This year, 2012, is probably the biggest year for William Shakespeare in England since his death. Two of the UK’s biggest cultural institutions, the BBC and the Royal Shakespeare Company, have teamed up with the World Shakespeare Festival to provide a huge Shakespeare tapestry covering the country in the media and on stages in Stratford, London, Newcastle, Birmingham, Wales and Scotland. [...]
Last week I was approached by Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s “Happy Birthday Shakespeare” project to write a blog piece on what Shakespeare means to me. The goal of their project is to gather bloggers from all around the world to share how Shakespeare has influenced/touched their life, to help celebrate his birthday on April 23rd. So, here’s my bash [...]
Shakespeare would have enjoyed the explosion that the English language has experienced with the invention of the Internet because he was fascinated with language. His own influence on the English language cannot be over-estimated, with his invention of new words, new ways of using words and his metaphorical phrases that have become part of normal [...]
What’s in a name? Shakespeare by any other name would surely smell as sweet! The big Shakespeare news in the UK yesterday was red faces all round at leading high street retailer Top Shop, when they realised they’d spelled Shakespeare’s name incorrectly on a t-shirt. The women’s fashion item went on sale online and at [...]
A quick pop quiz for you, do you think the quotes below words are from a hip hop track or Shakespeare play? “To destroy the beauty from which one came” “Maybe it’s hatred I spew, maybe it’s food for the spirit” “Men would rather use their broken records than their bear hands” “I was not [...]
I recently came across a story I wrote some time ago: it was in an anthology of short stories intended for study by GCSE English students in the UK. It was a strange feeling to see it there, accompanied by questions about it and points for discussion. That a story, written for the pleasure and [...]
This guest blog post comes courtesy of Katie over at the extremely readable OrWhatYouWill Shakespeare blog, talking about networking for more Shakespeare buddies: Shakespeare is boring, right? This mindset is so prevalent that loving Shakespeare can often feel like a dirty little secret – an affinity best kept in the closet. It can be difficult to [...]
Happy New Year to all our readers. This is a big year for Shakespeare. It’s not a very well known fact, but Shakespeare played a role in winning the Olympic Games for London. Not only is he the most famous London resident of turn of sixteenth/seventeenth century London but also, according to the results of [...]
What have Hamlet, Tony Blair, H.G. Wells, David Frost, the Emperor Nero, Brian Clough, the White Rabbit and Kenneth Williams got in common? This is an easy one: they’ve all been played by the flavour of the month actor, Michael Sheen. The Welsh actor has played Tony Blair in three films – The Deal, The [...]