Source: Wikipedia
The Nashville Shakespeare Festival is putting on one of The Bard’s lesser known plays as part of their annual Shakespeare In The Park, but then they’ve been going since 1988 and, well, there are only so many ways to put on the same half dozen comedies and a couple of tragedies.
It’s also important when putting on a Shakespeare play to find ways to make it relevant to contemporary audiences, which is why I now offer Shakespeare’s Plays As Episodes Of Friends.
- The One On The Island
- The One With All That King’s Big Speeches
- The One That Happens In The Trojan War
- The One Where A Guy Is Exiled From Rome And Of Course Murdered When He Comes Back Because It’s A Tragedy
5. The One That Goes All Over Italy
- The One Where Two Dudes Almost Get Married, And That Old Dude Comes Back
- The One Where One Woman Stands In For Another Except She’s Lying Down
- The One With A Boatload Of Twins, Literally
- The Other One With The Twins And Also The Obnoxious Butler
- The One With The Lady Pretending To Be A Statue And A Bear Attack
- The First One Of The Three Parters About That King
- The Second One Of The Three Parters About That King
- The Third One Of The Three Partners About That King
- The One Where A Greek Guy Finds A Bunch Of Gold And Dies
- The First One With The Prince And That Old Dude
- The Second One With Even More Of That Old Dude
- The One That’s Not Famous Where Everybody Dies
- The One That Is Famous Where Everybody Dies
- The One With The Suicidal Teens
- The One Where Two People Who Hate Each Other Get Married And No One Dies
- The One With Four Guys Who Quit Dating
- The One Where Everybody Gets Married After A Night In The Woods
- The One Where A Jewish Guy Loses Everything, But It’s A Comedy
- The One Where Some Get Married And Some Get Religion After A Night In The Woods
- The One With The Two Daughters Who Have To Get Married
- The One With The Riddle That Means Marriage Or Death, But It’s A Comedy
- The One With Three Queens That Convince A King To Go To War, But It’s A Comedy
- The One That Doesn’t Mention Either The Magna Carta Or Robin Hood
- The One Where The Roman Leader Falls In Love With Egypt’s Queen And They Both Die
- The One With The Tournament
- The One With The Hunchbacked King Without A Horse
- The One About The King With All The Wives
- The One Where The King Goes To France
- The One That’s In Scotland—You Know, The One We Can’t Say
- The One Where The Salad Guy Is Murdered
- The One With The Crazy King Who Dies Along With His Faithful Daughter Because It’s A Tragedy
- The One With A Black Guy Who’s Tricked By A White Guy And Dies Because It’s A Tragedy
- The One Where A Girl Is In Love With A Guy Who Doesn’t Like Her But It All Works Out In The End
- The One That Ends With A Big Feast But Maybe It’s A Tragedy?
Scoring:
More Than 30-You are a retired English professor and you have tweed pajamas that are older than “Friends”
20-29-Stratford-On-Avon tour guides know you by name
15-19-You’ve acted in Shakespeare In The Park productions several years in a row
10-14-You’ve Been To Stratford-On-Avon once and asked a tour guide, “How you doin’?”
5-9-You’ve heard of Stratford-On-Avon
1-4-You barely passed Freshman English
Answer Key:
- The Tempest
- Henry V
- Troilus And Cressida
- Coriolanus
- Two Gentlemen Of Verona
- The Merry Wives Of Windsor
- Measure For Measure
- The Comedy Of Errors
- Twelfth Night
- The Winter’s Tale
- Henry VI Part 1
- Henry VI Part 2
- Henry VI Part 3
- Timon Of Athens
- Henry IV, Part 1
- Henry IV, Part 2
- Titus Andronicus
- Hamlet
- Romeo And Juliet
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Loves Labour’s Lost
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- The Merchant Of Venice
- As You Like It
- The Taming Of The Shrew
- Pericles
- The Two Noble Kinsmen
- King John
- Antony And Cleopatra
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Henry VIII
- Edward III
- MacBeth
- Julius Caesar
- King Lear
- Othello
- All’s Well That Ends Well
- Cymbeline
I’m ashamed to admit I only guessed 17.
While I was writing this I thought, “Damn, this is hard.” I made the scoring much too hard. Even the most straightforward Shakespeare play–I think that would be Midsummer Night’s Dream, or maybe it’s just the most popular because it’s so damn funny, has a really dense and convoluted plot. So 17 is really an incredibly impressive score, especially since, out of thirty-nine plays attributed to Shakespeare, there are, I think, less than ten that get produced regularly.
I’m even more ashamed I only guessed 19.
Okay, nineteen is really good. As I was doing this I realized there are a lot of Shakespeare plays that never get performed. Most of them, really, and some of the really obscure ones may not be Shakespeare’s at all—never mind that question about whether Shakespeare really was Shakespeare.
Wow, this was fantastic and hilarious! As a former English teacher, I got most of them, but I thought 17 and 18 were a perfect way to describe them! I wish I was still in the classroom—I’d have my students take the quiz:-)
It would be great to have a group of students take the quiz, but I’d be a lot easier on the grading. The funny thing about #17 is that it may not be one of Shakespeare’s more popular plays but it’s gotten a sequel.
This post is The One By The Incredibly Clever Blogger Who Writes Like A (Midsummer Night’s) Dream.
ANN J KOPLOW recently posted…Day 3548: Still alive
If only I could write anything like a midsummer night’s dream I’m sure it would be the one that everyone liked best.