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Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical) ([personal profile] hermionesviolin) wrote2013-07-12 01:13 pm
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[Shakespeare] 31/37

At Shakespeare on the Common earlier this week year, Cate and I were talking about getting to see multiple versions of the same play in fairly quick succession (this was our 3rd Two Gentlemen of Verona this season) -- "playstorming," she called it.

I remembered doing that "Shakespeare plays you have read or seen" meme a while back and was curious to pull it up and update it.

Apparently I'd only seen a few ASP shows at the time, so my list has significantly increased, even without this year's ALL The Shakespeare.

Because some of this stuff I don't even remember (apparently I saw Two Gentlemen of Verona for the first time when I was at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007? oh, wait, my records say "Two Noble Kinsmen," I must have goofed when I did the meme last time), I decided to to back through my Shakepeare tag and link to my writeups of all the plays (though I have been behind on writeups for, oh, years).

In August 2012, I said, "3rd performance of Coriolanus I've seen and I still get excited watching it (which I wasn't sure would be the case). And now I want to read lots of commentary on the play because I have lots of thinky thoughts."

I have known for some time that Twelfth Night and Macbeth, which used to be my favorite Shakespeare plays, I've become less enamoured of on repeated viewings -- but I hadn't really thought much about what I would currently posit for my favorite Shakespeare play(s). I think it is arguably true that Coriolanus is my current favorite.

In going back through these entries, I think Titus Andronicus (baby's first ASP show!) is possibly my second-favorite.



Bold the ones you've seen stage productions of, italicize the ones you've seen movies of, and underline the ones you've read or listened to.

[livejournal.com profile] lignota's addition: *asterisk the ones you've performed in or directed. ([livejournal.com profile] angevin2's academically-inclined addition: I'm also marking the ones I've taught or done reasonably serious scholarly work on with a +plus sign. Also I am counting readthroughs as performances, because I am totally into readthroughs.)

All's Well That Ends Well

Antony and Cleopatra
  • read in 10th grade English
  • ASP (May 2011)


As You Like It
  • read in college Shakespeare class senior year


The Comedy of Errors

Coriolanus
  • Old Vic (July 2003)
  • read in college Shakespeare class senior year
  • ASP (March 2009)
  • Shakespeare on the Common (August 2012)


Cymbeline
  • ASP (February 2011)


Hamlet
  • read in AP English grade 11
  • saw Emerson's "A King of Infinite Space: Hamlet in a Nutshell" production (November 2012), which doesn't exactly count as having seen the play -- I've seen The Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [IMDb] as well as Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead [IMDb], but I won't see a full production of Hamlet until ASP does it and I have to


Henry IV, Part I
  • read in grade 11 high school elective
  • read in AP English grade 12
  • Industrial Theatre (July 2007)
  • saw ASP's "The Coveted Crown: Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 in repertory" (Part 1, October 2010)


Henry IV, Part II
  • read ... sometime
  • saw ASP's "The Coveted Crown: Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 in repertory" (Part 2, November 2010)


Henry V
  • ASP (February 2008)


Henry VI, Part I
Henry VI, Part II
Henry VI, Part III


Henry VIII


Julius Caesar
  • read in 9th grade English


King John
  • ASP (June 2008)


King Lear
  • read in grade 11 high school elective (except we quit partway through)
  • read on my own
  • read in 2 concurrent Smith College classes (Tellings & Retellings; and Literature, Folklore, and Fakelore)


Love's Labour's Lost


Macbeth
  • read in AP English
  • read in college Shakespeare class senior year
  • NHS (May 2002)
  • ASP all-female production (November 2007)
  • ASP (October 2012)


Measure for Measure
  • RSC (August 2003)


The Merchant of Venice
  • ASP (November 2008)


The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • ASP (December 2011)


A Midsummer Night's Dream

Much Ado about Nothing
  • NHS production (November 2005)
  • ASP production (May 2009)
  • the Joss Whedon film (July 2013)


Othello
  • read in ENG 199 at college
  • saw the Julia Stiles O [IMDb]
  • ASP (March 2010)
  • Shakespeare on the Common (August 2010)


Pericles, Prince of Tyre
  • ASP (April 2013)


Richard II


Richard III

Romeo and Juliet
  • read in 9th grade English
  • saw the Private Romeo film {IMDb}, but I don't think that counts


The Taming of the Shrew
  • read in paternal grandmother's book group
  • ASP (October 2009)
  • all-female Harvard-Radcliffe production (October 2012)


The Tempest

Timon of Athens
  • ASP (May 2010)


Titus Andronicus

Troilus and Cressida

*Twelfth Night

Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • ASP (December 2012)
  • musical at Emerson (April 2013)
  • Shakespeare on the Common (July 2013)


The Winter's Tale
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[identity profile] hermionesviolin.livejournal.com 2013-07-12 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)
As far as reading, I've only read stuff for class (semi-exception being: King Lear we quit partway through in my high school elective, which bummed me out, so eventually I read through it on my own -- ironically, right before a semester in which I would end up being assigned to read it in two different classes).

The bulk of the performances I've seen have been thanks to [livejournal.com profile] collegecate and I getting ASP season tickets (it's so easy to have good intentions about seeing a show and then not get around to it before the run is over, but if we've already paid for the tickets then we are far more motivated to schedule seeing a show -- and having a theatre buddy is also nice, with the added bonus of it guaranteeing that she and I hang out at least once every couple of months).

Back in college, a bunch of us watched The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097108/), and my friend Emma said she couldn't stomach it, and I said, "But you love Titus (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120866/)" [the Julie Taymor film]. I'd never seen it, and I felt confident that stylized gore would turn my stomach just as much as non-stylized. Recently my Housemate showed me a homoerotic clip from the film, and since I've apparently become a fan of the play, it probably would make sense for me to watch the film at some point.
ext_2351: (cat's moon by ponders_life)

[identity profile] lunabee34.livejournal.com 2013-07-14 01:20 pm (UTC)(link)
*nods*

Even though my undergraduate school had a pretty robust theater department, they mostly did modern plays, so I didn't get the opportunity to watch any staged Shakespeare in college.

The only production I've actually been to is Midsummer Night's Dream and it was a production where all the actors were kids. It was pretty spectacular--Puck and Bottom in particular were impressive and even more so for the age of the actors.

It's been prob close to ten years since I've seen Titus, but I really really liked it. I just remember thinking that it was visually beautiful, and I liked the modern setting of the film.
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