On:

Shall I go win my daughter to thy will? – Richard III I think of Elizabeth, Edward’s daughter, that pretty box for reconciling hopes. She never is onstage except in the mouths of those who bid on her. Here is a play with ghosts, two princes locked in a tower.Continue Reading

On:

language-less, a monster – Troilus and Cressida Athena loves Ulysses for his guile, Achilles for his prowess, does not love quiet Ajax, though he grows like a tree towards Olympus. What patron will visit Ajax in his tent at night and accompany the mammoth body, oiled and scraped, as itContinue Reading

On:

The group of poems featured in Deep Overstock’s Shakespeare issue are part of a collection that developed as I read through the full catalogue of Shakespeare’s plays. The experience was a frustrating sensory thrill. I didn’t set out to focus on Shakespeare’s female characters; my favorite play is Coriolanus, inContinue Reading

On:

Repeated lines are from Cordelia in King Lear by William Shakespeare Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides. Ask Richard Nixon, “Who erased the tape?” Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. They’re often drowned by elemental tides while telling lies to make a clean escape. Time shall unfoldContinue Reading

On:

My father was a Shakespearean actor. He played Macbeth. My father is elderly and not allowed in New York. He was called on the phone by Maxine Doyle. We used an old telephone with a plastic receiver.—is this Pat Barba?My father held the phone and stood by the glass. WeContinue Reading

On:

“What’s wrong now?” The exasperation in Thea’s voice echoed around the auditorium. As soon as her words broke through the scene, the two actors in front of her retreated to opposite corners of the stage like boxers who had just heard the bell. Thea couldn’t help but sigh as sheContinue Reading

On:

Where hast thou been, sister? –Macbeth Since the night I was born I’ve I’ll known howling at the moon, mixed kiss yours with my own, crossed all times rhymes to together by the born beards your beard on our faces. Even when apart of hurt women’s tales never tell andContinue Reading

On:

Cast Jessica – Woman in her early twentiesShylock – Man in his late fifties to early sixties Scene: A room in Shylock’s house in 16th century Venice. Shylock sits at a table stacked with coins. He dresses in a long black robe that has yellow wheel patches on the shoulderContinue Reading