Shakespeare Magazine ~ Spring 1997

Shakespeare
Volume 1, Issue 3
SPRING 1997

The Opening of the Globe
In an exclusive interview with Shakespeare editors, Artistic Director Mark Rylance talks about the struggles to get the Globe open, and about the thrill of performing Shakespeare's plays as they might have been performed on Bankside in the late 1500's.

Related Web Link
Hosted by the University of Reading, this site chronicles the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre in London.

The Dark Pleasure of Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night
In all the hoopla over Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet and Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, it's easy for the new Twelfth Night to get lost. But don't miss it, says Peter Holland, for this film does what other comedies on film have failed to do--it shows the delicious dark humor that Shakespeare does so well.

Related Web Link
The Fine Line Features Web site for Trevor Nunn's adaptation of Twelfth Night includes a trailer, production information, and an on-line study guide.

Shakespeare with Tears
In a brilliant and moving essay, noted scholar Russ McDonald talks about why at the end of comedies, with joyful reunions taking place all over the stage, he feels like crying.

Rely on What You See
Teacher William Hill talks to University of Iowa professor Miriam Gilbert about the art of performance criticism, which "compels an individual to talk about the production values-the acting, directing, and designing choices-of a given performance."

Coriolanus: Shakespeare's Primer for Political Rhetoric
Oregon Shakespeare Festival actors Derrick Lee Weeden, Karl Backus, and Aldo Billingslea connect what they learned from doing a long run of Coriolanus with what they hear on the nightly news.

Teacher Favorites: Comedies in the Classroom
Expert teachers Ann Boone (California), Jan Pope (Kansas), Lynne Rainwater (Oregon) , Ellen Doss (Michigan), Siobhan Berry and Mary Pittman (France), and Mary Ellen Dakin (Boston) give step-by-step instructions and offer reflections on teaching the classroom hits Twelfth Night, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Measure for Measure, Taming of the Shrew, and Merchant of Venice.

Teaching Resource
As promised in this issue--Mary Ellen Dakin discusses how she approached The Merchant of Venice with her 12th grade class in her article "Three Scenes, Three Societies, Three Shylocks."

Review: The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare--A Classroom Necessity
We're not exaggerating. This is the best book about Shakespeare to come along in years. Janet Field Pickering, head of education at the Folger Shakespeare Library, describes its splendors.

News on the Rialto
This issue contains information about 21 Shakespeare festivals for the summer of 1997 featuring the Stratford, Ontario, and Kentucky Shakespeare Festivals. In addition, we review the video of Richard Burton's Hamlet and "The Great Hamlets" compilation video.

Broadsheet
The take-it-to-the copier feature for this issue is an exercise in which participants use exit lines from the comedies to do a 30-second performance. Fast and funny Shakespeare warm-ups.

Shakespeare Magazine Navigation

Shakespeare Archives

Shakespeare Home