Friday, April 6, 2012

The Shakespeare Association of America in Boston Presents . . .

H4. Dir. Dwain A. Perry and Paul Quinn. Perf. Harry Lennix, Angus Macfadyen, Amad Jackson, Heavy D, and Jeryl Prescott. Not Perf. Michael Dorn. Triumvirate Pictures, 2012.
Thanks to a generous grant from Northwestern College, I am currently attending the Shakespeare Association of America's Annual Convention in beautiful downtown Boston. And it's wonderful. I was able to meet Shakespeare Geek in person, which was a delight, and our brains are already being filled with magnificent addresses from profoundly-brilliant Shakespeare Scholars.

I've only attended the convention on one other occasion, but they always manage to arrange interesting film screenings. This year, they are threefold: H4, Playing Pericles, and Still Dreaming.

Right now, I'm most interested in mentioning H4, primarily because it stars Michael Dorn (of Star Trek fame) as King Henry IV (N.B.: See update below), and writing about it now gives me the opportunity of being the first person to use the phrase "Henry the Worf, Part One" in print.
Photo Credit: Harry Lennix as Aaron in Julie Taymor's Titus. Photo by Clear Blue Sky Productions, 1999.
Update: We learned last night that, despite the excellence of the pun above, Michael Dorn will not be playing Henry IV in the finished version of the film. Scheduling conflicts prevent him from being available for the reshoots. But Harry Lennix, who played Aaron (and played him brilliantly) in Julie Taymor's Titus, will take over the role.

I'm looking forward to the other films as well. I wrote about Still Dreaming some time ago (for which, q.v.), and I'm glad to see that it appears to be nearing its official release, giving Shakespeare fans of all ages something to think, talk, and write about.
Links: H4 at IMDB.

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Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
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