Usually this time of the summer, I’m busy ushering at the productions put on by the Michigan Shakespeare Festival. Unfortunately, once again this year, the company has remained dark due to the difficulty of successfully offering a season amid a pandemic. And so, I’ve decided to offer you some of my thoughts on Shakespeare and […]
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A common device in crime shows and dramas is to allow your opponent to fall by their own devices. It’s a form of poetic justice. Or to use a phrase from Shakespeare, they are hoisted by their own petard. But did you know that this concept was around thousands of years ago in the shape […]
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“The quality of mercy is not strained, it falleth like the gentle rain from heaven,” Shakespeare tells us in the Merchant of Venice. But what is the quality of mercy? Is it simply compassion shown to an offender or victim of misfortune as Webster tells us? Or is it something more as we see in […]
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Anyone who knows anything about Shakespeare, knows that his comedies end in marriages and his tragedies in death—not just one death but multiple deaths. I’ve studied King Lear in college and seen other productions. I know how it ends, yet, during this year’s production of King Lear at the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, I found myself […]
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The Michigan Shakespeare Festival is celebrating 25 years in existence. I’ve been attending the Festival (formerly the Jackson Shakespeare Festival) for the past 23 years, missing only one year in that time. In celebration of 25 years, I’m sharing some of my memories of those early days. Jackson Shakespeare Festival, 1996 It was the quintessential […]
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“Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.” (1) Thus begins Psalm 73. The psalm ends with words of confident trust, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.” (26) But the path to reach this faith […]
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“Everybody lies” – so says Dr. Gregory House from the popular TV series “House.” Cynical, yet it rings true, we all lie at times. It is a social skill first formed at the age of reason, seven, then developed over time. Anyone who insists they never lie is a liar. The writer of Psalm 52 […]
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“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little lives are rounded with sleep.” The Tempest, William Shakespeare I have long loved this quote. I’m not sure why, I just know I’ve loved it since I first heard it while studying Shakespeare in high school, way too long ago to remember. Prospero, […]
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“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Puck, Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream, Act. III, Sc. II What fools indeed! We think ourselves wise, when we are not. We think we don’t need God, that God is the invention of feeble minds. A fool, according to Webster, is a person who lacks sense or judgment: a jester, […]
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Shakespeare was a world builder – he created worlds for his audience to enter. They entered enchanted forests, encountered witches, spirits and nymphs and traveled through time through the many volumes of historical plays he wrote. Anyone who knows me, knows I love William Shakespeare. I studied Shakespeare in high school and college and have […]
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