#shakespearefreak

[socialshakespeare]

Reading 2: Saturday, October 12

The second read-through of Macbeth!

(Most of you are double or triple cast, so double check which lines you have to read.) You can look up the lines of the characters here. The names listed below all go with the Folger Edition. We will post line changes and cuts shortly.

Please submit your confirmation or any request to understudy here. If you’re in any doubt, please ask.

Times and time zones:

EDT (US): 4:00 PM CDT (US): 3:00 PM MDT (US): 2:00 PM PDT (US): 1:00 PM BST (UK): 9:00 PM AEDT (AU): 7:00 AM (Sunday, October 13)

Leader: @actorinfluence

Macbeth: wildechild Lady Macbeth, Soldier: hollishasatumblr Malcolm, Fleance: infinitelytheheartexpands Macduff, Angus: thestorywitch Banquo, Hecate, Macduff's Son, Caithness: shakespearefreak Duncan, Thirds, Messenger, Lord(s): missingrache Lennox, Doctor, Lady Macduff, Old Man: Actorinfluence Firsts, Porter, Menteith, Seyton: trashprinceofdenmark Seconds, Siward, Captain, Gentlewoman: staythenightwiththesinnersxxx Ross, Servant, Donalbain, Young Siward: klatukatt

Please submit your confirmation here. - liking/reblogging this post does not count!

Read the Guidelines. To avoid the differences between editions that make for confusion and missed cues, please use the Folger edition of Macbeth during the read-through.

Be on time, be prepared, and make sure you know which lines to read. Good luck!

[laropasucia]

@shakespearefreak @mrboifriend

[starleska]

okay i love Jeronicus Jangle as a character: he has so many facets and it's a real delight getting to see a grieving, embittered old man rediscover his passion for inventing and love for his family again!!! but as a Gustafson fan, it still drives me nuts that Gustafson was clearly ignored for his own love of invention, and that left him susceptible to manipulation from Don Juan Diego. even after all these years, Jeronicus still couldn't get the name of his former apprentice's only invention right 💀 @shakespearefreak worded it far more eloquently than i can, but Jeronicus' thoughtlessness didn't start when Gustafson stole his inventions or when Joanne died. for seemingly no reason other than to revel in his own future, Jeronicus refused to give Gustafson the time of day for a small engineering issue which was causing him trouble. he does the same thing to Don Juan Diego: delighting only in him as a toy, as a product, and a symbol of his own genius. this is in spite of Diego's very understandable fears regarding his identity when he is mass-marketed 😭 i think the thing that's telling is that this issue was so difficult for Gustafson that it's still bothering him thirty years later:

we see how Gustafson obsesses and self-flagellates in tandem, trying desperately to work through the problem that's been plaguing him for years. even though he has all of those Toy Maker of the Year accolades, he still hates himself. it's clear he didn't steal the inventions just for the glory: it was to prove that he was as worthy an inventor as Jeronicus. even though it was after the death of Joanne, the way Jeronicus treats Edison and tests Journey after noticing her skills makes me wonder if his approach to mentorship was hands-off: if he preferred to give instructions and let Gustafson figure it out himself, even when he was struggling 💔

and really, what is Gustafson's 'Magic Man G' persona if not a rehashed version of the mystique surrounding Jeronicus' genius? if Jeronicus rarely gave him the time of day invention-wise, i could see Gustafson getting it in his head that invention is all about the 'magic': the showmanship, the energy. is it any wonder that he never bothered to pursue any original inventions if that's what he thought inventing was? especially when after all these years, the issue he had could be fixed with a simple part for his invention...he didn't need to struggle!! now i want to clarify: Gustafson is clearly the villain, as the choices he made were inexcusable!! but Jeronicus' self-absorption and ego are huge components to his fall from grace. the man turns away his own granddaughter and describes himself as 'the greatest inventor of all' in letters to his own estranged daughter 😭 i think this story isn't just about justice for Jeronicus' stolen work and his moving on from his grief. it's also him allowing someone else to be the genius for a change, and sharing his knowledge for the betterment of everyone 💖

[missyling]

18 Inch Doll Stats - May 2024

idea borrowed from @shakespearefreak!

Out of the 6 18 inch dolls that I own:

6/6 (100%) are female

5/6 (83%) are American Girl brand

1/6 (16%) is Magic Attic brand

2/6 (33%) are contemporary

4/6 (66%) are historical

3/6 (50%) are from the 1800s

2/6 (33%) are from the 1900s

1/6 (16%) is from the 2000s

4/6 (66%) are from the Historical Characters line

1/6 (16%) is from the Girl of the Year line

3/6 (50%) have the Josefina mold

1/6 (16%) has the Addy mold

1/6 (16%) has the Classic mold

1/6 (16%) has an Other mold*

6/6 (100%) are canonical characters from their respective brands

3/6 (50%) are White

2/6 (33%) are Hispanic

1/6 (16%) is Black

3/6 (50%) are currently available

3/6 (50%) are retired

0/6 (0%) are customized

*Unsure how I should classify the Magic Attic molds! Do they have names? Anyone have thoughts/information?

[velvetdarknessmadison]

Rocky Horror Easter Egg

by ShakespeareFreak

[pettyobsessionsmadison]

ReeeEEEEPOoo MaaAAAN!

by ShakespeareFreak

[iwt-v]

Pass the happy! 🌻🌈 When you receive this, list 5 things that make you happy and send this to the last 10 people in the notifications!

Let’s do this with visuals bcz why not:

1. Bald Eagles. Unexpected, I know, but last month I saw my first one (wild). It was just sitting on a bare tree limb, much like this and it was absolutely incredible. 

 2. Playing my guitar. It definitely helped during my vacation of isolation.

3. Nestle push-ups. I don’t need to explain.

4. THEM

5. These candles. They smell delicious.

[socialshakespeare]

Reading 5: Saturday, September 28

The fifth read-through of The Tempest!

(Most of you are double or triple cast, so double check which lines you have to read.) You can look up the lines of the characters here. The names listed below all go with the Folger Edition. We will post line changes and cuts shortly.

Please submit your confirmation or any request to understudy here. If you’re in any doubt, please ask.

Times and time zones:

EDT (US): 8:00 PM CDT (US): 7:00 PM MDT (US): 6:00 PM PDT (US): 5:00 PM BST (UK): 1:00 AM (Sunday, September 29) AEST (AU): 10:00 AM (Sunday, September 29)

Leader: @trashprinceofdenmark

Prospero: @astrangergivingthestrangewelcome Sebastian, Trinculo: @shakespearefreak Ariel, Mariners: hollishasatumblr Caliban, Francisco: @laropasucia Ferdinand, Boatswain: @ladymacbethshusbandsboyfriend Stephano, Shipmaster: @if-you-come-a-knockin Antonio, Ceres: @dramamath Gonzalo, Juno: @katethecurst Miranda, Adrian: @piedoesnotequalpi Alonso, Iris: trashprinceofdenmark Understudy: @dude-watchin-with-the-brontes

Please submit your confirmation here. - liking/reblogging this post does not count!

Read the Guidelines. To avoid the differences between editions that make for confusion and missed cues, please use the Folger edition of The Tempest during the read-through.

Be on time, be prepared, and make sure you know which lines to read. Good luck!

[shakespearefreak]

SIX Wives of Henry VIII

Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Survived. LIVE! Six English queens lay down an epic diss track album about their royal ex.

Buy them here

EDIT 10/16/19: The original link I posted was broken! 😳 It should work now, but if you have any problems please let me know. Thanks! 😅

EDIT 1/07/20: Switched up the colour for Aragon and the text for Cleves.

[istheoncelerfandomstillalive]

shakespearefreak submitted:

🌺 SEND THIS TO TEN OTHER BLOGS YOU THINK ARE WONDERFUL. MAKE SURE TO KEEP THE GAME GOING. 🌺 💓💓💓🐍🤠

*surprised pikachu*

[aerealren]

5 a fave room - books galore (not the half of them lol) a couple of Waterhouse prints and my baby boy. All reside in my lounge..... #waterhousecollection #shakespearefreak #myogfurbaby #fms_afaveroom #fmspad https://www.instagram.com/p/B_1IhishHC4VXT_84EudQYE8Ot_DZimTTPAgvU0/?igshid=98h132pwol9t

[laropasucia]

@shakespearefreak @socialshakespeare

okay GENUINELY romeo and juliet should have been at the club

[wendyliddel]

Random Christmas Post

I saw @shakespearefreak make a post where they answered these questions, so I thought I’d try it

Favourite Childhood Christmas Movie:The Santa Clause(1994)

Favourite Modern Christmas Movie: Elf (2003). Does that still count as modern? If not, I guess I’ll go with Noelle (2019).

Favourite "Christmas Carol" Adaptation: A Flintstones Christmas Carol. It’s not one I see mentioned a lot, but I watched it as a kid. I loved it, and I still watch it now.

Favourite "Nice" Christmas Movie: Miracle on 34th Street

Favourite "Naughty" Christmas Movie: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

Favourite Child Protagonist: Kevin from Home Alone. Honorable mention to Cindy Lou Who  from How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).

Favourite Teenage Protagonist: Buzz from Home Alone, I guess? He’s not really the protagonist, and he’s a jerk, but he’s a funny jerk.

Favourite Adult Protagonist: The Parents from A Christmas Story. This may be a bit of a cheat, but I see them as a pair, and they make that movie for me.

Favourite Santa Claus: Edmund Gwenn in Miracle on 34th Street (1947) Honorable mention to Tim Allen in The Santa Clause

Favourite Villain: Harry and Marv from Home Alone. Just like the parents from A Christmas Story, you can’t have one of these guys without the other.

Favourite Christmas Present: The Mystery Date Game and Weenie Whistle that Scott/Santa gives to Laura and Neil at the end of The Santa Clause. Finally getting your childhood wish FTW!

Favourite Christmas TV Special:A Very Brady Christmas. This is another one I watched as a kid, and still watch now. It is exactly as cheesy and contrived as you would expect a Christmas movie (or any movie) about The Brady Bunch to be, but I enjoyed it.

Favourite Ship: Sam and Joanna from Love Actually. They barely have any screen time together, but they are so cute, and I love their scene in Red Nose Day Actually as well. Honorable mentions to Jovie and Buddy from Elf, and Scott and Carol from The Santa Clause 2.

Favourite Classic Christmas Song: "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" by Nat King Cole. Honorable mention to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Favourite Modern Christmas Song: I’m cheating again and going for a twofer. Last Christmas, and All I Want For Christmas is You. Admittedly, the original versions of these songs are not exactly modern anymore, but they are as, if not more, popular now than they ever were, and both songs have been redone by other artists.

[untitled5071]

Rules: name 7 comfort films and tag 7 people

Tagged by @ceasarslegion (Dames I would die for you)

I can't put them in order because I love them too too much but here goes nothing

1). Beetlejuice (Adam and Barbara my beloved)

2). Back to the Future (Marty is a Dumbass and I love him)

3). The Princess Bride (Buttercup is fucking gorgeous)

4). Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (I owe these boys so much)

5). How to Train your Dragon (First hyperfixation babey)

6). Disney's Robin Hood (It was my childhood favorite)

7). Rankin Bass' Jack Frost (I know it's a Christmas movie but I raise you; Jack Frost is baby)

Oh this was way harder than I wanted it to be, but here comes the tagging!

@blind-band-geek @quietw0rld @pennate-marauder @procrastin-8-or @moscow5 @annabeth715 @shakespearefreak

[laropasucia]

@shakespearefreak

A few different people have been observing that Scrooge begins to change more quickly in the book than is often shown in adaptations. The Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come isn’t the one crucial factor breaking his obstinacy, but rather a final message to drive home a point that Scrooge had already become receptive to. I want to trace the shape of Scrooge’s progress over the course of the book and see what it reveals. (There will be some ‘spoilers’ here, since the story seems fairly universally known even among those who are reading the book for the first time.)

After Marley’s appearance, he is disturbed and discomfited, but still trying to hang onto denial and not face what he’s been told.

With Chistmas Past, adaptations often treat it like a psych session - see, you hate Christmas because you were so miserable during it. But in the book, that isn’t the point at all. Scrooge sees times when he was unhappy as a boy, but he also sees what comforted him during those times - reading and imagination, which his adult self would dismiss asfrivolous and unprofitable - and recaptures his joy in those things. He sees times when he was happy, like at Fezziwig’s Christmas party. And he sees how he’s become the kind of person who made his younger self unhappy rather than happy, and how easy it would to be otherwise.

He sees himself asan unhappy child, and wishes that he’d been kinder to the young boy singing carols at the door. He sees himself happily employed with a kind, generous and personable employer, who could create a vastly more pleasant workplace climate at trivial expense, and wishes he’d been nicer to Bob Cratchit.

And then he sees Belle, and is shown that his unhappiness is of his own making and the consequence of hus own choices. His being the selfish, avaricious person he is is not the consequence of Belle breaking up with him; it is the cause of it. She saw him already becoming that person, and chose not to follow him in that path. Her choices left her a happy, loving and loved woman; his left him unhappy and alone. Scrooge cannot bear this, and rejects and fights the spirit rather than face it.

But he has nonetheless already begun to change. Whereas he initially did not want to go with Christmas Past (“a night of unbroken sleep would be more conducive to [my welfare]”), he willingly goes with Christmas Present and expresses the desire to learn and benefit. He sees people in all manner of circumstances, good and bad, choosing to take joy in each other’s company and the comforts, small or great, around them. Many adaptations fail in this, focusing Scrooge’s attention on the idea that people dislike him (Mrs Cratchit; his nephew’s joke) but in the book Scrooge clearly greatly enjoys his nephew’s party, the nephew is being good-humoured and generous and expresses his goodwill towards Scrooge, and Scrooge doesn’t mind the joke at all. He sees the Cratchits making the best of what they have, and how he is making their lives harder than need be. He sees, in many ways and places, how he could be making others happy and being happy himself, rather than making evrryobe miserable, and it is an appealing picture. And Present calls him out, several times, on his past words and sentiments, and Scrooge repents them.

By the time he meets the Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come, he is already willing and prepared to change, and making deliberate plans to do so. The thing that I think is emphasized through the scenes with Yet To Come, as a driving home of the point, is that Scrooge’s actions up to this point have not only made him and others unhappy - they are an utter failure at getting Scrooge the one thing he had prioritized: wordly security, respect, and dignity. In Belle’s words, his turn to avarice in his youth was in hopes of avoiding the “sordid reproach” that the world has for poverty. He was fine, and even pleased, with being feared rather than loved - what he did not want was to be patronized, despized, looked down on.

And now he sees where that got him! His business partners don’t even care to attend his funeral. Men whose respect he hoped to have gained don’t even give him a second thought, and for the brief moment they do, think ill of him (“Old Scratch” is Victorian slang for the devil). His chambers and even his body are plundered (tomorrow’s reading is even more graphic about this, in some lines, than most adaptations). He’s buried in an obscure, untended, weedy churchyard, because no one cares enough about him to make other arrangements. He has none of the worldly respect, regard, dignity for which he turned to money as a protector. Past and Present showed that he was wanting the wrong things; but Future shows him that he wasn’t even achieving the things he thought he did want, amd was in fact achieving their opposite.

The point of Future, then, is not to convince Scrooge to change. He has already chosen that he desires to change. Future alone, without the earlier spirits, would be supremely ineffective; showing Scrooge that his servant and the people around him hate him, without first showing him that he can be happy and make other people happy, would only make him more of a misanthrope. This is not a “scare ‘em straight,” as some adaptations play it. The point of Future is as a final guard against backsliding, against regret: you are losing nothing by changing, because your current path is losing you even the paltry things you sought to gain by it.

Also, I hadn’t really registered this on previous reads, but this is the very near future - the Christmas one year after the period of the book. This is never stated outright, but Christmas Present says of Tiny Tim, “If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race will find him here” - meaning, no future Christmas. And, in the visions with Christmas Future, Tiny Tim has died only a few days ago. In the words of Dante (paraphrased) “the time was perilously short for turning.” The Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come doesn’t teach the lesson - that’s the previous spirits - but he makes sure it sticks.

[sayyestothejess]

Reading 3: Sunday, March 22

The third read-through of Richard II!

(Most of you are double or triple cast, so double check which lines you have to read.) You can look up the lines of the characters here. The names listed below all go with the Folger Edition. If you’re in any doubt, or would like to be an understudy for this reading, please ask.

Times and time zones:

EDT (US): 8:00 PM CDT (US): 7:00 PM MDT (US): 6:00 PM PDT (US): 5:00 PM GMT (UK): 12:00 AM (Monday, March 23) AEDT (AU): 11:00 AM (Monday, March 23)

Leader: @purplemuskrat

Cast:

Richard: @williamvapespeare Bolingbroke (King Henry): @laropasucia York, Lord: @sayyestothejess Gaunt, Percy, Keeper: @wildechild Northumberland, Green, Abbot, Lady: @necromancy-savant Mowbray, Duchess of York, Bagot, Salisbury: @trashprinceofdenmark Queen, Aumerle, Captain, Berkely: @breha Bushy, Bishop (Carlisle), Exton, Groom, 1st Herald: @conrad-tesdinic Duchess of Glos, Gardener, Fitzwater, Ross, 2nd Herald: @purplemuskrat Surrey, Scroop, Marshal, (Serving)man, Willoughby: @captainminette Listener: @shakespearefreak

Please send an ask to confirm - liking/reblogging this post does not count!

Read the Guidelines. To avoid the differences between editions that make for confusion and missed cues, please use the Folger edition of Richard II during the read-through.

Be on time, be prepared, and make sure you know which lines to read. Good luck!