Tony Danza brings show, students to Folger

Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts share gossip from inside the Beltway and beyond.

Hey, A&E: You really thought you could bring Tony Danza to Washington without anyone noticing?

The "Taxi" and "Who's the Boss?" star came to town Monday for his latest project "Teach," a "responsible reality" show with Danza co-teaching a 10th-grade English class from Philly's Northeast High School. That's allowed? Kinda. Danza's not a certified teacher but has a degree in history education and is teamed with an experienced instructor. Oh, and the performing arts students had to audition to be on the show. Producers tried to keep us from talking to the television icon because the show is supposed to be a huge secret ... but, c'mon! It's Tony Danza!

"There is a muzzle on me until the show comes out in January," he told us after we sidestepped a crew member to reach him. "I can tell you I'm taking my class on a field trip to Washington. They're going to see the Archives and the Mall."

Danza, 58, has barely aged -- and we'd recognize that voice anywhere. "Guys, come up, come up, let's make like a class," he said herding the students up the aisle of the Folger Shakespeare Library. The class is studying "Julius Caesar" and came to see a performance by Bill's Buddies, the Folger's educational acting troupe with Jonathan Watkins, Linden Tailor, Sue-Jin Song and Cam Magee.

All the kids performed with the actors, including "Mr. Danza" (buzz cut, windbreaker, tie, casual shoes) who played one of Shakespeare's ghosts and ran across the stage shouting, "We're ghosts! We're shrieking! Ah-ah-ah-ah!" Later, when the class was asked to explain Romeo's speech to Juliet, Danza called out: "It means he wants to make out!"

He has recorded his experience on his addictive DailyDanza.com Web site and looked like he was having a blast. "It really is a lot of fun," he told us. "It's hard and tough and certainly worth it ...."

"We're done," snapped a producer, glaring at us. Another reason to love reality TV!

Putting the 'Mac' into Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times

Putting the 'Mac' into Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

It's widely considered rude to be playing with your iPhone during a theatrical performance -- unless the actors are doing the same thing.
A group of stage performers in San Francisco is producing a reading of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in which they will enact the drama by reading the text from their personal iPhones and iPod Touch devices. To make the experience more communal, the audience is invited to read along by downloading a special Shakespeare application that contains the full play.

The event -- which will take place Oct. 25 at the Apple Store in San Francisco at 1 Stockton St. near Union Square -- is organized by actor Ron Severdia, who runs the website playshakespeare.com.

Last year, Severdia launched an iPhone application that contains all of Shakespeare's plays as well as his poems and sonnets. The program, which was developed by the company Readdle, is available for free download from iTunes and features a keyword search function as well as auto-scroll capabilities.

"It's not a profit-generating thing. It's a loss generator, actually. But it's done out of the love of the work," said Severdia in a phone interview.

The actor said he first chose "Macbeth" for the obvious pun on the Apple brand of Mac computers. "That was the original joke and it sort of stuck," he said.

The performance, which is free, will feature 13 actors performing 40 different roles in the Scottish tragedy.

Severdia said he and his tech team are putting the finishing touches on a new version of the application that will have features like finding the nearest Shakespeare festival using GPS; searching by line numbers; and a new interface. He expects the new version to cost $1.99 to download.

-- David Ng

Putting the 'Mac' into Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times

Putting the 'Mac' into Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

It's widely considered rude to be playing with your iPhone during a theatrical performance -- unless the actors are doing the same thing.
A group of stage performers in San Francisco is producing a reading of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in which they will enact the drama by reading the text from their personal iPhones and iPod Touch devices. To make the experience more communal, the audience is invited to read along by downloading a special Shakespeare application that contains the full play.

The event -- which will take place Oct. 25 at the Apple Store in San Francisco at 1 Stockton St. near Union Square -- is organized by actor Ron Severdia, who runs the website playshakespeare.com.

Last year, Severdia launched an iPhone application that contains all of Shakespeare's plays as well as his poems and sonnets. The program, which was developed by the company Readdle, is available for free download from iTunes and features a keyword search function as well as auto-scroll capabilities.

"It's not a profit-generating thing. It's a loss generator, actually. But it's done out of the love of the work," said Severdia in a phone interview.

The actor said he first chose "Macbeth" for the obvious pun on the Apple brand of Mac computers. "That was the original joke and it sort of stuck," he said.

The performance, which is free, will feature 13 actors performing 40 different roles in the Scottish tragedy.

Severdia said he and his tech team are putting the finishing touches on a new version of the application that will have features like finding the nearest Shakespeare festival using GPS; searching by line numbers; and a new interface. He expects the new version to cost $1.99 to download.

-- David Ng

How Iago Explains the World - NYTimes.com

How Iago Explains the World - NYTimes.com

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Shakespeare on the Arab Stage

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Macbeth Unit Plan

The Story Behind the Former American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford Connecticut
by Frank Rizzo

Remember when you first went to the theater...remember rthe show...or who was in it?

Why everyone should read Shakespeare

By TOM GELSTHORPE
August 19, 2009

I sincerely hope that someone younger than me reads this column and that, as summer wanes, some of you are returning to hallowed halls of learning with joyful expectations. Despite my painful, mixed feelings about being droned at by the professoriate, I'll admit it's one way to learn useful stuff. Self-taught or other-taught are better than remaining ignorant. Bliss is more likely in the presence of wisdom. I favor whatever might lift you above the nether regions of fads, claptrap and superstition.

The Shakespearean Heroes Science Fiction Should Steal From

William Shakespeare was the J.J. Abrams of his day, reinvigorating Elizabethan England's worn-out action-adventure franchises. And Shakespeare's writing still has clues for today's story-smiths. Characters who switch from nice to nasty? Secret passions? Strange disguises? The Bard got there first.

There's a reason actors are so juiced up to do Shakespeare, besides the fancy speeches and the prestige: Shakespeare does tricky character arcs and memorable people. And whenever you watch something like Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Star Wars or Star Trek giving you a character who goes through a drastic transformation or a serious conflict, you're watching little chunks of unresolved Shakespeare. (Of course, a lot of these things go back to Sophocles, and probably the first cavewoman to stage playlets around the fire pit.)

No Fear Shakespeare: a frightening thing

No Fear Shakespeare: a frightening thing

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