Sonnets, Shakespeare Style

We are bringing in the new year with prizes - for our most lyrical patrons.

Remember those free season tickets and the Kill Shakespeare swag we gave away last year? Secretly jealous of the handsome gentleman who won them? Well, here’s chance number two! Once again, we’re giving away:

Two (2) free tickets to our 15th Anniversary Season featuring Twelfth Night and Titus Andronicus
A t-shirt from the Colin McCreery and Anthony Del Col graphic novel Kill Shakespeare
To win, write a Shakespearean sonnet for your sweetheart with these guidelines:

Step 1) Write a Shakespearean Sonnet. (Not sure how? No problem. Read the guidelines here or check out this video on YouTube.)

Step 2) Address it to your sweetheart, and make sure it includes the words Shipwreck, Twins and Music.

Step 3) Submit it to our Facebook by Valentine’s Day. While you’re at it, send it to your sweetheart. They’ll be impressed.

This contest ends February 14th at 11:59 pm. The Philadelphia Shakespeare staff will read over the submissions, pick their favorite, and contact you for your FREE tickets and t-shirt. The winner will be announced Friday, February 17, 2012.  Make sure to wear your new shirt to the shows!

Congratulations to the Best Shakespeare Mo!

Movember has come to a close. The month-long fundraising initiative boasted 854,120 registered participants and raised $108,681,136 for men's health!

The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre charged our audience to submit their best Shakespeare Mo and we have a winner!

Congratulations to Kevin Denison Kohler Jr. for winning our Movember contest! 

Did you participate in and enjoy this contest? Please email your questions and comments to rebecca@phillyshakespeare.org and check back soon for more information.

Show Us Your Mo!

The Theatre is joining forces with The Movember Foundation to support the awareness for prostate cancer and men’s health.

We are giving away:

• Two (2) free tickets to our 15th Anniversary Season featuring
  Twelfth Night and Titus Andronicus 
• A t-shirt from the Colin McCreery and Anthony Del Col graphic
  novel Kill Shakespeare.

To win, simply show us your best Shakespeare inspired moustache.

Step 1) Grow your Mo. Visit the Movember website for details.
Step 2) Shape it like Shakespeare's. Note: there are several styles.

Step 3) Upload your photo to our Facebook Wall; tag yourself and anyone else who is in the photo. Feel free to write a 1-2 sentence caption.

The contest ends December 10, 2011 at 11:59 pm. The Philadelphia Shakespeare staff will then choose their favorite photo and contact you for your FREE tickets and t-shirt. The winner will be announced December 15, 2011.

Good luck and have fun!

Excellent Interpretations

Shakespeare scholar Natalia Razak takes a look at the Folio in, "a 4-part series exploring the reasons why actors use the earliest rather than the latest editions of Shakespeare’s plays."

Modern editions of Shakespeare are full of nifty things – definitions of arcane words, translations of outdated phrases, notations by editors, introductions and essays by very smart people. If you’re in the classroom or curled up in your bed reading Shakespeare (which we all do, right?), then by all means pick up the Arden edition and enjoy. But if you want to perform Shakespeare, then you have no need of definitions and notations (that’s what dictionaries and the internet are for). You need a roadmap for making interpretive choices; you have to delve into the text and find not just understanding and comprehension but the human experience as well. You have to make it yours. This is by no means an easy feat, even if the plays in question hadn’t been written 400 years ago. Thankfully, Shakespeare gave us a map: the verse.


 READ MORE HERE!

The Great ANONYMOUS Debate

Was Shakespeare a fraud? Roland Emmerich seems to pose that question in his new film, ANONYMOUS (Sony Pictures) that opens Friday, October 28, 2011.





There seem to be several arguments surrounding this topic, many in Shakespeare's favor. However we have been hardpressed to find anyone who can attest to the fact that  Edward de Vere is the true author of the classic plays that we have come to love. Despite there being little evidence, ANONYMOUS is claiming just that.

Was Edward de Vere (or someone else) the true brilliance behind the plays, or is William Shakespeare still due the credit of writing these remarkable works?

What do you think?

Congratulations to our Photo Contest Winner

After heavy debate, the staff at Philly Shakespeare has chosen the Romeo and Juliet act V, scene iii photo of apples and oranges. We also enjoyed that Juliet was bleeding orange juice (Blood Orange anyone?) and that Romeo is the fabled poisoned apple. Well done Giana Marinelli, a student in Temple's Shakespeare in Movies class! 

 Did you participate in and enjoy this contest? Please email your questions and comments to rebecca@phillyshakespeare.org and check back soon for more information.

9/11 and Titus Andronicus: Remembering - Article in Foreign Policy

"It was Sept. 13, 2001, and I was 21 years old. Two days earlier, I had walked into Kastan's Shakespeare class before the attacks began and walked out after the second tower had already fallen. Columbia canceled classes for two days. I spent my time at the daily student newspaper, the Spectator, where I was managing editor. On Thursday morning, the first class back was Shakespeare.

"'I will not make a political statement today,' Kastan continued. 'But I will say this: This play we will discuss today is about revenge -- and what demanding revenge can do to a person. I only hope that the people who will be making decisions on how to respond to Tuesday's attacks read Titus Andronicus.'"

Reading Shakespeare in Kandahar - By Nick Schifrin | Foreign Policy