Pride and Prejudice in Orlando
Feb. 9-Mar. 20, Orlando, FL: Orlando
Shakespeare Theater performs Jane
Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Adapted
by Jon Jory, the dramatization
provides "just the right amount of
comic crackle" (Terry Teachout, Wall
Street Journal). Click here for details.
Merry Wives at U Tennessee
Feb. 24- Mar. 13, Knoxville, TN:
University of Tennessee students and
professional actors stage Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor at Clarence Brown Theatre. For details, click here.
Frankenstein Reconsidered
Mar. 3-May 2, London, UK: Benedict
Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller
alternate the roles of Victor
Frankenstein and the Creature in a
new play by Nick Dear based on Mary
Shelley's novel. See trailer to right. For tickets, click here.
Holy Rosenbergs at the National
Mar. 8-June 24, London, UK: An ailing
catering firm, a big-hearted family
patriarch, a son who fights in the Gaza Strip, a sister who delves into war crimes in the same conflict, tribal loyalties--all these elements and more figure into Ryan Craig's new play at the National's Cottesloe Theatre. Click for more info.
Yale Rep's Romeo and Juliet
Mar. 11-Apr. 13, New Haven, CT: Yale
Repertory Theatre performs Romeo
and Juliet, with Joseph Parks as
Romeo and Irene Sofía Lucio as Juliet. For more details, click here.
Irish Orphan Shoots for Stars
Mar. 16-27, Chicago, IL: An Irish
orphan vies for a shot at stardom
from Hollywood filmmakers in Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of
Inishmaan at Shakespeare's Courtyard Theater. For additional details, click here.
A Raisin in the Sun in Sunny L.A.
Mar. 23-Apr. 11, Los Angeles, CA:
Nate Holden Performing Arts Center
hosts Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in
the Sun, about an African American
family's pursuit of a better life "amid
conflicting aspirations, betrayal, and
racism." Click here for more info.
Measure for Measure by AU in DC
Mar. 24-Mar. 26, Washington, DC:
Caleen Sinnette Jennings directs
American University's production of Measure of Measure. The production
preserves Shakespeare's language,
but stages the play in a contemporary
setting. For more info, click here.
Rape at the Swan
Mar. 30-Apr. 2, Stratford-upon-Avon:
The Royal Shakespeare Company
stages Shakespeare's The Rape of
Lucrece at the Swan Theatre. Camille
O'Sullivan narrates the poem via song
and storytelling, set to original music.
For tickets, click here.
WRITING CONTESTS U of Nebraska Book Competition
March 15 deadline, Lincoln, NE: Open
to all living writers, a contest sponsored by University Of
Nebraska Press doles out two Prairie
Schooner book awards for
collections of poetry and of short fiction.
Each of the awards comes with $3,000 and
publication through U Nebraska Press. Click here for more info.
2011 Best Translated Book Award
Three Percent, a University of Rochester web resource, has announced the longlist for 2011 Best Translated Book Award. Below is a sampling of the 25 longlisted titles.
MICROSCRIPTS by Robert Walser, in German, translated by Susan Bernofsky. Walser composed Microscripts on scraps of paper during his stay at a sanatorium with writing so cryptic that, at first glance, the form seems merely an aesthetic exercise or secret code. But in fact Microscripts proves to be a collection of 40 short works, including thoughts on swine, Van Gogh, and rotten husbands.
THE GOLDEN AGE by Michal Ajvaz, in Czech, translated by Andrew Oakland. A European visits a tiny island in the Atlantic. Echoing Gulliver's Travels, the story zooms in on the traveler's effort to piece together his discoveries about the island society. Its inhabitants draw no distinction between reality and representation (a mirror image seems as substantial to them as a person and vice versa).
TOUCH by Adania Shibli, in Arabic, translated by Paula Haydar. This novella focuses on the youngest of nine sisters in a Palestinian family. Readers follow the slow pace of her everyday encounters with the world (falling in love, fighting with siblings, learning to read).
For more longlisted titles (e.g., A Jew Must Die by Jacques Chessex; One Hundred Bottles by Ena Lucia Portela), click here.
Tennessee Williams Worldwide
Across America and abroad, Tennessee Williams lovers celebrate the writer's centennial (March 26, 2011) with stagings of and tributes to the Pulitzer Prize winner's works:
• Trio of One-Act Plays (La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club & Pace U, New York, NY, March 4-6)
• The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, formerly Summer and Smoke (A Noise Within, Glendale, CA, March 19-May 28)
• European conferences (U of Perugia, Italy, March 3-5; U of East Anglia, UK, March 26; Nancy Université, France, June 24-25)
• Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival (March 23-27)
Not to be left out, Washington D.C.'s Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival at Georgetown University offers both more and less conventional fare. Take, for example, For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls, Christopher Durang's spoof on The Glass Menagerie. For more on this and other March 24-27 events, click here.
New Frankenstein at the National
Never has Mary Shelley's Frankenstein been told from the Creature's point of view. With this in mind, writer Nick Dear and director Danny Boyle (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) adapted the classic for its current run at London's National Theatre (Olivier Theatre). "I have refocused the narrative for specific reasons," explains Dear, "but the tale we tell is very much Mary Shelley's, set roughly in period, and not deviating in any major way from her central narrative." The dramatization resonates with modern-day issues: scientific responsibility, parental neglect, intellectual development, the nature of good and evil, social conditioning. Interestingly, the production has cross-cast its two main characters (Frankenstein and the Creature). Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller trade parts, playing Frankenstein one night; the Creature, the next. In a play that makes one wonder who the real monster is here, this cross-casting only underscores the question. Stay tuned for March 17's staging--broadcast live to cinemas across the UK and worldwide. Yes, the show frightens; it engages too. Click below for a brief clip.
