In 1642, Shakespeare’s theatre had ended. In that season, on the time of the Civil War, all playhouses were closed up by Parliament order. Some playhouses were rehabilitated into residences, or which were still structurally good still then, or destroyed so that their wood could be recycled elsewhere. The player of that organization could not execute their performs in publicly.

Academy award-nominated director Julie Taymor says she’s in the final planning stages for a film version of “The Tempest.” Taymor recently told the Australian newspaper The Age that she hopes to start shooting in November if financing is available. Taymor said, “We’re at that last horrible moment when we don’t have quite enough money.”

Taymor made her feature film directorial debut in 1999 with “Titus,” based on “Titus Andronicus.” The film starred Anthony Hopkins as Titus and Jessica Lange as Tamora. Since Titus, Taymor has directed “Frida” in 2002 and “Across the Universe” in 2007. Taymor received an Academy Award nomination for her work on “Frida.”

Taymor has directed “The Tempest” on stage twice. Her 1986 production was filmed by WNET-TV in New York and shown on American public television. For the new film, however, Taymor has a gender-bending twist in mind. She told The Age, “In my version, Helen Mirren will play Prospera — the gender has been switched. It’s one of those Shakespeare plays in which such a change is not for the worst, but brings a whole lot more to its depth.”

Explaining her thinking behind this twist, Taymor said, “It goes back to the 16th or 17th century, and women practicing magical arts of alchemy, who were often convicted of witchcraft. In my version, Prospera is usurped by her brother and sent off with her-four-year daughter on a ship. She ends up on an island; it’s a tabula rasa: no society, so the mother figure becomes a father figure to Miranda. You have the power struggle and balance between Caliban and Prospero; it’s not about brawn, but about intellect.”

Taymor recently discussed her approach to directing with The Aspen Times>. She said, “I think when you’re a director, you’re finding a visual metaphor for what you’re doing.” Taymor also explained part of her attraction to adapting the bard for film, saying, “Shakespeare is so visual.” Taymor hasn’t revealed, however, what visual metaphor she has chosen for her film version of “The Tempest.”

Thanks to Ken in Albuquerque for this news tip.

This new edition, The New Testament 1526, contains an authoritative introduction by David Daniell, Chairman Emeritus of the Tyndale Society and author of William Tyndale: A Biography.

Between 1525 and 1535, Tyndale produced the first English Bible, translating the whole of the New Testament and half of the Old Testament. Tyndale’s Bible was printed by Peter Schoeffer in the German city of Worms since its publication was illegal in England.

Under the 1408 Constitutions of Oxford, England forbad any version of the Bible other than St Jerome’s fourth century Latin translation, also known as the Vulgate. During the reign of Henry VIII, the ban was enforced by Cardinal Wolsey and the Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More in an attempt to prevent the spread of Protestantism.

Tyndale’s translation was pronounced heretical the English authorities. Despite the ban, Tyndale’s Bibles still made it to England, smuggled into the country in bales of cloth.

Although Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church in the early 1530s, Tyndale was still accused of spreading sedition. He was captured, condemned as a heretic and finally strangled and burned at the stake outside Brussels in 1536.

Tyndale, however, would have the final word, quite literally. The New Testament of the King James Bible of 1611 was heavily influenced, sometimes almost word for word, by Tyndale’s translation. .

The British Library purchased the 1526 edition of Tyndale’s Bible in 1994 for a little over a million pounds. The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world’s greatest research libraries. The library’s collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilization.

The New Testament 1526 edition translated by William Tyndale is published in hardback by the British Library. Price £30.00, 700, ISBN 978 0 7123 50 28 0.

The book is vailable from the British Library Shop.

The new Royal Shakespeare Company editions will be taken from the RSC Complete Works, which was published last year. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, who edited the RSC Complete Works, will oversee the new series.

Each edition features supporting materials including introductory and analytical essays; historical overviews of the play in performance; recommendations on the best film versions to watch; and interviews with leading actors, directors and designers

The new series is now available in the Unites States through Modern Library and will be available in the United Kingdom next month through Palgrave Macmillan. The first five volumes to be released are A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Richard III, The Tempest and Hamlet. The remaining volumes will be issued in groups of five or six for the next three years until the series is complete.

Author John Reed’s “new” Shakespearean tragedy, All the World’s a Grave, was created by piecing together lines drawn from Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and Henry V. The plot goes something like this: Prince Hamlet goes to war for Juliet, the daughter of King Lear. Having captured Juliet as his bride, he returns home to find that his mother has murdered his father and married Macbeth. Enter Iago, who persuades Hamlet that Juliet is having an affair with Romeo. As the Prince goes mad with jealousy, King Lear mounts his army.

The play has received early praise from Sir Ian McKellen and a brief staging in New York over the Labor Day weekend.

The following is a list of Shakespeare-related books released in August. Every attempt was made to be a comprehensive as possible but some books may not be listed.

Criticism and Scholarly Research

Caliban’s Voice: The Transformation of English in Postcolonial Literatures by Bill Ashcroft (Author)

Shakespeare, National Poet-Playwright by Patrick Cheney

Shakespeare’s World/World Shakespeares: The Selected Proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress Brisbane,
by Richard Fotheringham (Editor), R. S. White (Editor), Christa Jansohn (Editor), International Shakespeare Association, World Congress Staff (Contribution by)

A Comparison of Six Adaptations of Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” 1681-1962: How Changing Politics Influence the Interpretation of a Text by David George

Shakespeare and Laughter: A Cultural History by Indira Ghose

“Romeo and Juliet”: Parallel Texts of Quarto 1 (1597) and Quarto 2 (1599) by Jay L. Halio (Editor)

Catholics Writing the Nation in Early Modern Britain and Ireland by Christopher Highley

Hamlet and the Rethinking of Man by Eric P. Levy

Shakespeare Editions

The Necessary Shakespeare by David Bevington

All’s Well That Ends Well – Oxford World’s Classics by William Shakespeare (Author), Susan Snyder (Editor)

Cymbeline – Oxford World’s Classics by William Shakespeare, Roger Warren (Editor)

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark – Modern Library Classics with Royal Shakespeare Company by William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate (Editor), Eric Rasmussen (Editor)

Henry VI: Pt. 1 – Oxford World’s Classics by William Shakespeare (Author), Michael Taylor (Editor)

Henry IV: Pt. 2 – Oxford World’s Classics by William Shakespeare (Author), René Weis (Editor)

Henry V – Oxford World’s Classics by William Shakespeare, Gary Taylor (Editor)

King John – Oxford World’s Classics by William Shakespeare (Author), A. R. Braunmuller (Editor)

King Lear (Shakespeare’s First Folio) by William Shakespeare (Author)

Love’s Labour’s Lost – Modern Library Classics with Royal Shakespeare Company by William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate (Editor), Eric Rasmussen (Editor)

The Merry Wives of Windsor – Oxford World’s Classics by William Shakespeare (Author), T. W. Craik (Editor)

Midsummer Night’s Dream – Modern Library Classics with Royal Shakespeare Company by William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate, Eric Rasmussen (Editor)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s First Folio) by William Shakespeare (Author)

Richard III – Library Classics with Royal Shakespeare Company by William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate (Editor), Eric Rasmussen (Editor)

Richard II – Penguin Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (Author), Paul Edmondson (Editor, Introduction), Stanley W. Wells (Editor, Series Editor), T. J. B. Spencer (Series Editor)

Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s First Folio) by William Shakespeare (Author)

The Taming of the Shrew – Oxford World’s Classics by William Shakespeare, H. J. Oliver (Editor)

The Tempest – Modern Library Classics with Royal Shakespeare Company by William Shakespeare, Jonathan Bate, Eric Rasmussen (Editor)

Timon of Athens – Oxford World’s Classics by William Shakespeare (Author), John Jowett (Editor)

Troilus and Cressida – Oxford World’s Classics by William Shakespeare, Kenneth Muir (Editor)

Below is the list of Read Not Dead Performances for the Autumn/Winter Season 2008

The Doubtful Heir (1639) by James Shirley

Smuggled out of Murcia as a baby to protect him from his tyrannous uncle, Ferdinand
returns as an adult to challenge the right to the throne of his cousin, Olivia. With him,
disguised as a page, is his childhood sweetheart, Rosania. Will the rights of the
‘doubtful heir’ be recognised? Will Ferdinand be free to marry Rosania? First
performed in Dublin under the title Rosania, or Love’s Victory, and later revived in
London by the King’s Men, Shirley’s tragicomedy skilfully dramatises the competing
demands of politics and romance.

A Challenge for Beauty (1635) by Thomas Heywood
Isabella, the proud queen of Spain and Portugal, refuses to believe that any woman
alive can challenge her for beauty and virtue. Lord Bonavida rashly disputes her
claim, and finds himself facing eternal banishment if he cannot find a paragon to
match her. His choice lights on the Englishwoman Helena, but the queen will not
surrender without a fight. A Challenge for Beauty shows an elder statesman of
English drama trying his hand at the fashionable style of the mid 1630s.

The Northern Lass (1629) by Richard Brome

Constance, the ‘northern lass’, arrives in London, where she fatefully encounters Sir
Philip Sparrow, and becomes embroiled in the knight’s romantic entanglements.
Mistaken identity, madness, and numerous disguises follow. Praised by Jonson,
Dekker and Ford on its publication in 1632, Brome’s witty and touching comedy, with
its appealing heroine, was a popular hit on the Caroline stage, and remained in the
theatrical repertory well into the eighteenth century.

The Lover’s Melancholy (1628) by John Ford

‘The commonwealth is sick; ’tis more than time / That we should wake the head
thereof’. Palador, Prince of Cyprus, is consumed by a deep melancholy following the
death of his despotic father, while the old Lord Meleander has sunk into madness
following the attempted rape and subsequent disappearance of his daughter,
Eroclea. With a little help from Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, Ford’s play details
the political and psychological ramifications of a tyrant’s actions on the next
generation.

In addition to Anthony Hopkins, the film will feature Keira Knightley as Cordelia, Gwyneth Paltrow as Regan, and Naomi Watts as Goneril.

According the article published 10 August, “The director and producers of the movie, which is due to start filming in the spring, arrive in Scotland tomorrow to examine potential locations. Faye Ward, one of the London-based producers, told Scotland on Sunday: “It’s definitely more than a possibility.”

Locations in Skye, the West Highlands, Perthshire are on the producers’ itinerary. The filmmakers say they are looking for epic, untouched landscapes. Several Scottish castles are also being considered including Eilean Donan Castle and Blackness, which was used in Mel Gibson’s 1990 version of Hamlet.

The film’s director, Joshua Michael Stern, describes the movie as, “Extremely raw and very bloody.” The movie will reportedly include battle scenes similar to those in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. Filming on the $35 million movie is scheduled to begin shooting in January of 2009.

Stern’s latest movie, the political satire Swing Vote starring Kevin Costner, just opened in the United States.

timon1

Director Lucy Bailey and designer William Dudley have partially transformed Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for their new production of Timon of Athens. They’ve strung a rope net above the audience, from which bungee-cord assisted actors swoop down on stage like so many vultures. Bailey recently told The Independent, “My concept of Timon is to see this man-eating world in terms of carrion and their prey. I was very influenced by Hitchcock’s The Birds in this and I wanted to create this very frightening world of vultures. I also wanted to create a whole world of acting above the audience that would interrelate with them.”

Their efforts have garnered mixed reviews from London’s theatre critics.

Benedict Nightingale of The Times gives the best review, awarding the production four out of five stars. He has high praise for the “impressively imaginative production” which he says, “Leaves you perversely wondering if Bailey’s revival isn’t better than Shakespeare’s play.”

Regarding the rope net, “The effect isn’t so much Cirque du Soleil,” Nightingale writes, “as a dark-star or even black-hole circus that embodies Shakespeare’s bleak mood circa 1605, when he wrote both Timon and Lear.” He adds that the set, “Doesn’t upstage some fine performances,” including that of Simon Paisley Day’s “lordly” Timon.

Michael Billington of The Guardian gives Timon three out of five stars. He also likes the production’s concept, writing, “Director Lucy Bailey and designer William Dudley have taken a refreshingly radical approach to this self-consciously traditional space, covering the Globe’s open yard with a vast net …visually, the effect is striking.” But he cautions, “The result, however, is to shift attention away from Timon’s complex psyche towards his parasitic chums and plummeting creditors.”

Billington says the biggest problem lies with Timon himself who, “Seems to be ticking off the appropriate boxes rather than expressing an embittered Lear-like vision.”

Serena Davies of The Telegraph gives the worst review, taking Billington’s critique a step further. She calls the netting, “An initially breathtaking stroke.” But breathtaking gasps turn to sighs of fatigue for Davies. She explains, “With the cast constantly buckling up safety harnesses before they take flight it soon starts to feel literally laboured.”

Davies is equally hard on Day’s portrayal of the title character, writing, “It takes a great actor to make Timon’s speechifying about the vacuity of gold in the second half seem anything other than interminable, but Simon Paisley Day is not the man to do it.”

Nick Curtis of the Evening Standard gives the play a split verdict with three out of five stars. Curtis says, “The commanding central performance of Simon Paisley Day,” helps keep the production from being swamped by the netting and conceptual staging. The net is a problem, he says, because it’s, “A trick that shows diminishing returns.” He adds, “It takes ages for the aerial performers to get into position, but the moment there’s a twang or a tweet from up above, you can see distraction wash like a Mexican wave over the audience.”

Whereas Bendedict Nightingale of The Times felt that Bailey’s revival might be better than Shakespeare’s play, Curtis concludes, “It’s hard to escape the feeling that Bailey and designer William Dudley don’t trust the material.”

Doran answers the first question in an interview with Hermione Hoby of  “The Observer”. Doran reveals, “A good idea for a Shakespeare tends to fire on several cylinders; one of them is the actor and one of them is the timing. I was watching Meet the Ancestors and saw David in this church wearing a black greatcoat and he picked up a skull. I texted him and said, ‘Saw your audition for Hamlet on the telly’.”

Doran also discusses why he dislikes ‘mobile-phone Shakespeare’ and how he’s handling the stress of his much-anticipated production.

Read the complete Observer interview.

In a separate essay for The Guardian, Doran discusses trimming the text of Hamlet. Unaltered, the play takes more than four hours to perform. Doran’s production runs three hours and thirty-five minutes. But cutting Shakespeare isn’t a task to be taken lightly. In the essay, Doran says that a full-length Hamlet will frighten audience members away while an over-pruned version risks patronizing them. He explains, “Some directors cut the opening scene on the battlements. Others cut Voltemand and Cornelius, the ambassadors to Norway, and Polonius’s spy, Reynaldo, is frequently elbowed out. But all these characters reinforce the politics of the play, and the familiar world of hypersurveillance that operates in Elsinore. Then there’s Fortinbras, the action hero who happens to wander into the body-strewn court and ends the play. He often gets the boot. But he provides the play’s international perspective.”

But cut he must and cut he did. Doran discusses the nips and tucks he make to the play including his reason for moving Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech.

Read the complete essay in The Guardian.

Taymor made her feature film directorial debut in 1999 with “Titus,” based on “Titus Andronicus.” The film starred Anthony Hopkins as Titus and Jessica Lange as Tamora. Since Titus, Taymor has directed “Frida” in 2002 and “Across the Universe” in 2007. Taymor received an Academy Award nomination for her work on “Frida.”

Taymor has directed “The Tempest” on stage twice. Her 1986 production was filmed by WNET-TV in New York and shown on American public television. For the new film, however, Taymor has a gender-bending twist in mind. She told The Age, “In my version, Helen Mirren will play Prospera — the gender has been switched. It’s one of those Shakespeare plays in which such a change is not for the worst, but brings a whole lot more to its depth.”

Explaining her thinking behind this twist, Taymor said, “It goes back to the 16th or 17th century, and women practicing magical arts of alchemy, who were often convicted of witchcraft. In my version, Prospera is usurped by her brother and sent off with her-four-year daughter on a ship. She ends up on an island; it’s a tabula rasa: no society, so the mother figure becomes a father figure to Miranda. You have the power struggle and balance between Caliban and Prospero; it’s not about brawn, but about intellect.” (Read the complete Age article)

Taymor recently discussed her approach to directing with The Aspen Times. She said, “I think when you’re a director, you’re finding a visual metaphor for what you’re doing.” Taymor also explained part of her attraction to adapting the bard for film, saying, “Shakespeare is so visual.” Taymor hasn’t revealed, however, what visual metaphor she has chosen for her film version of “The Tempest.” (Read the complete Aspen Times article)

Thanks to Ken in Albuquerque for this news tip.

This summer marks the 36th season for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare festival. But it many ways it’s a new beginning. Visitor health insurance helps in case of any medical emergency during international visits. Before this year, the festival imported productions from other companies. Now, in an effort to become a nationally recognized theatre, the festival has hired a new artistic director and an in-house production team. With this new team in place, the festival will stage original productions of “Richard III” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” along with “CAMBIO”, an original musical love story based on Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Audiences will see many other improvements including an upgraded stage, original choreography, live music during performances and sets designed to incorporate the natural surroundings of Lake Tahoe.

Jan Powell, the festival’s new artistic director, came to Lake Tahoe from Portland, Oregon where she founded the Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company. She is also a former president of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America. In preparing for the new season, she brought in a new team of designers, directors, and technical staff. She also traveled the U.S. to cast the festival’s company of actors. One of Powell’s prime goals is to combine local influence with national and international talent for the festivals productions. “We’re thrilled to be able to tap into the vast talent in the Reno-Tahoe area and make it an intrinsic part of creating our new artistic vision in this community,” said Powell. “Our goal is to support and utilize the talent base in the region as well as bring new talent in from the rest of the country, in order to create an exceptional theatre experience for our audiences.”

Powell’s artistic philosophy is demonstrated by her decision to invite London’s Michael Walling to guest direct this summer’s presentation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Walling is the founder of London’s Border Crossings Theatre and Combined Arts which was created as a way to literally cross geographic borders and unite cultures through theatre arts.

Walling’s ‘Midsummer’ is set in contemporary Lake Tahoe and draws inspiration from the area’s rich Native American heritage to give the play a distinctive Western quality. “My experiences producing plays throughout the world couldn’t have prepared me for the immense and awe-inspiring landscape I encountered when first visiting Lake Tahoe,” said Walling. “It quickly became my muse. The combination of the high alpine environment and radiant azure waters opened my mind to a dreamlike and spiritual state that I was able to weave into the production along with the history of the Native American peoples of the region.” Catherine Atack, executive director for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival adds, “Michael’s experience in translating Shakespeare’s works into a variety of contexts and using the plays to create a socially relevant dialogue is exactly what we were looking for during our inaugural season with our own production team.

More than 30,000 people attend Lake Tahoe’s productions each year according to statistics released by festival management. The plays are complemented by food and regional wines from Shakespeare’s Kitchen, the festival’s cafe. The 2008 season starts July 10 with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and runs through August 17. The festival is located in Sand Harbor State Park on the northeastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada. Tickets and information about the 2008 season are available at the Lake Tahoe Festival website at www.laketahoeshakespeare.com.