Why Do You Like Shakespeare?

I asked some of my friends what was their favorite Shakespeare play/movie adaption and why? Here is what they said and I will be giving my own favorites and why hereafter:

Morgan H.- Julie Taymor's The Tempest. I love the character of Prospero portayed as a woman and I LOVE Helen Mirren. The special effects are very artistic and different from other fantasy films and the ensemble cast is perfect. A great mix of well-known, seasoned actors and new faces.

Andrew M.- David Tennant's "Hamlet". He took the play in an entirely new direction, while still being able to keep the audience in a comfortable place. I believe it to be the definitive Hamlet movie. 

Kol G. -I love the ShakespeaRe-told version of "The Taming of the Shrew." It is really hilarious and it feminizes a really misogynistic play. 

Nathan H.- Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of 'Hamlet.' He was fiercely loyal in keeping the play as is. Nobody had ever done a full Hamlet adaptation on screen before to my knowledge. So having the full script with the cinematography and the pageantry and the massive scale of the whole production... it is beautiful. 

Josh B.- 10 things I Hate About You comes to mind, but I think I'm in the mood for a comedy right now.

Hilary S.- Love me some Lear. It's a beautiful story of redemption, although I wonder if I've ever seen an adaptation/production that lives up to what I've built it inside my head. 

Rebecca P.- Richard III, because no matter what anyone says he is still a better villain than Othello.

--- Here are my favorite Shakespeare play/movie adaption and why ---

The Tempest- I liked the written play more than the movie. I think they could've done better and stayed close to the play more if they focused more on the forgiving theme that I think Shakespeare was trying to create. Plus I think Caliban would've been cooler if he was a cannibalistic sea monster, because when you read the script, Caliban was basically described as such.

ShakespeaRe-Told: The Taming of the Shrew- It has a perfect modern adaption from the original play, plus the ending is a perfect description of what marriage between a man and a woman should be!

Hamlet- I didn't get the chance to see the play, but I saw the movie when I was in high school. My English teacher, at the time, was the one that got me into reading his works. My teacher had the students do a skit on all the deaths in Hamlet. I had a fun time doing that, because I loved the death scenes. I played Hamlet in my skit, and my fellow class members loved how I used a line from the movie Happy Gilmore for when I was going to kill Claudius(Hamlet's uncle), "You're gonna die Clown!"

10 Things I Hate About You- Is a perfect late 90's adaption of The Taming of the Shrew. I'm not going to lie, the movie also had some attractive actresses in the movie and had an amazing soundtrack. Plus it is one of the most quotable movie in my family table.




Much Ado About Nothing- The one with Keneth Branagh as Signor Benedick. It's my favorite Shakespeare Comedy--- especially the scene where he describes his bachelorhood. Fits me perfectly haha!

Richard III- I saw the BBC Youtube play. Richard III is a good bad guy--- if that makes sense. He is manipulative, power hungry and is "past feeling"! I also like the scene where he is being haunted by the people that he has killed.

Romeo & Juliet- I like the 1996 version more than the 1968 one. It is a great modern adaption from the play, but not only that, it has an awesome soundtrack that I enjoyed listening to when I was a kid.

Macbeth- I first saw the Orson Welles version and then I saw the ShakespeaRe-told version, and I enjoyed them equally.

Titus Andronicus- This is my favorite Shakespeare Tragedy! The play that the Utah Shakespeare Festival presented, was phenomenal! It fit with the time period, it was perfectly executed with not only the blood and gore, but developed a great story for sweet revenge. The play was so good, that it inspired me to get "Shakesfeare" up and running for an event. The movie however--- sucked!

I've seen a variety of plays and movie adaptions of Shakespeare plays, but the ones listed above are my favorite!
Over all, I honestly think that Shakespeare was ahead of his time with his language and story lines. I also think it's funny that we reference Shakespeare everyday, even though we don't even recognize it.

Shakesfeare Logo

With this first idea for the Shakesfeare logo, I wanted the 'f' to stand out, because that is the one letter that makes it different from the obvious original. I wanted the bottom of the 'f' to look like a knife. I also wanted to make the 'e' at the end to look like the side view of a human skull.

With this next one I used a different font. I added the spiderwebs on the "S"and the "a's". I was also thinking how it would look without the human skull, because some people didn't understand that the skull was suppose to look like an 'e'. But I wanted to keep the 'e' at the end to show that the name had a Shakespearean touch.

With this new idea, I wanted to find a font that said "creepy old English font". I decided to extend the end of the 'f' and add blood to the side so that it would still read "Shakesfeare". Instead of having the human skull in place of the 'e', I chose to keep it the same as all the other letters, so that the 'f' was the subtle grab of attention for the logo. I then added the tagline under the logo saying in blood: "Something Wicked This Way Comes!"

... The Other Guy's an Extra

You know how in scary movies when bad things start happening to the characters, the 'jock' or 'ringleader' suggests that they should 'spread out' to find out what's up, but in the end, most of them end up dead because of that poor choice? Safety in numbers my friend. Anyway, one of the scariest things to happen in a spook alley is if it is happening to the person next to you! So why not add an extra person to the crowd that will add more suspense to Shakesfeare.

Now with this idea, I want to introduce something new to this event. Obviously having scary characters in the event will make people afraid--- but what about having a random extra in the tour group be in danger while the tour is going? What I want to do is have an extra random person be in the tour group that appears to be normal to the others, but in reality the "extra" is part of the tour. What will happen is during the tour, the "extra" will be taken by one of the scary Shakesfearean  Characters. This will make the other people in the tour wonder what's going on and start to question if this is part of the tour or is it really happening. People normally tend to get shaken up when something unexpected happens to somebody that was apart of their group.

Shakesfearean Soundtrack

Not a lot of people know this, but the phrase "Something Wicked This Way Comes" came from the Shakespeare play Macbeth.

 

Over all I think this will be a perfect theme intro at the entrance, because it is based off of the Shakespeare play. 

Not only does this have creepy music in the background, but the pretty melodious voice beckons young children to an unknown place. Plus this song is from the movie Hocus Pocus. In that movie, one of the witches is putting all the children in a trance to follow her to their doom.

  

This would be perfect for background sounds or more preferably the tunnels.

 

Ok, creepy piano lullaby music! Enough said!

 

Another one!

And of course this one from NY's Sleep No More

ShakesFEARe FACTOR: To [Pee] or Not to [Pee]!

On Facebook I asked my followers what What was their greatest fear from Horror movies and Spook Alleys, and here are the results:

Lauren D.- The chainsaw at the end. I always know it's coming but I'm convinced that it's going to be some psycho killer that took out the fake guy and is using a real chainsaw prepared to murder everyone while they think it's part of the spook alley.

Also, any time they use anything that's a psych ward. Things that could potentially really happen scare me more than zombies or fictional things.

 Cody M.- Quickly escalating from safety to imminent doom.

 Mary E.- Crazy mumbling people in straight jackets or whatever. Freaks me out.

Jessica L.- When the killer chooses victims randomly based on them being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for some reason I'm less afraid of being specifically targeted based on gender, age, etc and more afraid of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Movie examples: The Hills Have Eyes, The Strangers. For some reason, the random targeting is what really freaks me out.

Kaela J.- I think the unknown is the scariest. As soon as I can see the monster or bad guy they become much less threatening.

Emily A.- People being possessed by demons....

Arianne B.-  I'm jumpy at anything, especially when I know the movie is scary to begin with. Thus, the reason I watch the whole movie between my fingers.

Jacob Y.- The suspense of knowing something is there but not being able to see it or react to it. Think Alfred Hitchcock.

Hayden H.- Extreme silence followed by extremely loud noise and music.

Jake H.- Neither.  I AM INVINCIBLE!

Joel E.-  Danny from The Shining talking to his imaginary friend Tony with his finger.

Maureen E.- The unexpected. Some scary scenes you can kind of see coming. In "Wait Until Dark", for me it is Richard Crenna leaping out unexpectedly at Audrey Hepburn in the kitchen after we supposed he was dead. In "Cape Fear", it is the same thing--- Robert Mitchum coming up out of the water and grabbing Gregory Peck --- after we think he is dead. The scary music is a "prelude" but still, it is unexpected as we "expect" that "we" (yes, us as the viewers) are feeling safe. I don't like gory and gruesome, but I do like a good scare!

Katie P.- When someone jumps out of nowhere! Gets me every time.

Over all, it was fun getting everybody's feedback of what their greatest fear was!