Monday, April 23, 2012

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL

My love affair with the Bard began when I was a about eight years old and saw the filmed production of Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Mickey Rooney as Puck and Olivia D'Haviland as Helena.  I was mesmerized by the magic and the soundtrack by Mendelssohn.  When I was a teen I sat in the theatre and wept over the tragedy of Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet; unsure of whether I was more in love with Leonard Whiting or Olivia Hussey.  I loved Zeffirelli's Shrew and there's a fun adaptation of the play in the Shakespeare Retold Series with Rufus Sewell as a cross dressing Petruchio.  Some of my favorite filmed productions are Kenneth Brannagh's Much Ado About Nothing and his Hamlet.  The newest filmed version of Midsummer with Rupert Everett as Oberon and Stanley Tucci as Puck is a lot of fun.  Especially Kevin Kline as Bottom and Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania.  I loved Patrick Stewart as Macbeth and I'm looking forward to seeing Ralph Feinnes production of Coriolanus.  I'm getting ready to direct The Taming of the Shrew this summer and in the past have directed productions of The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer's Night Dream and Twelfth Night.  I have been in productions of the Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Tempest, As You Like It and scenes from many others.  Shakespeare's in my blood.  Happy Birthday.













2 comments:

rugbysex said...

moi aussi mon cher! don't forget kevin's henry V...loved that. i had a whole year of will in college and a semester just on his sonnets and one on his "pastoral plays." it doesn't get any better. just one question...or more of a suggestion...see if you can work in at least one nude scene featuring petruchio of course. lol.
cheers!

miracleman said...

I like the idea of Petruchio as a cross dresser when he comes to the wedding and I'm thinking of having Biondello be his butt boy. I think we can accomodate you on the nude scene too. Ha!

MM