Happy Valentine's (2 of 4): Love in the Arts........

These are scenes from two Shakespeare plays ("Romeo and Juliet" and "Othello") as well as a Turkish and an Italian film, a drawing of a French version of "Bonnie and Clyde" and a Japanese anime still.

Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare

Today is both William Shakespeare's 449th birthday, and it is National Talk Like Shakespeare Day here in America. Apparently, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel formally recognized the occasion at city hall today.

There are plenty of Shakespeare productions going on domestically (and, assuredly in England and other parts of the world as well).

The American Shakespeare Center (we still like to call them Shenandoah Shakespeare, their old name) in Staunton, Va.,  is performing both "Twelfth Night" and "Love's Labour Lost," right now.

Just down the road in High Point, NC, the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival is holding auditions for "MacBeth" or the Scottish Play from April 29-30th.

And, the Reduced Shakespeare Company will be performing throughout the United Kingdom as well as well as performances in Urbana, Ill., on April 27th and in Columbia, Md., on June 22nd.

We are told that they can do "Romeo and Juliet" in 14 and a half minutes!

http://www.talklikeshakespeare.org

http://www.amerianshakesperacecenter.com

http://www.ncshakes.org

http://www.reducedshakespeare.com

Quote from Shakespeare: Keeping It Short

Alas, we tried to find a real stage scene from "Romeo and Juliet," but we had to settle for this image of a very young Claire Danes playing the ill-fated Juliet on film (whatever happened to her co-star; yes that is a joke!).

The Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, will be performing another William Shakespeare classic "The Taming of the Shrew" starting on May. 7, 2012.

Here is the quote:

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

Wow, we were able to keep this one short!

SIDEBAR: Our thoughts go out to the Virginia Tech campus and community in the wake of a fatal shooting of a campus police officer earlier today. For more updates on the school where I once hosted a Turkish music show from WUVT-FM, I suggest another student-run media, "The Collegiate Times," which is Virginia Tech's newspaper (www.collegiatetimes.com). This is obviously a chilling reminder of many fairly recent campus tragedies at Virginia, including the April 2007 mass shooting.

Also, we want to send our kudos to the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Va., which decided to screen "Anonymous" tonight in spite of the tragedy. Of course, I should point out, that I may very well disagree with the point that someone besides Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare, which is the thesis of the film "Anonymous." Starting tomorrow, the Lyric will screen the acclaimed film "Narrow Margin."

Quoting Romeo and Juliet for V-Day

Yes, there is considerable irony here dear reader as I hate and despise Valentine's Day pretty much as much as you do, but I couldn't help think that this was a good opportunity to shamelessly quip the one Shakespeare play that may have influenced those hot Mexican soap operas one might come across on Telemundo_ that is of course "Romeo and Juliet."

So, here is a quote from the story who's ending has been given out via spoiler alerts since I was in the eighth grade in 1985:

"Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow."

The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va., is not currently performing "Romeo and Juliet," but they are staging another Shakespeare play "The Comedy of Errors," with one the impressive Sarah Fallon as Adriana.

SIDEBAR: Though there initially appeared to be a major conflict, it looks like if (and that's a big if) I'm willing and able, I might just be able to head down the road to Raleigh, NC, to see speed metal band GWAR perform at the Lincoln theatre on Thurs., Feb. 17. Alas, my soon-to-be 41-year-old ears have been pretty messed up ever since I listened to a concert by The Kinks on the now-defunct "King Biscuit Flour Hour" on the also now-defunct Rock 105 out of Blacksburg, Va., in 1987 (I think singing "Lola" at the top of my lungs that very same night almost made me a homeless teenager).

GWAR will also perform in Alletown, Pa., on Feb. 18 and in Brooklyn, NY, on Feb. 20

But, don't presume one can not enjoy both speed metal and the works of history's greatest composers (I should host a "Mozart and Metallica Hour" on some indy or college radio station, but there may only be three listeners even if you pick up the live stream in Kuwait), as we will also mention here that the Louisville Symphony is performing the works of Haydn, Ravel and Stravinsky on Feb. 24 at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 24. The concert will feature a Paris-theme. We take it that wearing Van Halen t-shirts to the event might be a very bad idea.

Pardon the Interuption...

Yes, we have been offline for three-to-four days due to some rather awful (can anyone use that word objectively?!) life circumstances which lead to having a nightmare which ended with me waking up and yelling: "Naked Lunch!" at 5:30 a.m. I have no idea how William Burroughs came to invade my subconscious!

While I can not tell you of the many terrible ordeals I've been through lately, I can tell you that our friends at The Washington Ballet (ok, so we don't anyone there!) in our nation's capital are performing Septime Webre's version of "Romeo and Juliet" from Nov. 3-7, 2010.

Incidentally, the image above is a test screen from TRT (Turkish Radio and Television). When I lived in Turkey as a child from 1977-1979, I was so excited to watch "Uzay 1999" (which is really the American cult sci-fi series "Space 1999") that I would watch these test bars before the show would finally air. Back in Turkey in the late '70s, tv did not often air until 7:00 p.m., during the week.

Of course, back in those days, when I returned home to Roanoke, Va., I had to wiggle the antenna to watch one of my generation's favorite cartoon "Superfriends" (which featured all the main DC Comic Book characters, even Aqua Man) from Channel 13, which is still the ABC affiliate in nearby Lynchburg, Va.

Top 10 Shakespeare Plays

We beg to differ, but listserve.com thinks "Hamlet" is William Shakespeare's best play (it would number 3 behind "Othello" and "Macbeth" on my list). For those who adore "Merchant of Venice," we should warn you in advance that it has been snubbed!

While researching this post, we came across a nifty blog called blogshakespearegeek.com which makes me wonder how people can focus on just one thing!

For those who reside in Virginia, The American Shakespeare Center in the Shenandoah Valley town of Staunton, Va., is currently performing "Henry V, Part 2," "Othello" and "Taming of the Shrew."

Cast members include James Keegan, Sarah Fallons and the adorable Ginna Hoben, who was great in "Othello" (I saw it when it first opened).

Here is the list, which all of you should memorize for your English quiz on Monday:

1) Hamlet (pictured above-Laurence Olivier)
2) Romeo and Juliet (is this the one with the unhappy ending?)
3) Henry V
4) Midsummer Night's Dream (we prefer the Woody Allen movie)
5) Macbeth (aka The Scotish Play)
6) Richard III
7) Julius Caesar (the man behind the salad)
8) 12th Night
9) Taming of the Shrew
10) Othello
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