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Part 2 of 2 The Maori adaption of the Shakespeare's "Troilus & Cressida"

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Transcript

It's not often you see a group of young Maori and Pasifika kids performing Macbeth in South Auckland - an area often stereo-typed as socio-economically disadvantaged with lots of criminal activity. It's also the same community which has raised many of New Zealand's great heroes - Sir Edmund Hillary, the late Jonah Lomu, and World and Olympic Champion Shot putter, Valerie Adams.

The Black Friar Theatre company wants to break down negative stereotypes and build on positive examples for South Auckland youth. Their mission statement includes re-telling classic literature in a way that's relevant to their community.

MICHELLE JOHANSSON: We have a particular focus on restorying. So restorying the classics. Our particular commitment is to South Auckland and to Pasifika people.

That's Michelle Johansson who co-directs Macbeth alongside Billy Revell. Mr Revell says they've been challenging stereotypes since they began.

BILLY REVELL: When we first started out people kind of said that pasifika people couldn't do Shakespeare and so when we first started out we wanted to prove them wrong because Shakespear is something that we were interested in.

Mr Revell says they want Pasifika people to understand that Shakespeare's themes are universal.

BILLY REVELL: Within the past we've done Othello, I mean that dealt with a lot of jealousy and stuff like that. And we've done Merchant of Venice. And so it's sort of finding a way in for our young people as well. Making it relevant and accessible to them.

Their version of Macbeth is set in an imagined Hawaiki with themes drawn from all Polynesian cultures using dance, costume and music. Musical Director Siosaia Folau took lines from the script of Macbeth to help incorporate with music into the play.

SIOSAIA FOLAU: And then I sort of grabbed a lot of pacific refrains, just some real common ones that everybody knows and just trying to weave that into that music and that as well. It's the way we Pasifika people tend to tell our stories you know, through music. Through music and dance.

The play is self-funded with a cast of volunteers who auditioned from the local community. The youngest actor is only 5 years old and the three witches who represent different island nations are played by school students aged between 15 and 16 years old.

MICHELLE JOHANSSON: We've got fifty people in cast and crew and that's a pretty incredible amount. And just to see, to be part of the rehearsal process even leading up to it and just sitting in a place in Otara where there's all these pasifika people sitting around doing Shakespeare, in their own time, off their own back and bringing it. It's just a bit of magic, I think.

Among the theatre company's activities, they've written and produced shows for the NZ International Comedy Festival and the Auckland Fringe Festival. But off stage, they are also social activists working in churches and communities addressing youth suicide as well as holding workshops for teachers and students around the Pacific region. They have actively supported the Freedom for West Papua movement, protests to raise minimum wage and also the recent 'Park up for homes' campaign which raised awareness of homelessness in Auckland. Mr Revell says helping to make an impact within their community is important.

BILLY REVELL: All of that stuff is very important to us and the way that we sort of see ourselves contributing to a solution to that, is offering our young people somewhere that they can be heard.

Samoan father Jerome David brought along his 12-year-old daughter Stania David who has just started reading Shakespeare.

JEROME DAVID: It's fantastic, the show was pretty good. The music was, oh...they [the music team] are the one who make the show.

Macbeth is showing at the Mangere Arts Centre in South Auckland until the 24th September.

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South Auckland theatre remodels Shakespeare through Pasifika

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It's not often you see a group of young Maori and Pasifika kids performing Macbeth in South Auckland - an area often stereo-typed as socio-economically disadvantaged with lots of criminal activity.

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I'm writing a historical fiction novel at the moment and damn does it take a lot of research.

I'm not writing it as Shakespeare might've, because I want my readers to be able to understand it without sitting through a term of English GCSE lessons, but I'm trying to remain as authentic as possible and not using words like 'laser' or 'a load of hot air' when they wouldn't have had lasers or hot air balloons in the late 16th century.

To this end, I've been doing a lot of Googling and have compiled a list of Elizabethan saying, idioms, forms of address and some general swear words. Yay!

Enjoy, my fellow #histfic writers:

Elizabethan Insults

Elizabethans sure knew how to bandy around the insults. A lot of insults are based on social status but your moral character could also be called into question (and given that a lot of your business or indeed your dignity would have relied on your ability to make an oath before God and have it believed) this was a pretty damning insult to men and women alike.

If you're feeling particularly angry (or rather, if your characters are) they can also use a combination of the following:

Beshrew thee

Fie upon thee

A pox upon thee/Upon thy

Devil take thee,

A plague upon thee/Upon thy...

Morraine Seize thee

Hang thee

Elizabethan Oaths

These were a bit stronger than our modern day swear words because taking an oath in Elizabethan times meant invoking God to listen and bear witness to your oath. If you were a Catholic and you said something like 'God's Flesh', you believed that you were actually harming God with your words. This is what makes the latter portion of the oaths table so strong. Needless to say, it would've been more than just frowned upon... it would have been outright blasphemy.

Greetings

Slang

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Historical Fiction Tools: Elizabethan Swearing, Cursing and Vocabulary

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I'm writing a historical fiction novel at the moment and damn does it take a lot of research. I'm not writing it as Shakespeare might've, because I want my readers to be able to understand it without sitting through a term of English GCSE lessons, but I'm trying to remain as authentic as possible and...

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By 1600 London theatres, like the Globe, could take up to 3000 people for the most popular plays. With several theatres offering plays most afternoons, this meant between 10,000 and 20,000 people a week going to London theatres. That's a lot of people! So who were they?

Who came to the theatres?
The answer is 'just about everyone in London society' - generally more men than women, but all sorts of people. One visitor, in 1617, described the crowd around the stage as 'a gang of porters and carters'. Others talked of servants and apprentices spending all their spare time there. But wealthier people were in the audience too. In 1607, the Venetian ambassador bought all the most expensive seats for a performance of Shakespeare's Pericles. Even royalty loved watching a play. They didn't go to public theatres, but companies of actors were summoned to perform at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I.

How much did it cost?
In open air theatres the cheapest price was only 1 penny which bought you a place amongst the 'groundlings' standing in the 'yard' around the stage. (There were 240 pennies in £1.) For another penny, you could have a bench seat in the lower galleries which surrounded the yard. Or for a penny or so more, you could sit more comfortably on a cushion. The most expensive seats would have been in the 'Lord's Rooms'. Admission to the indoor theatres started at 6 pence. One penny was only the price of a loaf of bread. Compare that to today's prices. The low cost was one reason the theatre was so popular.

What did they get for their money?
The groundlings were very close to the action on stage. They could buy food and drink during the performance - pippins (apples), oranges, nuts, gingerbread and ale. But there were no toilets and the floor they stood on was probably just sand, ash or covered in nutshells. Some visitors complained that the pit smelled of garlic and beer and no good citizen would show his face there. So paying more got the wealthy a seat under cover, and perhaps a cushioned seat.

The groundlings stand in the yard very close to the stage during performances, with more expensive seating in the galleries surrounding
them.

Did you know?

Today, the place where you buy your theatre tickets is called the Box Office. In Shakespeare's day, as people came into the theatre or climbed the steps to their seats, audiences had to put their money in a box. So the place where audiences pay became known as the box office.

Competition for audiences

Theatres had to compete for audiences against other London entertainment. These included cock-fighting and bear-baiting which were enjoyed by both the poor and the wealthy. In 1591, London theatres were banned from performing on Thursdays because 'the players do recite their plays to the hurt of bear-baiting, maintained for Her Majesty's pleasure.

A woodcut of Bearbaiting, made around 1620.

How did the audience behave?

Some of the audience went to the theatre to be seen and admired, dressed in their best clothes. But these people were not necessarily well behaved. Most didn't sit and watch in silence like today. They clapped the heroes and booed the villains, and cheered the special effects. Pickpockets sometimes joined the audience and in 1612, magistrates banned music at the end of plays at the Fortune, saying the crowd had caused 'tumults and outrages' with their dances. We have very few accounts of how the audience behaved, and most of them are about 'bad' behaviour. This probably tells us more about what was 'news' than how audiences behaved all the time.

What effect did the audience have on the success of a play?

With such large audiences, plays only had short runs and then had to be replaced. Between 1560 and 1640 about 3,000 new plays were written. To attract the crowds, these plays often re-told famous stories from the past, and they used violence, music and humour to keep people's attention. This was vital because, if audiences didn't like a play, they made their feelings known. At the Swan in 1602, the audience damaged the chairs, stools, curtains and walls. And, in 1629, a visiting French company were hissed and 'pippinpelted' from the stage. This was probably because the company used women actors, but could just have been because they were French. Since it was so involved in the performance of a play, the audience was vital to its success.

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By 1600 London theatres, like the Globe, could take up to 3000 people for the most popular plays. With several theatres offering plays most afternoons, this meant between 10,000 and 20,000 people a week going to London theatres. That's a lot of people! So who were they?

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In this fact sheet, students will learn about who went to the theatre, how much they paid and more, providing a good background for understanding Shakespeare's audience.
A printable version of this Fact Sheet is available in the downloads section below.
Audiences
By 1600 London theatres, like the Globe, could take up to 3000 people for the most popular plays. With several theatres offering plays most afternoons, this meant between 10,000 and 20,000 people a week going to London theatres. That's a lot of people! So who were they?
Who came to the theatres?
The answer is 'just about everyone in London society' - generally more men than women, but all sorts of people. One visitor, in 1617, described the crowd around the stage as 'a gang of porters and carters'. Others talked of servants and apprentices spending all their spare time there. But wealthier people were in the audience too. In 1607, the Venetian ambassador bought all the most expensive seats for a performance of Shakespeare's Pericles. Even royalty loved watching a play. They didn't go to public theatres, but companies of actors were summoned to perform at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I.

Theatres had to compete for audiences against other London entertainment. These included cock-fighting and bear-baiting which were enjoyed by both the poor and the wealthy. In 1591, London theatres were banned from performing on Thursdays because 'the players do recite their plays to the hurt of bear-baiting, maintained for Her Majesty's pleasure'.
How much did it cost?
In open air theatres the cheapest price was only 1 penny which bought you a place amongst the 'groundlings' standing in the 'yard' around the stage. (There were 240 pennies in £1.) For another penny, you could have a bench seat in the lower galleries which surrounded the yard. Or for a penny or so more, you could sit more comfortably on a cushion. The most expensive seats would have been in the 'Lord's Rooms'. Admission to the indoor theatres started at 6 pence. One penny was only the price of a loaf of bread. Compare that to today's prices. The low cost was one reason the theatre was so popular.

Today, the place where you buy your theatre tickets is called the Box Office. In Shakespeare's day, as people came into the theatre or climbed the steps to their seats, audiences had to put their money in a box. So the place where audiences pay became known as the box office.
What did they get for their money?
The groundlings were very close to the action on stage. They could buy food and drink during the performance - pippins (apples), oranges, nuts, gingerbread and ale. But there were no toilets and the floor they stood on was probably just sand, ash or covered in nutshells. Some visitors complained that the pit smelled of garlic and beer and no good citizen would show his face there. So paying more got the wealthy a seat under cover, and perhaps a cushioned seat.
How did the audience behave?
Some of the audience went to the theatre to be seen and admired, dressed in their best clothes. But these people were not necessarily well behaved. Most didn't sit and watch in silence like today. They clapped the heroes and booed the villains, and cheered the special effects. Pickpockets sometimes joined the audience and in 1612, magistrates banned music at the end of plays at the Fortune, saying the crowd had caused 'tumults and outrages' with their dances. We have very few accounts of how the audience behaved, and most of them are about 'bad' behaviour. This probably tells us more about what was 'news' than how audiences behaved all the time.
What effect did the audience have on the success of a play?
With such large audiences, plays only had short runs and then had to be replaced. Between 1560 and 1640 about 3,000 new plays were written. To attract the crowds, these plays often re-told famous stories from the past, and they used violence, music and humour to keep people's attention. This was vital because, if audiences didn't like a play, they made their feelings known. At the Swan in 1602, the audience damaged the chairs, stools, curtains and walls. And, in 1629, a visiting French company were hissed and 'pippin-pelted' from the stage. This was probably because the company used women actors, but could just have been because they were French. Since it was so involved in the performance of a play, the audience was vital to its success.

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In this fact sheet, students will learn about who went to the theatre, how much they paid and more, providing a good background for understanding Shakespeare's audience.A printable version of this Fact Sheet is available in the downloads section below.AudiencesBy 1600 London theatres, like the Globe, could take up to 3000 people for the most popular plays.

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Fishpond works with suppliers all over the world to bring you a huge selection of products, really great prices, and delivery included on over 25 million products that we sell. We do our best every day to make Fishpond an awesome place for customers to shop and get what they want - all at the best prices online.

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Fishpond works with suppliers all over the world to bring you a huge selection of products, really great prices, and delivery included on over 25 million products that we sell. We do our best every day to make Fishpond an awesome place for customers to shop and get what they want - all at the best prices online.

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In doing research at the Folger Shakespeare Library, I've come across a variety of games in the library's Shakespeare collection. For me these board games, card games, and book games herald a form of collaborative and participatory Shakespeare-making that we see today in Shakespeare-themed video games, choose-your-own-adventure books, and immersive, interactive theatre productions. In this sense the games constitute an early history of ' prosuming ', a concept developed by Alvin Toffler in the 1970s to refer to 'production by consumers'. In the world of creativity and culture, the term 'prosumer' is often linked to instances in which audiences become creative practitioners themselves, helping produce the artistic world of a theatre production, video game, art installation, etc. by playing an active part in it.

Most of the games in the Folger collection are from the nineteenth century, some with very beautiful illustrations, although a couple come from the more recent past. There are versions of familiar games like Checkers, Memory, and Go Fish, which use Shakespeare not as a crucial part of the game mechanism but rather as thematic/decorative content. So, for instance, you get a typical checker board from 1864 (Shakespeare's 300th birthday!) that you play exactly as you would a normal one, but you also get to look at Shakespeare quotes and trivia as you do so. Ditto for the 19 th-century. 'Shakespeare Game of Concentration' that you play like Memory. This seems like a Shakespeare-by-osmosis approach to me: you're playing a familiar game that doesn't rely on Shakespeare knowledge or appreciation in and of itself, but by using Shakespeare quotes and images as filler it tries to instill that knowledge in the process.

The Go Fish-style game is slightly more complicated for two reasons: first, because although the game mechanism works as usual for Go Fish, with players aiming to collect sets of cards that they search for in the hands of other players, the literary trivia is more foregrounded, meaning that quotes and facts will be read aloud with frequency and inevitably play a more central role. Second, this game from c.1887 isn't actually Shakespeare-specific, even though his face graces the box that the cards come in. Rather, it includes 'familiar quotations' from several 'popular authors' (Milton, Wordsworth, Longfellow), although it must be said that Shakespeare looms large within the deck. Each card contains several quotations in a different order and players work to collect as many complete sets as they can.

Next up are the board games, the earliest of which really only uses a reference to Shakespeare in the title: 'Wallis's Fashionable Game of the Seven Ages of Human Life' (c.1814-26). It's worth mentioning and illustrating though because it is by far the most beautiful of the bunch! Plus I love stage 29 in the timeline: 'The Bachelor', entertained by his faithful cat.

The other two board games are the most modern entries in the collection: 'The Game of Shakespeare' from 1966, and 'The Play's the Thing' from 2003. Both invite players to collect Shakespeare cards studded with quotes, facts, and illustrations, and to use them to progress towards the finish line.

Related to these modern board games are the trivia-oriented card games that typically focus on Shakespearean quotes and are often explicit in their educational intent. 'A Study of Shakespeare' from the Shakespeare Club of Camden, Maine, in 1901 invites players to ask each other trivia questions and to collect the cards that they win. It also includes several endorsements from Shakespeare academics as to its educative value. The Cincinnati Game Company's 1901 'Shakespeare' seems to work to similar principles, with Shakespeare quotations and illustrations gracing each card in a deck divided into four suits, but, alas, the majority of its game instructions no longer survive (what is left seems to suggest that you can use the deck to play three different games, indicating perhaps that it's essentially a regular deck of cards that you can use to play rummy, poker, etc.).

But of all these fabulous games, my very favorites are the two that are the most personalized. In 'Shakespeare the Oracle', 1892, and 'Shakespeare's Mental Photographs', 1866, players select questions relating to their own lives and loves and then choose a number that produces a Shakespeare quote in answer. Both of these are meant to be party games, I believe, with the main thrill being the experience of revealing bits of personal information about oneself in front of a group of excitable and chirpy friends. Many of the questions have to do with the man or woman of your affection: so, for instance, you might choose the question, 'What are his personal charms?', and then select the number 3, from which you would get the reply, 'His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely'. Ouch!

While 'Shakespeare the Oracle' comes in the format of a series of circular question cards that participants hold, plus the oracle pamphlet from which the most esteemed member of the company reads, 'Shakespeare's Mental Photographs' is potentially a more solitary affair, presenting its questions and quotes in book form.
Editor's Note: This blog post first appeared on Digital Shakespeares. All photos by Erin Sullivan, from the Folger Shakespeare Library collection.

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Shakespeare games in the Folger collection: card games, board games

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In doing research at the Folger Shakespeare Library, I've come across a variety of games in the library's Shakespeare collection. For me these board games, card games, and book games herald a form of collaborative and participatory Shakespeare-making that we see today in Shakespeare-themed video games, choose-your-own-adventure books, and immersive, interactive theatre productions.

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Gift Republic: Shakespearean Profanities Cards

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Buy Gift Republic: Shakespearean Profanities Cards online and save! When modern day insults just aren't enough. these 100 cards, will teach you some of the best insults from shakespearean ti­mes.

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Shakespeare adaptations are a dime a dozen-we've been putting his work on film practically from the moment film was a thing-but we're particularly fascinated by a small, persistent subset of movies that aim to bring the Bard's work to the youth of the day. Some plays seem like a natural fit ( Romeo and Juliet already stars teen protagonists in the original) while others are more surprising (who saw a basketball-themed version of Othello coming?).

We've gathered 13 such adaptations below. In the best of them, Shakespeare's work serves as a jumping-off point for meditations on the core truths about the human condition-discussions on race, sexuality, or gender roles presented in a way that speaks to a younger, modern generation. Plus, serious bonus points for including outrageous musical numbers.

How is it updated? Romeo and Juliet are the children of wealthy warring families in "Verona Beach"-which seems to be the bastard lovechild of Venice Beach and 1990s Miami. The soundtrack is a mix of Radiohead, The Cardigans, and Garbage.

The standard by which all are judged. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet is still one of the best Shakespeare adaptations around, because rather than binding itself to the text, it claws its way into the heart of the play. Luhrmann's take gives us an African-American, bisexual, glitter-dusted, Ecstasy-popping Mercutio (whose love for Romeo seems a lot more real than the titular couple's crush...), John Leguizamo as Juliet's cousin Tybalt, and an energetic, multicultural, genderfluid explosion of color and language.

How is it updated? A nerd (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) with a crush on the prettiest girl in school (Larissa Oleynik) pays a bad boy (Heath Ledger) to date her mean older sister (Julia Stiles).

The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's plays that best lends itself to high school, what with the overbearing father forbidding his popular daughter from dating until her social outcast sister does, the thin line between love and hate, and the cliques with their various motivations for helping or hindering the process. Part of what makes 10 Things such a classic is how much it builds upon The Taming of the Shrew 's premise; so many lines are classics on their own right. (We still haven't figured out if we can ever be just whelmed.) And if watching Heath Ledger serenade Julia Stiles on the soccer field with "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You," then letting her return the favor with a poem that begins "I hate the way you talk to me" is what teaches kids Shakespeare-then let this be a staple for every generation.

How is it updated? Time travel, an extended cameo by none other than Jesus, some epic showtunes, and the idea that forgiveness can heal psychological wounds.

Steve Coogan is Dana Marschz, a high-school drama teacher who learns his department is about to be shut down. As a last-ditch effort to save his job, keep his wife, and encourage a ragtag group of students to follow their dreams, he comes up with Hamlet 2. He rewrites Hamlet into a sort of time-traveling analysis session, in which both Hamlet and Jesus are able to forgive their respective fathers, mostly so that Marschz can work out his own daddy issues. The kids performing the play are awesome, and Coogan has great chemistry with them. Parts of this film are brilliant, but it can never quite decide if it's mocking inspirational teacher movies, or if it actually wants to be an inspirational teacher movie. But it gave us " Rock Me Sexy Jesus," and for that we should be grateful.

How is it updated? This Bernstein/Sondheim musical recasts Romeo and Juliet as Tony and Maria, two kids from rival gangs in 1950s New York.

Though not as recent as the other entries on this list, West Side Story deserves a spot for being one of the first Shakespeare adaptations to take the struggles of modern teenagers seriously. (Well, as "seriously" as an elaborately choreographed dance-fighting musical can, anyway.) Gone is the ennui of Verona's noble elite, replaced with a look at the hardscrabble lives eked out by blue-collar kids and recent immigrants in a claustrophobic urban setting. And by removing the parents from the action entirely, the story focuses on the pressures the teens place on themselves to stick with their own kind-you're either a Shark or a Jet, till your last dying day.

How is it updated? High schoolers use their spring musical adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream to act out their various love triangles.

The poor man's 10 Things, Get Over It earns its spot by getting even zanier with its Shakespeare adaptation-not surprising, considering it's based on A Midsummer Night's Dream. This movie has everything: A show (musical, rather, overseen by Martin Short as a crazed theater teacher) within a show; Shane West as a haughty Australian boy-bander; Colin Hanks and Sisquo (of "The Thong Song" fame) as the protagonist's best buds; a drunken rendition of Elvis Costello's "Allison"; and some truly awful (and one pretty) song inspired by the Bard's crazy tale of mismatched lovers.

How is it updated? Amanda Bynes plays up her screwball comedy talents as Viola, who pretends to be her twin brother Sebastian so she can play on his boarding school's soccer team after her girl's soccer team gets cut.

This take on Twelfth Night is one of the cheesiest ones in the list, a rom-com lacking the subtlety of 10 Things. Consider that "Sebastian's" way of befriending his roommate Duke (Channing Tatum) involves squealing at mice and using tampons to stop nosebleeds. The movie shows its immaturity in a lot of dumb jokes and off-screen genitalia-flashing to prove which twin is which. And this is just one of several Twelfth Night adaptations wherein a teenage girl secretly infiltrates a boys' sports team, with wacky results! Word to the wise: Stay away from the Disney Channel Original Movie Motocrossed and the '80s classic Just One of the Guys. The fact that She's the Man is the best in this particular subset of teen movies probably means Hollywood should give it a rest.

How is it updated? The regicide and familial drama of Hamlet is updated into a Millennial corporate environment, in which Claudius has murdered his brother over the Denmark Corporation, rather than actual Denmark.

Ethan Hawke's Hamlet is a film student, while Julia Stiles plays his younger squeeze Ophelia. (Hawke was about to turn 30, but since Stiles was only 19, and since the film updates the play's setting to a super-slick corporate Manhattan environment, we'll assume this adaptation was aimed more at youth audiences.) Hamlet works as a commentary on corporate culture and the corruption of the superrich, turning Hamlet into a Holden Caulfield-esque figure: a troubled, privileged, isolated young man who allows himself to be drawn into his family and its intrigues rather than asserting himself and becoming his own person.

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

How is it updated? Gus Van Sant took Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V and entangled the themes of conquest and coming-of-age into a tale of street hustlers in Portland, Oregon.

Mike is a young gay man, in love with his bisexual best friend Scott. The two men are guided by an older man, Bob Pigeon, who acts as the Falstaff to a group of street kids. We soon learn that Scott is only flirting with the dangerous life of a hustler while he waits to come into his inheritance; as the son of Portland's wealthy mayor, he'll inherit both an enormous fortune and instant mainstream cred as soon as he turns 21. When the mayor dies, Scott turns his back on the group to take on his rightful place in society. Mike is brokenhearted, and Bob dies from grief. River Phoenix is amazing as Mike, and Keanu Reeves tries really hard to imbue Scott's dialogue (some of which is verbatim from the Henrys) with gravitas and emotion. The film draws out the core of the Henry plays as an exploration of identity and responsibility. Is Scott's duty to his biological father, or to Bob? Does Mike's life as a street hustler diminish his intrinsic worth as a person?

How is it updated? The Montagues and Capulets are now the Sing and O'Day familes, who are embroiled in a racially-driven turf war.

Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet is the great classic, obviously, but Romeo Must Die's take on Shakespeare has the better fight sequences. Rather than arguing over a family feud, here the lovers are kept apart because their families hate each other. Han, played by Jet Li in his second U.S. starring role, is investigating his brother's murder when he becomes the Romeo by falling for Aaliyah's Trish O'Day. Her brother was also murdered, and it's looking very likely that their respective family gangs are responsible. Can these two crazy kids work it out? How many spines will Jet Li have to break before he can know love?

How is it updated? It's at a warehouse party! The characters are all teenagers, and they're all craaaaazy high!

We're introduced to the characters in rapid succession, learn who's secretly in love with whom, and then we traipse through the woods to a secret rave, which lasts, no joke, the entire rest of the film. Puck (seen above) is a former prostitute who's now the group's hot-pink-boa-clad drug dealer. Nick, the strung-out Bottom stand-in, plays a donkey character at children's parties, and at one point he swears he'll get straight by announcing, "I am not an ass!" right before he passes out. Most of the giant declarations of love take place on inflatable furniture in the chill-out room, which looks like a bower. If any of you want to revisit a certain best night of your life subset of 1990s culture, this is your Shakespeare adaptation.

How is it updated? The setting has been moved to a Southern boarding school, and the battles are basketball games.

O's greatest strength lies in its foregrounding of the racist subtext of Othello. O is Odin James, the star basketball player at an elite boarding school, where he is also the only black student. Iago is Hugo, whose father, the basketball coach, loves O like a son; and Desdemona is Desi (Julia Stiles again, who just has Shakespeare coming out of her pores!), the Dean's daughter, who loves him, but has to hide their relationship from her father.

Since Hugo can't bear to see O happy, he initially plans to accuse him of raping Desi, but then instead manipulates everyone around him until O is convinced that Desi is cheating on him with his best friend. Terrible violence ensues. The film either makes a bold move or a huge misstep by giving Hugo an emotional backstory that somewhat explains his actions, but the pressures on O to be a perfect student, boyfriend, and flawless young black male all come through perfectly in this setting.

Warm Bodies (2013)

How is it updated? What's the highest-stakes way you could reimagine the Montagues versus the Capulets? By making them the Living and the Dead.

Isaac Marion's novel (and the subsequent movie) follows R, a zombie who falls in love with human Julie after eating her boyfriend's brain. (Awkward.) By absorbing the dead ex's memories and creating new ones with Julie, R begins to regain his humanity, bit by bit. It's a loose adaptation, but all the pieces of star-crossed love are here-there's even a balcony scene! While Romeo and Juliet is one of the most-adapted Shakespeare plays (and takes up the most spots on our list), this retelling stands out by starting with death instead of ending with it.

How is it updated? It isn't a true adaptation, but it features Shakespeare as performed by a high school student in the 1950s, so we've included it.

What most people remember about this movie is, of course, Robin Williams as John Keating. But the tragedy in the last third of the movie is actually not motivated by anything that goes on in Keating's classroom, or in Welton School at all: one of his students joins a community theater production of Midsummer Night's Dream, and after the kid's slightly overbearing parents freak the hell out, things rapidly spin out of control. What we see of the play itself looks pretty good. Shakespeare's work, and specifically the character of Puck, is used as a sort of beacon to nerdy misfit boys, particularly Robert Sean Leonard's Neil, who looks like a perfect preppy achiever, but actually wants to become and actor and free himself from his high-pressure family.

Let us know in the comments if we've been light of brain and missed one of your favorites!

Originally published in March 2015.

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13 Shakespeare Adaptations Aimed at Teens

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Shakespeare adaptations are a dime a dozen-we've been putting his work on film practically from the moment film was a thing-but we're particularly fascinated by a small, persistent subs...

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Published by DK Children

RRP: £6.99

ISBN: 9780241187579 Size: 279 x 216 mm Pages: 72 Published: 02 Mar 2015

Explore the life and times of Shakespeare and trace his journey from a little boy reluctant to go to school to becoming the famous bard.

Travel back to his birthplace in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon before accompanying the legendary storyteller through the theatres and playhouses of 16th-century London. Learn where Shakespeare found his inspiration, pay a visit to the famous Globe, and discover why his romances, comedies, and tragedies still captivate readers and audiences more than 500 years later.

This one-stop shop for Shakespeare encourages younger readers to experience his life and times firsthand with stunning illustrations, fascinating stories, and revealing content providing both education and entertainment. The updated edition has new infographics, statistics, facts, and timelines to engage and enlighten. A giant fold-out wall chart will put the Bard up where he belongs on your bedroom or classroom wall.

And who knows? Eyewitness Shakespeare may inspire you to put pen to paper!

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Explore the life and times of Shakespeare and trace his journey from a little boy reluctant to go to school to becoming the famous bard.Travel back to his birthplace in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon before accompanying the legendary storyteller through the theatres and playhouses of 16th-cen...

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Farah Karim-Cooper is Head of Research at Shakespeare's Globe, London and the author of several critical studies focussing on performance. Tiffany Stern is Beaverbrook and Bouverie Fellow and Tutor in English, University College, Oxford. She is a General Editor of the New Mermaids series and the author of several critical studies.

Contributors include: Andrew Gurr, Gwilym Jones (Queen Mary, University of London), Nathalie Rivere de Carles (University of Toulouse), Lucy Munro (University of Keele), Andrea Stevens (University of Illinois), Bridget Escolme (Queen Mary, University of London), Paul Menzer (Mary Baldwin College), Bruce Smith (University of Southern California), Holly Dugan (George Washington University), Evelyn Tribble (University of Otago)

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Amazon.com: How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts (9781631495113): Goodman, Ruth: Books

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"One of the very best collections of pop songs written in the style of William Shakespeare that I've read so far this year!"-"Weird Al" Yankovic

" Pop Sonnets is one of the absolute best of the disreputable breed of impulse-buy humor books. Didriksen brings an authentic dedication to craft and a lively sense of humor to this highly specific project."
"This is a must-have for literary buffs and music fans alike."- Paste magazine

"Smart and funny...Any reader who is intrigued by this concept will enjoy its fantastically skilled execution."- Library Journal

"This book is made for drinking games or could moonlight as a pub quiz helper, and a well-loved teaching resource."- Monsters & Critics

"To put it mildly, this is a terrific feat of will and intellect."- Pop Matters

"Ingenious is the key word here." -Free Lance-Star

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Pop Sonnets by Erik Didriksen: 9781594748288 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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"One of the very best collections of pop songs written in the style of William Shakespeare that I've read so far this year!"-"Weird Al" Yankovic " Pop Sonnets is one of the absolute best of the disreputable breed of impulse-buy humor books.

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Old twists on new tunes, every Thursday.Book now available from Quirk Books and HarperCollins UK.

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In April 2019, Quirk Books introduced the Pop Shakespeare series, written by Ian. The series continues in spring 2020 with William Shakespeare's Taming of the Clueless. Learn more at the links below!
Buy the books:

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In April 2019, Quirk Books introduced the Pop Shakespeare series, written by Ian. The series continues in spring 2020 with William Shakespeare's Taming of the Clueless. Learn more at the links below! Buy the books:

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Buy books online and find book series such as Pop Shakespeare written by Ian Doescher and Kent Barton from PenguinRandomHouse.com

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Online and downloadable tools to help bring Shakespeare to life for students of all ages

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Dive into our podcasts to hear discussions on all-things Shakespeare

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Auckland to get taste of Shakespearean history

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A full scale working replica of the Globe Theatre is to be built in Auckland next year, in time for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

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William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April (see When was Shakespeare born), which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare's plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare's poems also remain popular to this day.

Shakespeare's Family Life

Records survive relating to William Shakespeare's family that offer an understanding of the context of Shakespeare's early life and the lives of his family members. John Shakespeare married Mary Arden, and together they had eight children. John and Mary lost two daughters as infants, so William became their eldest child. John Shakespeare worked as a glove-maker, but he also became an important figure in the town of Stratford by fulfilling civic positions. His elevated status meant that he was even more likely to have sent his children, including William, to the local grammar school.

William Shakespeare would have lived with his family in their house on Henley Street until he turned eighteen. When he was eighteen, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was twenty-six. It was a rushed marriage because Anne was already pregnant at the time of the ceremony. Together they had three children. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born six months after the wedding and was later followed by twins Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet died when he was just 11 years old.

Shakespeare in London

Shakespeare's career jump-started in London, but when did he go there? We know Shakespeare's twins were baptised in 1585, and that by 1592 his reputation was established in London, but the intervening years are considered a mystery. Scholars generally refer to these years as ' The Lost Years '.

During his time in London, Shakespeare's first printed works were published. They were two long poems, 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of Lucrece' (1594). He also became a founding member of The Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company of actors. Shakespeare was the company's regular dramatist, producing on average two plays a year, for almost twenty years.

He remained with the company for the rest of his career, during which time it evolved into The King's Men under the patronage of King James I (from 1603). During his time in the company Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous tragedies, such as King Lear and Macbeth, as well as great romances, like The Winter's Tale and The Tempest.

Shakespeare's Works

Altogether Shakespeare's works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare's company that we have about half of the plays at all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio ('Folio' refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry.

Shakespeare's legacy is as rich and diverse as his work; his plays have spawned countless adaptations across multiple genres and cultures. His plays have had an enduring presence on stage and film. His writings have been compiled in various iterations of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which include all of his plays, sonnets, and other poems. William Shakespeare continues to be one of the most important literary figures of the English language.

New Place; a home in Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare's success in the London theatres made him considerably wealthy, and by 1597 he was able to purchase New Place,the largest house in the borough of Stratford-upon-Avon. Although his professional career was spent in London, he maintained close links with his native town.

Recent archaeological evidence discovered on the site of Shakespeare's New Place shows that Shakespeare was only ever an intermittent lodger in London. This suggests he divided his time between Stratford and London (a two or three-day commute). In his later years, he may have spent more time in Stratford-upon-Avon than scholars previously thought.

Watch our video for more about Shakespeare as a literary commuter:

On his father's death in 1601, William Shakespeare inherited the old family home in Henley Street part of which was then leased to tenants. Further property investments in Stratford followed, including the purchase of 107 acres of land in 1602.

Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52. He is buried in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity.

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William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564. Read about his life and works.

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Akala | BBC Shakespeare Lives | Royal Shakespeare Company

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The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company - Showreel - 2013

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Bashy x Akala | Hip-Hop Shakespeare: Richard II - 'Being So Great' [Spoken-Bars]: SBTV

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Shakespeare was the First Gangster Hip-Hop Artist | Doug Rappaport | TEDxEdgemontSchool

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Hip-Hop & Shakespeare? Akala at TEDxAldeburgh

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Hip Hop Shakespeare | "Am I King" - [Live Performance]: SBTV

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The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company is a member of Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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Hip-hop Shakespeare presents: This Gives Life To Thee ft. AKALA (Live at BBC2)

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Hip-hop Shakespeare presents: ‘This Gives Life To Thee’ ft. Akala/Nitin Sawhney/Dane Hurst - performing live to a hip-hop soundtrack inspired by all of William Shakespeare’s collective works, this latest Hip-hop Shakespeare track ‘This Gives Life To Thee’ is a rhetorical conversation between Akala and William Shakespeare using mostly Shakespeare’s most famous quotes and references to explore one question: what is the secret source of William Shakespeare’s long-lasting legacy? This is a conversation between two poets with two poetic styles, 400 years apart. Featuring award-winning dancer-choreographer Dane Hurst (Rambert Dance) performing in response with musical composition by the renowned composer/producer Nitin Sawhney with a handful of original lyrics written by Akala. 

ABOUT THE HIP-HOP SHAKESPEARE COMPANY:

Founded in 2009 by BAFTA and MOBO award-winning hip-hop artist, writer, poet and historian AKALA is a label owner/social entrepreneur who fuses a unique sound with fierce lyrical storytelling. The Hip-hop Shakespeare Company (‘THSC’) is a music theatre production company that explores the social, cultural and linguistic parallels between the works of William Shakespeare and that of modern day hip-hop artists. 

Launched with the support of British actor Sir Ian McKellen, THSC delivers bespoke education programmes offering young people a different view of the arts and ultimately, themselves. THSC also produce interactive live music events/theatre productions showcasing the work of up and coming young talent who share the stage with established artists, poets and actors.

A recipient of the London 2012 Olympic 'Inspire Mark', THSC has established an Artist Associate and Peer Leader Academy programme to enhance its legacy of work with talent coming through education training programmes forming part of THSC’s creative arts hub. Artist Associates are a collective of professional artist’s who mentor and perform alongside Peer Leaders at THSC productions around the globe – previous collaborators include: Sir Ian McKellen, Ed Sheeran, Ashley ‘Bashy’ Thomas, Ms. Dynamite, TY, Josh Osho, Zena Edwards, Kate Tempest, Polar Bear, George The Poet, and Lady Leshurr. Peer Leaders include young artists and creative’s from across the UK.

To date THSC’s work has consistently proved popular with audiences of all ages around the world, having toured the UK, Europe as well as parts of South East Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India. For more information check out: www.hiphopshakespeare.com

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Our education programmes are designed to encourage young people to develop new skills in performing arts by creating excitement around words and rhyming to gain a positive experience of Shakespeare, music, literature and the arts as a whole. Interactive sessions are designed to assist in building self-confidence and unlocking creative and artistic abilities with lyric-writing and performing poetic lyrical reinterpretations based on Shakespeare's works, thus providing a platform to showcase creative ideas, supported by leading creative industry professionals. THSC works across primary, secondary schools right up to College/University level to include interactive lecture formats.

THSC's Artist Associates (supported by THSC Peer Leaders) deliver educational workshops and residency programmes to engage with schools, theatres, arts organisations and brands to demonstrate the cultural, social and linguistic parallel's between hip-hop and its many similarities within themes, language and rhythm used by The Bard.

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Our education programmes are designed to encourage young people to develop new skills in performing arts by creating excitement around words and rhyming to gain a positive experience of Shakespeare, music, literature and the arts as a whole.

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Join Greg Jenner in 16th0century England to meet the bard himself, one of England's greatest writers, William Shakespeare.

Join Greg Jenner in 16th century England to meet the bard himself, one of England's greatest writers, William Shakespeare.

How did he go from the son of a glove maker in Stratford Upon Avon to a famed theatre owner, actor and writer in London? What was life really like in a Shakespearean theatre? And which Disney film was influenced by his work hundreds of years later?

Produced by The Athletic for BBC Radio 4

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BBC Radio 4 - Homeschool History, William Shakespeare

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Join Greg Jenner in 16th0century England to meet the bard himself, one of England's greatest writers, William Shakespeare. Join Greg Jenner in 16th century England to meet the bard himself, one of England's greatest writers, William Shakespeare. How did he go from the son of a glove maker in Stratford Upon Avon to a famed theatre owner, actor and writer in London?

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Is he the world's greatest playwright? Make up your own mind with these original, innovative productions & casts that would sell out the West End in minutes. Lend them your ears.

Is he the world's greatest playwright? Make up your own mind with these original, innovative productions and casts that would sell out the West End in minutes. Along the way you'll find conversation and documentary that will make you look at the old classics with new eyes.

Put them in your pocket. Take them on the bus. Lend them your ears.

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BBC Radio 3 - The Shakespeare Sessions - Downloads

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Is he the world's greatest playwright? Make up your own mind with these original, innovative productions & casts that would sell out the West End in minutes. Lend them your ears. Is he the world's greatest playwright? Make up your own mind with these original, innovative productions and casts that would sell out the West End in minutes.

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William Shakespeare and his works are woven throughout our global culture, from theater, music, and films to new scholarship, education, amazing discoveries, and more. In our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Shakespeare opens a window into topics ranging from the American West, to the real history of Elizabethan street fighting, to interviews with Shakespearean stars. As you'll hear, he turns up in surprising places, too-including outer space. Join us for a "no limits" tour of the connections between Shakespeare, his works, and our world.

Find out what's on, read our latest stories, and learn how you can get involved.

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Shakespeare Unlimited podcast | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Folger Shakespeare Library is the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world. Shakespeare belongs to you. His world is vast. Come explore. Join us online, on the road, or in Washington, DC.

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The majority of Shakespeare's major female characters are young and involved in romantic plots that revolve around choosing a husband. The conflict between a father and daughter regarding who represents an ideal suitor had the potential to create serious quarrels in families, and Shakespeare repeatedly stages such quarrels in his writing. Two of Shakespeare's tragedies begin with the struggle of a young female character to free herself from male control. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet sneaks out of her home to marry Romeo, and then fakes her own death to escape the husband her father has chosen for her. In Othello, Desdemona also sneaks out at night to marry the man she has chosen against her father's wishes. Although these heroines free themselves from their fathers, they do not free themselves from male control altogether. Juliet loses her chosen husband when he is drawn into the ongoing feud between the men of the Capulet and Montague families. Desdemona remains faithful to Othello, but her history of defying male authority makes him anxious. He comes to suspect her of adultery and ultimately murders her.

Whereas Shakespeare's tragedies usually feature women in secondary roles, or roles that share top billing with a man (like Juliet or Cleopatra), Shakespeare's comedies often feature women as main characters. As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night all center on young women determined to choose their own husbands or, like Olivia in Twelfth Night and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, determined not to marry at all. Like the tragedies, these plays show that the apparent ability to choose a husband or to avoid marriage does not amount to much freedom after all. In the end, both Olivia and Beatrice are persuaded to marry. Likewise, both Rosalind in As You Like It and Viola in Twelfth Night don disguises and enjoy comic adventures that come to an end once they take off their costumes, get married, and begin new lives in their roles as wives. The Merchant of Venice offers a slightly more empowering ending. In that play Portia and Nerissa disguise themselves as men and test their new husbands by tricking them into giving up their wedding rings, a symbolic gesture which suggests both women intend to exercise power within their marriages.

Women dress up as men in many of Shakespeare's plays, often as a dramatic device to further the plot. By making his female characters cross-dress, Shakespeare gave himself the opportunity to put them in situations from which real-life women would have been barred. In Twelfth Night, for instance, Viola disguises herself as the young man "Cesario" and offers to help Duke Orsino woo Countess Olivia, something a noblewoman would never have been allowed to do. Elizabethans largely believed that women lacked the intelligence, rationality, courage, and other qualities necessary to perform roles reserved for men. However, whenever Shakespeare's cross-dressing women take on traditionally male roles, they usually do a better job than their male counterparts. In The Merchant of Venice, none of the male characters can think of a way to rescue Antonio from a contract that allows the moneylender Shylock to take "a pound of flesh" from his body. But when Portia arrives in court disguised as a lawyer, she demonstrates a legal savvy that no other male character possesses. Portia brilliantly points out that Shylock may be legally entitled to a pound of Antonio's flesh, but that "no jot of blood" can be spilled in the process.

Although shrewd young women appear frequently in Shakespeare's plays, mature women are conspicuously absent. Mothers in particular are missing. In The Tempest, Prospero lives alone with his daughter Miranda as castaways on a remote island. When Prospero gives an account of their escape from Milan, he only references her mother once, and only in order to confirm that Miranda is indeed his daughter: "Thy mother was a piece of virtue / And she said thou wast my daughter" (I.ii.). Mothers are missing in plays from across Shakespeare's career, from Titus Andronicus to King Lear, and like The Tempest, many of these plays focus intensely on the relationships between fathers and daughters. Two notable exceptions to the rule of missing mothers include Gertrude in Hamlet and Volumnia in Coriolanus, both of whom have difficult relationships with their adult sons. The example of Gertrude also points to Shakespeare's tendency to present mature women as being devious, even dangerous. Hamlet believes his mother to be complicit with the king's assassination. Lady Macbeth provides another example of a devious older woman. Cleopatra may offer the only example of a powerful, mature woman whom Shakespeare portrays as being noble and dignified.

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William Shakespeare's Life and Times: Women in Shakespeare's Writing | SparkNotes

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The majority of Shakespeare's major female characters are young and involved in romantic plots that revolve around choosing a husband. The conflict b...

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Globe app

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Explore Shakespeare and the Globe

You don't actually have to watch a physical production to engage with what we do. No matter where you are in the world, you can always stay connected to us digitally, and feed your curiosity for the world's most well-known playwright, online.

In 1623, after a monumental effort, a book containing 36 of Shakespeare's plays was completed.

Compiled by two of his acting colleagues, John Heminges and Henry Condell, it was printed across the river from the Globe at William Jaggard's print-shop at the sign of the Half-eagle and Key, near to where Barbican tube station is today.

Now, in 2023, we celebrate the 400-year anniversary of the printing of this iconic and influential book, known today as the First Folio. Thanks to a private owner, Shakespeare's Globe is delighted to be the custodian of one of the surviving copies, which is displayed in our main foyer throughout the year.

The 'Munro' copy of the First Folio takes its name from the family that owned it for more than 150 years. It was rebound at some point in the early nineteenth century, and its pages have beautifully gauffered gilt edges. On the inside of the front cover is a bookplate of Sir Thomas Munro (1761-1827), displaying his family coat of arms, which, above the Munro eagle, has an image and the name of the Indian hill fort 'Badamy,' captured by Munro in 1818 during the Third Anglo-Maratha War. In 1976, the Munro family sold the book and it has remained in private ownership since then.

Throughout 2023, there will be a number of specialist events taking place both on and off the Globe site, starting with Folio Day on Sunday 23 April. A number of institutional and private First Folio owners will make their copies available to be viewed by the public across the UK and Ireland, and here at Shakespeare's Globe, we invite you to come and view the beautiful Munro copy in our foyer or to get involved in one of the many on-site activities during this Folio year. In the meantime, you can learn and discover more about this wonderful book through the Folio400 website.

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Welcome to our wooden 'O' | Shakespeare's Globe

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All the world's a stage | As You Like It

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Globe Theatre Guided Tours | Shakespeare's Globe

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The story of the Globe Theatre, the ancestral home of Shakespeare's plays, is itself very Shakespearean, in all of the ways we use that adjective: it has deep roots in English history, a tragic backstory, and represents all of the hodgepodge of London, in the early 17th century and today, with the city's colorful street life, mingling of international cultures, high and low, and its delight in the play and interplay of languages.

"The first public playhouses," notes the British Library, "were built in London in the late 1500s. Theatres were not permitted within the boundaries of the City itself"-theater not being considered a respectable art-"but were tolerated in the outer districts of London, such as Southwark, where the Globe was located. Southwark was notorious for its noisy, chaotic entertainments and for its sleazy low-life: its theatres, brothels, bear baiting pits, pickpockets and the like."

The Globe began its life in 1599, in a story that "might be worthy," writes the Shakespeare Resource Center, "of a Shakespearean play of its own." Built from the timbers of the city's first permanent theater, the Burbage, which opened in 1576, the Globe burned down in 1613 "when a cannon shot during a performance of Henry VIII ignited the thatched roof in the gallery." Within the year, it was rebuilt on the same foundations (with a tiled roof) and operated until the Puritans shut it down in 1642, demolishing the famed open-air theater two years later.

In a twist to this so far very English tale, it took the tireless efforts of an expatriate American, actor-director Sam Wanamaker, to bring the Globe back to London. After more than two decades of advocacy, Wanamaker's Globe Playhouse Trust succeeded in recreating the Globe, just a short distance from the original location. Opening in 1997, three-hundred and fifty-five years after the first Globe closed, the new Globe Theatre recreated all of the original's architectural elements.

The stage projects into the circular courtyard, designed for standing spectators and surrounded by three tiers of seats. While the stage itself has an elaborate painted roof, and the seating is protected from the weather by the only thatched roof in London since the 1666 Great Fire, the theater's courtyard is open to the sky. However, where the original Globe held about 2,000 standing and 1,000 seated playgoers, the recreation, notes TimeOut London, holds only about half that number.

Still, theater-goers can "get a rich feel for what it was like to be a 'groundling' (the standing rabble at the front of the stage) in the circular, open-air theatre." Short of that, we can tour the Globe in the virtual recreation at the top of the post. Move around in any direction and look up at the sky. As you do, click on the tiny circles to reveal facts such as "Probably the first Shakespeare play to be performed at the Globe was Julius Caesar, in 1599," and videos like Mark Antony's famous "friends, Romans, countrymen" speech, performed at the Globe, above.

If you don't have the luxury of visiting the new Globe, taking a tour, or seeing a performance lovingly-recreated with all of the costuming (and even pronunciation) from Jacobean England, you can get the flavor of this wondrous achievement in bringing cultural history into the present with the virtual tour, also available as an app for iPhone and iPad users. This interactive tour supersedes a previous version we featured a few years back.
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Take a Virtual Tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London

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The story of the Globe Theatre, the ancestral home of Shakespeare's plays, is itself very Shakespearean, in all of the ways we use that adjective: it has deep roots in English history, a tragic backstory, and represents all of the hodgepodge of London, in the early 17th century and today, with the city's colorful street life, mingling of international cultures, high and low, and its delight in the play and interplay of languages.

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William Shakespeare - Playwright | Mini Bio | BIO

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MIT Global Shakespeares – Video and Performance Archive

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The Maori Merchant of Venice, dir. Don Selwyn (2002): Court Trial Scene Pt. 3

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A Midsummer's Night Dream receives Māori make-over

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Theatre company performs Shakespeare in Maori

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nrhOps0zTo

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Romeo and Tusi, the Pacific Island spin on Romeo and Juliet is back

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TP+ Tongan actor Salesi Le'ota in Pop-up Globe's Hamlet

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Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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South Auckland theatre remodels Shakespeare through Pasifika

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Part 1 of 2 The Maori adaption of the Shakespeare's "Troilus & Cressida"

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Part 1 of 2 The Maori adaption of the Shakespeare's "Troilus & Cressida" Waka Huia TVNZ 6 May 2012 - Waka Huia explores the Maori adaption of the Shakespeare's: "Troilus & Cressida" and how those involved have endeavoured to set this play firmly in Te Ao Maori.

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Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press)

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Teaching Shakespeare | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Teaching Shakespeare | Introducing Iambic Pentameter | Royal Shakespeare Company

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What is Iambic Pentameter? | Text Detectives | Royal Shakespeare Company

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5lsuyUNu_4

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Why Shakespeare loved iambic pentameter - David T. Freeman and Gregory Taylor

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Shakespeare: Iambic Pentameter, the Beat of the 16th Century

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"royal shakespeare company" rsc "the rsc" stratford-upon-avon stratford shakespeare "michael boyd" "william shakespeare" theatre plays drama

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The latest interviews, behind the scenes news and trailers for forthcoming productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company.

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SK-VHE-Shakespeare's Mother The Secret Life of a Tudor Woman

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Shakespeare's Mother  The Secret Life of a Tudor Woman BBC Documentary 2015

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There Is No Escaping Shakespeare | The New York Times

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Shakespeare: Original pronunciation (The Open University)

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Bill and Ted Free Movies Bill and Ted Season 1 Bill and Ted Show Bill and Ted History Report Bill and Ted Commercial Bill and Ted High School Watch Bill and Ted Online Bill and Ted 1992 Bill and Ted Stream Bill and Ted DVD Bill and Ted TV Bill

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Bill and Ted Free Movies Bill and Ted Season 1 Bill and Ted Show Bill and Ted History Report Bill and Ted Commercial Bill and Ted High School Watch Bill and Ted Online Bill and Ted 1992 Bill and Ted Stream Bill and Ted DVD Bill and Ted TV Bill

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The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is the world's leading charity promoting the enjoyment and understanding of Shakespeare's work, life and times. The Trust owns and manages five of Shakespeare's family homes in and around Stratford-upon-Avon, including Shakespeare's Birthplace, Mary Arden's Farm and Anne Hathaway's Cottage.

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David Tennant is Catherine Tate's new English teacher! | Comic Relief - BBC

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David Tennant Explains Why Shakespeare Still Matters

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Shakespeare is everywhere | Christopher Gaze | TEDxVancouver