Special Edition - Blackfriars Conference 2017

This week we dive deep into the fascinating, entertaining, and sometimes surprising scholarship and projects from the biennial Blackfriars Conference in Staunton, Virginia. The Rhetorical Device of the Week is tmesis and the Burbage Break provides some much-needed conference etiquette reminders. We discuss the word "nuncle," the significance of stage gestures, American Sign Language and Spanish translations of Shakespeare, and even Monica Lewinsky. We also get *a bit* mushy about why art is important in the world and why we choose to make it. This one's a little longer than usual because *feelings.* #SorryNotSorry 

(Featuring discussions of work by Matt Kozusko, Paul Menzer, Tiffany Stern, Wendy Wall and William West, Lindsey Snyder, Beth Burns and Farah Karim-Cooper, Jacqueline Vanhoutte, Bill Rauch, and all the lovely folks at Fundacion Shakespeare Argentina.)

Macbeth 101

Macbeth is the topic of this, our fifth episode. Jess and Aubrey gush about how much they love this play and throw the five-minute summary rule to the wind; the Rhetorical Device of the Week is symploce; the Burbage Break is about the First Folio and "authoritative text." We play another round of "Choices Were Made" and learn that, contrary to popular belief, this play is *definitely* not cursed and Thomas Middleton may have written the best parts (aka the witchy parts).  

As You Like It 101

For our fourth episode, we discuss "As You Like It" as we love it; Jess and Aubrey give up even trying to summarize the play in under five minutes; the Rhetorical Device of the Week is anastrophe; the Burbage Break is about the Green World; Shepherds are TOTALLY a trope (that Jess rants about in a new game, "The Feelings Corner"), and Orlando has no idea how to talk to girls.

Midsummer 101

This week  we learn that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is layered like an artichoke; the Rhetorical Device of the Week is alliteration; the Burbage Break is about the nebulous chain of custody of a text (aka early modern print culture); Jess and Aubrey try (again) and fail (again) to summarize the play in under five minutes. We play "Line Roulette" and Jess attempts to argue how nuts encapsulate the meaning behind the play. And, spoiler alert: "the text is a lie, and nothing is real," and there is *definitely* a dog in Midsummer.

Hamlet 101

In this episode, Aubrey and Jess attempt (and fail) to summarize "Hamlet" in only five minutes; we discuss the Revenge Tragedy genre, the "ur-Hamlet," and overarching themes in "Hamlet" (i.e. whether or not that dude is crazy). We introduce a game, "Choices Were Made," and discuss our Shakes-Bubble-adjacent projects. We also may or may not go off on a brief "Mulan" tangent.