Doc Sherwood
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Doc Sherwood's Antony and Cleopatra, Act Two
SCENE 6 Rome, the council chamber. CAESAR, AGRIPPA and LEPIDUS, discussing the Egyptian threat. CAESAR: So much for our visions of averting this. Seems Cleopatra's more than capable of waging war on us, without any help from Antony.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in Chapters
Doc Sherwood's Antony and Cleopatra, Act One
Now here's something I've been meaning to do for a while! My old Antony and Cleopatra script, adapted into modern English. It goes without saying you're all more than welcome to use it with any budding young thespians of your own! The clips, complete with original Shakespearean dialogue, are from the last time we staged the play: late 2019, Northeast China, as part of the entertainments for a student speech-making competition!
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in Chapters
Malvolio, in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night; or, What You Will does not appear to have seen print until the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s works in 1623. We know however it was written around 1601, and performed in February 1602. This would make Twelfth Night the last in the group of plays we consider Shakespeare’s great comedies. By 1602 Shakespeare had already begun work on what are sometimes called the four great tragedies, and his more ambiguous and troubling comedies which are now known as the problem plays.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in BookClub
William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors was written around 1594, and is one of the eight or so plays that may have been Shakespeare’s first. Like several others from the early group, it does not appear to have seen print until the collected edition of 1623.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in BookClub
Cross-Dressing in Shakespeare's Comedies
The comedies of William Shakespeare usually feature at least one female character who dresses up as a man or boy. Shakespeare did not invent this theatrical device, but he used it extensively. The Two Gentlemen of Verona is the first in which a heroine cross-dresses, and Cymbeline the last. Since these are respectively one of Shakespeare’s very first plays, and one of the last he wrote alone, we might say the cross-dressing tendency is a constant throughout the run of comedies.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in BookClub
Romeo and Juliet
When William Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, relatively early in his illustrious career, he did what he nearly always did: reworked a story that was already well-known, and made his version the one that history would remember. The tragic tale of the Montague and Capulet family feud, which seems to have had some basis in fact, was first documented by Italian and French poets from the years 1530 to 1559. Shakespeare worked primarily from Arthur Brooke’s 1562 version, which was the first one written in English. Romeo and Juliet proved popular with audiences and was published twice during Shakespeare’s lifetime, in 1587 and 1599. It then appeared in the 1623 first collected edition.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in BookClub
William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale
Written sometime between 1609 and 1611, The Winter’s Tale is grouped alongside Cymbeline, Pericles and The Tempest as Shakespeare’s four Late Comedies, also known as his Romances. These are often regarded as Shakespeare’s final plays, or at any rate the last ones he wrote alone, since his remaining works after The Tempest were all co-authored with John Fletcher. (Strictly speaking, Pericles was co-authored too.) Like The Tempest and Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale did not see print during Shakespeare’s lifetime. The earliest text is in the First Folio of 1623.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in BookClub
The American Civil War: A Literary Perspective
In 1861, an America irretrievably divided over the issue of slavery descended into Civil War. Eleven southern States, determined to protect their right to keep slaves, seceded from the Union. Styling themselves the Confederate States of America, these entered into open hostilities with the north.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in BookClub
Mark Twain
Part One Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The phrase he would come to use as his pen-name was one he first heard while working as a boatman on the Mississippi River between 1857 and 1861. For freshwater sailors, “mark twain” means a depth of two fathoms, the shallowest point at which it remains safe to continue navigating. The term was used as a warning-cry on boats that were heading into dangerously low waters.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in BookClub
The Transcendentalists. Top Story - August 2023.
The town of Concord, Massachusetts was where the first gunshots were fired in the Revolutionary War. On April the 19th 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence was signed, British troops marched on Concord to seize a cache of weapons hidden there. Local residents and farmers, alerted mere hours in advance by Paul Revere and William Dawes, organized into a militia now known as the Minutemen and met the British with armed resistance. In a firefight at Concord’s Old North Bridge, the advancing troops were turned back.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in History
Desperately Seeking Pseudangelos, Chapter Three
What other way could it have gone though? Joe had intimated as much to Flashshadow on the drive over. As long as this was still his land, not Yon’s, the latter wouldn’t be the only one who commanded multitudes. That first afternoon with Sonica, several of Joe’s had looked in. Now he needs must summon another.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in Chapters
Desperately Seeking Pseudangelos, Chapter Two
The rabble herded and jostled Joe’s company to the edge of the outdoor pool. Yon held court from a lifeguard’s chair at the far end, overlooking all, while the rest of that writhing jabbering crew clustered close at our heroes’ backs. On either side the twisty shapes of waterslides and other apparatus rose into heavens of lead, which by now were alive with thunderous rumblings and lightning-bursts spanning the spectrum.
By Doc Sherwood3 years ago in Chapters
