BBC News: The World Shakespeare Festival is the "trump card" putting "art at the heart of the Olympics", the head of the Cultural Olympiad has said.
Ruth Mackenzie said the event, which is part of the London 2012 Festival - will put "culture back up there with sport" during next year's Games in London.
It will include thousands of performers in 70 productions, with global artists acting in their own languages.
7 comments:
I think this festival is a great idea. Sports mean so much to so many people and are such a big part of the world, so I think having theatre as part of this festival will allow the arts to grow in popularity. Also having multicultural shows allow people to learn about other cultures and hopefully continue learning about them even after the show. The arts have always been under appreciated and hopefully adding them to a popular festival will increase the audience's interest.
I am conflicted by this article. On one hand I think that is important to translate the work for a clear understanding, but does the work suffer if it is translated? Operas are rarely translated and we still enjoy them. The rythm and flow of the text is beautiful and I think the projected translation detracts from that art. The audience should be locked in on the performers and not some bouncing ball on a screen.
I am a tad skeptical but mostly optimistic about the concept of integrating arts into the olympics. I'm skeptical because it almost sounds like the Shakespeare festival is conveniently taking advantage of the global spotlight. While promoting the arts, especially the all-but-forgotten classical plays, is an admirable endeavor, I feel like such an epic world wide event dedicated to the art of SPORT should perhaps be limited to just SPORT. There is a time and place for everything; is this the right kind of event for the Shakespeare festival to be leeching onto?
I think this is, frankly, awesome. 70 preformances sounds like a huge festival worthy of the olympics. I think it's a great idea to have it in several languages, also, especially with the spirit of the Olympic Games.
I find this to be an incredible event and one of which I've never heard the likes of before. To translate the works of William Shakespeare into the languages of the world is to be admired. Yes, I do believe that to translate the works is to loose the beauty and eloquence of the language, but these works should not be missed by any because of inability to understand. It is these kinds of events, those that unite the world over a common love of theatre, that human beings turn to in their lives for an escape, comfort, or maybe the simple pleasure of entertainment. Theatre most definitely should be respected as some respect sports throughout the world. That being said, this event ill truly be incredible.
This sounds like a wonderful idea. I like the fact that there won't be subtitles to translate the shows not in english. I've seen a few Shakespeare shows that were not in a language I understood, but because the story lines are so popular, it is still easy to follow along, and it really helps you to appreciate the design of the show. I'm interested to hear more as this festival begins to unfold with the Olympics (possibly) overshadowing it, and how the two events can work in unison.
This seems like a horrible and a great idea at the same time. First the fact that all of the hotels will all be filled with visitors in them. Where are the actors and support people to stay, the theater? I am sure that they are going to have to limited money to see the show because they need to pay for all of the expenses that they are incurring that will be higher sine the Olympics are going off and prices go through the roof. The good thing is that there will be shows that people can go to see some theater when they are in the city to see the Olympics. The big thing is that people may open there eyes to theater and go to more theater once they come back to their home area.
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