English Poet: William Shakespeare, his plays and poetry
Relevant Poetry Forms
Santa Cruz Shakespeare
2016 SCS (Santa Cruz Shakespeare) season
SCS plays for the 2016 season:
-
A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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Hamlet. Interesting use of gender-equity
so that not only did women play many roles, but also Hamlet.
A very insightful interpretation: Hamlet is so much more interesting
and sympathetic as a woman.
- The acting interns' non-Shakespearian choice:
Orlando.
2015 SCS (Santa Cruz Shakespeare) season
SCS plays for the 2015 season:
-
Macbeth, a strong version. Interesting use of gender-equity
so that not only were many of the supporting-role soldiers women, but also Macbeth's friend Banquo
was played by a woman.
-
Much Ado About Nothing.
- The acting interns' non-Shakespearian choice:
The Liar.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz
2012 SSC (Shakespeare Santa Cruz) season
SSC plays for the 2012 season (the 31st):
- Man in the Iron Mask (by Scott Wentworth) —
the most delightfully presented and enthusiastically received in this year's season.
Charles Pasternak (the gorgeous Romeo in the
2008 SSC
Romeo and Juliet) terrific as both King Louis and his twin brother.
- Henry IV, Part Two — excellent Falstaff (Richard Ziman);
a good Prince Hal (Charles Pasternak again) showing the transformation from wastrel to a prince
worthy of his father and the crown.
- Twelfth Night — a relatively weak production of this interesting play;
mistakes by some of the principles in the meaning of what they said.
- The Mandrake (astonishingly a comedy by Niccolo Machiavelli)
2011 SSC (Shakespeare Santa Cruz) season
Three SSC plays for the 2011 season (the 30th): all very well received:
- Comedy of Error — well staged and quick; a relatively light-weight play.
- Henry IV, Part One — the best version that I've ever seen;
finally a credible Falstaff and a hot-blooded passionate Harry Percy Hotspur held the
stage against Prince Hal; brilliant final sword-fight-knife-brawl between Hotspur and Hal.
- The Three Musketeers — very swash-buckling and lively though
of course the characters lack the depth of those in the historical play.
2010 SSC (Shakespeare Santa Cruz) season
All three SSC plays of the 2010 season (the 29th) got standing ovations at the sessions I went to:
- Lion in Winter — Marco Barricelli was fabulously wonderful in the lead role (King Henry).
- Othello — Othello, Iago, and Amelia were especially well acted.
- Love's Labor's Lost — the first good version of that I've ever seen —
totally hilarious.
2008 SSC (Shakespeare Santa Cruz) season
Bold Summer Repertory Theatre: 2008 Shakespeare Santa Cruz
27th season is 16 July - 31 August 2008.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz's new
Artistic Director Marco Barricelli has four plays in repertory:
The preview talks
The plays
Index of 2008 season of Shakespeare Santa Cruz
Quotes from the scripts
Bach at Leipzig
From Act One, Scene Four and Five:
STEINDORFF Your understanding of politics is as nuanced as your music.
KAUFFMAN Why, thank you!
STEINDORFF A halfhearted show of diplomacy is the final step toward open war.
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Also from Act One, Scene Four and Five:
FASCH Why must everything have a name?
SCHOTT So that we know which houses to burn.
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From Act One, Scene Six:
LENCK Do they have politics in Zerbst, Herr Fasch?
FASCH Periodically, yes. But the tactics you describe are better suited
to situations where ordinary principles are suspended. To a state of war.
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From Act Two, Scene One:
FASCH Kuhnau's explanation [of the fugue] mystified me. It was not until
I wrote a fugue myself that I understood, and when I told him that the
structure was now clear to me in retrospect, he remarked, 'Structure is
only clear in retrospect'.
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From Act Two, Scene Two and Three and Four and Five:
GRAUPNER The odds are not yet ... ideal.
SCHOTT What are you suggesting?
GRAUPNER You overestimate my subtlety. I have not suggested it yet.
It is true, is it not, that Kuhnau never named a preferred successor?
SCHOTT No one, I think, was more surprised by Kuhnau's death than Kuhnau.
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Highlights of Poetry.
Books read.
