“We seem at the moment to be really obsessed and interested in origin stories of various sorts, from Willy Wonka to James Bond to Batman,” he says. Semenza notes that for the past two decades there has been high interest in origin stories, particularly focused on comic book superheroes. That is, although Romeo and Juliet really is an Italian novella that Shakespeare adapted, ‘Shakespeare in Love’ presents its origins in Shakespeare’s own personal life and emotions.” What I find most wonderfully paradoxical about the film and now this production, and the script more generally, is that it’s an adaptation that effaces the process of adaptation. It’s the skill with which he’s able to reinvent these texts, the beauty of the language that he brings to these texts that makes him distinctive, not his living up to some Romantic notion of poetic inspiration or originality. “In no way does that fact lessen the achievement of one of the greatest writers and artists of all time. “He was an adapter, first and foremost,” Semenza says. “They knew Shakespeare’s ability to do exactly the same thing, where you have a character who hasn’t been in the whole play who comes out and has an absolutely gorgeous soliloquy.”Īnd while in most instances a play is adapted for film, reversing the process for a story based on Shakespeare is appropriate, given the Bard of Avon’s own writing, says Gregory Semenza, professor of English, who specializes in adaptation and Renaissance drama. It also goes to the fact they understood Shakespeare,” Tycer notes. “It goes to the quality of the writers bringing those elements forward. He notes the strength of how the characters are written allows many of them to be part of the ensemble until the plot brings them into the spotlight for memorable moments, much in the way Shakespeare did in his plays. That’s how a play gets legs, because you’ve also had plays based on films that have fallen flat.” “When you put all that together you have imaginative actors and designers in the process. “The play is written so beautifully, has fantastic characters in it and you’ve got some brilliant Shakespearean verse in there then you have a gorgeous score,” he says. Tycer, who has performed and directed Shakespeare productions in the UK, Europe, and the U.S., says the stage version of “Shakespeare in Love” has resonated with audiences from its inception not because it is based on the film, but because of the screenplay by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, who teamed for the play with Lee Hall, writer-in-residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. It brings in elements of gorgeous verse and poetry.” It’s a re-imagining of what could have been his life at the early stages of his career. “It’s kind of like a love letter to Shakespeare.
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“I view this play as an homage to Shakespeare,” says Vince Tycer, associate artistic director of CRT, who is directing the production.
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The film that won seven Oscars was adapted to the stage in 2014 and will be presented by the Connecticut Repertory Theatre at the Harriet S.
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So it was surprising when “Shakespeare in Love,” a romantic comedy-drama about young William Shakespeare struggling with writer’s block while facing a deadline for his next play, swept the major Best Picture awards for 1998 films. Stories that re-imagine the origins of heroes and icons typically are filled with dramatic moments when characters take actions that ultimately define their renowned stature.