Hi, everyone!
I’ve missed you all since Miss Holmes. Apologies for starting late this year! Let’s crash course this thing.
Welcome to Page to the Stage for Something Rotten! For complete transparency, a lot of this post and the next will be info from other sites. We open the show in a few days, and I’m running crazy tying up loose ends.
First, a quick synopsis of the show!
The show is a musical comedy, set in 1590 – the Elizabethan Era, also known as the English Renaissance (fun fact: the Renaissance wasn’t just in one time and place; it took place in slightly different ways in multiple countries, beginning with Italy in the 1300s).
Our main characters are brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom, along with Nick’s wife, Beatrice (Bea). Nigel lives with them, as a younger unmarried brother. Nick and Nigel run an acting troupe: they write, direct, and perform along with some other troupe members). Nigel is a wonderful writer, and often comes up with great ideas. The problem is, every time they come up with something new, they can’t get it off the ground before Renaissance Rock Star William Shakespeare writes something shiny and new, and everyone’s attention is on that, instead. To add insult to injury, Shakespeare used to be an actor in Nick and Nigel’s troupe, but left to pursue writing and became a massive star.
Their patron, (in those days, that was how you made a living as an artist – you needed a rich patron to fund you) Lord Clapham, is tired of waiting for them to land upon a big hit, and gives them an ultimatum to come up with a show ASAP or else he’s pulling funding – and their jobs. Nick, desperate to support his family and finally feel successful, seeks the help of a soothsayer to see if she can tell him what the Next Big Thing in theatre is going to be. The soothsayer, Nostradamus’ niece, Madonna, (yep), foresees…MUSICALS. But she’s not quite there with the visions of the future, and her information for Nick is missing some key pieces (like the ones that make it make sense).
Meanwhile, we meet Shakespeare himself, basking the glory of fame…and maybe suffering from a bit of writers’ block? He’s just written Rome & Juliet, some sonnets, and a handful of other shows, but has yet to write some of his major hits, like Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
And that’s where I’ll leave it for today! Apologies for text-dense material; I’ve included a video about why Shakespeare still matters, 400 years later.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPA-Drr4iFs[/embedyt]