I know it’s been awhile since I dropped a post here on Willy Wigglestick. But since today is April 23, I figured I’d take just a minute to say “Happy birthday!” to the Bard and all who celebrate his alleged birthday. (I guess it’s more fun than celebrating his actual death day, which we know was April 23 ..read more

Since today is January 5, the evening of which is traditionally known as “Twelfth Night,” I thought I would finally get around to watching Trevor Nunn’s 1996 film version of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Yes, I know the film is almost thirty years old, but it’s one of those Shakespeare films that I just never happened to watch, even though I have always loved the play upon which it’s based. I happened to find it for free (with ads) on the Roku Channel, so there was no reason not to watch it! The film starts out more like a drama than a comedy, with a very effective shipwreck sequence that is m ..read more

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas holiday, and a very happy New Year’s celebration! For your Christmas enjoyment, here are a couple of AI images I just created of Shakespeare as Santa Claus. Enjoy ..read more

During this lead-up to Christmas, I’ve been quite busy, so the posts here on Willy Wigglestick will be a bit sparse until we get closer to the New Year. But I saw this image on Facebook just now, and I just had to share it. It’s a Shakespearean twist on the 12 Days of Christmas. Enjoy! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all ..read more

Photo by Taha on Unsplash I’ve been seeing quite a few end-of-the-year posts all over the place, as one usually does around this time. And, even though I intend to do at least a few more posts here on the Willy Wigglestick blog before the end of the year, I am a church musician, so this month will be pretty busy for me. So I thought I’d take just a few minutes to look back at this year’s Shakespeare blogging here on the WW blog, to reflect on how it’s gone. The first few months of the year were uneventful, as I took a bit of a hiatus from my blogging activities for a little while, after consol ..read more

Yesterday I was listening to Prince’s 1996 album, Chaos and Disorder. (Incidentally, the last album the artist recorded to fulfill his contract with Warner Bros.) It had been awhile since I’d heard the record, so I was surprised to hear a couple lines in the song “I Like It There” that referenced Shakespeare. The first line that caught my ear was “Can I count the ways that I’m diggin’ U?” That seemed to be a reference to the opening line of Sonnet 43: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” And sure enough, just a few lines later in the Prince song, I heard this: “What can I say Shakespea ..read more

Last year, I got a great vocabulary-oriented card came called League of the Lexicon. With fairly simple rules, it explores the English language in all of its messy glory. Since I purchased the game, I have been subscribed to an occasional newsletter put out by the game’s makers, called Word Sauce. The most recent issue of Word Sauce was Shakespeare themed, and had all kinds of fun facts about Shakespeare and his use of language. I’ll just share a couple highlights here (I don’t know how long the link to the newsletter will last). This infographic has some fun little facts about Shakespeare’s p ..read more

Since today is “Black Friday,” and since I’ve been looking at Macbeth a lot lately (in preparation for our next Shakespeare Allowed! reading in Nashville), I thought I would share one of my favorite Shakespeare oriented comedy videos: a hilarious sequence from the Rowan Atkinson/Richard Curtis series, Blackadder. In this clip, Rowan Atkinson’s Blackadder has some fun with some pompous actors concerning the superstition over speaking the name of “the Scottish play.” As funny as the clip is, I personally know many actors who believe in the old superstition 100%. (I do not, but I’m not a particul ..read more

“I can no other answer make but thanks, And thanks, and ever thanks.” Twelfth Night ..read more

I almost missed this, but I was catching up on Shakespeare news just now, and saw that the PBS show, Great Performances, did a 2-hour special just a few days ago on the making of the First Folio. It’s entitled Making Shakespeare: The First Folio, and the synopsis of the program on PBS.org reads as follows: Celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, which saved 18 plays from being lost. Tracing the First Folio’s story, the film also spotlights how New York City’s Public Theater presents Shakespeare’s work for today’s audiences. I currently have a PBS Passport, which enables m ..read more