The Shakespeare Tag // The Next Three Plays on My TBR

I stole this tag from Movies Meet Their Match! Be sure to go check out her blog!

What was the first exposure you ever had to Shakespeare?

 

As an actual play? Probably Macbeth, which we read the important scenes for a junior high class (and then had a tiny play with snippets from various Shakespeare plays)

 

First overall reference was probably hearing about Romeo and Juliet. I don't know WHEN it came up, but I DO remember hearing Taylor Swift's Love Story and being offended that she had the line, "Talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress" because THAT WASN'T HOW THE PLAY WENT

 

The first actual play I read was The Twelfth Night

 

How many Shakespeare plays have you seen?

 

Actual performed plays? None. (I know, its very sad)

Movies? 

Henry V (1989)

Taming of the Shrew (1967)

Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

(I've also seen Gnomeo and Juliet if that counts for anything)

 

And the tag didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway...*drum roll*

Plays read:

Twelfth Night

Macbeth

Much Ado About Nothing

Antony and Cleopatra

Julius Caesar

As You Like It

And on that note:

THE NEXT THREE PLAYS ON MY TBR:

Romeo and Juliet

Because A: The opening scene (the "I bite my thumb at thee" scene) and B: so I can make a rewrite

The Merchant of Venice

Because I've read the abridged children's version and liked it.

Macbeth

Because I've never read the full play

What is your favorite Shakespearean play?

Much Ado About Nothing or the Twelfth Night

What is your favorite non-Shakespearean play?

The only thing that comes to mind play wise is a musical...so

What is an adaption of a Shakespearean play that you like? Why?

If I'm Being Honest and Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberley are contemporary retellings of Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet. Sort of? Technically, its a retelling as if she is Rosalind? But while If I'm Being Honest follows the plot line of The Taming of the Shrew a little closer, Always Never Yours is more of "loosely based on" Romeo and Juliet.

Movie wise, Gnomeo and Juliet will always be a classic.

Who is your favorite Shakespearean character

Beatrice/Benedick! The wit! The sass! The snappy one liners! (You can't quite have one without the other)

What is your favorite Shakespearean quote?

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit" - The Twelfth Night

Though my family also often quotes scenes from Much Ado About Nothing, since we watch the film a bit too often...But mainly "Come I Will Hide Me" and other witty one liners.

And I dearly love the exchange, "Can the world buy such a jewel?/ Aye! And a case to put it into"

If you were in a Shakespearean production which play would you want to be in and which character?

(The one girl who dresses as a lawyer)

Have you read any of Shakespeare's sonnets, and if so, which is your favorite?

I feel like I tried to learn one at one point. It was probably the Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer Day" one, just for the "I feel like I should know the actual poem so I know more about it because people quote it all the time." (Sonnet 18)

But my favorite one is the one that has the line, "For I have sworn thee fair and thought three  bright, Who art black as hell and dark as night" (Sonnet 147)

Have you ever written/tried to write a play?

Nope!

Cast one of the big five {Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Richard III, or Much Ado About Nothing} with modern actors from either the stage or the screen.
{you only have to do main characters.}

I agree with MC that Much Ado About Nothing is perfect and Romeo and Juliet + Hamlet are done often...I know a little bit about Richard III, but only as history and not as the play...

So Macbeth it is?

EXCEPT. I decided that I can only use Scottish Actors!

So here goes nothing

Macbeth

James McAvoy

Lady Macbeth

Laura Fraser

King Duncan

Peter Mullan

McDuff

Ewan McGregor

Malcom

David Tennet

GUYS. I JUST REALIZED THAT JAMES MCAVOY WAS THE VOICE OF GNOMEO IN GNOMEO AND JULIET. AND THAT HE VOICED A MODERN DAY MACBETH IS ShakespeaRE-TOLD (a mini series of modern retellings) AND I JUST. I PICKED HIM RANDOMLY???? BUT HE IS PERFECT.

SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE THIS MOVIE.

MK