welcome, Harry! what, will not this castle yield?

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

It occurred to me that it'd be fun to have a community dedicated to the appreciation of Shakespeare's history plays, and yet such a place astonishingly did not apparently exist on LJ, so here we are. All discussion, squeeing over, parody, commentary, review, quotation, illustration, icon-making, pointless polls, or whatever pertaining the English and (though I guess the comm name doesn't really indicate it) Roman histories (if you're into that sort of thing), in text or in performance, is welcome! You can also talk about other Elizabethan history plays, if you're one of those rare strange people who reads them (they are, by and large, deliriously weird) or historians if you like, too. It's all a rich tapestry.

Also, I welcome suggestions of things to put in the interests, name the community page, and so forth. :)

(no subject)

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Right, another introduction. :)

I'm Kavita (known online as lareinenoire or some derivative thereof). I live in Ohio, although I spent the past year in Cambridge, working on my M.Phil.

Favourite history plays include Shakespeare's Richard III, Marlowe's Edward II, and Webster's Duchess of Malfi (yes, I know, it isn't technically a *history*, but it's certainly based on a fair bit of history, no less than any of the others). I adored the bizarrely Fascist version of Richard with Ian McKellen, but I generally adore Ian McKellen, so that's not altogether surprising. Still need to find a copy of Duchess, as not too many people seem to perform it these days. Le sigh.

That's all I can think of at the moment. But I'm quite happy to find havens for historical geekery. ::grin::

JOINY JOINY!

[yvesilena.livejournal.com]

Brilliant idea for a community! I'm Yves from Cambridge, England, best friend of the_alchemist. Played Richard II and Princess Katherine of France in the Great Histories Readthrough. Shakespeare and Neil Gaiman are my favourite authors. Been known to cry loudly about Shakespeare when drunk. Globe fan. My favourite Shakespearean actors are Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Juliet Stevenson and Antony Sher (and Jonny in Titus, for slightly different reasons... SOMEBODY TELL JULIE TAYMOR HE NEEDS TO PLAY RICHARD III NOW!) I'm obsessed with boy players and I'm also a Henry II/Becket shipper, if that's remotely relevant. :D:D

(no subject)

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

'Nother intro post...

Hi, I'm Nora, a.k.a. After the Rain and Fretful Porpentine, and I'm a grad student at a Large State University in the U.S. (which will probably not remain very anonymous after I've made a few more posts, but let's pretend, OK?) I'm writing my dissertation on English commoners and communities in the history plays (using a rather expansive definition of "history plays" -- I think Merry Wives is going to end up in there, along with Arden of Feversham and The Shoemaker's Holiday, but I've hit most of the conventional ones too).

I'm also getting ready to teach Edward II to undergrads for the very first time, so any advice on how not to shock them over-much is most welcome.