Blogging The Dane

Lovers and Executioners

joshcostello — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 06:42:40 +0000

hung jury

joshcostello — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 06:50:49 +0000

Just when I thought Blogging the Dane was over and done, this comes in. Ah, well. Expect extremely sporadic Hamlet posts here for the indefinite future. My new blog, with new posts at least twice a week, is here.

new job, new blog

joshcostello — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 15:40:04 +0000

I’ve moved from Marin Shakespeare to Marin Theatre Company, where I am now the Artistic Director of Expanded Programs (which means I’m running Education, Outreach, and Theatre for Young Audiences, for starters). I’ll be directing there this Fall.

Here’s the link for the MTC Blog. I’ll be posting probably twice a week; other contributers include MTC’s Artistic Director and one representative from each production as they happen. This link is an archive of just my posts. Here’s the feed for subscribing.

Video Montage

joshcostello — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 06:16:52 +0000

Slightly higher quality Quicktime version available here.

Hamlet on Trial

joshcostello — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 16:37:15 +0000

A real Supreme Court Justice will preside over a trial; real lawyers will argue whether Hamlet was insane when he murdered Polonius.

Link

I love this. But there’s really no question. Hamlet has to have been sane — conscious of and responsible for what he did — or nothing is at stake dramatically.

I’m not reviving this blog. Just couldn’t resist posting this. But I may soon start a new blog for my new job… I’ll post details here within a few weeks…

update

joshcostello — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 07:39:07 +0000

Quick update on what’s been happening with me lately:

I’ve been editing the Hamlet video in my spare time. I have a rough cut of the whole play, with four cameras on two different nights. Now I’m trying to cut a short montage to post on my website — it’s going well but it will be a while because of all the other stuff going on in my life. Such as:
I’ve just been hired to be the stage director on The Crucible‘s Fire Ballet version of the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet. I’m collaborating with an amazing group of people, including a choreographer from the San Francisco Ballet, a bboy troupe as the Montagues (the top breakdancer on the west coast is playing Mercutio), a wushu martial arts troupe as the Capulets, fire dancers, a troupe of aerialists, a whirling dervish with a flaming kilt as the Prince, a metalsmith pouring molten bronze wedding rings as Friar Lawrence, swordsmiths making propane-powered flaming swords for the Mercutio/Tybalt fight, and on and on and on. Tonight the bboys met the wushu troupe for the first time; they had an impromptu dance-off and taught each other how to headspin and wield swords.
My job as the Education Director at the Marin Shakespeare Company is going well.
I’m going to be a father sometime in the next few days.

So things are exciting and wonderful and crazy.

another video clip

joshcostello — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 06:35:14 +0000

Here’s another video clip from the show — Hamlet with Yorick’s skull.

I’ll freely admit I stole the idea for putting the skull on a stick from Peter Brook’s 2000 production with Adrian Lester. Using the shovel as the stick was my idea, though.

I’m still editing the video — I just got through this scene, so I’m close to the end. Once it’s done, I’ll put together a montage from the whole thing.

new photos

joshcostello — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 07:48:28 +0000

The photo call photos finally arrived today. I’ve posted a bunch of them to my flickr page. Here’s a sample:

This Dane is Blogged

joshcostello — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 03:31:38 +0000

I’m loving my new job as Education Director of the Marin Shakespeare Company, but it’s quickly becoming clear that I’m not going to be able to continue regular posts about Hamlet. Which, considering the show closed a month and a half ago, is probably appropriate anyway. I’ll leave this blog up, and I’ll continue to post erratically — when I can’t sleep, or when something occurs to me, or when the official archive photos finally come in, or when I finish editing more of the video. But no more trying to post something every week.

I’ve had a great time writing Blogging the Dane, and the process of articulating all my thoughts about the play here had a definite positive impact on the production — a huge percentage of directing is simply articulating ideas (to actors and designers, and through them to the audience), and anything directors can do to improve their ability to articulate themselves will make a difference. If, in addition, this was entertaining or enlightening to anyone who happened to read it, so much the better.

Eventually, I hope to create an index for this blog that I can show to prospective employers. For now, this archive is a good place to start.

I love Shakespeare. I want more people to love Shakespeare, and that means making better and better productions of his plays. This is how I’ve tried to do it — this time. Onwards.

The play’s the thing.

Poor Yorick

joshcostello — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 08:06:59 +0000

I loved this show.

The Animaniacs doing the Yorick scene. Dot does a pretty damn good job translating, too.