tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944skygiantsskygiantsskygiants2024-03-12T02:00:50Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944:676090skygiants @ 2024-03-11T21:23:002024-03-12T02:00:50Z2024-03-12T02:00:50Zpublic21Really recommend having friends whom you can message and say 'hey I will be in town next month, what theater should we go see' and inevitably it will be a banger; relatedly, also really recommend Fiasco Theater's <a href="https://www.classicstage.org/pericles/">Pericles</a> at the Classic Stage Company if you happen to get a chance to see it. <br /><br /><i>Pericles</i> is one of Shakespeare's Weird Ones -- it spans 20 years, the titular Pericles bops around from island to island having really tonally dissonant adventures, villains get erased from the narrative offscreen because they were struck by lightning and assassinations get interrupted by pirates turning up out of nowhere to suddenly kidnap the assassinatee -- and Fiasco Theater not only gets round this but joyously leans into it. From the moment in the first scene that an evil king gestures to what in Shakespeare's text is a Pile of Dead Heads and in this production is four actors standing around the main action tilting their heads and making grotesque 'we're dead!' faces in perfect unison, I knew we were going to be in extremely good hands. <br /><br />The cast of the production are all costumed in very basic linen shirts and trousers, throwing on and off various capes and scarves and headgears and bits of armor as they take on different characters; every time Pericles encounters a major oceanic transition, a new Pericles actor takes over, with the previous Pericles rotating back into the ensemble. This has the impressive effect of making the relative incoherence of the play feel intentional and perhaps even meaningful, while also giving every single actor a chance to shine in at least three different roles. Our first Pericles also played a raunchy governor and a random prince with one line and clearly had as much or more fun delivering his one line as the random prince as he did any of his larger roles, and you got that sense from all of them all the way through. <br /><br />Generally speaking, the show was consistently very funny and charming without becoming so much a parody that its emotional beats did not hit. I was especially impressed by the SUPER CUTE royal father & daughter duo in the second section -- this also had a really delightful dance scene where there was some business of the dad king making a point of Showing His Daughter's Crush How the Choreography Worked and it was just so, so fun -- and by the fact that somehow this cast managed to make the brothel scene in the back half, which I think would have been excruciating and miserable to watch in almost any other production, really fun and entertaining. They were also really natural at interacting with the audience! It was a very small theater, and the actors had made a point of wandering around before the official start of the show to say hello, so when a guy two seats next to us got struck down with a mortifying coughing fit the narrator could pause to nod and tell him "you're fine" and it just felt very like yeah, okay, the fourth wall <i>is</i> and should be a permeable thing and we and the cast are all in it together enjoying the magic of theater. <br /><br />The one thing I did not like is that there were a couple of songs in the production, and several of the songs used modern language and unnecessarily spelled out things that the actors had just made perfectly clear with effective stagecraft, and we all agreed on leaving that they needn't have and in fact we would really rather they hadn't. I am exempting the opening song from this, which in fact does mostly use language from the play and as a result I found it perfectly fine; you can in fact hear it in the trailer, here:<br /><br /><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ExgK2wNvCkg?si=oL-_KHQBDqPsQKAW" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=skygiants&ditemid=676090" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944:558491skygiants @ 2019-08-03T18:43:002019-08-03T23:14:28Z2019-08-04T11:37:11Zpublic27Last night we went to go see Boston Shakespeare in the Park's <i>Cymbeline</i>, on the Common. It was a perfectly respectable production of <i>Cymbeline</i>, a show that I believe <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://newredshoes.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://newredshoes.dreamwidth.org/'><b>newredshoes</b></a></span> once described as a highlights reel of all of Shakespeare's other plot points crammed into one play, featuring as it does: <br /><br />- fakeout poison<br />- crossdressing<br />- a stubborn king who just has to learn to appreciate his daughter more <br />- a convoluted scheme to make a virtuous wife seem adulterous<br />- ill-advised bro bets <br />- an unwanted arranged marriage <br />- a murderous evil stepmother<br />- attempted wife murder (based on the aforementioned convoluted scheme to make a virtuous wife seem adulterous)<br />- kidnapped princes being raised as humble peasants in the Arcadian forest<br />- fakeout beheading<br />- a number of rapturous odes to the town of Milford Haven <br />- the Roman invasion of Britain<br />- the longest 'have some surprise identity reveals and convoluted explanations!' scene in all of Shakespeare, observed by an audience of confused captive Romans<br />- Jupiter descending from the heavens to consult with some ghosts<br />- (I can't believe I had completely forgotten the existence of the scene in which Jupiter descends from the heavens to consult with some ghosts but Boston Shakespeare in the Park wanted to make sure you NOTICED it) <br /><br />Anyway, we enjoyed it very much, but on the way back <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://genarti.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://genarti.dreamwidth.org/'><b>genarti</b></a></span> and I started trying to figure out how you'd re-jigger the plot so that you still got all of the various batshit elements and the general shape of the story stayed the same (including -- <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://genarti.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://genarti.dreamwidth.org/'><b>genarti</b></a></span> was very insistent -- the rapturous odes to Milford Haven) but also so that Posthumus Leonatus, the love interest and nominal hero of the piece, is not a literal attempted wife murderer before the happy reconciliation at the end of the story. And after some back and forth, I think we've got it! <br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/558491.html#cutid1">Under the cut so Cymbeline nerds can read it and tell us how we're wrong</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=skygiants&ditemid=558491" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944:428268skygiants @ 2015-12-28T22:01:002015-12-29T04:03:35Z2015-12-29T23:06:18Zpublic35In the past two weeks, I have seen two children's musicals. One was New Repertory Theater's <a href="http://www.newrep.org/productions/the-snow-queen/">The Snow Queen</a>, which <a href="http://jinian.dreamwidth.org/670031.html">jinian</a> has already posted about, and <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://genarti.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://genarti.dreamwidth.org/'><b>genarti</b></a></span> has promised to post about, and <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://littledust.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://littledust.dreamwidth.org/'><b>littledust</b></a></span> has made a number of pointed tweets about, so I'm just going to ... let that unfortunate conglomeration of snow bees, talking flowers and poor directorial judgment sit where it's lying for a while. <br /><br />INSTEAD I am going to talk about A.R.T.'s <a href="http://americanrepertorytheater.org/node/18734/">The Pirate Princess</a>, the Twelfth Night MUSICAL PIRATE AU, which <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://genarti.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://genarti.dreamwidth.org/'><b>genarti</b></a></span> and I went to see tonight and <span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/428268.html#cutid1">which was everything we wanted it to be AND MORE!</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=skygiants&ditemid=428268" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944:394833skygiants @ 2014-12-16T19:05:002014-12-17T00:18:03Z2014-12-17T00:19:25Zpublic33In other news I have gotten quite behind on my <a href="http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/391000.html">December meme posts!</a> I was supposed to do most and least favorite adaptations of books for <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://thady.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://thady.dreamwidth.org/'><b>thady</b></a></span> on the twelfth, but this whole weekend got eaten by holiday parties, so we'll just pretend that's today. <br /><br />It's a hard question to answer though! Can I cheat and count <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i> as a book, even though it's a play? Because the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson <i>Much Ado</i> is so near and dear to my heart, and so VERY MUCH my formative <i>Much Ado</i>, that it's really difficult for me to accept any other adaptations -- even though it has flaws! So many flaws! Kenneth Branagh cut out all of Hero's best bits of dialogue, <i>I know</i>, it's an awful thing, and yet! THE WORLD MUST BE PEOPLED. <br /><br />Also the Christopher Eccleston <i>Revenger's Tragedy</i>, which if we're talking about INCREDIBLY BIZARRE adaptations of early modern theater is my favorite hands down. One of these days I'm going to picspam this DW mercilessly with screenshots from that film, and then maybe you'll all understand. MAYBE. <br /><br />Oh, OK, one more thing: I haven't actually seen this yet, so it's <i>definitely</i> cheating, but just the fact that there EXISTS an anime adaptation of <i>A Little Princess</i> that's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strain:_Strategic_Armored_Infantry">a space opera about Sarah piloting a giant mecha</a> is ... how can I put this? The knowledge of its existence is a balm to my soul. <br /><br />As for least favorites ... can we also count books adapted into other books? Because ye gods, <i>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.</i> YE GODS. YOU WERE SO TERRIBLE, AND YOU UNLEASHED SO MANY HORRORS.<br /><br />This is a fun topic, though. I encourage everyone to come rant about least favorite adaptations, should you feel so inclined!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=skygiants&ditemid=394833" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944:385127skygiants @ 2014-09-05T23:49:002014-09-06T04:40:40Z2014-09-06T12:17:23Zpublic14Tonight I dragged <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://nextian.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://nextian.dreamwidth.org/'><b>nextian</b></a></span> with me to see <a href="http://www.publictheater.org/en/Public-Theater-Season/Public-Works-The-Winters-Tale/">The Winter's Tale</a>: A MUSICAL starring A SIGNIFICANT PERCENTAGE OF NEW YORK, because a.) last year's Tempest Starring A Significant Percentage Of New York <a href="http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/342678.html">WAS AMAZING</a> and b.) tonight is actually my last night for at least a while as a resident of the city, which is <i>really</i> weird, and going to go see the city celebrate itself seemed like an appropriate thing to do. <br /><br />Anyway, <i>Winter's Tale</i> was not quite as good as last year's <i>Tempest</i>, which was just, like, mind-bogglingly wonderful, but it was still pretty delightful! The ballerinas had significantly less swagger, but on the other hand, a swing band on stilts. Also, still on the other hand, SESAME STREET.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/385127.html#cutid1">If you were wondering if Sesame Street is just as good live: yes. Yes they are.</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />I got like three hours of sleep last night so I'm going to go fall over now, but I'm really, really glad this is how I decided to spend my last night in New York. Tomorrow I move to Boston? TOMORROW I MOVE TO BOSTON. File under: things that I still haven't fully internalized yet.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=skygiants&ditemid=385127" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944:375442skygiants @ 2014-05-29T23:17:002014-05-30T03:41:35Z2014-05-30T10:59:31Zpublic16So tonight I went with an old work friend to go see something called <a href="http://www.drunkshakespeare.com/about">Drunk Shakespeare</a>. All I knew beforehand was that it takes place in a pub. It turns out the premise is that every night a rotating sacrificial lamb of an actor gets EXTREMELY drunk before and throughout the show (as opposed to the rest of the amiable hipster cast, who seem to linger somewhere around genially tipsy.) The sacrificial lamb then has the privilege of, at any point, pausing the show to interject a drunken point of order on whatever directorial insight seems reasonable to them at the time.<br /><br />Some instances of tonight's directorial gems, delivered a very drunken Lady Macbeth, included:<br />- instructions that Ross, the messenger, must deliver every one of his speeches in a different communications style (text emoji, Morse Code, etc.). This culminated in probably the only time I will ever see the news of Lady Macduff's death delivered by an actor dressed only in boxers and a bow tie, through the vehicle of interpretative breakdance.<br />- a demand to swap her leather skirt for Macbeth's trousers.<br />- a request that the last scene between (living) Banquo and Macbeth be played as a competition between competing Matthew McConaugheys, subject to an audience applause-o-meter for the victor. ("Point of order! Matthew McConaughey would NEVER name his son Fleance." At this point an audience member was gotten to volunteer a name for the son, which gave a very gleeful Macbeth the opportunity to bellow "AND CHANNING TATUM MUST NOT ESCAPE THE FATE OF THAT DARK HOUR!" and then improvise for a while on the theme of how Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum inevitably stand in the way of his career advancement.)<br /><br />How much of this all is actual drunken improv and how much is pre-planned is I think open to debate (Macbeth's pants fit Lady Macbeth SUSPICIOUSLY WELL, for example), and I really kind of hope at least a few of the eight to ten drinks we saw Lady Macbeth down over the course of the night were secretly water, because otherwise I am sort of nervous that one of these shows may someday end in tragedy. These concerns aside, it was largely a delightful experience. It's so <i>aggressively</i> lowbrow and full of dick jokes and fart jokes. Shakespeare would have LOVED IT. <br /><br />In other theatrical news, Boston-area folks, the Post-Meridian Radio Players are doing <a href="http://www.huboftheuniverseproductions.com/events_tribbles.html">The Trouble With Tribbles</a> again this weekend -- Star Trek TOS with an all-female cast, with the exception of Uhura. I saw this several months ago at Arisia and it was SUPER FUN. Exasperated mom Kirk is the greatest Kirk.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=skygiants&ditemid=375442" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944:342678skygiants @ 2013-09-08T21:41:002013-09-09T03:01:17Z2013-09-09T03:01:17Zpublic14The playbill that we read described this weekend's musical production of <i>The Tempest</i> in Central Park -- starring Norm Lewis, several gifted professional comedians and singers, 250 or so New Yorkers from various community performance ensembles, and three taxi drivers -- as being inspired by the idea of a "community masque" from 1916 called <i>Caliban by the Yellow Sands</i>, which in turn was inspired by courtly masques of the sixteenth century, which for those unfamiliar mostly involved lots of music, dancing and pageantry strung together by a plot. There was also a lot of very earnest language about theater INVOLVING THE COMMUNITY and people SEEING THEMSELVES REFLECTED ONSTAGE which I will admit moved my heart, because YES. <br /><br />Anyway, <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://genarti.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://genarti.dreamwidth.org/'><b>genarti</b></a></span> and <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://littledust.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://littledust.dreamwidth.org/'><b>littledust</b></a></span> and I looked at this description, and then we looked at the list of community groups that had been invited to participate, and said, "This is going to be either AMAZING or COMPLETELY INCOHERENT . . . and where the hell are they going to fit in the Taxi Driver's Union?"<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/342678.html#cutid1">Spoiler: IT WAS AMAZING</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />I am so sorry that the show only lasted a weekend and so most of you will never get a chance to see it. But I so, so hope that they do as they implied they would and put on more shows like this one, which could have been totally incoherent and instead somehow came together in a glorious explosion of pageantry and joy and celebration of this city that I love and the people who live in it. Sometimes there is actually nothing better than two hundred people having the TIME OF THEIR LIVES onstage getting to showcase all the stuff they do awesomely well.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=skygiants&ditemid=342678" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944:341220skygiants @ 2013-08-24T09:50:002013-08-24T15:13:37Z2013-08-24T15:16:06Zpublic20I've seen two musicals recently! The first was <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i> at Shakespeare in the Park, and it was . . . not good. I mean, <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i> is not really the greatest play anyway - it has too many subplots and the main romance plots are deeply silly and have no emotional impact. This is a thing that you could really improve on in a musical version, if you wanted to. Instead, <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i> takes extra time and depth <i>away</i> from all of its lead characters, plays up the frat-boy aspects without resolving them or making them in any way sympathetic, and throws in valuable bonus features like Random Guy Who Sings A Love Song About Wanting To Eat Cats. <br /><br />But enough on this, because the other show I saw last week was the recent revival of <i>Pippin</i> and it was AMAZING.<br /><br />For those of you unfamiliar: <i>Pippin</i> is at least nominally about the adventures of Prince Pippin, son of Charlemagne, as he attempts to flail his way towards a life that is "completely fulfilling." <br /><br />That is the show-within-a-show. The real show of <i>Pippin</i> is sort of about that, but it's also about performance, and the lure of spectacle -- the self-destructive seduction of the larger-than-life. So the fact that it is staged as a full-color circus filled with acrobats performing humanly impossible feats and choreography that fuses Fosse with Cirque du Soleil is, basically, perfect. (Also perfect is the fact that the actor playing Pippin can in no way keep up with the acrobatics. There's one hilarious moment during one of the songs where a couple of the acrobats are performing a balancing act and invite Pippin up to echo them; Pippin takes a step, hesitates, announces "NOPE!" and bops right back on down. EXACTLY AS IT SHOULD BE.)<br /><br />Pippin aside, the real lead role in <i>Pippin</i> is the part of the Leading Player - narrator, director, ringmaster - and we can pause here for a moment of appreciation for Patina Miller's everything:<br /><br /><img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/ca4352339334acc02f222a8a38405b98/tumblr_mlje1vZLog1qctmkmo1_400.gif"><br /><br />I should mention, by the way, for those who have not heard this story before, that my last experience with <i>Pippin</i> was our middle-school production. This was hilarious in ways that are <span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/341220.html#cutid1">spoilery for the show, if anybody cares</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />I feel like I've already talked a lot about this (it's just so novel for me to actually go see a GOOD musical, rather than one that's lolariously bad!) but a few last points:<br />- I had forgotten how <i>good</i> the Pippin score is -- not that the songs are so absolutely great in and of themselves, many of them are just kind of cheery 70s pop ballads, but context makes all of them so ironic! IT'S AWESOME<br />- it took me ages to recognize Terrence Mann as Charlemagne, aka Original Javert and Original Chauvelin, but once I did it was kind of hilarious to watch him get murdered by a bright-eyed revolutionary shouting about tyranny<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=skygiants&ditemid=341220" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944:280961skygiants @ 2012-03-27T10:57:002012-03-27T15:35:20Z2012-03-27T15:35:20Zpublic18Some exciting things:<br /><br />1. I have a story appearing in an upcoming anthology! This one is a bit more niche than the other, but I know there at least a few of you for whom the words STEAMPUNK SHAKESPEARE are not entirely devoid of interest, in which case you should check out <a href="http://www.steampunkshakespeare.com/2010/hello-world/">The Omnibus of Dr. Bill Shakes</a>!<br /><br />My story is basically a bit of <i>Measure for Measure</i> WITH CYBORGS. It is not much like my previous story <i>Granada's Library</i>, except that it's also an exploration of religion involving a steampunk nun, which is now a niche I feel pretty safe in saying I have <i>down.</i> Other aspiring steampunk nun chroniclers: BACK OFF. THIS IS MY TURF. <br /><br />However if CYBORG MEASURE FOR MEASURE does not sound appealing -- which I do not blame you in the least if it does not, it's a <i>weird</i> play -- you also have Steampunk <i>King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar, and Richard III</i> to look forward to, among many others and also sonnets. They're taking pre-orders for the print run (which will be limited) <a href="http://doctorfantastiques.com/product/the-omnibus-of-doctor-bill-shakes-and-the-magnificent-ionic-pentatetrameter/">over here</a>, so if you're interested, speak now! (As an author, I also get a 40% discount on the cover price, which brings the hard copy price down to $12, so if you want to work that angle I am totally willing to facilitate that.) <br /><br />2. And now switching over to my other career: I'm going to be spending the summer interning at Harvard Film Archive processing one of their collections! This is SUPER EXCITING. However it also requires some logistical wiggling, primarily, uh, a place to stay. I was originally supposed to be taking over my brother's lease in the summer, but he went and rented it out from under me, so hey, Bostonians, if any of you know of someone looking to sublet for the months of June and July, give me a heads-up, because I would very much appreciate any leads! I am a great and undemanding roommate, just ask <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://innerbrat.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://innerbrat.dreamwidth.org/'><b>innerbrat</b></a></span> and <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=rushin_doll'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://www.dreamwidth.org/profile?user=rushin_doll'><b>rushin_doll</b></a></span>. (I am also only interning four days a week, so I will probably be zooming back and forth to NYC many weekends.)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=skygiants&ditemid=280961" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-01:142944:248013skygiants @ 2011-07-21T11:53:002011-07-21T16:20:57Z2011-07-21T16:20:57Zpublic3The other day, <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://obopolsk.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://obopolsk.livejournal.com/'><b>obopolsk</b></a></span> and I, having failed in our attempt to land Shakespeare in the Park tickets, decided to expand our outdoor Shakespeare horizons and go check out New York Classical Theater's <a href="http://newyorkclassical.org/henry-v">Henry V in Battery Park.</a> Going in we knew nothing except that at some point the company planned to herd us all onto a ferry to Governor's Island, and . . . not gonna lie, in 90-some-degree heat, a free boat trip sounded <i>really nice.</i><br /><br />It turned out to be one of those productions that runs you around after the actors as they do their scenes in different places, which - it was fun! It was really fun! It was also pretty much what <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://obopolsk.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif' alt='[livejournal.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='17' height='17'/></a><a href='http://obopolsk.livejournal.com/'><b>obopolsk</b></a></span> ended up describing as the "<i>Henry V</i> Greatest Hits Exercise Video." <br /><br />Parts of <i>Henry V</i> that were not, as far as we could tell, included anywhere in this production:<br />- the Chorus<br />- any mention of Falstaff<br />- the entire subplot about the assassination plot on Henry <br />- the scene with the French princess and her maid<br />- actually, any female characters at all except the French princess at the very end<br />- the subplot where Henry disguises himself to hang out with the troops and gets in a fight<br /><br />Parts of <i>Henry V</i> that were in fact included in this production, some of which may not have been part of the original play:<br />- all of Henry's famous speeches, occasionally divorced of context<br />- every scene in which anyone could possibly find an excuse to speak in an outrrrrageous French accent<br />- every scene involving Comedy Welsh Nationalism<br />- the scene where the angry soldier with the glove comes looking for the soldier who got in a fight with him, who was actually the disguised Henry - somewhat inexplicably, since the entire rest of that subplot is no longer included<br />- a number of helpful speeches exhorting us, the audience, to disembark and set forth upon the shores of France upon this bold and noble enterprise IN A POLITE AND ORDERLY FASHION and with fierce mettle upon our countenance etc. etc.<br /><br />In short, the entire experience was hugely entertaining and felt quite a lot like being in the middle of a Monty Python skit.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=skygiants&ditemid=248013" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments