Books and Plays by Wade Bradford; Plays for children - comedic monologue - comedic female monologues - drama resources - creative writing class - scbwi members - publishing business - how to be a children's book author - middle grade novel - fantasy novels - writing prompts
Hotspur... a fellow rebel, supporter, and then enemy of the Bolingbrokes...
Then, there's the crown's favorite coward... Falstaff!
Then, there's the rest of the gang at Miss Quickly's tavern...
Bardolph... Poins... Anicent Pistol... and Nym...
The Henriad, so called, was actually made into an epic television production titled The Hollow Crown. Check out the trailer...
Oh, and the following is not a speech written by Shakespeare... It's Tom Hanks improvising / stalling for time when the play Henry IV was halted due to a medical emergency of an audience member. Acting as Falstaff, hanks uses his quick wit keep the audience engaged...
Here are some visual notes to help us peek into the early days of Shakespeare's life and career, as well as that of his colleagues.
Here are the plans for the construction of "The Theater." (Constructed in 1576. It was the second permanent structure theater built in London. The first was The Red Lion, built in 1567.
Oh, and in case you didn't know... theaters weren't just for actors...
(Bear Baiting -- behold the works of man.)
Do you recognize this man???
Heplayed the title character Volpone in Ben Jonson's social-comedy classic.
(Here's a portrait of Ben Jonson, master of the Comedy of Humours.)
Richard Burbage also starred in plays by John Webster...
(He's the playwright responsible for the bloody tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi.)
But Brubage is most famous for playing the leading roles in many of the original productions of Shakespeare's tragedies.
He originated the roles of... Hamlet...
Macbeth...
and King Lear...
There's also the possibility that he appeared in a play by the handsome young man in a gigantic sweater: Christopher Marlowe...
There were other stars of the stage, though none as big as Burbage. (It helps when your father owns the theater!)
Some of the other actors included Will Kempe... renown for playing clownish characters including Falstaff.
(Is it prejudice to say that all these dead British actors look alike?) PS -- Check out the details of Phillips' will and you'll get a glimpse of how enmeshed his life was with the theater.
Here's Hamlet's advice to actors of the time...
Here's a great 20 minute promotional documentary about the recreation of the Globe Theater:
I meet a lot of students who want to become detectives, criminologists, and/or FBI profilers. It might be due to the popularity of CSI-styled shows during the last two decades, or maybe they are inantely passionate about injustice. In either case, these types of students enjoy analyzing characters through psycho-analytic criticism, which is a great way to approach a text.
For students who want too peer into a dark mind of a literary character, say perhaps such as an Iago or a Lady Macbeth, I have come up with an entertaining little prompt, a series of questions in which the student attempts to answer from the point of view of the villain.
Here's the prompt...
Antagonist / Villain Profile (Pretend you are the character)
Name:
Approx. Age:
Gender:
What do you see in the inkblot?
What do you want most out of life?
How do you feel about the protagonist?Explain:
For each emotion, write the first word or phrase that comes
to your mind:
Society: Friendship:
Success:Failure:
What do you hate? (Why?) What
do you love? (Why?)
Do you have any regrets?Why / why not?
Have you ever experienced a downfall due to hubris?If so, explain:
One of the creepiest characters in our literature textbook is Arnold Friend from "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" A UC Davis student created an excellent character analysis of this villain, positing the idea that Arnold might be the devil himself.
For an in depth look at Kabuki Theater, check out this video -- which i believe is narrated in part by Jeremy Irons!
Also... here's a video of one of the most popular Kabuki plays in the history of Japanese theater: Yoshitsune and the One Thousand Cherry Blossom Trees.
I was trying to think of ways in which Kabuki theater has influenced American pop-culture... and at first I couldn't think of anything.
And then I remembered these guys!
Now it's time to explore the fascinating and sometimes creepy world of Bunraku (Japanese Puppet Theatre)...
This clip of a performance may or may not be as disturbing (depending on your dread of puppets)...
Want to dig deeper in to the history of this art form? Begin Japanology has another great 30-minute documentary.
Now, the Bunraku style can be scene in several Western productions, including Paula Vogel's The Long Christmas Ride Home. (Read the New York Times review.)
And the retelling of the Tinman of Oz, The Woodsman...
And one could argue that Bunraku theater inspired the amazing British production of War Horse. (Although, to my knowledge Bunraku puppets are traditional human or humanoid.)
Noh Plays are one of the oldest theatrical traditions in Japan. Here's a glimpse of what it looks like in performance...
Modern film makers from Japan and elsewhere are still heavily influenced by Noh traditions -- especially the trope of mortals entering the supernatural and sometimes forbidden world that lurks beneath the surface of our own.
In Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, a little boy happens upon a wedding party of foxes. It is forbidden for humans to observe such a thing, and the boy must beg for their forgiveness or perish.
In adition to live action film, we can see the influences of Noh in animation... For example: Spirited Away:
I've always thought that the NoFace character in Spirited Away was creepy... but perhaps nothing is quite as unsettling as the little girl from The Ring crawling out of the well
I may have mentioned before how, back in the 1980s, I was one of the many children suffering from Arcade Mania. I definitely had Pac-Man Fever. And Asteroids Asthma. And Centipede Sickness. You name the game, I'll tell you about my addiction -- my desperate need to mooch quarters off of my parents just so I could take on a digital army of Space Invaders (or in my case Galaga insects).
The video games that amazed me the most were the ones that were in the style of Disney animated features. I believe Don Bluth created the two that I am thinking of... Dragon's Lair and Space Ace...
I have already blogged about Dragon's Lair... but I did want to mention that a discovered, or should I say rediscovered a game that I had completely forgotten about... Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp!!!
I totally forgot this existed... I think think I may have only watched others play, because I only recall the beginning action sequence in which Dirk the Daring runs away from his mother-in-law. Pretty funy stuff... but I noticed that halfway through, this cartoon adventure gets SO WEIRD! There's a sequence in which you are the size of a mouse running through Beethoven's music parlor. The animators were having way too much fun, I think.
But the one I've been really thinking about lately is SPACE ACE. I loved Space Ace as much as I loved the original Dragon's Lair -- but god knows I could never get very far into this game before I got zapped.
Now, thanks to YouTube, you can watch the full version and imagine successfully playing through the game without perishing once.
One thing I must say about the influence of this game -- and I don't even think at the time I knew that it was this game that had an affect one me -- several early writing projects of mine wouldn't have been the same without this Sci-Fi action cartoon.
I used to draw a comic-book called Space Bounty Hunter from Hell... and although the art style and plat were very different, the ship of Space Ace is very similar to one of the space ships I would draw for my cartoon. (I did not recall this until last night when I watched the YouTube video.)
The other more prominent influence... the name Dexter. (That's Space Ace when he's in his pipsqueak form.) I loved that name!!! If you look at the screenplays and book I wrote in my late teens and early twenties, I always put in a Dexter character either as a main character or a supporting one. Before Space Ace, I had never even heard of that as a name.
I stopped using Dexter, by the way... First because of this guy...
Now, I am certainly not gonna name another one of my characters Dexter, thanks to this guy...
Back in the Arcade days, I remember another animated game from Japan... It was called Cliffhanger...
Does anyone know of other animated video games from this era and beyond? Leave a comment and let us know.
