This fall has offered a small reprieve from the hard work we put in over the summer, but at the same time, it is starting to feel too long since we were out in the park, speaking Shakespeare’s glorious words to the summer sky.  And we still have the long winter to survive before we can be out there again!  A perfect melancholy sonnet comes to mind…

Sonnet 97

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness every where!
And yet this time removed was summer’s time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me
But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute;
   Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer
   That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.

But do not despair, dear readers and Shakespeare lovers.  There is much to look forward to…

Now that we’ve announced that we’ll be doing A Midsummer Night’s Dream this summer, it’s time to test how well you know the play. Even for those who are familiar with the play, this quiz might have you scratching your head on a few questions. Good luck!

Click here to take the quiz!

Today we stumbled across a Shakespeare blog that is both impressive and inspiring!  The author of the blog, Bill Barclay, is billed on the site as an actor, director, composer and sound designer. Clearly, he is also a Shakespeare lover: he has undertaken the endeavor to read ALL of Shakespeare’ s plays, out loud, in public, all by himself.  Now, here at Midsommer Flight we get excited by any outdoor Shakespeare — and Bill’s project is an example of extreme dedication to the work!

Shakespeare Aloud

A recent post on the site suggests that Bill’s worldwide presentation of the plays is on temporary hold while he pursues an opportunity at the Globe in London, but there is plenty of content to explore until he gets back to it.

Enjoy!

In America, we are used to hearing Shakespearean text performed in an “unaccented” American dialect, otherwise known as Stage Standard. While most American theatre-makers (Midsommer Flight included) accept this practice and believe the text will be more truthful and resonant if spoken in the actor’s own, un-affected dialect, some Americans do still prefer British Received Pronunciation (aka RP) as the “real” or “correct” way to pronounce Shakespearean text.

But do you know about Original Pronunciation?  In fact, the language pronounced on Elizabethan stages sounded far different from the modern RP we are used to hearing today.  The dialect sounded much closer to some hybrid form of Scottish.  You could even argue, with it’s harder edges and over-pronounced R’s, that OP was closer to a modern American accent than a modern British one. At the very least, it seems safe to say that RP is no more the “right” way to speak this text than American Stage Standard.

In this delightful 10-minute video, a father/son duo demonstrates the differences between RP and OP while standing on the stage of the Globe Theatre in London. Enjoy!

Just for fun, click here: Shakespearean Insulter

Try one of these the next time you really want to give someone a piece of your mind…you bawdy dog-hearted barnacle!

Here at Midsommer Flight, we consider ourselves to be pretty hardcore Shakespeare Nerds.  So when we stumbled across Shakespeare Geek: The Original Shakespeare Blog, we knew immediately: here is kindred spirit!  Check out this site for posts ranging from fun and clever to analytical and thought-provoking. Discussion, resources, and other interesting tidbits!