Shakespeare

by Colleen Barrett

With tweens and extended adolescence now a part of our vocabulary, it's easy to forget that adolescence didn't always exist. It's only been acknowledged in Western culture for the last 50 or so years. You were a child until you weren't. One defining birthday —13, 16, or 18 — changed everything from clothes to the quotidian details of daily life. It wasn't until the '50s and '60s that youth culture became a beat too loud to ignore, and adolescence finally gained acceptance outside psychology.

American psychologist Stanley Hall is credited with defining adolescence in 1904, but it was popularized by psychologist Erik Erickson's stages of psychosocial development in the mid-20th century. Erickson pinpointed the stage's crisis, calling identity vs. role confusion, and argued why it should be seen as a unique period in life. "It is human to have a long childhood; it is civilized to have an even longer childhood," he famously wrote. "Long childhood makes a technical and mental virtuoso out of man, but it also leaves a life-long residue of emotional immaturity in him."

But this week's New York Times Magazine posits a new theory: Shakespeare was the first person to characterize adolescent absurdity, particularly in Romeo and Juliet. Whether anyone acknowledged it our not, Shakespeare created a whole new category of life out of the star-crossed lovers, filled with wonder, exaggeration, and despair — great melodrama.

He captured the tension Erickson would later categorize by illuminating the choice every human has between childhood and adulthood. Go down senselessly but in a tragic blaze of glory like Romeo and Juliet, or grow up and develop a sense of humor, much like Shakespeare did.

by Colleen Barrett

Angelina Jolie famously took a part originally written for Tom Cruise in Salt, and now Helen Mirren is set to do the same. Only she'll be playing a role that's been done hundreds of times as a man: Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Prospero is the duke of Milan who uses manipulation and other machinations to protect his daughter, Miranda. As a female, Helen tells New York magazine, the harsh and generally unlikable character will become softer, more human, and thus more relatable.

"The heart and the essence of the play doesn't really change — it's about betrayal and revenge and forgiveness, and it's about the physical world and the spiritual world. None of that changes with Prospera being a woman, and although the relationship with Miranda doesn't totally change — she's still a loving and protective parent — being a woman, I think you have more of a sense that she understands where Miranda is coming from and understands who this girl is. When Prospero is a man, you get the sense that he's this nasty, unattractive, paternal dictator, and I think you lose that here and it becomes more emotional."

Of course, there will always be people who resist gender-flipping roles, but it sounds like it can bring out layers of characters that otherwise go unnoticed. It may even change how parts, like Prospero, are played in the future, whether by a man or woman. What's most intriguing, though, is why (besides the challenge) A-list actresses, like Angelina and Helen, take men's roles. In short? There are not enough big roles for women.

by POPSUGAR Sex & Culture

When asked to pick the Shakespearean title that best described their first sexual encounter, 28% chose Comedy of Errors;  23% chose Midsummer's Night Dream; 22% chose Much Ado About Nothing;  21% chose All's Well That Ends Well; and 6% chose Rape of Lucrece.

— Librarians compare their first sexual experiences to Shakespearean titles in a controversial librarians and sex survey. The poll went down in 1992, but never got published until this year due to its racy nature.


Source: Flickr User Changing World

by POPSUGAR Entertainment

Emile Hirsch and one-time Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke aren't the only ones planning another big-screen adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet — there's also one in the works that will target the High School Musical audience. A 3-D musical movie version of Hamlet is coming our way, apparently "the first of six adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays, based on musical versions created by UK theater company Shakespeare 4 Kidz." The other films in the series include Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest.

Today's article in Variety asserts that "Hamlet lends itself to a 3-D treatment. The producers hope to include a ghost that hovers in front of the aud's eyes, cannon fire that flies into the auditorium, and a sword fight that appears to happen all around viewers." But I think if I were younger, this is the part I would find particularly intriguing: the production company behind these musical 3-D movies will also shoot a TV show called Movie Quest — A Romeo 4 Juliet, "a public search to find two undiscovered young actors to play the lead parts of Romeo and Juliet." This should be interesting, at the very least.

Source and Getty

by coutorture Fashion never stands still, even when your editors are in a whirl of travel plans gone awry. Lebanese couturier Elie Saab is designing signature luxury hotels with Dubai real estate developer Tatweer, starting with a high-end boutique hotel at The Tiger Woods Dubai resort. This adds Saab to a growing list of fashion designer or firms such as Giorgio Armani, Christian Lacroix, Versace, Salvatore Ferragamo and Bulgari, who all have or are developing luxury hotel projects. Barney's plans to open its fourth store in Japan in the city of Kobe. The CFDA is still concerned about model health. All of that excitement over China? Yeah, that obscures the real picture of just how hard it is to make it in retail or fashion over there. Express decides to go all Mise en abyme thanks to Lloyd (+ Co) and their Peter Lindbergh shot advertising campaign. And while we like to make a little Hamlet joke it feels just a little too Ophelia. The concept of the campaign — models cavorting on the beach — is only part of the story. What are those tripods doing on the beach, and that fan? Express wants to give viewers the feeling of being behind the scenes at a photo shoot. The campaign's conceit is to have the gear used to make fashion images, such as backdrops, light stands and cables, intentionally visible in each shot.