Top Ten Shakespeare Plays

I've decided to do a Top Ten Shakespeare Play Count down. I will even give my reasoning for each one. Here we go...

10- A Midsummer Night's Dream
This play is basically about confused love. If you have heard the song "Love Stinks" played in the movie "The Wedding Singer", it is a perfect description of what is going on in the minds of these lover's.

 9- The Tempest
This play is a perfect example of good vs. evil, holding a long grudge and learning to finally forgive the one that has wronged you. 
I enjoyed this play thoroughly. It would have been ranked higher had it not been for the director Julie Taymor ruining it with her interpretation in general, especially her version of Caliban. I mean have you read the script!?! Caliban had a witch for a mother and his father was The Devil himself, two evil characters dealing with the paranormal realm. The 2010 movie adaption was a joke and a complete mockery of what Shakespeare stood for. I'm hoping for a remake of his as soon as humanly possible. This play was Shakespeare's last "Hoorah" in his canon, and should be deemed highly.

8- Coriolanus
This play is about a banished hero of Rome that later allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on his own city. 
Though I have not seen the play itself but the movie adaption in 2011 bore a perfect modern tale of this man's tragedy.

7- The Taming of the Shrew
This play is basically "taming" a stubborn woman, and helping both men and women realize their true priorities. It is a perfect example of what men should treat their wives no matter how difficult they may seem. My favorite movie adaptions arre: The Taming of the Shrew(1967), 10 Things I Hate About You(1999) and the 2005 ShakespeaRe-Told version.

6- Romeo & Juliet
This play showed that love had no boundaries. It didn't matter where you were from, who you were or even "the name"; you loved that person for who they were. This play inspired a variety of movie adaptions. I'm only going to mention the well-known ones that earned the right for telling the story of forbidden lovers: Romeo + Juliet(1996), Romeo and Juliet(1968), Romeo Must Die(2000), Gnomeo and Juliet(2011) and Warm Bodies(2013).

5- Richard III
In this play, Richard III will stop at nothing to get the crown. Through his cunning and trickery he obtains it by killing or ordering to kill 11 people, even his one blood. The BBC TV 1983 adaption of this play is a perfect depiction of what is expected for the life and death of Richard III.
It is interesting to note that afterwords the corrupted king is later haunted in a dream by the very people that he killed to gain that temporary power.

4- Much Ado About Nothing
This play is a perfect romcom. You have a couples battling for love with some miscommunications in between. Of which was later used for a good or bad, depending on how you look at it. Plus the pure comic relief is hilarious, especially from Signor Benedick. He makes you enjoy being a bachelor, but at the same time you hope to one day be with someone that will bring out the worst and even the best in you.

3- Macbeth
A Scottish nobleman, Macbeth, is led by an evil prophecy by three witches, telling him of his future reign in becoming king. His relentless wife wants to make this prophecy fulfilled, and will go at any lengths to make it a reality.
In this play, it is interesting to see pride seep into Macbeth's life so subtly, that it later becomes the eventual downfall of the king himself.

2- Titus Andronicus
This play is about Titus returning victoriously from a war, only to plant seeds of his own future destruction for himself and his family. This play has revenge happening left and right.
Though this play only had one movie adaption in 1999 with Sir Anthony Hobkins as Titus, in my opinion, it was downright terrible. The director Julie Taymor, again, did a horrible job in trying to mesh both settings of a futuristic dystopian society and a historical Roman Empire. The only person that can successfully pull that off is Stephen King with The Dark Tower Series.
If you're going to make a movie adaption of this play, do it right! The Utah Shakespeare Festival did it perfectly! They stayed with the time period and delivered the right amount of suspense and drama that Shakespeare would be proud of seeing today. 
Titus Andronicus carries the most blood and gore than all the other tragedies. The total number of characters killed in this play is 14! All of which were out of pure blood lust, dismemberment and even cannibalism. Revenge never tasted so sweet... especially when it is served in cold blood baked in a pie!

1- Hamlet
It's about a Prince of Denmark returning home finding out that his father has been murdered and his mother remarried the murderer, his uncle. While all this is taking place, a war is beginning to rise.
It is best known for the phrase "To be or not to be?" Which has been used in a number movies as well as TV shows, when the character, in that medium, is faced with a hard decision. It has a lot of death counts, especially near the end. Five characters were poisoned, two were wrongly accused and put to death, one committed suicide and one got stabbed while hiding in the curtain; making it a grand total of nine.
It is one of the longest and most complex plays from Shakespeare, and has been adapted into a variety of movies/ TV-movies. From 1964-2009 famous actors have brought Hamlet to the big screen. The most well-known ones are: Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh, Ethan Hawke and even Doctor Who himself David Tennant. The play even inspired an unnecessary sequel "Hamlet 2" in 2008. How's that for being number one on this list!

 

That's my Top Ten Shakespeare Plays. What is your Top Ten?

Slender Man

Slender Man-
Now I know that this isn't at all related to Shakespeare, but with Shakesfeare... anything goes! If you don't know what Slander Man is, here are some descriptions found on the web that will shed some light on this dark and mysterious being(I just describe a creepy date haha):

Description

The Slender Man is described as very tall and thin with unnaturally long arms(that can also form into testicles), which it can extend to intimidate or capture prey. It has a white, featureless head and appears to be wearing a dark suit. The Slender Man is associated with the forest and has the ability to teleport.

 

Do you see it?

 

Hmm... "very tall and thin with unnaturally long arms" it is "white" and "appears to be wearing a dark suit". It kinda sounds like a familiar face... well this one actually has a face.

Origin

The Slender Man was created in a contest launched on the Something Awful forums on June 8, 2009, with the goal of editing photographs to contain supernatural entities. On June 10, a forum poster with the user name "Victor Surge" contributed two black and white images of groups of children, to which he added a tall, thin spectral figure wearing a black suit Previous entries had consisted solely of photographs; however, Surge supplemented his submission with snatches of text, supposedly from witnesses, describing the abductions of the groups of children, and giving the character the name, "The Slender Man":

We didn’t want to go, we didn’t want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time… 1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.

One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as “The Slender Man”. Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence. 1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing since June 13th, 1986^.

These additions effectively transformed the photographs into a work of fiction. Subsequent posters expanded upon the character, adding their own visual or textual contributions.

There is even a video that did a documentary on Slender Man, It's pretty creepy:

 

What I want to try to do is incorporate Slander Man in Shakesfeare. I will have him do the thing he does best in the woods. I think he would work perfectly with "A Midsummer Nightmare!"

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!