyle’s debt to William Blake
Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony has set off so much discussion that John Wyver of Illuminations has now posted three blog posts each listing ten different pieces that have appeared in the press looking at the event from different viewpoints. Here’s the … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy
Tagged Arlington Court, Chariots of Fire, Danny Boyle, Henry IV Part 1, Isles of Wonder, John Wyver, Kenneth Branagh, Macbeth, Olympic Opening Ceremony, Siri Vevle, The Tempest, William Blake
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Round the globe with Much Ado About Nothing
What are we learning from the World Shakespeare Festival? A few weeks ago Sonia Massai headed a panel entitled Global Shakespeares. In her subsequent post on the RSC’s MyShakespeare site she says “‘Global Shakespeares’ can only be understood in relation … Continue reading
Posted in Plays and Poems, Shakespeare on Stage
Tagged Donald Sinden, Global Shakespeares, Indian, Iqbal Khan, John Barton, Judi Dench, Meera Syal, Michael Billington, Much Ado About Nothing, Paul Bhattarcharjee, Royal Shakespeare Company, Sonia Massai, World Shakespeare Festival
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Shakespeare and the Olympic arts of war
Although all sport is competitive, many of those which feature in the modern Olympics began as a way of training for warfare. Shakespeare brings several of them into his plays, including wrestling, archery and fencing. Self-defence sports wrestling and boxing date back to … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Shakespeare's World
Tagged archery, As You Like it, boxing, fencing, Hamlet, hunting, John Stow, Love's Labour's Lost, Olympic Games, Wallace Collection, wrestling
1 Comment
Shakespearean voices
I’ve written several times about how much I love hearing Shakespeare spoken well, but what exactly does that mean? There are many aspects to speaking Shakespeare, and theatre companies now employ specialist voice coaches to help actors deal with the challenges. … Continue reading
Posted in Legacy, Plays and Poems, Shakespeare on Stage
Tagged Ben Crystal, British Library, Cicely Berry, David Crystal, Hearing Shakespeare, Lyn Darnley, original pronunciation, Shakespearean Language, speaking, speech, Valerie Pye, voice
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