Measuring Shakespeare's digital heartbeat

About

People talk about Shakespeare all over the world. Nearly four hundred years since he was alive, Shakespeare’s heart still beats as he continues to inspire, influence and reflect human life. myShakespeare is an online space that searches for that heartbeat.

myShakespeare was originally produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company for the World Shakespeare Festival, which was supported by BP as Founding Presenting Partner. The World Shakespeare Festival was part of the London Festival 2012.

http://twitter.com/Terryosul Terry O’Sullivan

Uncanny resemblance to the Bard — well done!
Jan_gregory

Hi, These are brilliant. Bringing Shakespeare to the public is a pet project of mine and in May a local drama group will be performing Shakespeare for the first time. The cast range from the age of 18 to 65.
Everyone is having a wonderful time working with the words of this great man and are so amazed that it is making sense and is frightening, emotional and enjoyable to perform. Catch us the Hospital Players in Scunthorpe 8-12 May. Jan
http://www.lime-editorial.com/ Susannah Strong

My 8 year old daughter has just read the Orchard Books Children’s Shakespeare series – a great way to introduce children to the Bard without putting them off for life! Her faves
are MacBeth because it’s ‘gory’ and the Merchant ‘because of the boxes’. The bard is as cool to her as Roald Dahl.. how brilliant is that for a ’400 year old poet’!
Helenkr

Will is relevant, good point

Swatgirl22

I teach 14 year old Freshmen both The Merhant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet. In the beginning they think they are going to hate every minute of it, but after they start acting out the plays and when they get really into both,they love it. I never have to “beg” for actors and actresses to participate. It has been a great experience to introduce the “Bard” to this generation coming up. Shakespeare knew not only the modern 21st woman (Portia), a man who allowed one emotion or revenge to destroy him, and teenagers (Romeo and Juliet) in the modern world. He might be 496 years old today but he is for “all ages”. Thanks, Ben Jonson, for this insight.

An American Irish teacher

Stuart Greig

Humans may only be humans but William was special ..Tim’s pretty clever too
Ladyprimula42

Lose the tights Tim. In fact lose the tights all together, and the doublet and hose and the codpieces. Shakespeare covered all the basic plots but also taps into every human emotion. What we mostly do though is scare our kids away from him. I’m all for making him as accessible as we can. I was introduced to Shakespeare by Lamb’s Tales ,so that dates me, but my early interest in the stories helped me to understand the plays later on via school and visits to the wonderful Theatre Royal Bristol. . And while I’m here lets push to make theatre affordable and exciting and better than sex! .
Ian Sam Bell

Talent Will out… Right Tim, message received. Will investigate and book something. Thanks for the nudge.
Debby DeGuire

I teach children 6 -12 years old and put them on the boards with The Bard every year. Today we had a birthday celebration before the first rehearsal for Midsummer which we will perform June 1st The elders take the lead and the youngest (22) will play fairies. The energy and innovation is electric as these young ones plunge into the words, the plot, the emotion -and the fantasy of it all. The words of Shakespeare are absolutely relevant and the search for meaning is just plain fun and interesting. We are on board for the World Shakespeare Festival! Our play will include the presence of Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare as they proclaim welcome to the Connecticut, USA part of the Global Celebration. William Shakespeare lives!
http://www.teachertechnologies.com Selena Woodward

Love this!
Tim! You’ve straightened your hair for the occasion! Thanks for sharing
Unsubscriber

And so the major sponsor of this RSC ‘festival’ is BP, the Great Corporatised Macbeth of 21C. Here’s its playbook.

THE PUBLIC [concerned about deep-sea blowouts, fracking-induced earthquakes, a poisoned biosphere, mass extinction, climate chaos, and endless energy wars]
The night has been unruly: where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of death,
And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire combustion and confused events
New hatch’d to the woeful time: the obscure bird
Clamour’d the livelong night: some say, the earth
Was feverous and did shake.BP in response:’Twas a rough night.
http://www.sidebysidetheatrecompanystourbridge.co.uk/ Susan Wallin

I was given my first Complete Works of Shakespeare by my grandfather for my 11th birthday; that was 57 years ago. Like my grandfather, I have been in love with Shakespeare’s language ever since. After years of teaching, which always included the plays of Shakespeare, I now run a theatre company for learning disabled actors. This year we are performing DREAM ON, our version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and although only some of the words are used to tell the story, the actors are thrilled to be part of the magic which Shakespeare’s language creates. Ben Rees, our Puck, will speak the epilogue at every opportunity, you can see him taste the words. Shakespeare speeks to everyone.

Susan Wallin
Diana Lucas

My year 5 class performed at Stratford as part of the R.S.C.’s regional schools festival-that was exciting! I’m performing in this year’s R.S.C. “Open Stages” project-that’s exciting! I’m going to see Tim at the Eden Project-that will be exciting!
Both The Bard and Tim move me to laugh and cry and make my heart beat faster.

Leslie Coleman

You have so many exciting things happening that I wondered if you might be interested in another exciting opportunity. I’m a middle school teacher in the U.S. looking for an overseas partner to study Much Ado or discuss adaptations. Reply if interested in further discussion.

Diana Lucas

I’m afraid I’m retired now, so not involved with schools. However, if you want to send me your email, I’ll pass it on to the drama department of the secondary school school with whom I took part in the schools festival. Good luck with your project.

Leslielcoleman

Thanks! leslielcoleman@gmail.com

Anonymous

I still love Shakespeare. As a writer – not quite on Bill’s level – I still love to drop in bits of Shakespeare. It just makes so much sense.
Patrick Salvadori

Saw Much Ado About Nothing last night. A joyous production! Wonderfully committed cast and a very detailed and thought through production. Setting and background utterly meaningful and purposeful. (Take note Elizabeth LeCompte & Mark Ravenhill!) This is how Troilus and Cressida should have been approached from a setting point of view. The actors’ comments in the programme were a wonderful array of comments and perceptions. A brilliant interpretation and a wonderfully enjoyable evening!
Baloo

Just bought a copy of “Pocket Book Shakespeare” from Amazon. Great stocking filler for actual and potential fans of the bard. Personal favourites are “The Merry Wives of Windsor” as a pantomime in the style of Roald Dahl and “The Taming of the Shrew” as an email exchange.