pedanther: (Default)
pedanther ([personal profile] pedanther) wrote2018-08-18 07:18 pm

Five Things Make a Post

1. I did end up signing up for Remix Revival, and assignments are now out, so now I'm at the (presumably traditional) next step of staring in dismay at my assigned recipient's fic and being intimidated by how good it is.


2. At gaming group last week, I played games of Cards Against Humanity (still don't like the actual game at all, but had fun playing it because of who I was playing with), Magic: The Gathering (was tired and rusty, and got squished quickly), and Skull (still not much good at it, still having enormous fun playing regardless).


3. Having failed to get cast in How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse (which has a very small number of roles, and I will happily admit that the people who got them were at least as well suited as me), I am instead working on the lighting and sound. It's the first time I've been lighting designer on a production (as opposed to working under someone else's instruction) and I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out.


4. We had the AGM for the brass band recently. For the last year, I've been the vice president of the committee, and found myself fairly well suited to it. This year I've swapped roles with another committee member who had been stuck with the role of secretary for the past few years and not thriving in it; apart from giving her a break I'm interested to see how she does as VP because she's always been one of the committee members who cares about the band having good leadership and not just keeping things rolling comfortably along, and did things about it even when she was just an ordinary committee member.


5. A while back I discovered on Youtube a really neat TV series from the 1980s called Playing Shakespeare. It's presented by John Barton, one of the founders of the Royal Shakespeare Company, accompanied by the actors of the Company, who provide practical demonstrations and share their experiences. That includes a lot of people who went on to become world famous (Judi Dench, Ben Kingsley, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, David Suchet -- who's a revelation in this to one who only knew him as Poirot) or who will be familiar to people who watch a lot of British TV from the 1970s and 1980s (Sheila Hancock, Mike Gwilym, Donald Sinden) or just had massive stage careers (Peggy Ashcroft drops in for one episode to reprise one of her famous roles). There's an episode on character interpretation that consists almost entirely of actors who have played Shylock discussing and demonstrating their very different approaches (all from productions directed by Barton; one of the points the episode is making is that there's no one correct interpretation). Another episode, on "Passion and Coolness", ends with a performance of Leontes and Hermione's reunion scene in The Winter's Tale, with Patrick Stewart reprising his then-recent and highly regarded performance as Leontes.
capri0mni: A black Skull & Crossbones with the Online Disability Pride Flag as a background (Default)

[personal profile] capri0mni 2018-08-18 11:26 am (UTC)(link)
I love "Playing Shakespeare"! I found it on terrestrial television, on one of the UHF PBS channels when it first aired, and Father and I would watch it together.

I, too, loved the character episode -- especially David Suchet's contributions.

And also, I loved the episode on Iambic Pentameter -- that one influenced me to use it in my own writing, more... even in "prose."
justice_turtle: Robot Jack from Stargate SG-1, captioned "fergit space adventure, we gonna do Shakespeare" (fergit space adventure)

[personal profile] justice_turtle 2018-08-18 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh my god, I need to watch that. Discussions about interpreting Shakespeare and comparisons of different interpretations of Shakespeare characters are some of my favorite damn things in the world. I hope it's still up when I have regular wifi access again.
thisbluespirit: (james maxwell)

[personal profile] thisbluespirit 2018-08-19 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I want to watch Playing Shakespeare! I must get the DVD sometime. (I don't think I'd manage a series like that online, not properly.)