We meant to work this whimsical take on worldwide William Shakespeare celebrations into the next Book Haven post on the subject – but this one’s got a time peg, and we’re already nearly 10% through 2012. As we are shoveling clothes and papers into a suitcase to head for Paris, here’s a few off-the-beaten track ways to celebrate the English language’s premiere Bard this year.
February: Verona’s “Club di Giulietta” receives and apparently responds to hundreds of letters addressed to “Juliet” of Shakespeare’s famous love story. On Valentine’s Day, the club awards the Cara Giuletta (“Dear Juliet”) prize to the writers of the “most compelling letters” received the previous year. (See photo at right for Juliet’s balcony.)
March/April: More locally, San Francisco’s African American Shakespeare Company (“Envisioning the classics with color.”) finishes its 2011-12 season with a March-April production of Julius Caesar. According to the website, “this political thriller about life and death political struggles tells us not only about the dead leaders we see etched in stone or live on TV each night, but also about the people who put them in power in the first place.” We wrote about the founding director of company, L. Peter Callender, during a Homeric venture at Stanford. (In fact, if I’m not mistaken that rather looks like him in the Julius Caesar photo at left.)
April: Prior to going to Chicago’s “Talk Like Shakespeare Day” on the Bard’s putative birthday on April 23, you might want to check out our post “The Archaeology of Sound” here.
Check the others at the Online Degree website here.