Tag Archives: Shakespeare

2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Comedy of Errors

Posted on February 10, 2026 by sheila

My progress: Shakespeare Reading Project Henry VI, parts 1, 2, 3 and Richard III Two Gentlemen of Verona The Taming of the Shrew Titus Andronicus The Comedy of Errors My aunt Regina was in a production of The Boys from … Continue reading →

Posted in Theatre | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“For I, the chiefest lamp of all the earth…” — Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine

Posted on February 6, 2026 by sheila

Maybe this is him. I’m armed with more than complete steel, The justice of my quarrel. — Christopher Marlowe, Lust’s Dominion. Act iii. Sc. 4. Playwright, poet, prodigy, agent in Her Majesty’s secret service: the incomparable Christopher Marlowe was born … Continue reading →

Posted in On This Day, Theatre, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Titus Andronicus

Posted on February 4, 2026 by sheila

My progress: Shakespeare Reading Project Henry VI, parts 1, 2, 3 and Richard III Two Gentlemen of Verona The Taming of the Shrew Titus Andronicus This is body horror at its most horrible. This is the play featuring the following … Continue reading →

Posted in Theatre | Tagged , | 4 Comments

2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Taming of the Shrew

Posted on February 2, 2026 by sheila

My progress: Shakespeare Reading Project Henry VI, parts 1, 2, 3 and Richard III Two Gentlemen of Verona The Taming of the Shrew A popular one, but a tough one! There are elements in Petruchio and Katherina’s dynamic which we … Continue reading →

Posted in Theatre | Tagged , | 8 Comments

2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Two Gentlemen of Verona

Posted on January 31, 2026 by sheila

To continue: Shakespeare Reading Project Henry VI, parts 1, 2, 3 and Richard III Scholars have been trying to justify and/or explain or even make SENSE of the last two pages of Two Gentlemen of Verona for 400 years. You … Continue reading →

Posted in Theatre | Tagged , | 2 Comments

2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Rose Rage

Posted on January 27, 2026 by sheila

… or: the three Henry VIs and Richard III Life is very very hard right now. Unprecedentedly hard on all fronts. And so I wanted a “hard” reading project this year. By hard, I mean, something involved that requires a … Continue reading →

Posted in Theatre | Tagged , | 6 Comments

2025 Books Read

Posted on December 30, 2025 by sheila

I ended last year with a flurry of Oscar Wilde’s short stories, declaring I’d read all the plays in 2025. I mean, there were only five, sadly, due to the homophobic violence of his own society. I know these plays … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

“I take it to be my portion in this life, joined with a strong propensity of nature, to leave something so written to aftertimes, as they should not willingly let it die.” — John Milton

Posted on December 9, 2025 by sheila

Milton was born on this day in 1608. Although he left Oxford without completing his degree, he remained a thinker, a propagandist/pamphleteer, a scholar till the end of his days. The isolated poet, focused on self and personal emotion, would … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

“Look in thy heart and write.” — Sir Philip Sidney

Posted on November 30, 2025 by sheila

“[The poet] doth grow in effect another nature, as the Heroes, Demigods, Cyclopes, Chimeras, Furies, and such like: so as he goeth hand in hand with nature, not enclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts, but freely, ranging only … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“Sunlight on a broken column.” — T.S. Eliot

Posted on September 26, 2025 by sheila

It’s T.S. Eliot’s birthday. Poets like William Carlos Williams and Hart Crane both said that they needed to forcibly divorce themselves from Eliot’s influence in order to be able to write. His voice, his way, became THE way. (Interestingly enough, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, On This Day, writers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments