Shakespeare
T-Shirt from The Secondhand Stuff Companyshakespeare.com / market
An expanding selection of Shakespeare wares from around the globe. Follow the links below to trade with the merchants represented here.
Prospero is still mulling over how and on what terms to include new merchants. Until he's made a decision, only those who are not just looking for a free link, but who truly wish to become a paying sponsor or patron of shakespeare.com should contact his business development arm about putting their mark here, or elsewhere on the site.
Shakespeare
T-Shirt from The Secondhand Stuff Company"The Blaming of a Nag? Much Ado About a Shrew?" This witty t-shirt from The Secondhand Stuff Company proves that even Shakespeare had writers block....if only for a few minutes.
A very popular Shakespeare design that has been featured in several major Shakespeare festivals.
The Writing Company is the premier supplier of Shakepeare supplies for teachers in the United States. In association with this venerable marque, shakespeare.com is happy to provide access to an extensive selection from their online catalogue.
Prospero's virtual acquaintance Louis Fantasia has published Instant Shakespeare, a lively, eminently practical handbook for anyone who wants to act Shakespeare like he should be acted - and cut through the nonsense that often gets in the way of a good performance.
The book is based on 30 years spent travelling the globe giving hands-on Shakespeare workshops for actors - including annual summer courses at the site of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London after Fantasia met Sam Wanamaker in 1981, when its reconstruction was still but a gleam in the latter's eye.
Fantasia's a master at making the most sophisticated matters easy to grasp, simple to remember - and quick with energetic opinions. It's no accident that Instant Shakespeare counts Camille Paglia as one of its fans.
You can order a copy online at Amazon.com - or check out the Instant Shakespeare website when it comes online.
The folks at Oxford University Press pulled out all the stops and released their Oxford Companion to Shakespeare, billed as "the most comprehensive single-volume guide ever published to the life, time, and works of the immortal Bard of Avon," just in time for Christmas 2002.
Prospero's seen a copy, and thinks any Shakespeare lover would be pleased to find this large, attractively presented hardcover under the tree. A small army of academics has contributed alphabetically-organized entries on nearly every Shakespeare-related subject imaginable, little marvels of concise, accessible scholarship. Copious black-and-white photographs and illustrations illumine the text, presenting portraits, frontispieces, holographic evidence, maps, and stills from many Shakespeare productions and films.
There are also thematic listings of the entries that allow you to circumvent a strictly alphabetical approach, and several-page guides to each and every play Shakespeare wrote, their centerpieces being extraordinarily detailed synopses that students and playgoers of all ages will love.
You can get a copy of your own from Amazon.com or your own favorite (online or offline) bookstore.
A few suggestions for the Shakespeare aficionado on your list.
Peter Collin Publishing announces its Dictionary of Shakespeare by Louise McConnell, which in over 1,500 entries provides comprehensive coverage of the plays, poems, characters, and background of Shakespeare's works—as well as synopses of each play's plot.
The dictionary also includes stage and theatrical terms, and historical details on the Elizabethan period. A supplement includes a map of London theaters and descriptions thereof, a chronology of Shakespeare's life and times, a family tree of English monarchs 1327-1603, and a chronology of Shakespeare's plays.
Prospero's seen a copy, and pronounces it a valuable paperback reference for Shakespeare fans old and new. You can get your own copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
Musical comedy star Will Clark is touring Borders Books in California to promote his new Shakespeare in Song CD—a selection of 14 sonnets and songs from Shakespeare's plays set to contemporary music of Clark's own devise (which Prospero can best describe as a pleasingingly eclectic folk - country - new age melange).
If you can't catch Clart at Borders, you can still buy his CD online through Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk if you'd like to check it out.
Sutton Publishing is pleased to announce the release of Shakespeare the Player: A Life in the Theatre by John Southworth. You can read an excerpt here, and order a copy on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk to get the full story.
Not just a section: a feature! Prospero hooks you up with the Shakespeare swag you need to start the school year off right.