Tube Drivers Reciting Shakespeare

http://www.thedailydust.co.uk/2009/06/30/tube-drivers-to-read-out-shakespeare/

A new initiative will see tube drivers reading out classical quotes with their announcements. The drivers are to be given a book of quotations that will include Shakespeare, Goethe and Friedrich Engels and are expected to read out quotes with their daily announcements to passengers.

I like it.  The closest I ever saw to this in Boston was the overhead speaker guy in South Station who’d actually say “Good morning everyone … and have a nice day.”  Hey, it’s Boston, sometimes it’s harder than Shakespaere to get good manners out of people! 🙂 [ I particularly like this story because I can post it on my other blog, too. ]

Lighting Up Shakespeare

http://lightingupshakespeare.wordpress.com/ All right, purists, you’re gonna love this one.  Just how close to “original” Shakespeare performance can you get?  Scene breaks? Stage directions?  Accent? How about lighting? The linked project attempts to mimic tallow candles using modern LED technology.

The project is broken down in to a few sub-projects:

  • The colour temperature of the candle-light.  Tallow candles were used which produce a difference colour flame to modern day paraffin candles.
  • Making this colour using LED colour mixing. My next project will be to create the colour of candle light that is not necessarily metameric but that looks the same to the eye when in a black space.  This can be used for basic shows and practical lanterns where the reflection of light is very minimal.  Next I will try to match the colour metamerically using a range of colours to mach the spectral diagram of the candle.  This will be more difficult and less cost effective but will provide a more accurate result.
  • The amount of light available.  How bright was the stage?
  • The flicker of the candles.  Incorporating this into the recreation.
  • The spread of light.  LEDs are quite directional so making the light spread as much as a candle would.
  • Adding all of this in to chandeliers and footlights that seem realistic yet have no naked flames.

Sounds very cool, and makes me wish I’d taken more of an interest in theatre while I was still in engineering school!

1 Thing I’ll Hate About 10 Things I Hate About You

http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2009/06/29/10-things-i-hate-about-you’-coming-to-a-small-screen-near-you-july-7/ We’ve covered this before, but “10 Things I Hate About You”, the series, starts next week. I was interested, or at least curious, until I got to this quote from executive producer Cameron Covington:

“I decided in the beginning that there’s enough distance between Shakespeare and us that we can free ourselves of some of the things Shakespeare dictated to the movie.”

Apparently this guy things that 10 Things was a more-popular-than-average teen comedy because of some other reason?  If you take out the Shakespeare, then it is exactly the same as every other teen comedy ever made. Does anybody remember the movie Peggy Sue Got Married, with Kathleen Turner and Nicholas Cage?  She goes back in time and decides to do her wannabe rockstar boyfriend (Cage) a favor by writing him a song that’s sure to be a hit.  Then he comes back to her with it:
”I made a few changes, I changed the yeah’s to ooo’s, and now I think it’s a lot better. Listen.  She loves you, ooo, ooo, ooo!  She loves you ooo, ooo, ooo…with a love like that….”

“That was the Beatles, you idiot!”