Greeks Bearing Gifts, part 1

Some days, when I'm feeling particularly unimaginative, I just sit around my office in the library and wait for something ridiculous to happen. And then I take notes. And then I draw it. Hey presto! It's a comic!

To be continued, eventually, once my noble co-worker finishes unboxing all 130 boxes so we have a final tally of how many books we got as opposed to how many tools. 

Stop by on Friday for another in my very-ongoing Shakespearean Character Spotlight series. This week's character is a Chorus... but which one? Ooooo, suspense...

King John's Unfavourite Things

The lovely Ladies of Angiers up at the Stratford Festival have been getting ready to audition for next season's production of The Sound of Music:

Naturally this made me wonder what a King John themed version of The Sound of Music would look like. Here is the result:

I expect it to be ready for an off-Broadway tryout in time for next season.

Shakespearean Character Spotlight: Francisco

Welcome to the first installment of what will probably be a very-ongoing series: Shakespearean Character Spotlight! Each week (or, more accurately, whenever I happen to run out of other material) I will be randomly selecting one of Shakespeare's speaking characters, regardless of part size and importance, and presenting a profile of him or her. 

(In case you're interested, I'm using this list of characters as furnished by Open Source Shakespeare, which is an excellent online Shakespeare resource that you should definitely check out.)

Today's character is.... *runs random number generator* ...Francisco from Hamlet!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Francisco manages to miss almost all the action of Hamlet, and thus is one of the few characters who is probably still alive at the end of the play. Way to go, Francisco!

One down, 1223 to go!

The Bib Record Challenge

If you haven't been living under a rock recently, you're well aware of the fantastic Ice Bucket Challenge that has been making the rounds on social media, raising money for ALS research and patient support. Even my beloved Ladies of Angiers have gotten in on the action, Elizabethan-style:

The Ice Bucket Challenge has been a phenomenal success, and so I decided to see if I could use a similar challenge to raise awareness of a very important issue plaguing catalogers:

Somehow I don't think this challenge is going to catch on...

But seriously, publishers! Print all pertinent publication information in your books! I guarantee you that we do care when that book was published

For more library-themed comics, go here.

Shakespearen What-Ifs: Macbeth

If you've explored all the nooks and crannies of my website, you might have stumbled across my Shakespeare What-Ifs series of mini-comics. For a long time there have only been two installments, but I've finally gotten my act together and penned a third one. Let's take a look at Macbeth! 

See, Macbeth? If you'd just waited patiently everything would have turned out OK!

If you want to print out and fold your very own edition of Shakespearean What-Ifs: Macbeth, download this pdf, print it out at full scale, and then follow these incomprehensible instructions to fold it into an adorable little mini-comic. To see all of my mini-comics, go here.

Audience Anxiety Dreams

So I woke up at an ungodly hour yesterday morning after suffering through this nightmare:

I'm well aware that actors have anxiety dreams where they get stage fright or forget all their lines or something. This is the first time I've come across audience members getting anxiety dreams. I can't articulate just how agitated I was at the prospect of missing the second act. It was absolutely a life-or-death situation. 

I think maybe I haven't quite recovered from my annual theatre season yet.

See you on Monday! For this first time in a month I'll actually be at home over the weekend, so I'm thinking it's about time to put together another Shakespearean What-If...

All You Need To Know About The Two Gentlemen Of Verona

Today the Royal Shakespeare company is live-broadcasting its current production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona! Not familiar with the play? No worries! I've got you covered. 

The comedies always seem so much more complicated than the tragedies, don't they?

If you've seen Shakespeare in Love, you know more about The Two Gentlemen of Verona than you think you do. The bit in the beginning with Queen Elizabeth laughing at the dog on stage? That's Crab, from Two Gents. The "What light is light if Silvia be not seen?" speech that Viola gives at her audition? That's one of Valentine's speeches, from Two Gents. Comedy, love, and a bit with a dog. 

Check here to see when/where the RSC's Two Gents broadcast will be playing near you! 

(Also, my apologies for not posting anything yesterday. I was busy lying on the couch, recovering from a rock-climbing road trip. It turns out it's very hard to get anything done while lying on the couch.)

The 2014 Stratford Festival: The Musicals

I was intending to have the rest of my Stratford Festival season reviews done by today, but I only had time to do the musicals. Let's start with Man of La Mancha, a musical based on the life of Miguel de Cervantes and his famous novel, Don Quixote. At the end of the show, the leading lady, Aldonza, who has basically spent most of the last two hours being angry, ground into the dirt, and angry that she is being ground into the dirt, finally embraces the new identity that Don Quixote has given her. It's quite a powerful moment, and when I saw it at Stratford, this happened:

Now, I've seen Man of La Mancha several times before, and, as a cynical and inherently frivolous person, I must confess that it's not my favorite musical. However, it is very effectively designed to push people's emotion buttons, and one can't argue with an entire theatre of people who have clearly been profoundly moved by it, especially the gentlemen behind me who felt the need to audibly praise Aldonza's moment of self-actualization at the end. 

Crazy For You, a musical written around some of Geroge and Ira Gershwin's best songs, is much more my style - totally frivolous with a ludicrous plot, lots of catchy songs and fantastic dance numbers. Stratford does this sort of thing very well, especially with director/choreographer Donna Feore at the helm. If any show rivaled the sheer, unbridled joy of A Midsummer Night's Dream, it was this one. The definition of a toe-tapper. 

I will be back on Monday, although Monday's comic might be a bit late as I am embarking on a weekend road trip to go rock climbing with some friends. I might be posting sporadic updates on Twitter, if you feel like cyber-stalking me. If not, I'll see you on Monday! Have a simply lovely weekend.