Tis Pity 101

If you love incest plots, you’re in luck! John Ford’s immortal Tis Pity She’s a Whore is the Romeo and Juliet of incestuous, misbegotten, star-crossed love. We tell you what little we know of Ford in Meet the Contemporary; we give you a rather complete and detailed summary; we read Act 5, scene 5 for A Taste of Text; and we play the Playlist game where we brainstorm songs that will get you in the Tis Pity mood…and that’s it, because the ShakesBubble world was pretty boring and news-less this week…nothing so exciting as a heart impaled on a dagger or anything…

Here’s the playlist we came up with:

1. Is this desire - PJ Harvey

2. Touch Myself - Divinyls

3. Heart Attack - Trey Songz

4. Like a Virgin - Madonna

5. Heart Shaped Box - Nirvana

6. Colorblind - Counting Crows

7. Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys

8. With or Without You - U2

9. Look What You Made Me Do - Taylor Swift

10. Woman - Harry Styles

11. (Bonus Track) Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me - U2

12. (Bonus Track) How Will I Know? - Whitney Houston

Winter's Tale 301

In this in-depth 301 episode, we dive right into the strange little mind of David Garrick, the famous 18th century Shakespeare actor and super-fan, and his adaptation of The Winter’s Tale: “Florizel and Perdita.” We read a few scenes side-by-side for you from Shakespeare and Garrick so you can judge for yourself who did it better. Equally important, Jess sings a song (written by Garrick for Perdita), and we gossip a little bit about some personal and ShakesBubble happenings. Don’t start this episode if you can’t finish it… ;)

Here are the gossip items:

1. Lyn Gardner has an answer for the Telegraph article we talked about last week.

2. Fred C. Adams (Utah Shakes founder) passed away on Feb. 6.

3. SHAKESPEARE GYM LOLZ

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

“The Garrick Start” (David Garrick in Richard III) painted by William Hogarth, 1745.

Maid's Tragedy 101

This episode is all about the AMAZING Beau-Fletch collabo The Maid’s Tragedy! We love this play sooooo much, so we start by Meeting the Contemporaries and tell you all about Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher’s epic, early modern bro-mance; we give you a Taste of Text (and a great “your mom” joke); Aubrey plays a round of Line Roulette; and we have soooooo much to cover in our ShakesBubble Gossip that it needed its own list of links (see below). Enjoy the episode and all the kinky twists of The Maid’s Tragedy!

1. This week’s SHAKES-BUBBLE “GOSSIP”: 

   1. Cool post on Burbage

   2. Also some cool shit happening at OSF

   3. This nonsense from The Telegraph

   4. This adaptation of Macbeth down under

   5. Watch the speakers from the recent RaceB4Race Symposium

Richard II 201

This week we take a deep dive into the context of the Essex Rebellion (and Jess’s dissertation) and the mysterious role Shakespeare’s Richard II may (or may not) have played in it. We also revisit the rhetorical device of metonymy (because CROWNS), and we talk about thesis defenses in our recurring How to Grad School segment.

Julius Caesar 201

In this 201 episode we revisit Julius Caesar! We revisit the Rhetorical Device of ISOCOLON and examine how Brutus uses is to quell the crowds; Jess reads some Plutarch (Shakespeare’s primary source for the play); Aubrey talks about her mixed emotions regarding Antony and his…choices…All that and some HOT ShakesBubble Gossip thrown in, too!