Quick thought amidst the grading. I'm working on grading student essays on the Shakespeare tragedy Othello today. In one of the options I gave to my students, they examine Othello's speeches in the beginning, middle and end of the play to trace the change in Othello's character that we see in the play. I was reading one essay that observed that ( Read more... )

For Valentine's Day, my mother-in-law gave me a DVD of the Metropolitan Opera's production of Verdi's Otello, based upon the Shakespeare play, Othello. I teach Othello to my students --we'll be studying the play next week, after the college resumes from Spring Break. So I've been watching the opera. I finished Act II tonight. I'm impressed with ( Read more... )

The June issue of Preview Massachusetts magazine is on the stands, and my story this month is on the Hampshire Shakespeare Co.'s production of Henry IV, Part I.


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The July Preview Massachusetts is out, along with my story on Shakespeare & Co.'s Othello. As has become my practice, I'll share the first few paragraphs:When Tony Simotes got the call from Shakespeare & Co. to come out to the Berkshires to direct Othello, he didn’t skip a beat before answering, “Yes!” Now a professor in the theater program at the ( Read more... )

I recently finished reading E.L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime, where a black piano player Coalhouse Walker forms an anarchist gang after his Model T gets trashed by some hooligan firefighters, against the backdrop of an imagined history populated with real characters like Emma Goldman and J.P. Morgan. Doctorow is coming to Western New England College ( Read more... )