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

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.

Thanksgiving Day Blog-a-Thon Starts with Shakespeare Quote

Since there is not too much going on during Thanksgiving Day here at my mom's house in gorgeous Galax, Va. (not really where I am, nor is it where mom lives), I thought I would have Thanksgiving Day Blog-a-Thon, which means that in the next 24 hours, I will attempt to have three posts up on both of my blogs.

We start with The Bard, aka William Shakespeare, because a newly remodeled version of the original Shakespeare Theatre is supposedly getting set to open in Stratford-on-Avon, England, but our intern Javier went home to Honduras for Thanksgiving so we don't have time to actually verify this.

However, we can somewhat confirm that the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va., which has been renamed at least 14 times (well, not really, but at least three times for certain) is staging the last performances of three Shakespeare plays this weekend, including "Henry IV, Part 2" (ends Nov. 26), "Taming of the Shrew" (ends Nov. 28) and "Othello" (ends Nov. 27).

The ever-gorgeous and very talented Shakespearean actress Ginna Hoben from the company is getting set to perform her one-woman show called "The Twelve Dates of Christmas," starting on Nov. 30. Hobben wrote the play as well, and it supposedly makes fun of my gender (which is male), dating and Christmas.

Due north of Staunton, in Washington, DC, The Folger Library will be performing Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" starting on Jan.25, 2011. It will run through March 6.

And, my Facebook friend Andrew Neal may well have a comic book version of "Hamlet" or "Romeo and Juliet" at Chapel Hill Comics in Chapel Hill, NC, which is having a Black Friday sale on Black Friday. Featured items will include Scott Pilgrim t-shirts, Giant Microbes and Pokemon cards. They also have plenty of Archie's Comics (the above cover is an obvious satire of "Macbeth" with Jughead) on-hand. As it turns out, there is an English company called Shakespeare Comics which actually puts Shakespeare's works into comic book versions for young readers.

Here is our quote from Willy himself:

"Everyone ought to bear patiently the kindness of his own conduct."

Lastly, for those keeping track today's trending topics include Cookie Monster, Freddie Mercury, North Korea and Ugly Betty. Please, don't bother asking us why!

Shakespeare Over Soccer?!

The United State men's national soccer team hosted Turkey yesterday afternoon in a 'friendly' game in Philadelphia, which resulted in a 2-1 victory for the home team.

A few hours prior to learning about the game, I brought tickets to see a matinee performance of William Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well" at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Staunton, Va., some four and a half hours south of Philly.

The soccer game was airing on ESPN-2 at 1:30 p.m., just a half hour before the curtain was to rise, so I phoned a friend in North Carolina to see if by chance he would tivo the game for me. As it turned out, Osman Bey (not his real name) was taking the whole extended family, a party of 11 people including his toddler grandchildren, to Philly for the game!

The game was apparently an exciting one as Turkey scored first on a goal from Arda Turdan, who plays for Istanbul powerhouse GalataSaray, in the 27th minute. But, the second half completely belonged to the home squad as Team America scored an equalizer in the 58th minute as Robbie Findley, who plays for the current MLS champ Real Salt Lake (Salt Lake City, Utah) lofted a pass to American star Landon Donovan of the L.A. Galaxy who in turned passed the ball to teammate Jozy Altidore who scored the goal.

Then, Clint Dempsey, on another Donovan assist, snuck the ball past Turkish goalie Volkan Demirel, who plays for another Istanbul powerhouse FenerBahce, in the 75th minute to give Team America a 2-1 lead which they held on to until game's end.

The match was played in front of 55,047 people at Lincoln Field. Afterward, Donovan told reporters that: "We're going to be good as we want to be." Team American next faces England in the World Cup in South Africa in June. Vice President Joe Biden will be attending the game in person.

As for the Turkish side, the newspaper "Today's Zaman" speculated that partisan Turkish soccer fans might be hostile towards new team coach Guus Hiddink (a Dutch citizen) if play doesn't improve. Turkey did not qualify for this year's World Cup though their arch rivals Greece did.

The Turkey-USA game put me in a bit of a political quandary as I am a Turkish-American, and though I grew up in Roanoke, Va., I felt compelled to root for my late father's country.

But, apparently, my situation was not as awkward as the one that Guiseppe Rossi, 23, an Italian-American soccer player who grew up in Clifton, NJ, faced as he chose not only to play for Italy, but he scored two goals for his team in a win over the United States earlier this year! Hence, some partisan American soccer fans have taken to calling him 'Judas.'

As for "All's Well That Ends Well," the production was simply delightful though I was glad I didn't have a Blackberry which might have forced me to check the score of the game during the play's intermission.

The ever-gorgeous actress Kelly McKinnon was delightful as The Countess and the barefoot pilgrim Mariana as was African-American actress Brandi Rhome who played the roles of Diana and Steward in the production. She plays Juliet in one of the troupe's other current plays "Romeo and Juliet." Rick Blunt also stood out as Parolles as did Josh Carpenter who played The Duke and (interestingly enough!) the widow.

For more information about tickets and performances, log on to www.ASCstaunton.com or call 1-877-MUCH-ADO.