One of my favorite things about working through another of Shakespeare’s comedies each summer is looking for words and phrases that the Bard introduced into our English lexicon: coinages. In this summer’s play, As You Like It, Shakespeare introduces us to several expressions that have worked their way into common parlance. Here they are, with […]
The “Sweet Kingwilliamstown: Memories of Titanic” show at Travelers Rest High School this morning went wonderfully! Ms. Graf was passionate about her story—a consummate professional. The high school students (and a number of younger homeschoolers and parents) responded well and stayed for an impromptu after-program q & a. Her story has it all: romance, laughter, […]
“Clothes,” Mark Twain once observed, “make the man.” Clothing indeed plays a pivotal role in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Servants, noblemen, widows, schoolgirls, merchants, musicians: the play is replete with disguises and costumes that are the stuff designers’ dreams are made on. Without a doubt the strangest garb of the play is swaggering […]
Yesterday someone stopped me at the post office and said, “I can’t wait for this summer’s play. Summer Shakespeare is the reason I love Shakespeare.” Wow. Did that ever make my day! I mean, that’s part of why The Greenville Shakespeare Company and Summer Shakespeare are in existence: to make folks–little ones, big ones, and […]
Some of you may remember our William Shakespeare bobblehead, the Summer Shakespeare mascot. He’s made appearances in several of our recent plays. He was one of the Russians’ gifts in Love’s Labor’s Lost (’06); he wore a grass skirt in The Tempest (’08); he sported on the windowsill in Two Gentlemen of Verona (’09). Now […]
The tradition of Twelfth Night has its origins in the medieval celebration of a winter festival. Festivities often began at the end of October and continued through the Twelve Days of Christmas. At the end of the festival, noblemen changed places with peasants for an evening of “misrule.” At the stroke of midnight, all that […]
So you’re convinced that it’s time to go to the theatre (Summer Shakespeare, of course). Now what? There are several things you can do to prepare yourself. First, read the play or a good adaptation of it. No Fear Shakespeare (brought to you by the folks at Spark Notes) puts Shakespeare’s text alongside a modern […]
Why, you may ask yourself, should I bother spending the time and energy to attend a live theatrical performance? The question holds different answers for different people, but three main reasons spring immediately to mind: for entertainment, for interaction, and for personal development. Attending a play (or any live performance) is a painless and relatively […]
This post is to let you know what GSC is up to during our “off season.” Although we’re not in rehearsals yet, we’re still busy. Here’s a sampling of what’s going on behind the scenes. . . •September 2009—GSC sponsored the second Brave New World Theatre Workshop, a no-cost workshop, dinner, and an evening of […]
During this season of thanksgiving, Greenville Shakespeare Company and Summer Shakespeare are exceedingly grateful to our wonderful sponsors. For the 2009 summer/fall season, we enjoyed the patronage of three diverse entities: Figgywhig’s Cupcakes, located in the Upstate Children’s Museum, made available mouthwatering (really, they are; just ask Jeff Stegall, who ate one or two per […]