Line #165 SoYouWantTo/BeTheNextWilliamShakespeare


1	-->
2	And so, the newest Bard you wish to be!\
3	A playwright and a poet without equal-\
4	But can you craft four hours of verses free\
5	And still have plot left over for the sequel?\
6	If so, prepare to be a household name\
7	Your quotes the cheese to every [[LargeHam ham's delight]]\
8	But don't think you can bluff your way to fame \
9	It's not enough to get the scansion right.\
10	Despite the [[FreudWasRight phallic jokes]] and [[FantasyKitchenSink bits with elves]]\
11	The plays hold up a mirror to the age,\
12	And strike at something true within ourselves, \
13	Which gives them such a power on the stage \
14	Still game to try? What ho! Let's have some fun\
15	And make Ol' Shakespeare for his money run.
16
17
18	So you want to be the Next Creator/WilliamShakespeare. Well good on you, i' sooth, but what do you ''need'' to win such a title for yourself?
19
20	!'''Necessary Tropes'''
21
22	To be really considered "The Next William Shakespeare," your work needs to have a real brilliance behind it. A relevance and awareness of the human condition that allows him to be adapted into all languages, all countries, and all times. This is more than just being good, this is the kind of resilience that lets a high school turn [[AdaptationDecay The Scottish Play into a musical adaptation with Motown hit tunes]] ("''Stop!'' In the name of fate...") and that same audience can take [[VillainousBreakdown Lady Macbeth's insanity]] just as intensely and seriously to heart while watching Orson Welles' film.
23
24	You're also going to need a fantastic control of your own language and wordplay and layers upon layers of depth in your story. And women who are actually played by boys in dresses.
25
26	Perhaps we'll go into these tropes later.
27
28	!'''Choices, Choices'''
29
30	Source material! Are you re-adapting a tale from Greek myth? Maybe taking the characters of Greek myth and having them watch a lampooning parody of ''another'' Greek myth? I know, I know, write about that Danish prince who pretended to be mad and overthrew his uncle! (But this time make it a tragedy.) Got a Tudor on the throne? Let's write a play glorifying ''Henry VIII'' (who cares if it sets the theater on fire.) Okay, now we have a Stuart, do we? Let's see, let's see -- Ooh! A play about the Stuart's great ancestor! Score you major points with the royals.
31
32	Originality? You are Shakespeare! You need not ever write an original plot in your life!
33
34	Setting, although your later film adaptations can discard it and alter it as they see fit, will influence your work mightily. This is beyond whether your romantic leads will be "Helena" and "Lysander" or "Viola" and "Orsino." Shakespeare played modern-day stereotypes to his advantage: Italians were viewed as passionate, hot-blooded, lusty, and violent (must be all that hot weather, eh? Overbalances the humours), hence ''Romeo and Juliet'' were Italian [[EmoTeen teenagers.]] His plays set in ancient Greece or Egypt pay special attention to the gods and their worship, and to values such as honoring [[DueToTheDead the dead]] and [[SacredHospitality the guest]] (who were hopefully not the same person), which would have been paramount in those eras. On the other hand, his plays set in made-up locales - Illyria, the island of ''The Tempest'' - have a rather more mystical air to their characters and their actions, as well as tending to be very musical.
35
36	!'''Pitfalls'''
37
38	->[[PurpleProse Let not your prose be heliotrope, but plain;]] say what must needs be said, don't take all day.\
39	Your lines they will be screamed and rend the air--don't fight the {{Narm}}, it's just the old Globe's way.\
40	A quote! A quote! My kingdom for a quote! Observe how out of context they have come.\
41	[[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory Is all your cast Jesus, all limbo-trapped?]] [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible Don't try to answer, scholars need their fun.]]
42
43
44	!'''Potential Subversions'''
45
46	Start saying everything in iambic pentameter. But don't let anyone in on this. The reason iambic pentameter works is that it of all the poetic forms sounds the closest to 'normal' English.
47	--> Lord! Lord! methought, what pain it was to drown!
48	--> What dreadful noise of water in mine ears!
49	--> What ugly sights of death within mine eyes!
50	--> Methought, I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
51	--> Ten thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon;
52	--> Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
53	--> Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
54	--> All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea.
55	--> Some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in those holes
56	--> Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept
57	--> (As 't were in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems.
58
59	------
60	!'''Writers' Lounge'''
61
62	!!'''Suggested Themes and Aesops'''
63
64	Be vague on this. Really. Is ''Hamlet'' an accusation of a prince who dallies in enacting his revenge, only to be forced to take arms against his outrageous fortune at the last possible minute, or is it the tale of a lonely, half-mad soul for whom the world is just too much? Let the audience draw their own conclusions. They'll bring their own woes and insecurities and project them on the words.
65
66	Now, remember, some plays of his are more direct. ''The Tempest'' makes a pretty clear case for "chastity, modesty, preservation of virtue up until marriage = GOOD THING." ''Twelfth Night'' likewise has Olivia and Malvolio learning that cloistering yourself and denying yourself any joy or merry company is foolish and unhealthy (although Malvolio's fate [[BrokenAesop might undermine this...]]) And ''Romeo And Juliet'' seems to say that violence is bad pretty clearly. But don't worry - as your works survive the generations, every generation will find some new Aesop to show off in their productions or essays, and promptly ignore the subtext that their parents read.
67
68	But on the whole, Shakespeare's tragedies ''do'' tend to contain a story arc where what is wrong in the world is set right, rather than the other way around. ''Hamlet'' opens with "something rotten" in the state of Denmark; by the end, Hamlet has removed the infecting king from the throne and paved the way for the decisive and military [[spoiler:Fortinbras]] (what? [[ItWasHisSled A spoiler's a spoiler.]]) Shakespeare's most famous plays, although they end with [[EverybodysDeadDave everybody and the palace cat dead on the stage]], still suggest that for the survivors, things might be a little brighter.
69
70	!!'''Potential Motifs'''
71
72	Oh, these abound. Whether it's ''Romeo and Juliet'' overflowing with Light imagery, or ''Hamlet'' and all of the images of decay and corruption, or just the mockery about how short Hermia is in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream,'' if you can get a nice running image going through your work, the critics (and the English students of four hundred years to come) will love it.
73
74	Put the motifs into your most quotable lines to make them really stand out: "If music be the food of love, play on." "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?" "That you have but slumbered here, while these visions did appear..." These themes are rooted in both the subject matter and setting of the play (''Twelfth Night,'' set by the sea, uses sea-imagery generously) and also in the characters' relationships with each other - Claudius is corrupting the state of Denmark, both by merit of how he took the throne and by his indulgent habits, letting the proud Danes go to seed. Juliet has become the light of Romeo's life in the fifteen minutes since he first saw her. Puck... well, ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is pretty much the ultimate [[MST3KMantra "don't think about, have fun, relax" kind of play.]]
75
76	!!'''Suggested Plots'''
77
78	[[GenderBender Crossdressing is always fun]], [[ZanyScheme especially if it's a]] [[RecursiveCrossdressing boy pretending to be a woman who's dressing up as a boy]] [[ClingyJealousGirl so that she can spy on her boyfriend]]. [[SecretIdentity Or pretend to]] [[HalfIdenticalTwins be her twin brother]]. [[LesYay Or woo another boy-pretending-to-be-a-woman]] [[PlayingCyrano in the name of]] [[EmoTeen her overemotional employer]]. You know what else is fun? ''Murder.''
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80
81	------
82	!'''Departments'''
83
84	!!'''Set Designer / Location Scout'''
85
86	--> Whoever said a setting must be sketched\
87	And ev'ry leaf and tile given place?\
88	He obviously was never in a stage\
89	To watch the players swift describe their set\
90	Or else he'd know that tables, branches, lamps\
91	Are all the bare-bones that a theater needs\
92	The Venice high street, woods Athenian\
93	Or inner courtyard sits in the mind's eye\
94	And with such vast spatial fluidity\
95	The stage expands to encompass the globe\
96	Los Angeles, the sea, or outer space,\
97	Now fueled by naught but reader's own fancy,\
98	Can hold whatever drama you create.
99
100
101	!!'''Props Department'''
102
103	--> A bodkin is a dagger and a glass \
104	A mirror be, keep your props quite simple \
105	And they'll work most splendidly.
106
107
108	!!'''Costume Design'''
109
110	--> If costumes be the OscarBait, sew on!\
111	The clothes of that one era most refined\
112	Elaborate, lush, and accurate, that's good\
113	(And modernizing we'll not speak of here!)\
114	Unless the writing calls for something clear,\
115	Fret not over specifics. Here's a list:\
116	A girl in with flowers in her hair\
117	All garbed in white, then she'd be mad, forsooth\
118	[[Theatre/TwelfthNight If yellow stockings, lad pursues a suit]]\
119	Most erroneously. And but of course\
120	Two selves mistook must be arrayed the same\
121	With little cues to keep clear what's the game.
122
123
124	!!'''Casting Director'''
125
126	--> Your cast should be a varied bunch of men,\
127	In how they look, and how they speak, and such.\
128	Back in the day, you see, 'twas all one troupe,\
129	And therefore each man knew what he would play,\
130	Whether the [[TheHero hero]], [[DeadpanSnarker smartass]], or a chick\
131	But Will, being the writer, pulled some strings\
132	To give himself the best roles and best lines\
133	For instance, Hamlet's ghost? The bard himself\
134	(A cozy placement in the story's arc)\
135	Or Prospero towards his career's end\
136	Who throws his magic back into the wind.
137
138	!!'''Stunt Department'''
139
140	--> A swordfight usually begins "Lay on!"\
141	And ends with "Thou hast killed me! I am dead!" \
142	What goes between is not your business now\
143	But that of the two players and the films.\
144	The basic rule would probably be "swords,"\
145	And after that, "be swift," and then "be safe,"\
146	That means that guns aren't cool, [[KatanasAreJustBetter katanas are]],\
147	And EnforcedMethodActing is not good.\
148	And last, your stage directions must be spare,\
149	And only say that which they need to say.\
150	For instance, ''ExitPursuedByABear,'' \
151	The most famous direction to this day.
152
153	------
154	!'''Extra Credit'''
155
156	* For an adaptation of Shakespeare InSPACE (and [[TheMusical its subsequent musical]]), see Film/ForbiddenPlanet.
157	* For [[HighSchoolAU high-school adaptations]] of Shakespeare's plays, check out
158	** ''Film/ShesTheMan'': ''Theatre/TwelfthNight''
159	** ''Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou'': ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew''
160	** ''O'': ''Theatre/{{Othello}}''
161	** ''Film/GetOverIt'': ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream''
162	* Creator/FrancoZeffirelli's ''Film/{{Romeo and Juliet\|1968}}'' is set in Italy, with period-appropriate costumes and swords, the full text, and age-appropriate leads with so much chemistry between them you can see the hormones going off. A must-see.
163	** Alternatly (or, even better, as well as) watch Creator/BazLuhrmann's ''Film/WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet''. [[SettingUpdate Relocates the action]] to modern day. Very action-packed, cinematic and fairly MindScrew-y.
164	* Ya can't go wrong with Kurosawa. ''Film/{{Ran}}'' is ''Theatre/KingLear'' with samurai betrayals set in [[PrettyPrincessCastle Himeji-jo]]. ''Film/ThroneOfBlood'', meanwhile, is his take on ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''.
165	* Creator/OrsonWelles did other Shakespeare: ''Film/ChimesAtMidnight'' is considered by himself to be the best of his work, trumping ''Film/CitizenKane''.
166	* Also, don't overlook ''Scotland, PA'', in which ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' is reset as a conflict centered around a hamburger joint in 1970s Pennsylvania.
167	* Nor the recent Australian film version of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' which turned everyone into members of modern Australian drug gangs -- without changing ''too'' much of the of the original Shakespeare.
168	* And then there's Leonard Bernstein, Jerry Robbins, Arthur Laurents and Music/StephenSondheim's ''Theatre/WestSideStory'', which set ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' in the backdrop of New York's West Side in the 50s, with the two feuding families being two rival gangs.
169	* ''Series/SlingsAndArrows'' centers around the goings-on of a troubled Shakespeare festival, and is a very good (not to mention hilarious) watch for anyone with more than a passing interest in the Bard, complete with amazing play and character analyses.

Context SoYouWantTo / BeTheNextWilliamShakespeare