Anyone seen “Hamnet”? I was not too impressed by “Shakespeare in Love,” which perpetuated the biographical fallacy — that the key to unlocking the one, true meaning of a literary work is listing how each detail in a literary work “could represent” some detail in the author’s life, and that once you’ve constructed that list,…
My auditory processing disorder makes it hard for me to process speech when I can’t see the speaker’s lips. My wife is being treated for an ear infection. We are asking each other “What?” after somebody coughs, after we ask each other “What did you say?” and after we answer each other “Never mind.” In…
On my ride into work yesterday, my mother mentioned “That popular singer has a song about a Shakespeare character.” I had seen social media posts about Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia,” but hadn’t investigated yet. I watched the video right before teaching my “Shakespeare in Context” class, and I felt kind of overwhelmed. I…
Similar:The Child (TNG Rewatch: Season 2, Episode 1)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…CultureBloopers from my monologue for @pictclassictheatre 's Shakespeare Webinar this Friday at 2… View t…AmusingBaltimore Residents Urged To Stay Indoors Until Social Progress Naturally Takes Its Course…“As we continue to incrementally evolve …AmusingAnother #steampunk interior. High tech garden gazebo or away team…
The following comment appeared recently on one of my YouTube lectures, “Historical Context for American Literature.” American???? So where are: CANADA, MEXICO, GUATEMALA, CUBA, COSTA RICA, BRAZIL, CHILE ARGENTINA, PERÚ, COLOMBIA, PANAMÁ, URUGUAY, PARAGUAY, EL SALVADOR, HONDURAS, VENEZUELA… ETC ETC ETC. STOP SAYING THE UNITED STATES IS AMERICA! Here’s how I responded: Geography and names…
From an essay that includes a reflection on discovering AI-fabricated quotes while peer-reviewing a scholarly essay for potential publication. (Academics don’t get paid for the labor of pre-reading scholarly drafts for potential review. An author who uses AI is squandering the resources of human peer-reviewers.) Humanistic study once promised — and for many, still delivers…
Essays like this remind me why I picked my English major. There are other ways to get facts. Newspapers are full of them, as are podcasts and documentaries. Travel shows proliferate, take your pick. But even then, there is nothing like the view of the world via a novel. Novels can go beyond merely being…
Fences was performed in the backyard of August Wilson’s boyhood home.
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company
Support the arts in your community!
Similar:We Are Hopelessly Hooked [on our Gadgets]We check our phones 221 times a day—an a…Culture"The Nightmare of Prince Prezelsky"Leigh, Peter, Carolyn and I had fun reco…AmusingA Time magazine with Trump on the cover hangs in his golf clubs. It’s fake. #fakenewsDonald Trump has a lot to say about “fak…BusinessDrumming Kid Is Epic. That…
A cast of hundreds participated in a public medieval re-enactment dramatizing the Christian story from Creation through Final Judgement at the University of Toronto a few weeks ago. I attended as the event videographer. I had at least three cameras running at all times — sometimes five — while a roving camera also caught the…
I had a great time playing Hastings in this audio adaptation of a classic Agatha Christie classic. A smart, young woman must “prove her wits” in order to find her uncle’s will and receive her inheritance. Does it count if she hires the world-renowned detective, Hercule Poirot? Find out when you listen to “The Missing…
Similar:Morgan 'Super Size Me' Spurlock at Seton Hill Morgan Spurlock, w…BusinessIt's Friday night in July, and I'm jamming with my fall course preps.The dean sends me an email at 9:07pm. In…AcademiaCredible case that a lost Shakespeare sonnet has been identified A dedication in the script of a 1603 B…AcademiaFun with Geometry — Biological and TheoreticalFor…
I first taught Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle during an intensive 3-week online course during the 2020-21 winter break, during the Time of Covid. The nature of that course was such that I could only reasonably require students to read 6 of Wilson’s 10 plays; I think I required everyone to read 4, and then split the…
My years of watching MacGyver definitely paid off. (Not that my GenZ students got the reference.) I’m doing a lot more in-class work with paper, giving students handouts to annotate in class, asking them to write in copybooks. For the midterm I gave students a short academic article, excerpts from a play we haven’t read…
Similar:Getting there.Getting there.PersonalMy colleague @crissycp offers warm soda bread and tea every year, as part of her authentic…AcademiaNational Dance DayIn the restaurant parking lot after dinn…CultureThe Icarus Factor (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 14)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…Personal'Great Pause' Among Prosecutors As DNA Proves Fallible : NPRIt seemed the labs were using an outdate…EthicsCraiyon:…
Carving out some time to enjoy this show as I prep to teach the Pittsburgh Cycle @SetonHill Similar:Our family has seen David Whalen in the persona of Sherlock in five or six different shows…Our family has seen David Whalen in the …CultureSesame Street had a big plot twist in November 1986My older siblings say they…
I’m far from perfect, and injustice and suffering and tragedy in the world won’t be much affected by the story I’m about to narrate, but as I was walking in the mall with my son, I dictated a 500-word email response to a student whose paper topic didn’t work out and who asked for my…
When I went off to college to be an English major, my father (who passed last December at 90) told me a story about how his respected professor at Northwestern University spent a whole lecture on the seven levels of symbolism in Melville’s Moby-Dick. Being of an analytical mind and precise mind, my father copied…
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. @thepublicpgh Similar:Consciousness: Where Are Words?Words, words, words. With the advent of …CultureAfter Hours – Why The Star Trek Universe is Secretly HorrifyingAfter Hours – Why The Star Trek Universe…AmusingThings are not going well when the other king and queen stop by for such an intimate…
Even though I wrote about some of Eugene O’Neil’s earlier plays in my dissertation, I had never seen or even read this play before. I knew the basic subject matter but didn’t know the details. All the actors did a great job and the production values were top notch, as I expect from Quantum. Similar:What…