21 Thursday Apr 2016
I love toy theatres and I love Shakespeare… Toy theatre productions of Shakespeare, being a combination of two of my favourite things, make me ludicrously happy.
There’s been a time when I thought I’d find some like-minded soul and put together a large toy theatre and a little collection of (much abridged) Shakespeare plays for schools. Well, perhaps not just Shakespeare – but still. Continue reading
19 Tuesday Apr 2016
Posted in Theatre
Tags
Italian television, King Lear, Nando Gazzolo, RAI, Salvo Randone, televised theatre, William Shakespeare
It being the week it is, the telly is abuzz with Shakespearean fervour – which is very good, since it gives one the chance to watch or re-watch more theatre than is usual in my corner of the world.
Last night, for instance, I came home from a reading with the Squirrels to find my mother had recorded for me an old Italian production of King Lear – and I mean “old” as in 1960… Continue reading
16 Saturday Apr 2016
Posted in Things
Just a little Saturday thought – with a lot of metaliterary potential, if you ask me…
Here is another interesting observation: compared to literature, life is much more mottled, incoherent, variable, detailed, tedious. What follows is a bizarre suggestion: perhaps literature is indeed life, in other words, the ideal of its construction, the standard for all weights and measures, while so-called life comprises a sketch, avenues of approach, a blank, and in the most felicitous situations—a version. More than anything it looks as if literature, word of honour, is the fair copy and life a rough copy, and not even the most useful.
—The New Moscow Philosophy, Vyacheslav Pyetsukh (trans. Krystyna Anna Steiger)
And isn’t there something similar in some Blixen/Dinesen short story or other? Vague memories of a teenage read, a borrowed book. I must look it up.
Have a nice weekend.
14 Thursday Apr 2016
Tags
And then there are the hendecasyllables.
I have this friend who got her degree and now works in another town and, while there, got herself embroiled with the local Palio. Now, you see, in Italy a palio is a kind of historical-themed competition among the neighbourhoods of a town. They have jousts, archery contests, horse races, flag-throwing, period dancing and so on, usually in beautiful costumes. Old Italian towns being what they are, the rivalry can be quite fierce… Continue reading
12 Tuesday Apr 2016
Posted in Eccentricities, Stories
They’ve arrived to me in the most roundabout of ways. They’ve heard I “know about the Brontës” – which is somewhat true, considering that I’ve given a number of talks about the family, and garnered some attention, years ago, with a short play about brother Branwell.
So they wonder, would I be interested in coordinating a huge inter-school project about Charlotte Brontë and youth problems… Continue reading
07 Thursday Apr 2016
Posted in Scribbling, Things
Ha, the mystery is solved.
I mean the mystery about the notes I thought I’d taken while watching my play performed, four years ago – and couldn’t find anymore. Or at least, not in the quantity I remember…
Did my storytelling mind make up all the note-taking because it was nice and writerly – the Playwright At Work?
Well, the answer is Yes – and No.
And it went like this: yesterday morning I woke up with a hazy notion that perhaps I had made notes on a printed copy of the play… Continue reading
05 Tuesday Apr 2016
Tags
The flu.
It’s April, the garden is a riot, the weather sweet – and I’ve got the flu.
I should be writing, re-writing, exercising, translating, following rehearsals, putting in practice all my nice new resolutions – but no: I’ve got the flu… Continue reading
02 Saturday Apr 2016
Posted in Scribbling
“Be a dear,” the Drama Teacher said, “and put together something Shakespearean for the Squirrels.”
“What kind of something?”
“Oh, something…”
“Shakespeare chunks within some sort of framing device?”
“That’s my girl!”
And because the Drama Teacher taught me back in the day, and I love her dearly, I said yes, and I’d do it, only please don’t be in haste. This happened more than a month ago but, lacking the sense God gave a duckling, I let time pass, and pass, and pass… Continue reading
31 Thursday Mar 2016
Posted in Scribbling
Tags
Rejoice with me: I’ve finished the second draft!
Right now. At 102784 words – which is a bit too long, especially because I still have a few scenes to add. Some tight editing will be in order – but this is for… oh, the week after the next, I guess.
For now, I’ve finished the second draft! I’ve finished the second draft! I’ve finished the second draft! And so on.
As Miggs says, Ally-loyer!
29 Tuesday Mar 2016
Posted in Things
Tags
Right, I am aware that resolutions are a thing for New Year’s day. One doesn’t do Easter resolutions, right? Or post-Easter resolutions, or April resolutions?
Still, because in a couple of days I’ll finish the second draft, I think I’d better take stock and decide on a few things… Continue reading
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