There’s a movement now to save Birnam Wood from development. They are emphasizing the role the location plays in Macbeth.
It’s worth noting that the role Birnam Wood plays in Macbeth is to be completely cut down by the good guys and carried off to Dunsinane.
They should still protect the place, but I just felt that needed to be pointed out.
Well, this is exciting for me. It’s my first link from someone I don’t know personally. It’s from Such Shakespeare Stuff, a blog dedicated entirely to Shakespeare:
Link for ShakespeareTeacher.com because I like the domain and hope to hear good things from him. It doesn’t appear to be a blog devoted to Shakespeare, though, so it should be interesting to see how much relevant content we get.
This blog isn’t exclusively about Shakespeare, no. Instead, it is approached with the philosophy that a love of Shakespeare is only the beginning of a life of examination and discovery. This is a blog that documents that journey, and tries to have some fun along the way. The title, I think, has more to do with the author than with the intended audience at the moment.
Having said that, I would have expected to be blogging more on Shakespeare than I have been so far. I only just started this blog, and I seem to be writing more about Genghis Khan, the new Congress, and about blogging itself than I am about Shakespeare. Still, you can expect to see a lot more relevant content here in the coming months than there is now. Also, this domain may eventually house more than just the blog, but perhaps I’ve said too much already.
So, thanks to SSS for the link. And for those of you who came to this site by other means and were looking for a Shakespeare-only site, you can quell your disappointment by visiting Such Shakespeare Stuff, where you will find plenty of Shakespeare-related content and commentary. I expect to become a regular visitor myself.
It appears that Washington D.C. just started a six-month Shakespeare festival.
From the looks of it, it promises to be quite something:
The “Shakespeare in Washington” festival, conceived two years ago by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), kicks off with a free reading of “Twelfth Night.” It will include more than 500 performances, ensuring that every week will be packed with shows and exhibitions – paintings, music, dance, film, opera and theater – either written or inspired by one of the world’s most famous playwrights.
I’m starting to get jealous, but just a bit, since New York City is hardly a slouch in the Shakespeare department. All the same, I guess I’ll have to plan a trip to D.C. sometime in the next six months.
Now, this is strange. After my last post, Maps of War, both my cousin’s blog and the University of Texas picked up that I had linked to them, and they both linked back to my post. I didn’t know they could do that!
So now that I’ve been outed as a blogger, I guess the time has come to go public. And I think there’s enough content here now that I can start inviting a small group of people to come and visit. If you’re one of these people, then this may be the first post you’re reading. Welcome to my blog!
What would be an appropriate introduction to Shakespeare Teacher? How about an article from The Onion that gives the site a name check?
November 20, 2006 | Issue 42-47
NASHVILLE, TN-Vanderbilt University theater major Sandy Heckscher said Monday that she has been stretched to the limits of her endurance by the “blunt upbraidings and bitter scoffs” of drama professor and Shakespeare scholar Ian Treatt. “Who breathes but’d rather be a simple whore, than lurk within this country of insult?” said Heckscher, who thinks Treatt is a “bad grader.” “O monstrous beast! How like a swine he lies! Grim death – that foul and loathsome moniker!” Treatt responded to the charges by saying only that he found himself amazed that theater majors “are too simple/To offer war where they should kneel for peace.”
Enjoy the rest of the blog, and if you find a post or two that speaks to you, feel free to speak back and leave a comment behind, so I’ll know you’ve been here.
According to a new study, Shakespeare is good for your brain:
Reading Shakespeare excites the brain in a way that keeps it “fit”, researchers say.
A team from the University of Liverpool is investigating whether wrestling with the innovative use of language could help to prevent dementia.
More details here.
In this new year, let’s all make a promise to ourselves to read Shakespeare on a regular basis. It’s the responsible thing to do.