“Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it…Success is shy-it won’t come out while you’re watching.”-Tennessee Williams
Quote
2
Tag Archives: Plays
Voices from the Grave #40: Tennessee Williams Interview
Tennessee Williams Interview with Bill Boggs.
A Year in Books/Day 196: The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations from Shakespeare
- Title: The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations from Shakespeare
- Editors: Mary and Reginald Foakes
- Year Published: 1998 (Columbia University Press)/This Edition: 2000 (Barnes & Noble Books)
- Year Purchased: Early 2000s
- Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
- About: There is something off about heading to the Internet for your Shakespeare needs. If any writer cries out for an old-fashioned hard copy experience, it is the Bard of Avon. I will take this cheap clearance book over a Google search box every time. If you cannot find the quote you are looking for-or a suitable one you do not yet know exists-then you are a terrible, terrible contrarian in need of a scolding. Nearly 4000 quotations have been cross-indexed under a dizzying array of topics. The kicker? It was a labor of love by scholar Reginald Foakes and his wife, Mary (who died before it reached publication). How very Shakespearean.
- Motivation: A dictionary + quotes + Shakespeare? This book practically screamed my name.
- Times Read: Only as a reference tool, never cover-to-cover (it feels odd typing those words).
English: Title page of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Random Excerpt/Page 83: “Well you deserve. They well deserve to have That know the strong’st and surest way to get.”
- Happiness Scale: 10
A Year in Books/Day 167: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Volume 1 and Volume 2
- Title: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Volume 1 and Volume 2
- Editors: W.G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright
- Year Published: Unknown (Nelson Doubleday, Inc.)
- Year Purchased: Unknown
- Source: I swiped these from my grandparents when I was a kid.
- About: I’ve had this set since I was in fifth grade. I remember picking through it, delicately at first, before gaining steam (and confidence) and plowing through every word. Everything. What I didn’t understand (the majority, to be sure) I loved any way. The words were so alive, magical. I could picture things, even if those images were often fuzzy or incomplete. These books are loved like few others in my collection. A decade later and I was studying Shakespearean Theatre. I no longer act (except in my head), but I still read the plays aloud. How can you not? The Bard of Avon is ever enchanting.
- Motivation: I had already read my way through most of my elders’ books, including two sets of encyclopedias and various dictionaries and almanacs. I was 10. Shakespeare seemed like the logical next step.
- Times Read: Unknown
- Random Excerpt/Page 56: “Thus, with its apparent lightness, there is a serious spirit underlying the play; but the surface is all jest, and stir, and sparkle. It is a comedy of dialogue rather than of incident.”
- Happiness Scale: 10++++
Title page of the First Folio, 1623. Copper engraving of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Year in Books/Day 149: The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
- Title: The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
- Edited by: Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells
- Year Published: 2001 (Oxford University Press)
- Year Purchased: 2001/2002
- Source: Unknown
- About: Everything you could want to know about Shakespeare, his works, and his era, this volume is an accompaniment to the Oxford Shakespeare. Dense, detailed and, like any encyclopedia, culled from a diverse, sometimes contradictory set of sources, it is one of the definitive texts on the king of all playwrights. It’s a cornerstone of my Shakespeare collection. Bonus points for the handsome coffee table treatment, complete with beautiful photographs and illustrations.
English: Title page of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Motivation: I was that lone teen in high school English Literature class who was thrilled whenever Shakespeare showed up on the syllabus. I grew up to study Shakespearean Theatre (yep, that’s a thing). I’m still passionately keen for the Bard of Avon, whose works comprise one of my favourite linguistic and literary playgrounds.
- Times Read: Cover-to-cover:1/As resource: countless
- Random Excerpt/Page 482: “Translation, the rendering of Shakespeare texts into another language, is inalienably part of the process whereby Shakespeare has been, and is being, received in non-English-speaking countries. Hence Shakespeare translation has not only (1) linguistic but also (2) theatrical and cultural-even political-aspects.”
- Happiness Scale: 10+++
A Year in Books/Day 131: After the Fall
- Title: After the Fall A Play in Two Acts/Final Stage Version
- Author: Arthur Miller
- Year Published: 1964/This edition: 1987 (Penguin Books)
- Year Purchased: 1990/1991
- Source: Unknown
- About: No matter how hard I want it to be otherwise, After the Fall has always left a bad taste in my mouth. Although he’s not my favourite American playwright, I love Arthur Miller. I do. My love even survived not only reading Death of a Salesman (which I adore) in my high school AP English class, but watching multiple film and television adaptations over the course of a few days. That’s asking too much, yet my love and respect remained intact. After the Fall, based on his relationship with second wife Marilyn Monroe, goes a step too far for my taste. The whole enterprise, although undoubtedly cathartic for Miller, is tainted by the too-fresh dirt of his ex-wife’s grave. All writers write, to one extent or another, about people they know and experiences they have. (I’m no different.) I’d like to think that most of us are sensible or compassionate enough to do it from behind at least a slightly opaque veil, without dozens of raw and neon-bright references to friends and family. Especially when they were-and remain-one of the most famous people in the world. If you were to reduce the play to just Maggie’s lines, it would almost read like an autobiographical monologue by Monroe. Unless you do that to yourself, it’s a bit icky. Now here’s where I must pause and tell a tale on myself: if After the Fall was top-notch Miller, I’d probably be more forgiving. I know I’m a hypocrite but great writing gets me every time. This isn’t great writing; it’s a curiosity piece, an exercise in egoism, condescension and hand-washing. It’s not a good look for one of America’s best playwrights.
- Motivation: I’ve loved plays for nearly as far back as I can remember; not just in performance, but in text. I would read aloud all of the parts, like some sort of egocentric table reading. I guess I was theatrically inclined even then, loving the interplay between words and action that is missing from straight fiction. I wrote my first play in the 5th grade. Even though the short story is my (near exclusive) fiction medium, I write with play craft in mind.
- Times Read: 3 or 4
- Random Excerpt/Page 84: “That decency is murderous! Speak truth, not decency. I curse the whole high administration of fake innocence! I declare it, I am not innocent-nor good!”
- Happiness Scale: 6 for subject matter and over all execution/10 for the few passages where Miller’s writing soars
Arthur Miller, American playwright (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Book Spree
As a writer, I naturally spend a lot of time writing. Shocking, I know! On my down-time, I can usually be found reading a book or four. I’m always cycling amongst a weird combination of disparate volumes. If I’m not engaged in those activities, there’s a very good chance that I am thinking about one or the other. Writing and reading are the fuels that fire my passion for life. Continue reading
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 