The Tempest

I'd like to meet:

WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, the son of John Shakespeare, a successful glover and alderman from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, a daughter of the gentry. His birth is assumed to have occurred at the family house on Henley Street. The record of Shakespeare's christening dates this to 26 April of that year. As christenings were performed within three days of birth, tradition has settled on 23 April as his birthday. This date has a convenient symmetry, for Shakespeare died on the same day: 23 April, in 1616.
Shakespeare may have attended King Edward VI Grammar School in central Stratford, but no school records of the time survive. The school probably would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar and literature, although Elizabethan-era grammar schools varied in quality.
At the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, aged twenty-six, on 28 November 1582. One document identified her as being "of Temple Grafton," near Stratford, and the marriage may have taken place there. On 26 May 1583, Shakespeare's first child, Susanna, was baptized at Stratford. Twin children, a son, Hamnet, and a daughter, Judith, were baptized on 2 February 1585. Hamnet died in 1596 and was buried on 11 August.
After his marriage Shakespeare left few traces in the historical record until he appeared on the London theatrical scene. Indeed, the period from 1585 (when his twin children were born) until 1592 are known as Shakespeare's "lost years" because no evidence survives to show exactly where he was or why he left Stratford for London. Numerous stories attempt to account for Shakespeare's life during this time, including one that Shakespeare got in trouble for poaching deer, one that he worked as a country school teacher, and one that he minded the horses of theatre patrons in London. However, there is no direct evidence to support these stories and they all appear to have begun circulating after Shakespeare's death.
By 1592 Shakespeare was a playwright in London. By late 1594 Shakespeare was an actor, writer and part-owner of a playing company known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men — like others of the period, the company took its name from its aristocratic sponsor, in this case the Lord Chamberlain. The group became popular enough for the new king James I (1603) to adopt the company himself, after which it became known as the King's Men. Shakespeare's writing shows him indeed to be an actor, with many phrases, words, and references to acting.

By 1596 Shakespeare had moved to the parish of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, and by 1598 he appeared at the top of a list of actors in Every Man in His Humour written by Ben Jonson. By 1598, his name also began to appear on the title pages of his plays, presumably as a selling point.
There is a tradition that Shakespeare, in addition to writing many of the plays his company enacted, and being concerned as part-owner of the company with business and financial details, continued to act in various parts, such as the ghost of Hamlet's father, Adam in As You Like It, and the Chorus in Henry V.
He appears to have moved across the River Thames to Southwark sometime around 1599. By 1604, he had moved north of the river, lodging just north of St Paul's Cathedral with a Huguenot family named Mountjoy.
Various documents recording legal affairs and commercial transactions show that Shakespeare grew rich enough during his stay in London to buy a property in Blackfriars, London and own the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place.
Shakespeare appears to have retired to Stratford in 1613. He died on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52. Supposedly Shakespeare died on his birthday, if the tradition that he was born on April 23 is correct. He was married to Anne Hathaway until his death and was survived by his two daughters, Susanna and Judith. His son Hamnet had died in 1596. Although Susanna married Dr John Hall, there are no direct descendants of the poet and playwright alive today.
Shakespeare is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was granted the honor of burial in the chancel, not on account of his literary fame but for purchasing a share of the tithe of the church for £440 (a considerable sum of money at the time). A monument on the wall nearest his grave, probably placed by his family, features a bust showing Shakespeare posed in the act of writing. Each year on his claimed birthday, a new quill pen is placed in the writing hand of the bust.

Shakespearean Quote of the Week!

"You do look, my son, in a moved sort,
As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd;
Bear with my weakness; my, brain is troubled:
Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:
If you be pleased, retire into my cell
And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk,
To still my beating mind."
-Prospero
The Tempest
Act IV, Scene 1

Shakespeare’s Globe Theater

Most of Shakespeare’s plays were performed at The Globe Theater which is located in London, England. The picture of The Globe below is the theater which stands today, but it is not the original Globe. The original Globe Theater was built on the bank of the Thames in 1599 and burned to the ground in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII by a spark from a cannon that set the thatched roof of the theater ablaze. A second version of The Globe was built in 1614 (this time with a roof made of slate so the same mistake could not happen again), this Globe was closed and destroyed in 1642 by the Puritans (who HATED theater). The Globe that is currently standing does not lay on the exact spot where the original Globe did, however it is an almost perfect reconstruction of what that theater would have looked like. An interesting thing about The Globe is that it is an open-air theater. There is a roof over the audience, but the stage and pit (where the groundlings watch the performances from) are not covered. This is because there was no electricity when Shakespeare was writing his plays, so they had no way of lighting the stage. Therefore, they relied on the sun to light their plays and every performance took place during the middle of the day. The people of London knew when a play was being performed because the theater’s flag would be raised, indicating there would be a show that day. Notice that in the picture of The Globe below, the flag is raised and people are starting to line-up for the show.

Click on the image above to learn more about London’s Globe Theater.

Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
If you are interested in giving your students an introduction to The Tempest, the following short film might be a good way. This version of The Tempest aired in 1992 as part of Shakespeare: The Animated Tales and was directed by Stanislav Sokolov. The stop-motion puppetry may come across as slightly juvenile, however it is incredibly creative and the story is intact! This series actually won numerous Emmy's in 1992.

Heroes:

This is the list of characters that appear in The Tempest. We now have a cast of 11 actors all set to head out on the road. To Michael, Kelley, David and Chris...WELCOME BACK! To Victoire, Seth, Jay, Peter, Robb, Luis and Timothy..WELCOME FOR THE FIRST TIME!!
William Shakespeare’s
THE TEMPEST
Dramatis Personae
ALONSO
Luis Moreno
SEBASTIAN
Robb Martinez
PROSPERO
Christopher Oden
ANTONIO
Seth Duerr
FERDINAND
Timothy Sekk
CALIBAN
Michael Stewart Allen
TRINCULO
Peter Macklin
STEPHANO
David Foubert
MIRANDA
Kelley Curran
ARIEL
Victoire Charles
GONZALO
Jay Leibowitz
The scene: an uninhabited island

Tour Itinerary

Take a look below and see where The Acting Company will be playing The Tempest during our 2007-2008 National Tour. There are more stops to come, so keep checking back to see if we’ll be coming to your town! Click on pictures below the tour stops to find out more information about the venues.
Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Center for the Arts
January 27-28, 2008
Pasadena, CA
California Technical Institute
February 2, 2008
Tacoma, WA
Broadway Center for Performing Arts
February 7-9, 2008
Longview, WA
Columbia Theatre for Performing Arts
February 10, 2008
Santa Barbara, CA
University of California, Santa Barbara
February 14, 2008
Alto, NM
February 20, 2008
Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts
Albuquerque, NM
University of New Mexico
February 21-22
Raton, NM
Shuler Theater
February 23, 2008
Ft. Collins, CO
City of Ft. Collins Lincoln Center
February 25, 2008
Cheyenne, WY
Laramie County Community College
February 27, 2008
Beaver Creek, CO
Vilar Center Arts Foundation
February 28, 2008
Chickasha, OK
Davis-Waldorf Performing Arts Center
March 4-5, 2008
Platteville, WI
Platteville Center for the Arts
March 8, 2008
Sandusky, OH
State Theatre
March 11, 2008
Wausau, WI
Grand Theater on ARTSblock
March 13, 2008
Raleigh, NC
North Carolina State University Center Stage
March 25, 2008
West Palm Beach, FL
Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
March 29-31, 2008
Jacksonville, FL
University of Northern Florida
April 1, 2008
Fairfax, VA
George Mason University
April 6, 2008
Queens, NY
Queens Theater in the Park
April 11-12, 2008
Burlington, VT
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
April 18, 2008
Great Barrington, MA
Mahaiwe PAC Theater
April 20, 2008
Ithica, NY
State Theatre of Ithica
April 22, 2008
Poughkeepsie, NY
Bardavon Opera House
April 26, 2008
Hampton, VA
American Theatre
May 4, 2008