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Just as there were no real women on Shakespeare's stage, there were no Jews, Africans, Muslims, or Hispanics either. Even Harold Bloom, who praises Shakespeare as 'the greatest Western poet' in The Western Canon, and who rages against academic political correctness, regards The Merchant of Venice as antisemitic. In 2014 the satirist Jon Stewart responded to Shakespeare's 'stereotypically, grotesquely greedy Jewish money lender' more bluntly.

The post Is Shakespeare racist? appeared first on OUPblog.

Certain facts surrounding Shakespeare, his work, and Elizabethan England have been easy to establish. But there is a wealth of Shakespeare knowledge only gained centuries after his time, across the globe, and far beyond the Anglophone realm.

The post Five random facts about Shakespeare today appeared first on OUPblog.

Out last fall from LEE & LOW BOOKS, Ira’s Shakespeare Dream is a picture book biography that tells the story of Ira Aldridge, an African-American actor who defied convention and prejudice to become one of the most celebrated Shakespearean performers of his century. While much has changed since Ira’s time, the conversation around diversity at the Oscars reminds us that actors of color still struggle to find ample opportunities to practice their art.

We interviewed author Glenda Armand about why she chose to write a book on Ira Aldridge and how far we’ve come when it comes to diversity in the arts.

What drew you to Ira’s story? What about his story made you want to write it for children?

I came across Ira Aldridge when I was researching my first book, Love Twelve Miles Long. I was fascinated by his story and amazed that he was so little known. His life reminds me of the variety of experiences that people of African descent have had on this continent–before, during, and after the founding of the United States. There are so many stories to be told! Specifically, this is what drew me to Ira Aldridge:

• That he was born free in New York during the time of slavery. Most of the African Americans we know about who lived during this time were born slaves in the South. Ira’s story expands our understanding of African American history.
• That he attended the famous African Free School, which was founded in 1785 by the New York Manumission Society, an organization that advocated for the full abolition of African slavery. The Society’s members included the Founders, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. Another notable alumnus of the African Free School is Dr. James McCune Smith, the first African American to become a university-educated physician.
• His story is unique, yet universal. How many people throughout history have gone against their parents wishes’ to follow their own dream?
• Finally, there is the Shakespeare angle. I loved Shakespeare long before I majored in English Lit in college. I was introduced to the Bard by my older sister, Jenny (who became a librarian). She used to entertain my younger siblings and me by reciting lines from Shakespeare. I can hear her, broom or mop in hand, bellowing, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me yours ears…”, “To be or not to be,” or “If you prick us, do we not bleed?”

I thought of Jenny when I included the last two quotes in Ira’s Shakespeare Dream.

How important is it for parents to support their children’s interests? How do you think Ira’s story would be different if his father had supported his dream?                                                                     

It is always important for parents to support their children. I think that Ira’s father believed he was doing what was best for his son when he encouraged Ira to become a preacher. His father was looking at the realities of life for African Americans in the early nineteenth century. And Ira might have had a good life, if he had followed his father’s wishes. What his father did not know was that Ira was destined for greatness.

What do you most admire about Ira Aldridge? Do you believe Ira is a relevant role model for young people today?

I admire Ira for knowing that, in this case, father did not know best, and for being strong and determined enough to follow his own dream. Ira had the self-confidence to blaze his own path. He did not let the lack of role models deter him. He worked hard, prepared himself for success, and was ready when the Wallack brothers gave him the break he needed.

I think Ira is a strong role model for young people today. He shows them that, despite life’s obstacles, they can follow their dream. We all face obstacles even though they may not be the ones that Ira faced. Young people can also follow Ira’s example by finding a way to use their talents and success to help others.

As a former teacher, which Shakespeare play is your favorite?

As a teacher, I would have to choose Romeo and Juliet. It is the play best known by young people. It is the one still being taught in most middle and high schools. Students readily identify with the two main characters. The plot is easily understood, and it is always fun to compare the original with various updated versions.

Though we have come a long way since Ira’s time, diversity in theater and screen time is still a topic of heated discussion today. Where do you think we’re at in this battle, and how far do you think we still need to go?

I tend to be optimistic. In theater, movies and literature, I want to see more good stories. That will necessarily include stories from people of all backgrounds.

We must take responsibility for our own success. Everyone faces obstacles. How we overcome those obstacles becomes part of our unique story. I believe that those who have talent, determination, discipline and patience will eventually succeed.

What we have today that Ira could not imagine, are people and companies like Lee and Low, whose mission is to produce work based on the experiences of people of diverse backgrounds.  This does not mean that everything we submit will be accepted but it does mean that our work will be carefully considered. It means that we may be given advice and ideas to help us grow and improve our craft. This is a great time to be a story teller.

About the Book:

Ira’s Shakespeare Dream

by Glenda Armand, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

Ages 7-13, 32 pages

Purchase a copy of the book here.

At the outset of an undergraduate Shakespeare course I often ask my students to make a list of ten things that may not, or do not, exist. I say “things” because I want to be as vague as possible. Most students submit lists featuring zombies and mermaids, love charms and time travel. Hogwarts is a popular place name, as are Westeros and Middle Earth. But few students venture into religious territory.

The post Shakespeare and conscience appeared first on OUPblog.

Without Islam there would be no Shakespeare. This may seem surprising or even controversial to those who imagine a "national bard" insulated from the wider world. Such an approach is typified in the words of the celebrated historian A.L. Rowse, who wrote that when it came to creatively connecting with that world, Shakespeare, the "quiet countryman," was "the least engaged writer there ever was."

The post Shakespeare and Islam appeared first on OUPblog.

Today is what historians speculate is William Shakespeare’s birthday. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon, England in 1564. Shakespeare is arguably the most well-known playwright of all time, and his works have been produced and acted in for the past 400 years!

Ira’s Shakespeare Dream, written by Glenda Armand and illustrated by Floyd Cooper, follows the life of Ira Aldridge, who was known as one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of the 19^th century.

As a young boy in 19^th century New York City, Ira Aldridge greatly admired the works of Shakespeare. He wanted nothing more than to act in Shakespeare’s plays against his father’s wishes.

Ira later set sale for England, where he ran small errands for theaters. He was also hired as an understudy. Ira got his big break acting when a fellow could not perform. However, he was not well received. He had little training and critics felt that he should not take roles from white actors.

Through his determination and perseverance, Ira Aldridge went on to become one of the most well known Shakespearean actors of his time, especially for his role as Othello. Ira Aldridge’s name is inscribed on a bronze plaque in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, in Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace. He is the only African American among the thirty-three actors to have achieved this recognition.

Ira’s Shakespeare Dream will be out this June.

Stanley Wells’ latest book, Great Shakespeare Actors, offers a series of beautifully written, illuminating, and entertaining accounts of many of the most famous stage performers of Shakespeare from his time to ours. In a video interview, Wells revealed some of the ‘lesser’ remembered actors of the past he would have loved to have seen perform live on stage. The edited transcript below offers an insight into three of these great Shakespeare actors.

The post Who are the forgotten Shakespearean actors? appeared first on OUPblog.

William Shakespeare was born 450 years ago this month, in April 1564, and to celebrate Oxford Scholarly Editions Online is testing your knowledge on Shakespeare quotes. Do you know your sonnets from your speeches? Find out…

Need a clue or two? Then take a look at our Shakespeare birthday infographic!

Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO) is a major publishing initiative from Oxford University Press, providing an interlinked collection of authoritative Oxford editions of major works from the humanities, including the complete Oxford Shakespeare series.

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Image credit: The Droeshout portrait of William Shakespeare. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The post Shakespeare’s 450th birthday quiz appeared first on OUPblog.

        

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By Bart van Es

Richard Burbage © Dulwich Picture Gallery.

It was the first performance of Hamlet around 1601 that projected Burbage into the national imagination. The earliest surviving elegy begins by saying that there will be ‘no more young Hamlet’ after the death of the star:

Oft I have seen him leap into a grave
Suiting the person, which he seemed to have,
Of a sad lover, with so true an eye
That there (I would have sworn) he meant to die.

A 1605 pamphlet notes how the ‘one man’ who plays Hamlet stands at the apogee of his profession, with ‘money’, ‘dignity’, and ‘reputation’ that are destined to earn him a ‘lordship in the country’. The play was ‘diverse times acted by his highness’s servants in the City of London as also in the two universities of Cambridge and Oxford and elsewhere’. It functioned as the calling card of its leading man.

Hamlet proved the making of Burbage, but I suggest that Burbage also had a good deal to do with the way Hamlet was made. Three things about the actor were essential. First, his wealth and playhouse investment. Second, his style of performance. Third, competition with the leading man of a rival company, Edward Alleyn.

Wealth is important because power (just as in modern Hollywood) did not come from talent alone. Before 1599 Burbage had been just one in an acting company of eight equals and his roles in Shakespeare’s plays were commensurate with that stake. But the building of the Globe in 1599 made Richard newly preeminent. He and his brother Cuthbert secured 50% of the venture, with Shakespeare and the four other ‘housekeepers’ having just 10% each. Burbage’s business dominance had immediate implications. Once Burbage was a bigger investor, the company’s playwright wrote him bigger parts. From this point on central characters become more prominent: Henry V, Duke Vincentio, Othello, Lear, Macbeth, Timon, Antony, and Coriolanus (all products of the early Globe years) are not simply longer in their line-counts, they are also grander, more self-defining, roles. Most can be linked with certainty to Burbage and all are very likely to have been played by him. Hamlet (at 1338 lines) is by some measure the largest part in the Shakespeare canon and that statistic connects pretty directly with the actor’s business share.

Of course, Burbage was not just powerful but also gifted. Ben Jonson called him the ‘best actor’ and that reputation was founded, as one elegy put it, on performing ‘so truly to the life’. According to the testimony of Richard Flecknoe:

He was a delightful Proteus, so wholly transforming himself into his part, and putting off himself with his clothes, as he never (not so much as in the tiring house) assumed himself again until the play was done: there being as much difference betwixt him and one of our common actors as between a ballad singer who only mouths it and an excellent singer.

This distance from common actors is vital to Hamlet because it makes possible the Prince’s declaration that ‘forms, moods, shapes of grief’ are merely ‘actions that a man might play’ but that he ‘has that within which passes show’.

Edward Alleyn © Dulwich Picture Gallery.

A final element, though, was the rivalry between Burbage and Alleyn. Exactly like Burbage, Alleyn was an actor who had recently become a big-scale playhouse investor. In 1600 he built the Fortune playhouse to the north of the city, deliberately copying the Globe. To launch his theatre Alleyn revived the roles that had made him famous in the early 1590s: Tamburlaine, Faustus, and other leads in Marlowe plays. Amongst these was Marlowe’s Dido, in which he spoke the following lines:

At last came Pyrrhus, fell and full of ire,
His harness dropping blood, and on his spear
The mangled head of Priam’s youngest son…

In Hamlet (written while Alleyn conducted these revivals) the Prince meets a player and requests an old speech that has a very similar ring:

The rugged Pyrrhus like th’ Hyrcanian beast…
—’Tis not so. It begins with Pyrrhus.
The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble…

Burbage, at the Globe, was pretending awkwardly to remember lines that closely resembled those of his rival on the other side of the Thames. The unpopularity of the ‘tragedians of the city’ (which has forced the player to travel to Elsinore) thus becomes a very local affair.

The player’s long speech (which ‘pleased not the million’ and bores Polonius) is partly a dig at Alleyn, but it is also something more complex. Hamlet admires the old player and behind this there is surely also admiration for Alleyn, with whom Burbage had learned his craft as a travelling actor a decade before.  His character’s inability to ‘drown the stage with tears, / And cleave the general ear with horrid speech’ is an expression of limitation. But it also announces a new kind of acting in which the feelings of characters are not so easily known. Alleyn had starred as Cutlack the Dane with eyes of ‘lightning’ and words of ‘thunder’; Burbage would command the stage in a different way. ‘To be or not to be’ was a question of acting method. The performer whose death Thomas Middleton would describe as an ‘eclipse of playing’ had an artistic vision of his own.

Bart van Es is Lecturer in English at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Catherine’s College. He has previously written books on Edmund Spenser and has a special interest in the writing of history in the Renaissance. Shakespeare in Company is his first work on drama and was supported by the award of an AHRC Fellowship.

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Image credit: Portraits of Richard Burbage and Edward Alleyn used with permission of Dulwich Picture Gallery. All rights reserved. 

The post Richard Burbage: Shakespeare’s first Hamlet appeared first on OUPblog.

Founding Director, Tonto Fielding, of the Shakespeare in the Desert Festival was saddened to announce that this year’s season was cancelled due to the escalation of violence by unnamed drug cartels near Los Ramones. According to published reports, at the opening performance, gunmen fired more than 1,000 bullets and flung six grenades at the stage just at the point when Othello was having a hard time trying to talk himself into killing the sleeping Desdemona. When asked about the decision, Tonto responded to reporters saying, “It’s a shame Los Ramones will be losing this great cultural asset, but hey it’s pretty clear that old Bill’s theme struck a resonate chord with the groundlings. What we had here was a manifestation of the theme that the difference between reputation and honor is the difference between appearance and reality. In fact I thought it quite perceptive of them to pick up on how Othello came to think that the devil was in Desdemona.”

“O thou weed,
Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet
That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne'er been born.”

Hello.

Well, here we are. April. The end of this month will mark one year of this new journey. I am very happy to say I have been able to survive as a freelancer for a whole year. Much has changed, and at times I am still uncertain of what to do. There is still much to learn and much to be done. But I do think I'm off to a good start!

To mark this anniversary of sorts, I took it upon myself to re-design chris-whetzel.com(being uploaded tonight). Lately, I had been really unhappy with the website layout so I read up on some coding issues I was having with the site, and fixed it up to look a little better on any size screen. Also, I decided to use clearer thumbnails and add some features to make things easier for art directors after viewing joshuamiddleton.com. Thanks to Scott and Irene for bringing this website and its positive qualities to my attention. Also, thanks to Josh Middleton for amazing art on a well-designed site. I am really happy with the re-design, and I feel it may be around for a while. Of course the artwork will be updated as close to monthly as I can manage!

The time since my last post has been filled with work, thankfully. All are pending publication, so they will eventually be featured here. I have been very lucky to have some children's work to supplement my income! I am considering featuring the kids work on this blog as well as setting up a site for it. Also just completed was artwork for a client I was very excited to work with! Sadly, this artwork will not be released until June, and I can't wait to add it to the portfolio!

Its been a weird period. I have found myself to be very artistically driven as of late. I just added three new self-initiated pieces to the portfolio (which was a project in itself), planned more portfolio work, and provided artwork for three commissions. The odd part is that while being very busy with this work, I have had this yearning to be reading more. These past two weeks I read Robinson Crusoe and Lord of the Flies; I am currently working my way through Walden again. Walden is a very important book for me; a much of the book reflects how I attempt to live my own life (with some allowances :) Anyway, I have found that this rekindling of the desire to read has really inspired my creative side. What a pleasant surprise.

Now shut yer trap, Chris! Its time for the artwork!

This blog post features three new self-initiated pieces based upon Shakespeare's works. I took these on as a vehicle to experiment within my own artistic methods: playing with color, cropping, and composition as concept:

I am pretty happy with these, and I hope to get more work along these lines. If not, I'll just keep making them for myself, experimenting along the way!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

On this edition of Just One More Book!, Mark gathers some book suggestions from Podcamp Philly Campers.

Our guest reviewers, their primary websites/blogs and their favourite children’s books are:

Todd Marrone: Life Doesn’t Frighten Me
Kristen Crusius: Where the Sidewalk Ends
Chef Mark Tafoya: In the Night Kitchen (on JOMB)
Francis Wooby: Goodnight Moon
Jesse Taylor: A Wrinkle in Time
C.C. Chapman: Green Eggs and Ham
Gretchen Vogelzang: Who Says Quack?, Goodnight Moon, The Magic Treehouse Series, The Enders
Steve Garfield: Help us identify the book
Whitney Hoffman: Artemis Fowl
Eric Skiff: Everyone Poops
Christopher Penn: The Butter Battle Book
Paige Heninger: The Rainbow Goblins, Sheep in a Jeep, Charlie and Lola Series
Lynnette Young: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wizard of Oz

Photo courtesy of C.C. Chapman