GET READY FOR HOLIDAY FEASTING ELIZABETHAN-STYLE By Resident Dramaturg Philippa Kelly THE ELIZABETHAN CURE FOR A HANGOVER: pickled eggs or boiled cabbage or charcoal (by the way, while Elizabethans didn’t have toothbrushes to freshen themselves the morning after, they were the first people to use “soot” to whiten their teeth – the precursor of today’s […]
By Philippa Kelly, Resident Dramaturg, November 2023 Hello everyone, These words above are spoken by Duke Senior in As You Like It. Betrayed and banished by his brother, expelled from both his home and his beloved daughter, and stripped of his authority, he’s able, nonetheless, to welcome other exiles to his meagre forest feast. It
“Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table” Read More »
A Vision for The Premier Outdoor Cultural Venue in the East Bay and Beyond, Anchored by Its Resident Classical Theater Company Major Areas of Activity and Fundraising: Programming: Production, co-production, presenting, events, gatherings, ceremonies – theater, music, comedy, dance, weddings, conferences, salons, corporate, and more, including Cal Shakes’ 50th Anniversary in 2024 Cultural Exploration and
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On this day in 1865—two and a half years following the Emancipation Proclamation—the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas were finally informed that the American Civil War had ended and that they were at last free. Today, now known as Juneteenth, is the oldest commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, and is
Cal Shakes/Bruns Amphitheater: Volunteer Board Member California Shakespeare Theater A place to belong. California Shakespeare Theater and the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater sits in the beautiful Siesta Valley, placed gracefully just East of Oakland and Berkeley, California. We are seeking partners, allies, gadflys and even arts-minded knowledge workers that want to use their powers for the
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HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY: BUT WHERE ARE THE MOTHERS IN SHAKESPEARE? By Resident Dramaturg Philippa Kelly In Shakespeare’s times the mother was the family member principally involved with her children’s education and upbringing. Yet in Renaissance drama older women were rarely represented on-stage in what would obviously be one of their more sympathetic roles: that of
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There was a star danced, and under that was I born… Beatrice, Much Ado About Nothing By Dr. Philippa Kelly, Resident Dramaturg Welcome to William Shakespeare’s 459th birthday in 2023. Did people in Shakespeare’s time celebrate their birthdays with cakes, candles, balloons and parties? The short answer is “no” – balloons wouldn’t be invented until
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Hello Friends! As we wrote, all of us at Cal Shakes are grateful to this wonderful community of supporters who have responded with generosity as this storied Theater goes through a necessary revisioning. In closing out last year we held a number of Listening Circles with the promise that we would report back on what
2023 Update from Cal Shakes Read More »
To Love By Resident Dramaturg Philippa Kelly I recently re-read one of the last diary entries that my brother John wrote before his death in a mountain-climbing accident over a decade ago. In his almost indecipherable backhand – and in between lists of equipment, two-or-three-word observations on the climate in the mountains where he
Native American Heritage Month – Rethinking Thanksgiving “Indigenous people have often been erased from the country’s historical record – a survey from the National Congress of American Indians found that 87% of state history standards don’t mention Native American history after 1900, while 27 states don’t mention Native Americans in their K-12 curriculum” – By
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