Shakespeare News in the US: July 13-19

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin has compared herself to Shakespeare. Yes, that’s right. The New York Times and New York magazine and legions of other online blogs this morning are abuzz over Sarah Palin’s tweet comparing herself to Shakespeare. Here’s the story:

In a tweet commenting on the plan to build a mosque across the street from the Ground Zero site in New York City, Palin called on “peaceful Muslims” to “refudiate” the plan. Twitterers were quick to point out that “refudiate” isn’t actually a word–what Palin meant was “refute.” She deleted the original tweet and replaced it with one that does, indeed, use the correct word, “refute.” But then she followed it up with this:

“Refudiate,” “misunderestimate,” “wee-wee’d up.” English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!

Now, let’s be clear: Shakespeare coined many new words, but not when there was another, already existing, word that conveyed the exact meaning he was trying to express. This isn’t a case of being clever and adding to the language in a meaningful way. It’s a case of not being familiar with the dictionary.

But good things come of this too: we’ve been highly amused this morning by the discussion on Twitter using the #ShakesPalin hashtag (brought to our attention by @freehawk.

Updated Sarah Palin links roundup: The LA Times Jacket Copy blog has some fun with the idea of Sarah Palin being like Shakespeare. The New Yorker Book Bench blog rounds up some of the more amusing contributions to the #ShakesPalin hashtag on Twitter. And our friend the Shakespeare Geek briefly returns from his vacation to comment on the Sarah Palin affair.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead

In other news, the LA Times review says not to bother with the short movie Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead, starring Dustin Hoffman’s son Jake, calling it “a very long 82 minutes”:

Funny title, not so funny movie. That would be writer-director Jordan Galland’s “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead,” an ambitious satire of Shakespeare, vampires, small theater, Tom Stoppard, serial womanizing, cops and more that starts off feeling clever and original but turns silly and diffused as its convoluted story spins out.

Instant Shakespeare

If you’re in Manhattan, there’s more free Shakespeare than Shakespeare in the Park, and tickets to these performances should be easier to get. The New York Times has an article this week about the Instant Shakespeare Company, which dispenses with costumes, sets, rehearsal and even memorizing lines, and performs the plays in a reading format, often with playbooks in hand, at libraries around Manhattan. The company goes through the entire canon of Shakespeare each year. The current season runs through December.