April 22, 2011

Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare!

-Love, NYC

Today I’m producing an event in Central Park at the Bandshell where all 154 Sonnets will be read aloud.  The Bandshell is just a short walk from the statue of William Shakespeare by John Quincy Adams Ward that was unveiled in 1872.

The statue’s cornerstone was laid on Shakespeare’s 300th Birthday (1864) by a group of actors among them, the American actor, Edwin Booth.  Later that year, there was a benefit in which the Booth and his brothers (John Wilkes and Junius Brutus) played JULIUS CAESAR to raise money for the statue. 

And just six months after the benefit, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln on Good Friday in April 1865 at the Ford’s Theatre.

But back to our Birthday Boy, Shakespeare and America have always been lovers and I suspect they always will.  He imagined us and we imagine him.

So, what can we here in NYC offer to Shakespeare?  If his birthday wish was immortality, we happily oblige.

SONNET 60

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked elipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
   And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
   Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

PS: In the same hopes of preserving great stories, I am directing the feature documentary film: HOW SHAKESPEARE CHANGED MY LIFE where I interview people who have a compelling story of how Shakespeare has literally changed their lives.  Feel free to google it and watch some clips.  

Thanks to Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for asking me to write a little blog for Shakespeare’s Birthday.  www.happybirthdayshakespeare.com

-Melinda Hall

Willful Pictures

Copyright2011MelindaHall