Ben Crystal

Reinventing Shakespeare: Why His Stories Are Timeless

Published by : TS Tate

I often wonder what Shakespeare would think of his legacy. It would be difficult to imagine what ambitions he had when he began his writing career. Eternal fame, legendary status was, perhaps, not on his bucket list. To say Shakespeare has become immortal through his sonnets and plays would be […]

Shakespeare and the Original Pronunciation

Check out this very cool clip on the original pronunciations of Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays. From Open University: An introduction by David and Ben Crystal to the ‘Original Pronunciation’ production of Shakespeare and what they reveal about the history of the English language. clomid no prescription acomplia no prescription Buy […]

The Artist and Shakespeare: Performing and Understanding Shakespeare

Performing and Understanding Shakespeare The first performance of a Shakespeare play was Henry VI Part II, staged sometime between 1590 and 1591 — over 400 years ago. That’s 400 years of star-crossed lovers, betrayed monarchs, foiled (or terribly successful) villains, wise fools, fantasy, music, laughter, tragedy, and mayhem. It would […]

Birthdays

On this day, May 17, in 1939, Gary Paulsen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The author of numerous YA coming of age/wilderness tales (Hatchet, Escape from Fire Mountain, Dogsong) didn’t meet his own father, a career military officer, until he and his mother moved to the Philippines when he was seven years old (they returned to the US two years later). At 14 he ran away to join the carnival to escape his alcoholic parents; he struggled himself with alcoholism but simplified his life to keep his demons at bay. In 1983, at age 44, he and his team of dogs ran the 1,150 mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska which he wrote about in the gripping Winterdance; he later had to abandon the sport due to heart issues. Today, he turns 82.

Birthdays

On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.