Shakespeare for All

  The video on the plot of A Midsummer Night's Dream  is due to go live this afternoon, and we are ready to film and edit those on context and characterisation for this play. Until now we have released the video on characterisation first from the group of three on each play, but we have changed our minds for this one., The reason for this is its structural complexity; it's easier to understand the the interaction of the characters once you know what happens.

  A sickeningly sweet and sentimental Victorian view: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Simmons-Hermia_and_Lysander._A_Midsummer_Night%27s_Dream.jpg As you can probably tell, I'm not enamoured with the traditional Victorian view of A Midsummer Night's Dream ; I much prefer the darker versions that have been around since Jan Kott in the early 1960s.  The reason I'm bringing this up is that we have just recorded the video on plot for the play, and Cate will be editing it over the next couple of days so that it can go on the Youtube channel at the usual time on Sunday afternoon. Like many of the comedies, this play is extremely sophisticated, which means that making its layered structure accessible is a bit of a task. Since I've been working on this aspect of the play recently anyway, I decided to post that video first; characterisation will follow and then the one for the context.

  Cate has finished editing the video on the plot of Romeo and Juliet . That just leaves the third on context. It has already been recorded and just needs an editorial hand or two. It's now time to move onto A Midsummer Nights Dream ; now that my laptop seems to be functioning properly, I'll be writing the base PowerPoints for the three videos for that play.