Review – Sprockets and Springes

Reviews of ASC’s Tour, Method in Madness

The American Shakespeare Center’s 2014/2015 tour Method in Madness is coming to the University of Alabama on Sunday, March 1st to perform Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Details are here. Some of our graduate students recently attended Method in Madness shows in Birmingham, and I want to share their impressions of the great work ASC is doing. ASC’s MuchContinue reading “Reviews of ASC’s Tour, Method in Madness”

Merchant of Vegas

Merchant of Venice Royal Shakespeare Company June 28, 2011, 7:15pm Before the show began, the woman next to me (a British schoolteacher) leaned over and said, “We came because we heard it was controversial.” Her husband smiled dutifully. Rupert Goold’s Merchant of Venice is set in a raucous Las Vegas, complete with card tables, badContinue reading “Merchant of Vegas”

Foul or Fair

Macbeth Royal Shakespeare Company June 27, 2011, 7:15pm “Macbeth. Macbeth. Macbeth.” Imagine that you’re a soldier in the sixteenth century. You’re at the edges of a battlefield, caked in the blood of your enemies. You make your way through a abandoned, desecrated church: the stained glass windows are smashed to bits, the statues are reducedContinue reading “Foul or Fair”

Hearing the Human: Empathic Listening and Theater of War’s Ajax

In a recent American Repertory Theater article, Brian Doerries makes a bold claim about Theater of War, a staged reading series of Sophocles’ Ajax and Philoctetes funded in part by the Department of Defense. Doerries writes, “People who live lives of mythological proportions, who confront the darkest aspects of our humanity and face life andContinue reading “Hearing the Human: Empathic Listening and Theater of War’s Ajax”

Love’s Labour’s Lost, a recap.

To the cast and crew of Love’s Labour’s Lost: bravo! It’s amazing just how well 400-year-old comedy ages. I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard watching Shakespeare since…okay, maybe never. And the show also received some major publicity: it showed up in the Crimson White (here), on the front page of UA’s website last week, andContinue reading “*Love’s Labour’s Lost,* a recap.”