The Shakespeare Awards- And The Winner Is….

Okay, so I’m later than planned with this post- firstly because of Game of Thrones in all its glory and secondly because I was reading the most incredible book (more on that later!) But for now, it’s time to wrap up my Shakespeare Awards and announce the winners! As voted by you!

Special thank you to all my contributors: eclectictales, Pages Unbound, Captain’s Quarters, Claire @ Art and Soul, Kat @ Life and Other Disasters, Annette @ Book Blather, Sammie @ Bookshelves and Biros, Read Diverse Books, Nicole Alter @ Thoughts on Fantasy, and Samfalston

And thanks to all the people outside of the Blogosphere who I roped into doing this!

So without further ado- here are the results:

Both Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet had the same number of votes- which I’m kind of happy about because they’re both tragic for their own reasons- one is the power fate as to destroy us, the other is the power we have to destroy ourselves- both are tragic in their own way and who am I to decide which is worse.

Midsummer Night’s Dream won hands down! Which makes me happy because it was my first ever Shakespeare! I mean, what’s not to like: fairies, idiot actors and love are all clearly the recipe for the best comedy!

Romeo and Juliet grabbed a second win- understandably so- because it is one of the most romantic stories of all time.

Macbeth– and I agree with this wholeheartedly too! I mean, who doesn’t at the very least enjoy watching the “forests move” at the end of the play? It’s like the Ents smashing Saruman! (gosh- just when I thought I couldn’t get more dorky- I compare Shakespeare to Lord of the Rings!)

Richard III– which I was also happy about, because nothing beats the shenanigans in this play.

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds”
Sonnet 116

Branagh’s uncut Hamlet

An honourable mention goes out to 10 Things I Hate About You– which I loved as an answer for ingenuity and Heath Ledger alone!

Hamlet– let’s face it the language in this one is exquisite so totally deserved. And if I had a category for the most deep, this play would have won hands down too.

Measure for Measure– because let’s face it, it’s one weird play/story/thing (I mean what even is this?!?)

Tempest– which “won” because clearly a lot of the people I know feel the same way about it as I do. But a “dishonourable” mention goes out to Henry VIII, which I’m sure if more people had read would have taken the biscuit.

And that’s it! Until next time Shakespeare has a big birthday in a hundred years or so…. :p

Three Day Quote Challenge- Shakespeare Style: Day 3

Woohoo I made it to day 3!!! Because I am super strapped for time I’m  super strapped for time, I’m not gonna go into the whole long schpiel of why I’m doing this (you can read about it here, here and here :p ) I’m just gonna get on with it!

Here are my (altered) rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you.
• Post a quote for three consecutive days however long it takes
• Nominate three new bloggers each day

So firstly a huge thank you to Words and Lyrics for tagging me to do this! She writes some really lovely posts- her artwork for her latest post was awesome!- and because of that I’m choosing a stunning quote from Romeo and Juliet:

Hope you liked that (incredibly brief) post- I tag:

Napoleon split

Calliope

Keira

The Shakespeare Awards

Yes I know I am seriously late to this party- so late that the cake has probably gone stale and all the guests have already left- but how could I not celebrate William Shakespeare’s 452nd Birthday/400th Deathday??? (Okay, the second one’s a little weird- and technically that’s next week, but whatever)

Originally I was just gonna publish my faves and be done with it- but then I thought it would be fun if *everyone* joined in. And thus the Shakespeare Awards were born (*whoo silent cheer*). Basically, there are ten categories where you can vote for your favourite/least favourite Shakespeare play. I’ll count up all the votes and then post the results on here!

So here be the rules:

1. If you would like to cast a vote, write it in the comments or in your own post (but make sure you link back to me (The Orangutan Librarian) or your vote won’t be counted!)
2. You can answer for as many categories as you like but only one vote per category as many times as you like (yes I changed the rules cos I’m a rule breaker).
3. The arbitrary closing date I have picked is Monday 9th of May

And that’s it! Here are the categories, with my votes for each of them:

–1. King Lear– because it is the only one to have ever made me cry- I watched McKellen’s magnificent performance online somewhere and was a wreck afterwards!

–2. Midsummer’s Night’s Dream– cos it’s got a bit of an edge to it- plus who doesn’t love (semi-evil) fairies?

–3. Romeo and Juliet– yes it’s a cliché, but it’s a cliché for a reason. Plus it’s got a bit of misdirection going on, because it starts out in the comic fashion and then subverts everything into a tragedy.

–4. Macbeth– c’mon- this one gave us the three witches- it’s a no brainer. And it’s got some fun/freaky superstitions around it for actors.

–5. Richard III– for a long time this was just my outright favourite play- it’s so twisted (like Richard III’s spine- yes I just went there)

–6. Like as the waves… Just cos.

–7. Al Pacino’s Merchant– I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this play- but Pacino makes everything, even a play as problematic as this, better.

–8. Richard II– cos that Hollow Crown speech is insane

–9. Measure for Measure– the plot in this one makes no sense, the characters are mad and the genre flip flops back and forth! It’s safe to say this is one of the weirdest plays ever written.

–10. Tempest– okay, okay, this one isn’t technically the most unpopular- and I suspect it’s a lot of people’s favourite- but I have just *never* liked this play. Someone I met once summarised this as: Prospero says “look at me, I can do magic… but I won’t”. (When I told an English teacher that they were horrified- but I still think it’s terribly accurate).

Alright- hope you enjoyed that- and now, *drumroll please*, over to you!