Summer Shakespeare Festivals

Jul 14th, 2009 Posted in Literature | no comment »
Looking for something to do that’s inexpensive, fun and entertaining? It’s still not too late to experience Shakespeare. There’s a real good chance that there’s a play going on near you sometime very soon. Shakespeare Fellowship (www.shakespearefellowship.org) has a comprehensive list of Shakespeare Festivals and Theatres throughout the world. Some of the links are broken, but it’s still a good place to start, and you can always google ‘Shakespeare Festival’ and your own state or city. Many are very reasonably priced while some are even free. Shakespeare Rocks.

New Hampshire has “Shakespeare in the Valley,” for instance, and the good news is that even if you’re not in New Hampshire, you may be able to catch up with “Shakespeare in the Valley” another time, since they travel around the East Coast the rest of the year. If you’ve been suffering from “Bad Shakespeare Syndrome,” they aim to cure it. Take the test on their website: http://www.shakespeareinthevalley.com/.

If you’re going to be in the Houston area, The Miller Outdoor Theatre is offering free performances of Twelfth Night and Pericles in August (as well as a bunch of other non-Shakespeare offerings).

Hie thee to your favorite search engine and find out if there’s a play coming up near you.

Sonnet 29

May 7th, 2009 Posted in Videos | no comment »

Oh, I love this sonnet!

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

More sonnet pages:
Sonnet 1 – From fairest creatures we desire increase …
Sonnet 18 - Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day …
Sonnet 116 - Let me not to the marriage of true minds …