{"id":4635,"date":"2012-04-20T06:17:54","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T06:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/long-beach-shakespeare-celebrates-bard-s-birthday-with-a-week-of-events\/"},"modified":"2012-04-20T06:17:54","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T06:17:54","slug":"long-beach-shakespeare-celebrates-bard-s-birthday-with-a-week-of-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/long-beach-shakespeare-celebrates-bard-s-birthday-with-a-week-of-events","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Shakespeare Celebrates Bard’s Birthday with a Week of Events"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"shakespere\"
Photo by Lizzie Finnegan<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m not a traditionalist, but if you’re a Shakespeare company and you’re doing nothing special around April 23 \u2014 i.e., the birthday of William Shakespeare \u2014 you’re doing something wrong.<\/p>\n

Long Beach Shakespeare is doing something right this weekend by kicking off a week of Shakespeare special events \u2014 i.e., something other than “just” staging his plays \u2014 with a three-performance run of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised]<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Originally penned by the founding members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare (abridged)<\/em> is not so much ridiculously truncated versions of his 37 plays as it is having fun with the idea of doing such a thing, all while poking fun at snooty stereotypes surrounding Shakespeare’s oeuvre.<\/p>\n

Or so I gather from LB Shake’s performance (which clocks in at under 90 minutes). A Thursday-night dress rehearsal was my first exposure to this work, and castmembers Summer Blake and sisters Adrienne and Ashley Marquand told me that they and director Helen Borgers have done a decent amount of tweaking to the script \u2014 hence the “[revised]” in the title \u2014 to make it work for them and for our current cultural milieu.<\/p>\n

This is a three-person show, and considering that (according to the opening) there are 1,122 characters in the Bard’s body of work, you know you’re in for goofiness. And goofiness you get, something along the lines of looking in on the backyard theatrics of three hyperactive and precocious 11-year-olds infused with knowledge, ambition, and ability of women more than twice that age. It’s stupid in all the right ways, and although detailed knowledge of Shakespeare certainly lets you in on some of the inside jokes and references, this is a farce that requires no knowledge of theatre or Elizabethan idiom \u2014 or even an especial love of Shakespeare \u2014 to enjoy. Call it “Fun with Shakespeare (Even) for Dummies.”<\/p>\n

After an intro establishing the characters of Blake & the Marquands (who go by their own names but are still characters [and BTW, you’re welcome for moniker in case you gals ever form a band]), the fictional effort to bring off all the Bard’s plays begins with Romeo and Juliet <\/em>(which works out nicely, considering that’s the most recent LB Shake production and Blake played J), which is funny right off. But the characters realize that at 12 minutes it’s way too long, so what follows is a series of creative ways to impart something of each play with ever greater brevity (“the soul of wit,” natch). The strategies employed include Titus Andronicus<\/em> as a cooking show (quite amusing if you know this relatively obscure work, but probably a little puzzling if you don’t), a rap retelling of Othello<\/em> (hilarious; Blake & the Marquands really shine), 16 comedies distilled into one (clever poke at Shakespeare for how “clueless” he makes some of his characters be so as to pull off his often impossibly unlikely plots), and the histories knitted together as a sporting event (the weakest bit; lazy writing). And then there’s Hamlet<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The end result is a fitting celebration of Shakespeare \u2014 celebration as in a party. The humor’s not all Shakespeare-based, and as much (or more) of the laughs come from the exuberance of the three women onstage as the words on the page. (Sidenote: If you find Shakespeare boring, that fact will have no bearing whatsoever on how you feel about Shakespeare (abridged)<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

On Monday, LB Shake commemorates the actual day of the Bard’s birth with readings of various Shakespeare sonnets and speeches by Borgers, who’s not only LB Shake’s artistic director but also a DJ on KKJZ radio. Then on the following weekend LB Shake puts on “Speared, Shaken and Stirred,” a live, oldtime-radio-style Webcast featuring three short, Shakespeare-inspired audio plays. According to LB Shake, highlights includes “LOVE ON A BUSY SIDEWALK\u2014If a desperate Romeo can get a kiss from Juliet after only knowing her for two minutes, can Ricky Tadenko do the same thing on a dare<\/em> in New York City? [and] What happens on the day an oppressed office worker has had enough of his abusive boss? He doesn\u2019t go postal, he goes hilariously swashbuckling-Shakespearean in THE RISE OF THE CUBICLE DWELLER.”<\/p>\n

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised]<\/em> runs Friday and Saturday (i.e., April 20 and 21) at 8pm, and Sunday (April 22) at 2pm.<\/p>\n

Helen Borgers hosts “An Evening of Speeches, Songs and Sonnets” on Monday, April 23, at 8pm and will be Webcast at lbshakespeare.org.<\/p>\n

“Speared, Shaken and Stirred” runs April 27\u201329 (Friday and Saturday 8pm, Sunday 2pm) and will be Webcast at lbshakespeare.org.<\/p>\n

Tickets to all shows (which take place at the Richard Goad Theatre \u2014 4250 Atlantic Ave., LB 90807) are $10, available. For tickets and more information, go to www.LBShakespeare.org<\/span><\/a> or call (562) 997-1494. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"shakespere\"<\/p>\n

Long Beach Shakespeare is doing something right this weekend by kicking off a week of Shakespeare special events \u2014 i.e., something other than “just” staging his plays \u2014 with a three-performance run of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised]<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":69725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4635"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4635"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}