the shakespeare challenge
January 4, 2008
For 2008, my sister and I have decided to undertake a challenge – reading through all of Shakespeare’s plays. To make it more interesting, we’re making it into a contest. With points. We Americans are very competitive, you know. So here’s how it works. We’ve got the whole year mapped out, three plays every four weeks.
Scoring
3 points Reading the play on schedule
1 point Reading the play within 1 month of deadline
0 points Reading the play by the end of the year
-1 point Not reading the play by the end of the year
1 point Reading a critical essay on the specific play (within 1 month of play’s deadline)
2 points Submitting a creative response to the play (within 6 weeks of play’s deadline) – collage, sculpture, illustration, short story, one act play, etc. are acceptable, photography is not – although a photographic essay or other effort can be submitted for judging by the participants
.5 points seeing the play live (maximum of 10 points – can be done throughout the year) or a film version (maximum 5 points – must be done within 2 weeks of play deadline). Films and plays must be the actual play – so Romeo+Juliet with Leonardo diCaprio counts, 10 Things I Hate About You doesn’t. Only one half point possible per play.
Total possible for each play: 6.5 points
As a side bet, I claimed that it was possible to see at least 20 of the plays live during 2008. And so, there’s a second bet to see whether there are at least 20 different Shakespeare plays are being produced.
The limits are:
they must be college, professional, or community productions (no matter how good a local middle school’s Midsummer is, it doesn’t count).
the plays need to be done somewhere between Vancouver, BC, Canada (and enviorns) and Portland, OR, USA (and environs).
any given play can only count once. So, if everyone decides to do Hamlet this year, I’m out of luck.
I’ll keep the plays that I’ve found so far in this set of comments.
Julius Caesar – Seattle Shakespeare Company
Hamlet – Eclectic Theater Company
As You Like It – Taproot Theater
Twelfth Night – Portland Center Stage
As You Like It – Key city public theater
<a href=”All’s Well That Ends Well – Seattle Shakespeare Company
Troilus and Cressida Sound Theater Company
Tempest Broadway Center for the Performing Arts
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Wooden O
Romeo and Juliet Wooden O
King Lear Bard on the Beach
Titus Andronicus Bard on the Beach
Comedy of Errors Seattle Public Theater
Two Gentlemen of Verona Portland Actor’s Ensemble
That’s 13 – and I’m not counting Seattle Shakespeare’s Henry IV because they’re combining the two plays into one evening.