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Nov. 10th, 2010 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsOkay, so ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
newredshoes asked me for my top five fake Shakespearean titles!
I . . . still don't actually really know what that means. SORRY ESTHER! I think probably this was meant to be Improv Shakespeare titles, but the unfortunate thing is that I can't actually remember five of the titles from the shows. So I am going to interpret this as: top five Shakespeare fanworks!
1. The Improvised Shakespeare Company
But of course nonetheless I have to put Improv Shakes on the list, whichnewredshoes raved about so often that I had to investigate. Basically the Improv Shakespeare crew is a bunch of dudes who use their on-the-spot improv skills to create a "brand new Shakespeare play" at every performance, using the themes and language of the bard. The language bit is sometimes questionable (though they are very adept with their thees and thous, and with an on-the-spot prologue) but they interpret the 'themes' liberally as meaning that a play is not worth the time if it does not include at least a dozen dramatic schemes, stabbings, star-crossed love affairs and secret identities. AND IT'S GLORIOUS. Mostly they are based in Chicago, but every so often they come to NYC, where I am able to gleefully stalk them.
Sample Improv Shakes on-the-fly dialogue: "I mean to murder," whispers Character A menacingly, "Father."
Character B -- playing Character A's father -- pauses, then asks cautiously: "Is there a comma in that sentence?"
2. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard
I feel a bit odd using an image from the movie when I have actually never seen the movie, but so it goes. Anyway, I would be surprised if most of you do not know about this most excellent play, which is pretty much the defining example of awesome professional fanfiction. Basically, I like to imagine, one day Tom Stoppard woke up one morning and reread Hamlet. Then he had a laugh to himself about how Claudius and Gertrude always get those two dudes' names wrong, wait, what were those dudes' names again? Then he read a couple of academic articles about the Hamlet/Horatio subtext, and a couple of academic articles about the Hamlet/Gertrude subtext, and a couple of academic articles about Ophelia's madness and how it's probably all to do with Hamlet/Ophelia/Laertes subtext, and was like, "man, everyone in this fandom is so obsessed with shipping. Why doesn't anyone ever write about those two dudes - wait, what were their names again?" And then he had a cup of coffee and decided to write the defining metatextual work of theater of our age, and that is why we have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
3. King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett
Similarly, I like to imagine, Dorothy Dunnett woke up one morning and said to herself: "I would like to write another book about a brilliant poet-paragon-athlete-farseeing-and-charismatic-leader-of-men, except I'd kind of like him to be less angsty than, oh, every other protagonist I've written. And with a more healthy love life. Where can I find a historical character who fits the bill here?" And then she read Macbeth, and was like "oh, perfect!"
I have to say I don't really understand this logic, but the point is that Dorothy Dunnett's Macbeth takeoff condenses the standard several-thousand-page Dunnett densely well-researched emotionally-roller-coaster-y multi-book epic into just one book! Travel-sized for your convenience! And Thorfinn/Macbeth actually is a whole lot emotionally healthier than any other Dunnett protagonist, and Thorfinn/Gruoch is likewise an amazingly functional marriage, and one of these days I really should reread.
(While on the topic of Macbeth fic, The Third Witch is also a Macbeth takeoff novel I really enjoyed. Also,newredshoes' amazing Gruoch-centric work-in-progress!)
4. Antony and Cleopatra: The Opera
There were many things competing for this slot - Slings and Arrows! Shakespeare in Love! - but then I remembered the time I went to go see this withchlorrel, and, I am sorry, THIS WINS. The original production was so over-the-top on costumes and set, the stage actually broke. From the moment we opened on the chorus of gladiators thumping their shields and warbling, "ANTONY DRINKS! ANTONY FISHES!" ad infinitum, I knew it was going to be a glorious performance. AND SO IT WAS.
5. That Crossover Disney She's The Man Vid On Youtube
Look, okay, I enjoyed She's The Man and Ten Things I Hate About You enormously, and I am thoroughly unashamed of it, but they are not making my top five list.
Mostly because they have been replaced by this vid. I DON'T KNOW WHY. I am so perplexed by so many of the decisions here! I haven't even seen Road to El Dorado OR Quest for Camelot! And yet somehow, when you mash them up with Mulan and set it all to the dialogue from a wacky Amanda Bynes movie, the result is sheer joy. I could watch it all day.
AND NOW YOU KNOW.
Your turn, guys! There are five million pieces of awesome Shakespeare fanfiction out there, published and unpublished. TELL ME THE BEST.
newredshoes asked me for my top five fake Shakespearean titles!I . . . still don't actually really know what that means. SORRY ESTHER! I think probably this was meant to be Improv Shakespeare titles, but the unfortunate thing is that I can't actually remember five of the titles from the shows. So I am going to interpret this as: top five Shakespeare fanworks!
1. The Improvised Shakespeare Company
But of course nonetheless I have to put Improv Shakes on the list, which
newredshoes raved about so often that I had to investigate. Basically the Improv Shakespeare crew is a bunch of dudes who use their on-the-spot improv skills to create a "brand new Shakespeare play" at every performance, using the themes and language of the bard. The language bit is sometimes questionable (though they are very adept with their thees and thous, and with an on-the-spot prologue) but they interpret the 'themes' liberally as meaning that a play is not worth the time if it does not include at least a dozen dramatic schemes, stabbings, star-crossed love affairs and secret identities. AND IT'S GLORIOUS. Mostly they are based in Chicago, but every so often they come to NYC, where I am able to gleefully stalk them.Sample Improv Shakes on-the-fly dialogue: "I mean to murder," whispers Character A menacingly, "Father."
Character B -- playing Character A's father -- pauses, then asks cautiously: "Is there a comma in that sentence?"
2. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard
I feel a bit odd using an image from the movie when I have actually never seen the movie, but so it goes. Anyway, I would be surprised if most of you do not know about this most excellent play, which is pretty much the defining example of awesome professional fanfiction. Basically, I like to imagine, one day Tom Stoppard woke up one morning and reread Hamlet. Then he had a laugh to himself about how Claudius and Gertrude always get those two dudes' names wrong, wait, what were those dudes' names again? Then he read a couple of academic articles about the Hamlet/Horatio subtext, and a couple of academic articles about the Hamlet/Gertrude subtext, and a couple of academic articles about Ophelia's madness and how it's probably all to do with Hamlet/Ophelia/Laertes subtext, and was like, "man, everyone in this fandom is so obsessed with shipping. Why doesn't anyone ever write about those two dudes - wait, what were their names again?" And then he had a cup of coffee and decided to write the defining metatextual work of theater of our age, and that is why we have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
3. King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett
Similarly, I like to imagine, Dorothy Dunnett woke up one morning and said to herself: "I would like to write another book about a brilliant poet-paragon-athlete-farseeing-and-charismatic-leader-of-men, except I'd kind of like him to be less angsty than, oh, every other protagonist I've written. And with a more healthy love life. Where can I find a historical character who fits the bill here?" And then she read Macbeth, and was like "oh, perfect!"
I have to say I don't really understand this logic, but the point is that Dorothy Dunnett's Macbeth takeoff condenses the standard several-thousand-page Dunnett densely well-researched emotionally-roller-coaster-y multi-book epic into just one book! Travel-sized for your convenience! And Thorfinn/Macbeth actually is a whole lot emotionally healthier than any other Dunnett protagonist, and Thorfinn/Gruoch is likewise an amazingly functional marriage, and one of these days I really should reread.
(While on the topic of Macbeth fic, The Third Witch is also a Macbeth takeoff novel I really enjoyed. Also,
newredshoes' amazing Gruoch-centric work-in-progress!)4. Antony and Cleopatra: The Opera
There were many things competing for this slot - Slings and Arrows! Shakespeare in Love! - but then I remembered the time I went to go see this with
chlorrel, and, I am sorry, THIS WINS. The original production was so over-the-top on costumes and set, the stage actually broke. From the moment we opened on the chorus of gladiators thumping their shields and warbling, "ANTONY DRINKS! ANTONY FISHES!" ad infinitum, I knew it was going to be a glorious performance. AND SO IT WAS. 5. That Crossover Disney She's The Man Vid On Youtube
Look, okay, I enjoyed She's The Man and Ten Things I Hate About You enormously, and I am thoroughly unashamed of it, but they are not making my top five list.
Mostly because they have been replaced by this vid. I DON'T KNOW WHY. I am so perplexed by so many of the decisions here! I haven't even seen Road to El Dorado OR Quest for Camelot! And yet somehow, when you mash them up with Mulan and set it all to the dialogue from a wacky Amanda Bynes movie, the result is sheer joy. I could watch it all day.
AND NOW YOU KNOW.
Your turn, guys! There are five million pieces of awesome Shakespeare fanfiction out there, published and unpublished. TELL ME THE BEST.
