In October 2016, actors and directors from the Colorado Shakespeare Festival read through drafts of two newly-translated plays, “Henry VI, Part 2” and “Henry VI, Part 3.” These modern-day translations of the Bard’s timeless words, part of OSF’s Play On! initiative, were done by playwright Douglas Langworthy.
Since 1935, this mountain town has been home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, whose guiding spirit is present not just onstage, but also in the names of businesses like Oberon’s Tavern and the All’s Well Herb and Vitamin Shop.
This week’s guest Lue Douthit, director of Play on! at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, discusses translating Shakespeare. Plus the editors talk about Humana.
Four hundred years after the death of William Shakespeare, on April 23, 1616, he remains as celebrated as ever. Festivities to commemorate the playwright’s life and work are planned everywhere from Germany to Shanghai. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., has sent a flock of First Folios—the earliest collection of Shakespeare’s plays, now one of the most valuable books in history—to alight in every U.S. state.
I’ll never forget the first German-language production of Shakespeare I saw – Troilus and Cressida at the Berliner Ensemble in then East Berlin. And while I can’t tell you that much about the design or the actors, I was struck by how clear the language was. You see, in Germany, Shakespeare gets translated once or twice each generation into contemporary language that sits comfortably in the listener’s ear.
February 24 – March 26, 2016 | Orlando Shakes | Production | Orlando, FL, USA
