Austin Tichenor
“Comic sport”: Shakespeare’s depictions of governments in chaos
Chaotic and ineffective government may be a problem in our current life, but it makes for excellent drama in the theater — and in William Shakespeare’s hands, excellent comedy as well.
“In the brave squares”: The Show Must Go Online
One of the lasting achievements of the extended COVID quarantine will surely be an extraordinary archive of the complete works of William Shakespeare performed on Zoom by casts from around the world, under the umbrella title The Show Must Go…
And so they play their parts: Double-casting Shakespeare’s plays
Double-casting is a theater technique (as opposed to a literary one) that creates a meta-narrative, transforming a large-cast play into a present-tense adventure. Actors swapping costumes and changing roles (and sometimes genders) becomes part of the thrilling ride, and theater’s…
Mangled glory: Fact and (mostly) fiction in Shakespeare’s history plays
Austin Tichenor writes about theater’s limitations as a historical record, given its dramatic needs and narrative imperatives.
“Jumping o’er times:” Visiting great Shakespeare performances past
Cyril Walter Hodges. The fire at the Globe, 1613 (illustration for: Shakespeare’s Theatre, 1964). Folger Shakespeare Library. While William Shakespeare never wrote what we might think of as a science-fiction play, he knew intuitively that the theatre — more…
Losing the name of action: Hamlet reconsidered
Photograph by Lizzie Caswall Smith of Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Hamlet. Folger Shakespeare Library. During this global pandemic, when the whole world is quarantined to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Hamlet seems like a character perfectly suited to…
Sonnets & Chill: What did Shakespeare’s audiences do when the theaters were closed?
Speed reading Launce’s letter : / J. Gilbert ; W. Thomas, sc. 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library. ART File S528t7 no.10 (size XS)All right, enough. We’ve all heard how super-productive William Shakespeare was when the plague shut down his theaters:…
Beware the Ides of March — and confusing interpretations of 'Julius Caesar'
Brutus (Anthony Cochrane, left) and Julius Caesar (Michael Sharon, right), Julius Caesar, directed by Robert Richmond, Folger Theatre, 2014. Photo by Teresa Wood. In 1599, in the 40th year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, when she had no heir or obvious…
"A goodly prize": Award-winning Shakespeare movies
Since we’ve just completed the annual Hollywood marathon called “Awards Season” — several self-congratulatory months filled with the Independent Spirit Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, various guild awards from around the world, the British Film & Television Academy Awards (the…
"This wide and universal theater": Tricks of the theatrical trade in Shakespeare's plays
“Write what you know” is the age-old wisdom young writers are always given, and though he never wrote a backstage comedy (or, for that matter, a backstage history, tragedy, or romance), William Shakespeare filled his plays with the tricks of…
Have yourself a merry Shakespeare Christmas
It’s that time of year, when some of us have visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads, many are looking forward to (or dreading) gathering with family and friends, and a certain subset of us wonder, somewhat longingly and…
'Our humble author will continue the story': Shakespearean prequels and sequels
Claudius (Craig Wallace, center), Rosencrantz (Romell Witherspoon, right), and Guildenstern (Adam Wesley Brown). Gertrude (Kimberly Schraf) pictured in background. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Folger Theatre, 2015. Photo by Jeff Malet. Maybe ’twas ever thus, but the current crop of…