The Viola Voice

Ladies,

I don’t know about you, but I have never been more proud to be from CHICAGO!

Congrats Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and Steppenwolf!

Now, all you bloggers, I have a mission for you: GO SEE A PLAY!

XOXO,

Amelia

The Viola Project

Chicago’s Premiere Shakespeare Company for Girls

I have watched this trailer many, many times, and I am truly awed and inspired by it.

http://www.internationalfilmcircuit.com/shakespeare/sbb.mov

Amelia

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Why not couple some Shakespearean quotes to quell your stomachache chock full of all those saccharine sayings and candy hearts? The Bard is the best at comparing love with madness, and here are some excellent examples: 

Cupid is a knavsh lad, thus to make females mad, a midsummer night’s dream – act 3, scene 3  

I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster, much ado about nothing – act 2, scene 3  

Is this the generation of love? Hot blood, hot thoughts and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers. Is love a generation of vipers?, troilus and cressida – act 3, scene 1  

I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me, much ado about nothing – act 1, scene 1  

For all those lovesick folk out there, revel in this interesting fact I found:

 “The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare’s lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine’s Day.”

It has been said that one out of every ten words Shakespeare used was his own. Here are some of the few that he is credited in creating:“arch-villain,” “bedazzle,” “cheap” (as in vulgar or flimsy), “dauntless,” “embrace” (as a noun), “fashionable,” “go-between,” “honey-tongued,” “inauspicious,” “lustrous,” “nimble-footed,” “outbreak,” “pander,” “sanctimonious,” “time-honored,” “unearthly,” “vulnerable,” and “well-bred.” He has also worded the following phrases, most still popular today:

“Eaten out of house and home”, ”Pomp and circumstance”, ”Foregone conclusion”, “Full circle”, “The makings of”, “Method in the madness”, “Neither rhyme nor reason”, “One fell swoop”, “Seen better days”, “It smells to heaven”, “A sorry sight”, “A spotless reputation”, “Strange bedfellows” and  ”The world’s (my) oyster”

 While Shakespeare is a genius, he is often given credit for words he did not create.  Here is a list he uses in his texts, but is often miscredited for inventing:

 ”All that glisters (glistens) is not gold”, “To knit one’s brow”, “Cold comfort”, “(To) give the devil his due”, “To play fast and loose”, “Till the last gasp”, “Laughing stock”, “Fool’s paradise”, “In a pickle”, Out of the question”, “The long and the short of it,” “It’s Greek to me”, “It’s high time”, “The naked truth”

My new favorite Shakespearian word is “friended.” Thought it was invented by Facebook? Not so!

Shakespeare coined and used it in three of his plays: Henry VIII, Cymbeline and Measure for Measure.

 So, if Shakespeare can create a word, why can’t you? Create a word for me, and give its meaning. Maybe I’ll use it in the next TVP workshop!

Amelia

Take a look at this article. Using as a jumping-off point Edward Bond’s seeming disgust at the way his piece, The Woman, is being played as theatre by the actors a week after opening, Alison Croggin goes on to explore the differences between drama and theatre. Drama, it seems, is generally thought of as Serious. Classic. Important. You know, like Shakespeare and Aristophanes. Whereas theatre is modern, edgy, performance based. The problem I see with this sort of categorizing (and Croggin notes this too, albeit in a slightly different way) is that the belief in Ancient, Serious, Classic Drama leads to productions in which the language and subject matter are treated too preciously. After all, Greek drama has bawdy humor all over the place. So do Shakespeare’s comedies. And tragedies. And history plays, romances and sonnets. Beautiful language? Yes. Tragic scenes? But exclusively Serious Drama? Not so much.

To answer the author’s question about drama vs. theatre: I would say that drama is written, for the purpose of being performed. Theatre is the performance itself.

What do you think?

-ellie