Sonnet talk at Shakespeare’s Globe
Giving a talk on the Sonnets in Original Pronunciation – 7pm tonight with David Crystal, at Shakespeare’s Globe…
Hip-hop Shakespeare workshop
A couple of videos from the Shakespeare workshop I gave last week, for the Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company & BBC Blast‘s Othello Re-told project…
Wells Festival of Literature, October 22nd, 12.30pm
Last Toast talk for the time being, tomorrow (October 22nd) at the Wells Festival of Literature 12.30pm at the Bishop’s Palace, Wells, Somerset…
Come one, come all… Follow this link for more details…
Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company’s Othello Retold
To Manchester to give a Shakespeare workshop for Akala’s Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company and BBC Blast‘s Othello Retold project…
Following on…
Dear followers of Toast
I’m pleased to let you know Toast has become a great success! The paperback published in June and reprinted in September, the reviews glow, and there’s still one more lit-fest talk coming up – the Wells Festival of Literature on October 22nd!
And while I’m still running around giving workshops and schools talks, I’ll be blogging a little less frequently on this site for the time being, as:
– I’m producing the second show for my theatre company shiningman. The new play Gilbert is Dead by Robin French will be playing at one of London’s last Victorian music halls, Hoxton Hall, 4th-29th November.
Follow the rehearsals, book – and win! – tickets, at www.gilbertisdead.co.uk and http://twitter.com/Gilbert_Shirley
– I’ve just finished acting in a short film, Notes directed by James Sharpe, and I’ll be acting in a play later in December.
More details of both will be at my main site, www.bencrystal.com…
News of future Toast activity – and there looks to be plenty coming -including an India tour, a full Shakespeare production, and a possible TV programme – will all be posted here!
Yours
Ben
UCLA Sonnet Workshop
Last week I gave a bunch of visiting UCLA students a talk on the sonnets.
One of them, a very kind Natalie de Luna, wrote up the talk:
Crystal reminded us to keep in mind the brilliance of Shakes where every punctuation, every caesura, every capitalization is there for a reason. Every imperfect iambic pentameter line is meant to show the character’s distraught brokenness.
He had us each perform the sonnets, many people took the creative notch up a bit as they turned the sonnets into a funky rap, or brought it down to a mellow tone, with doubled voices emphasizing capitalized letters and the melancholy of Sonnet 29.
And here’s Kelsey Sharpe’s report of the session, with a couple of videos:
As Crystal’s great desire is for people to perform, rather than just read, Shakespeare, he told us that he wanted every one of our 60-odd members to say at least one line before leaving. After a massive circle-reading of Sonnet 29, he asked us to come up in our groups and perform it for the rest of the room. One brave volunteer then read the entire sonnet to the class, and the session ended with Crystal stressing once more the need for everybody to experience performing Shakespeare — to “get the words off of the page and into [our] mouths.”
TV & Radio
TV
CNN Clip, April 2009
I was asked to appear on CNN for Shakespeare’s 445th birthday… Here’s the clip:
Meet The Author, 2008
The video below was made for the Meet The Author website. In it, I talk about exactly why Shakespeare on Toast is so different from all the other books on Shakespeare out there…
Richard & Judy, 2005
Okay, so I just dug this out, a video clip of when I was asked onto C4’s Richard & Judy chat-show, to talk about a copy of the 1623 First Folio that’d been found in an attic… Enjoy!
Radio
Click the links to listen to the interviews…
Interview with Libby Purves on BBC Radio 4’s Midweek, from June 10th, 2009
Interview with Ian McMillan on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb, from 19th June, 2009 – talking in & about Original Pronunciation – Shakespeare’s accent…
Interview with Phil Rickman on BBC Radio Wales, from December 7th, 2008 — recorded at the Hay Winter Weekend, Shakespeare on Toast “breaks new ground” says Phil, while I explain just why Shakespeare’s poetry is so interesting and so misunderstood…
Interview with Trisha Goddard on CityTalk FM, from September 14th 2008 — talking about whether Shakespeare is still relevant…
Interview with Muthamma Prasad for her BookClub show on PhoenixFM, from October 24th 2008 — talking about my favourite books, reading experiences, and of course, Shakespeare…
Recent Appearances
2008
September
1st, BBC Asian Network, Nikki Bedi
3rd, RTE, Morning Show, Tom Dunne
5th, BBC Radio Kent, Pat Marsh Show
6th, BBC Radio London, JoAnne Good
8th, BBC Radio Shropshire, Clare Ashford
8th, BBC Radio Wales, Roy Noble
10th, BBC Radio Leith
11th, Radio Mediterraneo FM, Hannah Murray
14th, BBC Radio Lincolnshire
14th, CityTalk FM, Trisha Goddard
30th, BBC Radio Cambridge, Sue Dougan
October
24th, Phoenix FM, Muthamma Prasad’s Bookclub
November
20th, BBC Radio 5 Live, Dotun Adebayo
2009
March
15th, BBC Radio 5, Up All Night with Dotun Adebayo
April
23rd, CNN, Around the World with Becky Anderson
June
10th, 9am BBC Radio 4, Midweek with Libby Purves
11th, 10am BBC Radio Bristol, Graham Torrington’s show
19th, 9.15pm BBC Radio 3,