Reading TEA again last week, I was hugely amused by the scene where Thursday and Landon attend a showing of Richard III, performed in the style of the Rocky Horror Show.
(Jasper clearly knows something about Rocky Horror, and I'm suddenly having visions of him in a basque and fishnets !)

Audience participation Shakespeare sounds like great fun to me. I mentioned it to some friends in the pub, who promtly came up with their own suggestions:

Juliet: "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo ?"
Audience: "He's over there !"

Macbeth: "Is this a dagger I see before me ?"
Audience: "No, it's an egg whisk."

I think that when we hold a convention (and why not ?), some interactive Shakespeare should be the highlight of the Saturday night. Do you think we could get Jasper to join in ?

hehehe and probably Mari too!

Oh, GSD...I just noticed that all of Jasper's American buds can never get together with his English devotees...most of them can't even get together with his other American devotees! WAAAAAAAHHHHHH....our convention lies in ruins before us...


- Currer Bell



----------------------------------------------------------------
Revolt! Revolt! No matter why or when,
It's novelty--old novelty again.

This board is very resourceful to say the least, I'm sure some arrangement will be made.

Why not start a tourist package tour that takes in Thursday Next haunts, Swindon, Leigh Delamare, Devizes.........

These prove very popular with the HP devotees. We get lots around here because some of it was filmed in Lacock Abbey.

We could alwas rig up web-cams or something... A way will be found!

I think that many Shakespeare heckles are already known. Eg Pratchett's "There's a knocking without" - "Without what?"

I suppose for 'once more unto the breach' the audience could pull out assorted inflatables, sunglasses and beach-towels...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

"Too sleep, per chance to ......... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Julius Caesar:

"Cry Havoc, (OMNES: "HAVOC!"), and let slip the dogs of war (OMNES (singing): "Who let the dogs out? Who? Who? Who? Who?")



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Twelfth Night;

VIOLA: what country, friend, is this?
OMNES: Swindon! (or wherever they happen to be)

Othello:

Enter OTHELLO. IAGO sneaks on without O. seeing.
OMNES: he's behind you!

King Lear;

LEAR: Blow, wind, and crack thy cheeks ...
OMNES: Prrrrtppppt!

Julius Caesar;

ANTONY: Freinds, Romans, countrymen; lend me your ears (shower of false ears on stage)



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

As you like it: Act V, Scene 4

"He uses his folly like a stalking horse"

(In the background enter a panto-horse, looking furtive and tiptoeing...)

-------------------------------

Hamlet:

FRANCISCO: Not a mouse stirring

OMNES: But it isn't Christmas!
-------------

HORATIO : What if it tempt you toward the Floud my Lord ?
OMNES: You what?
HORATIO: Or to the dreadfull Sonnet of the Cliffe,
OMNES: (singing) Christmas time, mistletoe and wine...
HORATIO: That beetles o're his base into the Sea,
And there assumes some other horrible forme,
OMNES: Widdecombe! Blair! S Club 7! (etc)

----------------------------

Marcellus : Something is rotten in the State of Denmark
OMNES: Pwoar (hold noses and make waving motions)...

--------------------------

HAMLET: I loved Ophelia.
GROUNDLINGS: I bet you did...

----------------------------

HAMLET: Alas, poor Yorrick...
OMNES: He was a bloke, you Scandinavian berk!



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

It seems a bit drastic to assume that American Ffans will never meet the British ones. There's such things as aeroplanes and ships, you know.
Admittedly, it does cost money but you can get good packages if you shop around. A friend of mine is married to an American and I think they sometimes use Air France and travel via Paris, to save money.

Just think of all the splendid and novel things you could see if you visited us over here. Swindon ! (er..), road roundabouts, Sheffield (has scrubbed up quite nicely in recent years), Haworth, that statue of George Washington you gave us years ago (always tactful, the Americans :) ), pubs, London (if you must - well, it does have some nice museums), buildings older than your country, comedians telling jokes older than.....

Marvel at the fact that few English people sound like Hugh Grant or Antony Hopkins !

Discover the vast range of chocolate bars and biscuits available over here !

Gasp at the price of gas !

Be surprised at how small everything seems (especially the cars).

Be surprised at how friendly the English are.

Start saving now, my American friends, and you may be able to come and join us next year - 'cos, let's face it, we ain't going to get anything organized this year.
Seriously, we'd love to see you all

I too enjoyed the Richard III participation in TEA. I understand there is something similar being done with the "Sound of Music", that involves waving edelweiss and brandishing warm woollen mittens amongst other favourite things. Shakespeare seems to offer much more scope though and having read the previous postings, I have some humble offerings of my own.
"A Midsummer Night's Dream", containing a character called Bottom, offers too many opportunities to mention them all, so here is a small selection

Quin: Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated.
Audience: Derriere!

Snout: O Bottom, thou art changed!
Audience: Wave nappies, shake talcum powder,etc.,etc.

Quin: Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
Audience: Similar response to that suggested by jon for King Lear

Also
Puck: I'll put a girdle round the earth.
Audience: Put on corsets,etc. A chance for all the rocky Horror fans to don their basques one more time perhaps?

Any AMerican nextians wanting to see the RSC at Stratford are welcome to stay over at my house, as long as I can take the excuse to come to the theatre too...



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I still want to know how come PSD and I were beaten to Bottom. If you see what I mean.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

All I seem to do is post apologies - now I have to say sorry for Bottom beating. Something I've never been guilty of before!

What, doing it or apologising for it?

I'll get me coat.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

My Bottom obviously looks big in this!

And in answer to your question - both (or should that be either?!!!)

As wel as that I'm kicking myself for not getting to the throwing of false ears first - I'd just realised there was an opportunity when I read Jon's post...

Random information - in Pompeii there's a baker's shop that had a phallus as an emblem to 'help the bread rise and be fruitful' (ref: Saturday's Independent) - if nothing else, it would have given them somewhere to display the donuts, I suppose... Now, that's brought it back down to our level...



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

*goes away to look for book of quotations*

Othello:
My story being done, she gave me for my pains

Omnes: Asprin !

Othello: a world of sighs

Audience heave heavy sighs.

Othello:She swore in faith

Omnes: Heretic !

Othello: 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange, 'twas pitiful, 'twas wonderous pitiful. She wished she had not heard it.

Omnes: So do we !

Going back to "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Titania has a line which goes
"I have a venturous fairy that shall seek the squirrel's hoard and fetch thee new nuts"
Now, I'm sure some of you will be making up your own audience participation to this line but I was thinking along the lines of shaking an unopened packet of KP peanuts. Hang the expense, let's go for cashews instead!

I should love to come to England some day. Unfortunately, being single, and having fallen into the lowest of the income categories in the IQ test a while back, I've not even visited my brother in Seattle in the 8 years or so he's lived there. I'm going this year, even though I still can't really afford it, because 1) it's about bloody time and 2) I'll be even less able to afford it next year, since I'll hopefully have my own apartment (flat) by then (I'm on a waiting list for an affordable but nice one for folks with low incomes).

In fact, I'm frequently jealous of my married friends, who have far more disposable income than I do. Two really can live almost as cheaply as one, when it comes to food and housing, at least around here. Minimum is $700 a month for a decent one bedroom apartment, and $800 for a two bedroom.

But if I win the lotterly (unlikely, since my grasp of probability leads me to view them as a tax on the statistically challenged) I'll be there.



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith