From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leapt with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue,
Could make me any summer’s story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:
Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
     Yet seemed it winter still, and you away,
     As with your shadow I with these did play.

Analysis
One of the sonnets addressed to the ‘Fair Youth’, this poem sees Shakespeare bemoaning the fact that he could not appreciate all the beauty of spring around him because he was absent from the young man. As a consequence, spring seemed like a winter to him. April may have ‘put a spirit of youth in every thing’ – the word ‘youth’ reminding us, perhaps, that Shakespeare is addressing a ‘fair youth’ whose spirit he much admires – but for the Bard, it might as well be winter because he cannot take delight in the flowers or the birdsong (‘lays of birds’).

Even ‘heavy Saturn’ – the planet whence we derive the adjective ‘saturnine’, denoting heavy and sullen sluggishness – is cavorting about with the springtime, but Shakespeare is unable to join in. The beauty of spring is all round – the remarkable whiteness of the lily, the fiery red (‘vermilion’) of the red, red rose – but Shakespeare notices none of it. Such beautiful symbols of springtime are only copying the beauty of the Fair Youth – who is absent from the poet, and so the cause of his unhappiness because they are apart.[1]

References
[1] https://interestingliterature.com/2018/02/15/a-short-analysis-of-shakespeares-sonnet-98-from-you-have-i-been-absent-in-the-spring/

Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn

History
Grand Army Plaza is a public plaza at the northern corner Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Designed in 1867 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, and originally neameed Prospect Park Plaza, it is home to the visually arresting Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch, as well as a number of other monuments, including the Bailey Fountain, the John F. Kennedy Monument, and statues of Civil War generals Gouverneur K. Warren and Henry Warner Slocum.

In 1926, the plaza was renamed Grand Army Plaza to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the foundation of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army and other military services who served in the American Civil War.

In 2008, a competition was held for designs to reorganize Grand Army Plaza to make it a more integral part of Prospect Park and more accessible to pedestrians.[13] At the same time, the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) made improvements in accessibility, putting sidewalks and planters in many of the striped areas. These improvements made it somewhat easier and safer for pedestrians and cyclists to cross from the park to the library and to the plaza. The changes made by the NYCDOT were modest in comparison to those in the designs in the competition, most of which called for the rerouting of some of the vast traffic flow.

Sonnet Project
Grand Army Plaza was the featured location for Sonnet 98, performed by Ignacio Velez, directed by Harry Taylor. The video was released on August 14, 2018.

Ignacio Velez
Ignacio Velez learned he loved the art of performing while faking sick from school to watch reruns of Bewitched and I Love Lucy. Working with local performance companies such as Mystic Vision Players, Feenix Films,  And Machoola Productions, his favorite roles include Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Charlie Brown in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, and playing twelve different characters in The Laramie Project. He’s honored to be able to add the Sonnet Project  to his body of work. 

Harry Taylor
Harry Maxwell Taylor JR born in Houston, Texas. Raised in New Jersey/ New York most of his life. Harry went to study film at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida for 2 years. He graduated with a Bachelors for Cinematography. After graduating he moved back to the Tri-State area, learning more of the post production life as an intern and is now a freelancer. Taking jobs like Camera Operator, PA, and even Director.

Film Crew
Silas Aguilar
Nesto Fuentes
Priya Aisuru

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose uneared womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother’s glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time.
     But if thou live, remembered not to be,
     Die single and thine image dies with thee.

Analysis

Sonnet 3 emphasizes the ravages age might take on the young man, explaining how beauty is passed on through the generations, from his forbears to him, and so on.

Will once again urges his subject to look to posterity and to bless the world by siring some children. No woman, however beautiful, would think him an unworthy candidate for fatherhood. Again, his self-love is likened to a death, since his beauty will die with him if he doesn’t produce an heir. Just as the youth reflects his mother’s beauty, showing how lovely she was in her prime, so a child of his would be a reflection of his. In his old age he could look on this child and see an image of what he once was. But if he chooses to remain unmarried, it will perish when he does.
 

Will’s Wordplay

“unear’d” means unploughed; this is a very dirty way to refer to a virgin wife. The youth has yet to “plant his seed” in her, so to speak. With “tillage of thy husbandry” the farming and ploughing metaphor continues, with a pun on husband for good measure.

“Thou art thy mother’s glass” tells the youth that he is effectively a mirror in which his mother can look to see a reflection of herself in her youth. 

Sunny’s Bar, Red Hook, Brooklyn

“Ask a car service to take you to “the bar” in Red Hook, and you’ll wind up at an unassuming little place by the river, near some railroad tracks that go nowhere. The beatific, Beatniky owner, Sunny, greets you warmly from beneath a mop of gray hair and a portrait of his great-grandfather, who opened the bar in 1890. Since then, the place has gone through various incarnations, as a restaurant and a longshoremen’s hangout, but now, says Sunny, ‘it’s just a meeting place for folks—painters, writers, musicians, plumbers—who care about each other so much they don’t mind the trip.'” [1]
 

Sunny’s After Sandy

Sunny’s reopened ten months after being put out of business by the ravages of Hurricane Sandy. Through internet fundraisers, hands-on volunteers, and donations from patrons, Sunny Balzano reopened the bar on his 79th birthday, August 29, 2014. [2]

References

1. http://nymag.com/listings/bar/sunnys/
2. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/knocked-out-by-hurricane-sandy-sunnys-bar-is-bouncing-back/?_r=0

ACTOR – Ron Cohen

Ronald Cohen. NY Theatre: Artist Descending a Staircase, Henry IV Part One, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Boomerang Theatre Company); The Recruiting Officer (New York Classical Theatre); Twelfth Night (Kings County Shakespeare); Pirandello’s Henry IV (CSC First Look); Martin Sherman’s Messiah (Workshop Theatre Company). Regional: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Cape May Stage; Kansas City Circle Theatre; New Theatre, Overland Park, KS.; Orlando (FL) Shakespeare; Lake Lucille, NY, Chekhov Project; Company of Fools, Hailey, ID. Film and TV: Not Waving But Drowning; Strangers When We Meet; Where Is Joel Baum?; Ablution; Landings; Sex and the City.

DIRECTOR – David Ketterer

David T. Ketterer lives and makes movies in New York. His latest short film Game Night has screened in festivals across the country and will make its next appearance at the Manhattan Film Festival in June. His other work has screened all over the globe, from California to Iowa to Pakistan. He has broken two bones in his life, but unfortunately not while he was doing anything cool.

Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye
That thou consumest thyself in single life?
Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die,
The world will wail thee, like a makeless wife;
The world will be thy widow and still weep
That thou no form of thee hast left behind,
When every private widow well may keep
By children’s eyes her husband’s shape in mind.
Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend
Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it;
But beauty’s waste hath in the world an end,
And kept unused, the user so destroys it.
     No love toward others in that bosom sits
     That on himself such murderous shame commits.

 
Analysis
Sonnet 9 approaches the young man’s resistance to marry and procreate as a fear of hurting his family after he dies.

Here, Bill Shakes tries a different tack. He reasons that if the young man must be remaining single so that he does not make a widow. The youth is wrong to do so, because if he dies the entire world will in effect be a widow, crying over the fact that he did not leave a child behind to remind them of how wonderful he was!. To Bill, a widow will always have the image of her lover in her children to console her after her loss.

 
Will’s Wordplay
“makeless” is more likely mateless (or, widowed). The whole world will grieve for the young man!

Brooklyn Bridge
The most iconic bridge in New York City, Brooklyn Bridge is a bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 1,595.5 feet, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge. At the time it opened, and for several years, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world—50% longer than any previously built—and it has become a treasured landmark.The architectural style is neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the stone towers. The paint scheme of the bridge is “Brooklyn Bridge Tan” and “Silver”, although it has been argued that the original paint was “Rawlins Red”.[1]

Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name from a letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle,[2] and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an icon of New York City, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964[3] and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.

 
Construction
The Brooklyn Bridge was designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, who had previously designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges.Roebling sustained a crush injury to his foot when a ferry pinned it against a piling. After amputation of his crushed toes he developed a tetanus infection which left him incapacitated and soon resulted in his death, not long after he had placed his son Washington Roebling in charge of the project.[4]

Washington Roebling also suffered a paralyzing injury as a result of decompression sickness shortly after the beginning of construction on January 3, 1870. This debilitating condition left him unable to physically supervise the construction firsthand; his wife Emily Warren Roebling stepped in and provided the critical written link between her husband and the engineers on site.[5] Under her husband’s guidance, Emily studied higher mathematics, the calculations of catenary curves, the strengths of materials, bridge specifications, and the intricacies of cable construction. She spent the next 11 years assisting Washington Roebling helping to supervise the bridge’s construction.

The Brooklyn Bridge was opened for use on May 24, 1883. A total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed what was then the only land passage between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Emily Warren Roebling was the first to cross the bridge. President Chester A. Arthur and New York Mayor Franklin Edson crossed the bridge to celebratory cannon fire and were greeted by Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low when they reached the Brooklyn-side tower. Washington Roebling was unable to attend the ceremony. Further festivity included the performance of a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display.

On May 17, 1884, P. T. Barnum helped to squelch doubts about the bridge’s stability—while publicizing his famous circus—when one of his most famous attractions, Jumbo, led a parade of 21 elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge.[6]

Contemporaries marveled at what technology was capable of and the bridge became a symbol of the optimism of the time. John Perry Barlow wrote in the late 20th century of the “literal and genuinely religious leap of faith” embodied in the Brooklyn Bridge … “the Brooklyn Bridge required of its builders faith in their ability to control technology.”

References to “selling the Brooklyn Bridge” abound in American culture, sometimes as examples of rural gullibility but more often in connection with an idea that strains credulity. For example, “If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.” George C. Parker and William McCloundy are two early 20th-century con-men who had (allegedly) successfully perpetrated this scam on unwitting tourists. [7] The 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon Bowery Bugs is a joking reference to Bugs “selling” a story of the Brooklyn Bridge to a naïve tourist.

 
Sonnet Project
The Brooklyn Bridge was the featured location for Sonnet 9, performed by Anton Rayn, directed by Sean Murray. The video was released on May 20, 2013.

 
References
1. Gary Buiso, New York Post (May 25, 2010). “A True Cover Up. Brooklyn Bridge Paint Job Glosses over History”. Retrieved October 23, 2010.
2. E.P.D. (January 25, 1867). “Bridging the East River – Another Project”. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: p. 2.
3. “Brooklyn Bridge”. National Park Service.
4. “Brooklyn Bridge”. ASCE Metropolitan Section.
5. Acott, Chris (1999). “A brief history of diving and decompression illness.”. South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society journal 29 (2). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801.
6. Bildner, Phil (2004). Twenty-One Elephants. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-689-87011-6.
7. Cohen, Gabriel (November 27, 2005). “For You, Half Price”. The New York Times.

ANTON RAYN – Actor
Like most stories, this one starts with a monkey. A puppet monkey. Then a puppet bear. It was a slippery slope from then on into Puppetry and Acting training while growing up in Kiev, Ukraine. Further training at Brandeis University, American Globe Theater, and The Actors Center, solidified that this ex-child performer, continues to be actively involved in theater as an adult (with and without puppets). He still owns the monkey and the bear. Les Misérables (JCHS), Joe and Mary’s Irish/Italian Wedding (NY Dinner Theater), Sleeping Beauty (Growing Stage), New York Renaissance Faire (REP), and The Comedy of Errors (Theater 2020).

 
CHARLIE “COOL G” GRANPA – Actor
Known for his propensity in dispensing high fives to amused children, Charlie began his career as The Sheriff at the The New York Renaissance Faire. Stints as Kermit’s body double, hosting SNL, and becoming a meme, paved the way for this rising star. An avid daredevil, world traveler, and playboy, Charlie’s personal life is what every puppet dreams of.

SEAN MACBRIDE MURRAY – Director
Sean was born in Heidelberg, West Germany to a career Army officer and his wife. Returning to the US when his sister was about to be born, Sean then spent his younger years traveling from state to state (and once back to Germany). This peripatetic lifestyle taught Sean to appreciate family and friends. Settling in Watertown, NY (his father’s familial home) when he was twelve, Sean began to learn the importance of story telling. It was through creating stories, whether written (fiction or non) or photographic, Sean found he could help people understand the world and himself.

Setting out for the adventure of a college education, Sean chose to continue the family story of a life in the military. Enrolling in the Virginia Military Institute, Sean became the next generation of his family to see service to his nation as an important step in developing as a person. Unfortunately, the federal government’s budget office (specifically the Department of the Navy’s budget office) decided to decimate the officer ranks for the class of 1994 and Sean moved on to prepare for a service of another kind.

Sean next began to study philosophy in preparation for serving the people of Northern New York as a priest. After two years of philosophy and four years of theology, Sean began ministry in Ogdensburg, NY and then Massena (two old border towns protecting New York from Canadian incursions). However, Sean failed to realize that he wasn’t indeed called to be a priest and chose to leave ministry in favor of the urban life and teaching.

In 2004 Sean moved to New York City to serve the City’s youth as a teacher of students with disabilities. For the past nine years, he has enriched the lives of students in the Bronx by helping them uncover the wonders of history. Teaching students with mild to moderate learning disabilities has allowed Sean to continue his story telling. Opening teenagers’ minds to the story of the rise of civilization, Sean helps them understand their place in the broader context of the global community. Additionally, Sean cracks open the story of America’s place in the history of the world by teaching United States History and Government.

During all of these changes of career, Sean has continue his love of story-telling. After earning a Master Degree in Education, Sean began studying Improv Comedy and Acting. He worked with the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre on the former and the Matthew Corozine Studio on the later (where he also met his future bride.) As an actor, Sean has performed in a multitude of plays (particularly Shakespeare’s works) with a number of theatre companies. He has worked with the New York Renaissance Faire, Queens Shakespeare, Inc, the Queens Players at the Secret Theatre, the Inwood Shakespeare festival and Random Access Theatre Company.

While performing in a production of Lysistrata, Sean realized that directing might be a way in which he could broaden his story-telling skills. Utilizing his many years as an amateur photographer as a base, Sean began making short videos. One, Nigel’s Cookies, was selected to screen at the Big Apple Film Festival in 2010. He is currently in post-production on a web series conceived by his good friend and collaborator, Tyrus Cukavac, called Space Qats and has been asked to serve as Director of Photography on another web series (details are currently hushhush.) Sean is excited to blend his love of stroy-telling through photography, filmmaking and Shakespeare in New York Shakespeare Exchange’s Sonnet Project.

Life is a story. Tell it however you can and let it enrich your life and the lives of others.

When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,
     And all in war with Time for love of you,
     As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

Analysis
Sonnet 15 warns the beautiful young man that even though he is beautiful, the whole world is in a constant war to preserve beauty.The poet strives to immortalize his dear friend in verse, thereby saving him from the ravages of all-consuming Time.

The opening thought touches on the perennial theme of mortality which so much engrosses Will’s attention. He perceives the hand of doom in of nature’s processes, and extends the observation to its effect on the beloved youth. Such beauty and perfection is in the young man that the whole world is warring against Time in an effort to prevent his gradual decline from youth into age and death. Will finishes by telling his admired subject his part in the war: that in this verse, he will live and be immortalised and his beauty will remain eternally new.
 

Will’s Wordplay
The stars’ “secret influence” is a technical astrological term. It refers to Renaissance beliefs that ethereal fluid, or influence, flowed from the stars and affected men’s lives.
 

Scholar’s Corner
According to Helen Vendler, the sonnet is the first to employ Shakespeare’s grand microcosmic scale, more suited to philosophy than a sonnet about love. Shakespeare begins the poem by with the speaker “look[ing] on life from the vantage point of the stars above in his consideration; yet he sees as well from a helpless human perspective below.” The poem then introduces a “retrospective reading of ingraft.”that denotes immortalizing the youth that continues in Sonnet 16. [1]
 

References
1. Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1997. Print. p 108-110

Osborne Garden, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

“Upon entering Brooklyn Botanic Garden from its Eastern Parkway entrance, the first space you encounter is the Osborne Garden, a semi-formal garden where the art of Italianate landscaping comes to life. With ten wisteria-draped pergolas framing an emerald lawn, a bolder wall with large plantings of varied colored and textured plants, several stone features, and benches, the garden is a soothing oasis in the midst of the city. In spring, daffodils, pansies, and tulips bloom, followed by crab apples and cherries, which gradually give way to azaleas, rhododendrons, wisterias and dogwood. The focal point of the plaza is a water basin more than 17 feet in diameter. The fountain sits within a semicircle of limestone benches with curious acoustic properties. Sit at one end, and you can whisper clearly to someone sitting at the opposite side. These “whispering benches” are a much beloved feature to this lush space.”[1]
 

History
“The Osborne Garden was designed in 1935 by landscape architect Harold Caparn and dedicated to Dean Clay Osborne in 1939 by his wife Sade Elizabeth Osborne. It was designed as a showcase for ornamental plants and built in part by laborers in the Civil Works
Administration and the Works Progress Administration. 1947, landscape architect Alice Recknagel Ireys designed plantings of large masses of white, red, and pink azaleas, rhododendrons, wisterias, and evergreens to frame the central lawn. The garden is continually undergoing incremental improvements while remaining true to this original intention. Over time the variety of plants in this collection has grown with the addition of autumn interest foliage as well as Dogwood trees and a beautifully manicured Carpinus hedge. A recent renovation of the Boulder Wall is highlighted by the choice of plants that repeat the patterns, textures, and colors represented throughout the garden.” [2]
 

Plants
“The three-acre, Italian-style formal Osborne Garden is a kaleidoscope of color in May with azaleas, rhododendrons, crabapples, and wisteria draped over 10 wood and stone pergolas. Evergreens and flowering fruit trees such as cherries and crab apples shade the walkways while the rhododendrons and azaleas line the paths, and on the west side is a boulder wall with bulb and herbaceous plantings and accented with shrubs, perennials, and annuals.” [3]
 

Sonnet Project
Osborne Garden was the featured location for Sonnet 15, performed by Michael Lopez, directed by Melinda Crespo. The video was released on May 7th, 2013.
 

References
1. http://www.bbg.org/discover/gardens/osborne_garden
2. http://www.bbg.org/discover/gardens/osborne_garden#/tabs-2
3. http://www.bbg.org/discover/gardens/osborne_garden#/tabs-4

Michael E. Lopez- Firstly, Thanks to everyone at NYSX for inviting me to be a part of The Sonnet Project. I first worked with Ross Williams and Kevin Brewer on a production of Hamlet,playing Polonius, which led several years later to Escalus in Kevin Brewer’s wonderful play ISLAND directed by Ross Williams. It all comes around.

Originally from the NY area, high school years in Jersey City NJ, college years at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where the major area of study was Theatre and Education. Moved to the big bad apple when it was still big and bad…late 1970’s. Studied with Sandy Dennis at HB Studio and Classical study with Michael Moriarty at his then-popular company Potter’s Field. First professional job was at the now defunct 18th Street Playhouse in a production of Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock. Great review from the NY Times. Sold-out performances. 22 years old. Sweet.

Phase two was an interest in dance and drums. Started to study Afro-Haitian dance in NY with an eventual move to the cradle of ethnic dance—San Francisco. Studied and danced with the remarkable Blanche Brown and her company Roots of Haiti. Held workshops throughout the Bay Area, Seattle, London and retreats in Santa Fe. Sweet.

Re-traced acting roots, and after a two season stint with the International Theatre in Vienna,Austria( Art, Copenhagen, Dracula, Sylvia, two Xmas Carols)moved back to NYC. Credits have included work with NY Classical Theatre (Boyet in Love’s Labor’s Lost and Lafew in All’s Well That Ends Well), Propero in The Tempest with Expanded Arts, Dr. Dorn in The Seagull with Columbia Stages, the Summer Reading Series with the Pearl Theatre and Regional work with Arkansas Rep, New Jersey Rep, Northern Stage, the Magic Theatre, Nevada Shakespeare Company and Berkeley Rep.

Phase Three: Melded artistic and academic strengths into teaching ESL to many people at many levels from many countries to make a better life. It is very fulfilling.

It all comes around. Sweet.

Melissa Crespo is a New York City based Director and Producer. She was born and raised in Stamford, Connecticut where she dreamed of becoming an actor. She constantly begged her mother to take her to auditions in NYC but eventually moved to Northern VA where she fell in love with Shakespeare. While serving as a counselor (and yes she is a former camper!) at the American Shakespeare Center’s Young Company Theatre Camp in Staunton VA, she realized her calling as a director and has never looked back. Melissa began directing plays in undergrad at The University of Virginia and upon graduating landed the Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellowship at Arena Stage in Washington D.C. Since then, she has served as a Van Lier Directing Fellow at Second Stage Theatre where she assisted Michael Mayer on Everyday Rapture starring Sherie Rene Scott. Melissa has directed and assisted at various theaters along the East Coast including: ¡Figaro! (90210) with Morningside Opera, Sarah Ruhl and Todd Almond’s Melancholy Play with 13P, Camino Real at New York University, 9 Parts of Desire at The Contemporary American Theatre Festival and The Nutcracker at Pistarckle Theatre in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. As a producer, she coordinated the Second Stage New Works Festival commissioned by Time Warner. Melissa received her MFA in Directing from The New School for Drama and is thrilled to be a part of The Sonnet Project. Visit http://melissacrespo.com.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d,
Crooked eclipses ‘gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
     And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand
     Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

Analysis

Sonnet 60 is an exploration of mortality, with strong metaphors for and personifications of Time, and a belief in the immortality of words.

Shakespeare compares the movement of time to the waves moving toward the pebbled shore, each moment striving to move forward. Everything that has been born, though it existed in the world before birth, crawls into maturity, where it faces cruel obstacles to its glory. Time is both a giver of gifts and a destroyer, piercing the beauty of youth, aging it. It devours the beauty in nature; nothing escapes it. But Shakespeare knows the power of words, that his verses will last into the future, continuing to praise the young man’’s worth despite mortality.

Will’s Wordplay

The imagery of “minutes hastening to their end” calls to mind the disappearance and dissipation of each wave as it beats on the shore. The sea as such is not an obvious simile of human life, as it continues almost forever, whereas our life so patently has an ending. But the individual waves mimic the disappearance of the minutes. The sonnet seems to be placed deliberately at this point, as number 60, to coincide with the 60 minutes of the hour.

“crawl” is both as a baby and suggestive of slowness. Youth seems to last forever until it is gone. And again, the slow crawl in advanced age.

An eclipse was considered to be a dangerous event. Reversals of fortune could be attributed to their influence. “Eclipses” here has a general meaning of blight, ill fortune, or setbacks

Prospect Park Dog Run, Brooklyn

This location features the dog-friendliest spot in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park!

The Dog Beach
“There aren’t many places in the ol’ Big Apple where dogs can frolic and play in the water and catch a Frisbee on the beach. Except Prospect Park, where that’s exactly the case. Just off the Long Meadow Beach at the Pools, dogs can run off-leash and catch a cool down during the hottest summer days. And trekking there from Manhattan is a worthy day trip – there’s more to do at Prospect Park than just throw ball. The huge amount of space welcomes picnics and games, and there are 585 acres of woodlands, waterways and trails to explore with your pup, family and friends.” [1]

References

1. http://www.dogspin.com/nyc-dog-runs-parks/prospect-park-dog-beach-yes-its-a-swimming-hole-just-for-dogs/

ACTOR – Christopher McFarland

Christopher’s recent Shakespeare credits include Roderigo in Othello at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, Touchstone in As You Like It at the Guthrie, Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra at Opera House Arts, Iago in Othello at Allentown Shakespeare, Hubert in King John for the New York Shakespeare Exchange, and coming up next, Pisanio in Cymbeline at the Yale Repertory Theatre. He also spent six seasons as a resident company member at the Arizona Shakespeare Festival, where, amongst other roles, he gave his Hamlet. Non-Shakespearean work includes Lennie in Of Mice and Men with the Acting Company, Captain Iditarod in Spacebar at The Wild Project, Tommy in Pride in the Falls of Autrey Mill at the Signature Theatre, Rubini in Golden Age at Philadelphia Theatre Company and the Kennedy Center, and Il Capitano Nariz de Foyar in Even Maybe Tammy at the Flea. He hails from San Francisco, CA, and received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

DIRECTOR – Mike Fitzgerald

Mike Fitzgerald is a filmmaker and TV editor who is thinking pretty seriously about getting a dog. His most recent short film “In Prague” was screened at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and the Big Apple Film Festival. His educational-comedy web series “Learnin’ with Vermin” aims to explain basic concepts about elections using the chalkboard of farce. He has directed numerous other short films and music videos. As an editor for TV, he has cut content for networks including IFC, A&E, MTV, Lifetime and more. He currently edits the true-crime series “On the Case with Paula Zahn” for Investigation Discovery. Mike has cut dozens of pitch reels for TV networks, including the pitch that spawned Jersey Shore (sorry). He spent two years as a development producer for factual TV, wherein he contributed to the genesis of various shows, including “3 Days to Open” with Bobby Flay. He co-directed a production of “Pains of Youth” at the Access Theater in New York, appeared in “Julius Caesar” at the Theater for the New City, and played Jesus in a farce about – well, sort of about Jesus. Before all that he worked nights shifts as an assistant editor, sweated and froze as a production assistant (and drove Tony Danza around for two days), taught sailing and swimming at a summer camp, and earned his bachelor’s degree in film production from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He lives in Astoria with his beautiful wife, and spends his free time writing screenplays.
His other work is on his website at mikefitzgeraldfilm.com

Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault,
And I will comment upon that offence:
Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt,
Against thy reasons making no defence.
Thou canst not, love, disgrace me half so ill,
To set a form upon desired change,
As I’ll myself disgrace; knowing thy will,
I will acquaintance strangle, and look strange;
Be absent from thy walks; and in my tongue
Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell,
Lest I, too much profane, should do it wrong,
And haply of our old acquaintance tell.
     For thee, against my self I’ll vow debate,
     For I must ne’er love him whom thou dost hate.

Analysis

In Sonnet 89, the poet takes a scorched-earth approach to a breakup, for his beloved’s sake.

Willy picks up where the previous sonnet left off, telling the youth that should he tell people he picked up and left because of some fault of Will’s, our boy will play along. If rumor has it he’s lame, and he will start limping immediately, without a defense. If it helps Willy’s lover finding a reason to justify leaving, it will be no disgrace half as bad as the one he will do to himself, once the lover prescribes it. Act like a stranger? Sure. Avoid places where they might bump into each other? Definitely. And he won’t mention their sweet name anymore in case it would be soiled by their former acquaintance. For his lover’s sake, Will vows to be his own enemy, because he must not love someone his lover hates.

Will’s Wordplay

This is part of a string of sonnets in which the speaker toys with masochism and self-harm for the benefit of his lover. Getting kinky on us, Billy? This one, of course, is much more emotional than physical.

Manhattan Bridge Arch, DUMBO, Brooklyn

The Manhattan Bridge was the last of the three suspension bridges built across the lower East River, following the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges. It has four vehicle lanes on the upper level, split between two roadways. The lower level has three lanes, four subway tracks, a walkway and a bikeway. The upper level, originally used for streetcars, has two lanes in each direction, and the lower level is one-way and has three lanes in peak direction. The bridge once carried New York State Route 27 and later was planned to carry Interstate 478.

The original pedestrian walkway on the south side of the bridge was reopened after forty years in June 2001.[1] It was also used by bicycles until late summer 2004, when a dedicated bicycle path was opened on the north side of the bridge, again in 2007 while the bike lane was used for truck access during repairs to the lower motor roadway, and for a third time in 2011, when ongoing construction on the north side of the bridge necessitated narrow shelters, narrowing the path to make it unsafe for cycling.
To celebrate the bridge’s centennial anniversary, a series of events and exhibits were organized by the New York City Bridge Centennial Commission in October 2009. These included a ceremonial parade across the Manhattan Bridge on the morning of October 4 and a fireworks display in the evening.[2] In 2009, the bridge was also designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.[3]

Arch and Colonnade

In 1910, a year after the bridge opened, the architectural firm Carrère and Hastings drew up preliminary plans for an elaborate grand entry to the bridge on the Manhattan side, as part of the “City Beautiful” movement. Construction began that year, and plans were finalized in 1912. The arch and colonnade were completed in 1915. The decoration includes pylons which were sculpted by Carl A. Heber and a frieze called “Buffalo Hunt” by Charles Rumsey.[4]

The arch and colonnade were designated a New York City landmark on November 25, 1975. After many years of neglect, and attempts by traffic engineers to remove the structure, the arch and colonnade were repaired and restored in 2000.

References

1. Newman, Andy (June 26, 2001). “Cyclists and Walkers Regain a Bridge”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
2. “Manhattan Bridge Centennial Celebration Events and Exhibits”. NYC Bridge Centennial Commission. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
3. “Manhattan Bridge”. ASCE Metropolitan Section. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
4. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Postal, Matthew A. (ed. and text); Dolkart, Andrew S. (text). (2009) Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.) New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1, pp. 45-46

ACTOR – Carman Lacivita

Carman Lacivita is currently starring as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, produced by The New Book Press Inc. available in Ibooks on Itunes. You will also find his portrayal of Malcolm in Macbeth and Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for The New Book Press Inc. He served as the Fight Director on all three projects, marking his 3rd collaboration with Director Jessica Bauman. Recently, Carman Guest Starred on CBS’ Golden Boy and on the NBC hit children’s show, The Chica Show. Other credits include The Understudy with Amphibian Stage Productions, The Witch of Edmonton, Lorenzaccio, The Tempest, all with Red Bull Theater, George is Dead (w/Marlo Thomas) written and directed by Elaine May at The George St. Playhouse. He played Valvert in Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway opposite Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner directed by David Leveaux. Off Broadway; Henry 6th in Rose Rage; Henry the 6th Pts. 1, 2, 3 (Bayfield Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Shakespeare in NYC, Jeff Award, Drama League Nomination), dir. by Edward Hall. Carman has played at The Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab, The Public Theater, The Pearl, Theater for a New Audience, Primary Stages, The Mint, The Drama League, and Ars Nova. International and Regional productions include Bermuda Arts Festival, Arizona Theater Company, George St. Playhouse, Chicago Shakespeare, Long Wharf, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Crossroads, Stage West, Ft. Worth, Dallas, and Kentucky Shakespeare Festivals. Other TV and Film credits include work on Advent (short), Golden Boy (CBS), Royal Pains (USA), The Chica Show (NBC) Modern Love (pilot), Marino’s (pilot), and Cyrano de Bergerac (PBS Great Performances). Carman has an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and a BFA from Texas Christian University and is a founding member and Artistic Associate of Amphibian Stage Productions, where he has performed in numerous productions. In addition to performing, Carman is a Teaching Artist with The Broadway Experience and is an Acting Coach, Fight Director & Tennis Pro.

DIRECTOR – Jessica Bauman

As a theater director, Jessica Bauman’s work on Shakespeare has been seen in a National Shakespeare Company national tour, and in the NYC area at Juilliard, the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey and Walkerspace. She is the founder and Artistic Director of New Feet Productions, for which she directed Into the Hazard (Henry 5), her own critically acclaimed six-actor adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V. Her work on new plays has been seen in NYC at New Georges, HERE, Soho Rep and many others, and regionally at the Huntington Theatre, Amphibian Stage Productions, The Spoleto Festival and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas.

She has been collaborating with e-book publisher The New Book Press to create WordPlay Shakespeare, a revolutionary new way of reading Shakespeare, blending video and text in electronic books for the iPad. For that project, she directed video versions of the complete texts of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet (all available on iTunes). Other video projects include satirical student-written Alcohol Education videos for a web-based program for incoming freshman and informational videos about sexual misconduct grievance procedures, both at Yale University.

Where art thou Muse that thou forget’st so long,
To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?
Spend’st thou thy fury on some worthless song,
Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light?
Return forgetful Muse, and straight redeem,
In gentle numbers time so idly spent;
Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem
And gives thy pen both skill and argument.
Rise, resty Muse, my love’s sweet face survey,
If Time have any wrinkle graven there;
If any, be a satire to decay,
And make Time’s spoils despised every where.
     Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life,
     So thou prevent’st his scythe and crooked knife.

Analysis

Sonnet 100 addresses inspiration, and ponders on immortality in words.

Billy asks the unseen Muse why it has been so absent lately, despite writers’ ability to give it all its power. He wonders if its squandered its gifts on an unworthy poem. He begs it to return and inspire him with words about his beloved, the Muse’s equally powerful audience and subject. Billy says his beloved’s face is lineless, but if he is wrong, the poem should be a satire of aging, and begs the Muse to immortalize its subject before time can tear down the beauty there.
 

Will’s Wordplay

“Base subjects” often refer to vulgar themes or generally unworthy topics. But since the word base was often used to mean ‘base born, of humble social status’, there is inevitably a suggestion that the beloved is of high birth, and worthy of a poet’s dedication, instead of which the speaker has debased himself and given his attentions to creatures not worthy to be noticed.

Egyptian Columns at entrance of Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. It is the fifth largest public library system in the United States. Like the two other public library systems in New York City, it is an independent nonprofit organization that is funded by the New York City and State governments, the federal government, and private donors. In Fiscal Year 2009, Brooklyn Public Library had the highest program attendance of any public library system in the United States. The library currently promotes itself as Bklyn Public Library.

The Central Library of the Brooklyn Public Library, located at Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway on Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York City, contains over a million cataloged books, magazines, and multimedia materials. Each year, over one million people visit the library.[1]The facility, landmarked in 1997, boasts the state-of-the art S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture, a 189-seat auditorium that opened in 2007 and hosts lectures, readings, musical performances, and other events for people of all ages. The library’s plaza, renovated during the construction of the Dweck Center, hosts concerts throughout the summer and has become a favorite outdoor destination for free wireless internet access.

The Shelby White and Leon Levy Information Commons opened in January, 2013.[2] The space offers an integrated venue for individual work, public classes, private events, and meetings.[2]

The Central Library’s local history division, The Brooklyn Collection, holds over a million individual items including photographs, maps, manuscripts, Brooklyn Dodgers memorabilia and other ephemeral items.

History

Ground was broken for a Brooklyn central library on Prospect Park Plaza (Grand Army Plaza) in 1912. The design of the original architect Raymond Almirall called for a domed, four-story Beaux Arts building, similar in style to the nearby Brooklyn Museum. Escalating costs and political in-fighting helped slow construction throughout the decade. World War I and the Great Depression ensured that Almirall’s building, whose Flatbush Avenue wing had been completed by 1929, would never be built.

In the 1930s, the architects Githens and Keally were commissioned to redesign the building, eliminating all the expensive ornamentation and the entire fourth floor. After much public and critical praise for the comparatively inexpensive Art Deco structure, construction recommenced in 1938. Almirall’s building on Flatbush Avenue was largely demolished except for the frame. (Some of the original facade that faces in toward the library’s parking lot is still visible.) Completed by late 1940, the Central Library opened to the public on February 1, 1941. It is regarded today as one of America’s greatest Art Deco buildings.

The second floor of the Central Library opened in 1955, nearly doubling the amount of space available to the public. Occupying over 350,000 square feet and employing 300 full-time staff members, the building serves as the administrative headquarters for the Brooklyn Public Library system. Prior to 1941 the Library’s administrative offices were located in the Williamsburg Savings Bank on Flatbush Avenue.[3]

The Central Library was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

References

1. http://www.bklynlibrary.org/locations/central
2. http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/?p=8612
3. Kathleen A. Howe (June 2001). “National Register of Historic Places Registration:Brooklyn Public Library-Central Building”. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2011-02-20.

ACTOR – Robert Verlaque

Robert has been a professional actor, director, teacher and writer for over 30 years with extensive directing credits in New York, Toronto, and regional theatre. New York directing credits include Labyrinth Theatre Co., Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Acorn Theatre Co., Circle Rep East, The Shooting Gallery, and The Actors Studio, among others. In 2012, Robert directed the premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s “Jealous” at the Labyrinth Theatre Co. Notable New York productions include Shaw’s You Never Can Tell, Wycherley’s The Country Wife, Dancing at Llughnasa, The Trojan Women, Phaedra (The Public Theatre/Potters Field Co.), The Art of Dining, Magic Time, The Shadow Box, Rivers and Ravines, Feydeau’s A Cat Among the Pigeons, and A Flea in Her Ear. He assisted Pam Berlin on Elm Circle for Playwrights Horizons, and the late Gerry Guttierez on Terra Nova. Currently, he is directing “Wrights Wrongs”, an original webisode comedy series in New York City. Robert will directing his short screenplay A Thousand Kisses Deep scheduled to begin shooting in Toronto for Roxborough Films in Fall 2013.
Robert is a produced playwright and screenwriter, with plays produced in NY, San Diego and Toronto. His full-length play ‘Icarus Sings’ was workshopped in NY last season for a Toronto production in the 2013-2014 season.
Robert has extensive film, television and theatre credits and national commercials. During 2013, Robert played a Leading role opposite Joseph Fiennes and Ed Asner in Disney’s upcoming 2014 release “The Games Maker”. He had Guest Staring roles on “Saving Hope”, NBC, and on Season 4 of “Boardwalk Empire”. Robert also directed several new plays written by John Patrick Shanley, Robert Askins, and Don Nigro fro NyLonFusion Co, NY. He is the founding member of the Articulate Theatre Co, NY and the author of the original play “Icarus Sings” in pre-production in Vancouver, Canada following it’s recent workshop in Toronto. Last year included a recurring role on top rated “Suits”, and guest starring on “Warehouse 13″, in a new series “Cracked”, and a lead role in the pilot “Port Hope”. Among the many talents he has been fortunate to work with are Christopher Plummer, Mike Nichols, William H. Macy, William Hurt, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepard, Mary Louise Parker, Christopher Walken, Stanley Tucci, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, among others.
He is an instructor and director at the Terry Schreiber Studio, and previously was on the faculty of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Ensemble Studio Theatre Institute in New York, as well as Equity Showcase Theatre in Toronto. In demand as a teacher and private coach, he teaches in Toronto, Los Angeles and New York.

PRODUCER – Articulate Theatre Company – Cat Parker, Artistic Director

Articulate Theatre Company is an ensemble driven company who thrive on being storytellers. Our simple mantra is ‘good stories, told well.’ Guided by the three definitions of ‘articulate,’ -clarity, structure and connectivity- we are committed to challenging and connecting audiences and artist with clearly structured work that is intelligent, thought-provoking and visually striking.

http://www.articulatetheatre.com/
 

DIRECTOR, EDITOR, VISUAL EFFECTS – Eric Siegel

Eric is a veteran television/film director, art director, and production designer specializing in an integrated approach to the creative direction and technical execution of programming and entertainment of all kinds. In a career spanning over 30 years he has provided creative and technical leadership to the world’s most prestigious program producers, including the ABC, CBS, PBS, HBO and MSG television networks. He has been the director of, or a contributing director to, the widest possible variety of live television broadcasts – election nights, town hall meetings, political debates and conventions, prime-time news magazines, morning shows, Sunday roundtables, musical performances, parades, evening and late night news, and more special events than he dares try to remember. His work as a director, art director, and production/scenic designer has been recognized with 11 Emmy awards, the Dupont Columbia Award, the Peabody Award, a Christopher Award, the Cine Golden Eagle, and over 25 Broadcast Designers Association awards.

www.ericsiegel.tv
 

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY – Andre Yoder-Harris

Andre Yoder Harris is a Photographer and Director of Photography/camera operator based in New York City. He was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, and received his higher education from the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University. A film and photography major, he has a particular passion for documentary filmmaking and portraiture.

In the early 1990s, he traveled the world, working primarily as an Assistant Camera operator for production companies/feature productions ranging from National Geographic and HBO to independent documentaries and Hollywood films and behind-the-scenes documentary productions. In addition, he AC’d dozens of music videos and later shot and DP’d others.

After his wife sustained a serious injury in 2002, Andre chose to limit out-of-town travel, shifting his professional focus to network news and special events/music close to home, working primarily for ABCNews. In recent years, Andre has also incorporated his longstanding love of fast/beautiful cars and auto racing into his photographic work, developing a sub-specialty in motorsports photography and what he describes as “automotive portraiture.”

www.grandmasbaby.net/html/slideshow.php
 

SCORE – Richard Einhorn

Richard Einhorn’s unique music has been described as “hauntingly beautiful,” “sensational,” and “overwhelming in its emotional power.” He has become one of a small handful of living composers who not only reaches a large worldwide audience but whose music receives widespread critical praise for its integrity, emotional depth, and craft.

In February 2009, Einhorn premiered The Origin, an opera/oratorio based on the work and life of Charles Darwin. Performed to packed houses and standing ovations, the Syracuse Post-Standard wrote, “Einhorn has created an imaginative work layered with profound insight…”

Einhorn’s “opera with silent film,” Voices of Light, has been hailed in reviews as “a great masterpiece of contemporary music” and “a work of meticulous genius.” After selling out its New York City premiere engagements at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival, Voices of Light has had over 100 performances throughout the US and the world including sold-out performances at Avery Fisher Hall; the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap with the National Symphony; the Cabrillo Festival with Marin Alsop; and during two extremely successful national tours featuring the medieval vocal group Anonymous 4. The Sony Classical CD of Voices of Light was a Billboard classical bestseller, earning Einhorn the distinction of being one of only a few composers to have made “the charts.” Voices of Light has attracted national media attention including articles in the Wall Street Journal, segments on All Things Considered and Performance Today, and an extended profile on CBS television network’s magazine show, CBS Sunday Morning. Recent performances of Voices of Light have taken place at Sydney Opera House in Australia, at Esplanade in Singapore, and in Johannesburg and Pretoria, South Africa.

Einhorn has written opera, orchestral and chamber music, song cycles, film music, and dance scores. Among his many projects is the wildly popular Red Angels for New York City Ballet set to Einhorn’s music with choreography by Ulysses Dove, which had its television premiere on “Live From Lincoln Center” (PBS) in May of 2002. His film credits include the Academy Award-winning documentary short, Educating Peter (HBO) and Arthur Penn’s thriller Dead of Winter (MGM), starring Mary Steenbugen; and Fire-Eater directed by Pirjo Honkasalo, for which Einhorn won the Jussi (Finnish Academy Award) for Best Musical Score.

Born in 1952, Richard Einhorn graduated summa cum laude in music from Columbia University. Before turning his attention exclusively to composition, Einhorn worked as a record producer for such artists as Meredith Monk and The New York Philharmonic. His production of the Bach Cello Suites with Yo-Yo Ma won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Performance.

Recent works include The Spires, The City, The Field, a 9/11 memorial premiered by the Albany Symphony. A Carnival of Miracles, a piece written for Anonymous 4, premiered to a sold-out crowd at New Sounds Live and broadcasted live over WNYC-FM. My Many Colored Days is an orchestral commission from the Minnesota Orchestra. He lives in New York City with his wife Amy Singer and their daughter Miranda.

www.richardeinhorn.com

STORY – Jim Biederman

Jim Biederman is founder and President of JimCo – a full service production company specializing in scripted as well as non-scripted comedy programs. He has Executive Produced television shows for NBC, CBS, TBS, IFC, MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Fuse, Logo, CBC, BBC America, among others.

PRODUCTION DESIGNER – George Allison

For over 30 years, George has been designing award-winning scenery for television, theatre and film. During his 10-year run as senior production designer for ABC News, his award winning works included Good Morning America (co-designed with Stuart Wurtzel) and Nightline. Other ABC credits include World News Tonight, PrimeTime Live, This Week, 20/20 and numerous specials. Recent design work includes MTV’s Rapfix and VMA All Access; Intelligence Squared Debates for the Rosenkrantz Foundation; Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies; Vine Talk with Stanley Tucci for PBS and the game shows Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and Power of 10. Corporate projects include design work for Goldman Sachs, Yahoo, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Council on Foreign Relations and the White House Press Briefing Room. Film work includes production design for several independent films and second unit art direction for the action-comedy feature film The Other Guys starring Will Ferrell. He has designed over 200 Off-Broadway theatre productions. New York work includes The Strike by Rod Sterling, Divine Right, Carreno, and Nightshade by Howard Koch. He is also proud of his work for the Vietnam Veterans Ensemble Theatre Company and Theatre by the Blind. His most recent theatre work includes his award-winning design for Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Sister Cities, Twelfth Night and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

www.gadesigns.net

RESERVE CAM AND PRODUCTION ASSISTANT – Sebastian Montoya

Sebastian Montoya feels incredibly lucky to join the Articulate Theatre family, and is thrilled to be in the company of such a talented group of people. Some favorite past credits include John in Balm in Gilead (T. Schreiber Studio), Brian in Joking Apart (T. Schreiber Studio) and Dan Shapiro in Sexual Perversity in Chicago (SOL Theatre). Sebastian has studied at Terry Schreiber Studio and is currently trying to learn to be funny at Upright Citizens Brigade.

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT – Esteban Benito

Esteban Benito is an Actor/Writer born and raised in Yonkers, New York. He has studied at T. Schreiber Studio and has been in numerous plays including their award winning production of Balm In Gilead by Lanford Wilson. He was last seen on the stage in the workshop production of Contigo by Paola Munos at the Signature Theatre. For Television, he was recently seen in a recurring role on the long time running soap opera One Life to Live as Diego Padilla.

To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I ey’d,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold,
Have from the forests shook three summers’ pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned,
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah! yet doth beauty like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived:
     For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred:
     Ere you were born was beauty’s summer dead.

Analysis

Sonnet 104 deals with the destructive force of time as we grow older.

Willie simply states that to him, his friend can never be seen as old. They look to him as they did 3 years ago when they met. Three colorful autumns, cold winters, hot summers, and wonderful springs have cycled by. Four seasons, perfumed scents of three Aprils becoming three burning Junes, since he first saw all their youthful glory. Ah! but beauty still moves forward, like the hands of a clock, with no motion. Will knows their appearance, which seem unchanged, is subject to Time’s movement, and his eye subject to deception. He fears they mayl lose their looks, but has this to say to future beauties: before this beloved person came into existence, beauty was already dead.

Will’s Wordplay

We all know Billy and Iambic Pentameter are basically synonymous. But in this sonnet, the 13th line has a mid-line reversal (“hear this”):

× / × / / × × / × /
For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred:

This is a metrical variation that is more commonly encountered at the beginning of the line, and there is one definite (line 10) and several potential (lines 3, 4, 9, 11, and 14) examples of initial reversals in the sonnet.

The meter demands a two-syllable pronunciation for “dial” in line 9.

Fulton Ferry Landing

The Fulton Ferry Landing pier at the foot of Old Fulton Street is one of Brooklyn’s most historic sites, marking the location of the first ferry service between Brooklyn and Manhattan in 1642. It is now a part of Brooklyn Bridge Park, and home to Bargemusic concert hall and various concessions.

Ferry service to this dock ended in 1924.

ACTOR – Harry Barandes

Harry was born in New York City. He began his acting career as a child, initially ​doing voiceovers for radio and TV commercials​ throughout the early ’90s​, and eventually appearing onscreen. (You might remember him as the “skinny benchwarmer” in the classic “Milk, it does a body good” commercial.) He made his Broadway debut at the age of 11, when he stepped into the role of Winfield Joad in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of “The Grapes of Wrath.” He made his off-Broadway debut a few years later as Stewie in Donald Margulies’ “The Loman Family Picnic” at MTC. ​He was the voice of Peter Rabbit in the HBO animated special starring Carol Burnett, and played the younger Fisher Stevens in a flashback in the film “Only You“, starring Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. ​​​He went on to study theatre at Brown University, where he served on the first board of the student outdoor Shakespeare festival, “Shakespeare on the Green.” He spent two summers abroad studying Shakespeare in London, during which he was given the opportunity to perform the closet scene from Hamlet on the stage of the reconstructed Globe — a life peak. He continued his studies at NYU’s Graduate Acting program​, where his favorite roles included Lord Goring in “An Ideal Husband” and Firs in “The Cherry Orchard” (directed by Zelda Fichandler)​. After receiving his MFA, he ​landed the role of Catesby in The Public Theater’s production of “Richard III” starring Peter Dinklage. He has appeared in several NYSX endeavors, including numerous ShakesBEER Pub Crawls, “Island“, and, most recently, “HAMLET-10“. Other recent Shakespeare credits include the roles of Jaques and Touchstone in “As They Liked It“, a presentation of “As You Like It” in Original Pronunciation (OP). Harry is also a director and teacher, specializing in Shakespeare, Wilde, Chekhov, Ibsen, and Strindberg. He has been a guest director at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Strasburg Institute of Theatre & Film, and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. He has taught at the Stella Adler Studio and the NYU Graduate Acting Program, in addition to private coaching sessions and acting workshops in Shakespeare and Chekhov. He currently lives in Park Slope with his collection of Shakespeare reference books and finger puppet of Anton Chekhov.

DIRECTOR – Melanie Coffey

Melanie Coffey is a senior in college studying film with a focus in writing and directing. Her recent work includes the writing and producing of the short film Ebb, directing the short film Interim, and writing and directing the short film Bubbles and Bathwater.

When in the chronicle of wasted time
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme,
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights,
Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best,
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their antique pen would have expressed
Even such a beauty as you master now.
So all their praises are but prophecies
Of this our time, all you prefiguring;
And for they looked but with divining eyes,
They had not skill enough your worth to sing:
     For we, which now behold these present days,
     Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
 
Analysis
Sonnet 106 expresses the poet’s belief that all beauty praised in poetry before this day was presentient praise of the beloved.

Will remembers accounts of historic times, and descriptions of very beautiful people, and the beautiful poems inspired by them, in praise of ladies and knights now dead. When he sees the poems catalog their beauty he realizes that these ancient writers were trying to describe the same kind of beauty that the youth possesses now. So all the praises of these writers are actually prophecies; all of them prefigure the young man’s beauty. If the writers hadn’t been divinely inspired with this gift of prophecy, they wouldn’t have had the skill to describe his worth. Those who live now can see it firsthand but lack the poetic skill to describe it.
 
Will’s Wordplay
“wights” is a word referring to any groups of sentient beings (here men and women) that was archaic even in Shakespeare’s time. Throwback theme!

Coney Island, Brooklyn
Welcome to America’s Playground! Coney Island is a beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southwestern Brooklyn. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill. It is well known as the site of amusement parks and a seaside resort. The attractions reached their peak during the first half of the 20th century, declining in popularity after World War II and years of neglect. In recent years, the area has seen a new renaissance of new amusements, upholding of tradition by the Coney Island USA museum and Freak Show, the opening of MCU Park, and the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team.
 
Etymology
The Native American inhabitants of the region, the Lenape, called the island Narrioch—meaning “land without shadows”—because, as with other south shore Long Island beaches, its orientation means the beach remains in sunlight all day. [1]

Following European settlement, New York was originally a Dutch settlement. The Dutch name for the island — originally Conyne Eylandt, or Konijneneiland — precedes the similar English name and translates as “Rabbit Island”. [2] As on other Long Island barrier islands, Coney Island had many and diverse rabbits, and rabbit hunting prospered until resort development eliminated their habitat. The Dutch name is found on the New Netherland map of 1639 by Johannes Vingboon, which is before any known English records. [3] The word “coney” was popular in English at the time as an alternative for rabbit; a later adaptation, “bunny”, is now in common use

Due to Coney Island’s location—easily reached from Manhattan and other boroughs of New York City, yet distant enough to suggest a proper vacation—it began attracting holidaymakers in the 1830s and 1840s, when carriage roads and steamship services reduced travel time from a half-day journey to just two hours.

The original Coney Island Hotel was constructed in 1829, with The Brighton Hotel, Manhattan Beach Hotel, and Oriental Hotel opening soon after, with each trying to provide an increasing level of elegance. Coney Island became a major resort destination after the American Civil War, as excursion railroads and the Coney Island & Brooklyn Railroad streetcar line reached the area in the 1860s, and the Iron steamboat company arrived in 1881. The two Iron Piers served as docks for the steamboats until they were destroyed in the 1911 Dreamland fire. In 1915 the Sea Beach Line was upgraded to a subway line. This was followed by upgrades to the other former excursion roads, and the opening of the New West End Terminal in 1919, thus ushering in Coney Island’s busiest era. [4]

From 1885 to 1896, the Coney Island Elephant Hotel was the first sight to greet immigrants arriving in New York, who would see it before the Statue of Liberty became visible.

Nathan’s Famous original hot dog stand opened on Coney Island in 1916 and quickly became a landmark. An annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest has been held there annually on July 4 since its opening.

After World War II, air conditioning in movie theaters and homes, along with the advent of automobiles which provided access to the less crowded Long Island state parks, lessened the attractions of Coney’s beaches. Luna Park closed in 1946 after a series of fires, and the New York street gang problems of the 1950s spilled into Coney Island. The presence of threatening youths did not impact the beach-goers, but discouraged visitors to the rides and concessions which were staples of the Coney Island economy. The local economy was dealt a severe blow by the 1964 closing of Steeplechase Park, the last of the major amusement parks.
 
Zoned For Fun!
Since the 1920s, all property north of the boardwalk and south of Surf Avenue was zoned for amusement and recreational use only, with some large lots of property north of Surf also zoned for amusements only.

In 1944, Luna Park was damaged by fire, and sold to a company who announced they were going to tear down what was left of Luna Park and build apartments. Robert Moses had the land rezoned for residential use with the proviso that the apartment complex include low-income housing.

In 1949, Moses moved the boardwalk back from the beach several yards, demolishing many structures, including the city’s municipal bath house. He would later demolish several blocks of amusements to clear land for both the New York Aquarium and the Abe Stark ice skating rink. Critics complained that Moses took three times more land than each structure needed, surrounding each with vacant lots that were of no use to the city.

In 1953, Moses had the entire island rezoned for residential use only and announced plans to demolish the amusements to make room for public housing. After many public complaints, the Estimate Board reinstated the area between West 22 Streets and The Cyclone as amusement only and threw in 100 feet of property north of Surf Ave. between these streets. It has since then been protected for amusement use only, which has led to many public land battles.
 
Amusement Parks
Between about 1880 and World War II, Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States, attracting several million visitors per year. At its height it contained three competing major amusement parks, Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park, as well as many independent amusements.

Charles I. D. Looff, a Danish woodcarver, built the first carousel at Coney Island in 1876. It was installed at Vandeveer’s bath-house complex at West 6th Street and Surf Avenue, which later became known as Balmer’s Pavilion. The carousel consisted of hand-carved horses and other animals standing two abreast, with a drummer and a flute player providing the music. A tent-top provided protection from the weather. The fare was five cents.

Astroland served as a major amusement park from 1962 to 2008, and was replaced by a new incarnation of Dreamland in 2009 and of Luna Park in 2010. The other parks and attractions include Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, 12th Street Amusements, and Kiddie Park, while the Eldorado Arcade has an indoor bumper car ride. The Zipper and Spider on 12th Street were closed permanently on September 4, 2007, and dismantling began after its owner lost his lease. [5]

On April 20, 2011, the first new roller coasters to be built at Coney Island in eighty years were opened as part of efforts to reverse the decline of the amusement area. [6]
 
Rides
The amusement area currently contains various rides, games such as skeeball and ball tossing, and a sideshow including games of shooting, throwing, and tossing skills.
The rides and other amusements at Coney Island are owned and managed by several different companies, and operate independently of each other. It is not possible to purchase season tickets to the attractions in the area. Three rides at Coney Island are protected as designated New York City landmarks and are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. These three rides are:

—Wonder Wheel – built in 1918 and opened in 1920, this steel Ferris wheel has both stationary cars and rocking cars that slide along a track. It holds 144 riders, stands 150 ft tall, and weighs over 200 tons. At night the Wonder Wheel’s steel frame is outlined and illuminated by neon tubes. [7] It is located at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park.

–The Cyclone roller coaster – built in 1927, it is one of the United States’s oldest wooden coasters still in operation. Popular with roller coaster aficionados, the Cyclone includes an 85 ft, sixty degree drop. It is owned by the City of New York, and was operated by Astroland, under a franchise agreement. It is now located in and operated by Luna Park.

–Parachute Jump – originally built as the Life Savers Parachute Jump at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, this was the first ride of its kind. Patrons were hoisted 190 ft in the air before being allowed to drop using guy-wired parachutes. Although the ride has been closed since 1968, it remains a Coney Island landmark, and is sometimes referred to as Brooklyn’s Eiffel Tower. Between 2002 and 2004, it was completely dismantled, cleaned, painted and restored, but remains inactive.

Beach
Coney Island maintains a broad sandy beach from West 37th Street at Sea Gate, through the central Coney Island area and Brighton Beach, to the beginning of the community of Manhattan Beach, a distance of approximately 2.5 mi. The beach is continuous, and is served for its entire length by the broad Riegelmann Boardwalk. A number of amusements are directly accessible from the land-side of the boardwalk, as is the aquarium, and a variety of food shops and arcades. The beach is groomed and replenished on a regular basis by the city. The position of the beach and lack of significant obstructions means virtually the entire beach is in sunlight all day. The beach is open to all without restriction, and there is no charge for use. The beach area is divided into “bays”, areas of beach delineated by rock jetties, which moderate erosion and the force of ocean waves.

The Coney Island Polar Bear Club consists of a group of people who swim at Coney Island throughout the winter months, most notably on New Year’s Day, when additional participants join them to swim in the frigid waters.[8]

Coney Island beach serves as the training grounds for the Coney Island Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers (CIBBOWS), [9] a group dedicated to promoting open water swimming for individuals of all levels. CIBBOWS hosts several open water swim races each year, such as Grimaldo’s Mile and the New York Aquarium 5k, as well as regular weekend training swims.
 
References
1. http://www.professorsolomon.com/graphics/coneyisland.pdf
2. Library of Congress New Netherland website lists Conyne Eylandt as Dutch name for Coney Island.
3. “De Nieu Nederlandse Marcurius”, Volume 16, No. 1: February 2000. This is the newsletter of the New Netherland Project. Cites New Netherland map labeling “Conyne Eylandt” in 1639 Johannes Vingboon map
4. Matus, Paul. “The New BMT Coney Island Terminal”. The Third Rail Online.
5. Calder, Rich (September 5, 2007). “Ride Over for Coney Classics”. New York Post.
6. Coney Island gets first new roller coasters in 80 years
7. Deno’s Wonder Wheel
8. Coney Island Polar Bear Club official site
9. Coney Island Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers (CIBBOWS)

ACTOR – Danny Rivera
Danny Rivera is an actor living and working in New York City. Danny first began acting in 2007 at Georgetown University, where he later graduated with honors and degrees in English and Theater in May of 2011. He moved back to his native New York in August of that year to pursue a career in acting, joining the Flea Theater as a Bat (a member of their resident acting company) a month later. Over the next twelve months, Danny bounced back and forth between the Flea, Columbia University, and the New York Shakespeare Exchange, among others, performing in readings, workshops, mainstage productions, and everything else he could get his hands on. In the fall of 2012, Danny had the opportunity to appear in the world premiere of A.R. Gurney’s Heresy (at the Flea), allowing him to join the Actors’ Equity Association. In his short time as an actor, Danny has had the opportunity to work with artists such as Jim Simpson, David Muse, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Ellen McLaughlin, Kathleen Chalfant, Theodore Bikel, Heather Raffo, Thomas Bradshaw, Moisés Kaufman, and Ian McKellen (when he says “worked with Ian McKellen,” he means Sir Ian once forgot a line from Hamlet and Danny helped him out–it’s a great story and you should have him tell it to you sometime, maybe if you buy him a beer). Danny is very excited to be a part of the Sonnet Project, and he hopes you enjoy the sound of him reciting Shakespeare as much as he does.

DIRECTOR – John Mirabella
Pace University Graduate.
Published writer, periodicals.
Production Assistent, lighting, screenwriter (in progress).
Comedy sketch writing.
In production on “Ape Man ” documentary- comedic impressionists and craft.
Blues musician.
49 yrs old. Late to the film game, lifelong passion that will not die.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
     If this be error and upon me proved,
     I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Analysis

Sonnet 116 explores the purity in a perfect love-match of wits and personalities.

Will believes there is no reason why two true minded people shouldn’t marry. Love doesn’t change with circumstances, instead it holds strong in the face of storms unshaken. It is a beacon, a guiding star to lost ships, invaluable but pinpointable. It is not a victim of Time, as Beauty always is. Love endures hours and weeks, until the last day of life. Will then says that if he is wrong, he recants his statement, and states that no man has ever truly loved.
 

Will’s Wordplay

“The marriage of true minds” suggests a union that is non-physical, Platonic and idealistic. Not one of the saucier sonnets.

“An ever-fixed mark” is a prominent oceanic navigational feature,. In the days before lighthouses, mariners used well known and prominent features on the land as a guide to fix their position at sea. The spires of coastal churches, towers, outcrops of rock of a particular shape or color, et cetera/ Beacons were no doubt also lit at the entrances to major ports, but there was no widespread network of lighthouses. The metaphor here is that the ever-fixed mark is permanent and unshakeable, always there as a guide to a lover.

Continuing with navigational metaphors, “to take the height of” something is to pinpoint an objects position to the horizon. A true love can help you navigate life.

The reaper of Time returns from the Procreation Sonnets. Here, instead of preserving your Beauty with a child, you can preserve it in memory of a great love.

Scholar’s Corner

Sonnet 116 is one of Shakespeare’s most famous love sonnets, but some scholars have argued the theme has been misunderstood. Hilton Landry believes the appreciation of 116 as a celebration of true love is mistaken,[1] in part because its context in the sequence of adjacent sonnets is not properly considered. Landry acknowledges the sonnet “has the grandeur of generality or a “universal significance,” but cautions that “however timeless and universal its implications may be, we must never forget that Sonnet 116 has a restricted or particular range of meaning simply because it does not stand alone.”[1] Carol Thomas Neely writes that, “Sonnet 116 is part of a sequence which is separate from all the other sonnets of Shakespeare because of their sense of detachment. They aren’t about the action of love and the object of that love is removed in this sequence which consists of Sonnets 94, 116, and 129”[2] This group of three sonnets doesn’t fit the mold of the rest of Shakespeare’s sonnets, therefore. They defy the typical concept and give a different perspective of what love is and how it is portrayed or experienced. “Though 116 resolves no issues, the poet in this part of the sequence acknowledges and accepts the fallibility of his love more fully than he could acknowledge that of the young man’s earlier” [2] Other critics of Sonnet 116[3] have argued that one cannot rely on the context of the sonnet to understand its tone. They argue “there is no indisputably authoritative sequence to them, we cannot make use of context as positive evidence for one kind of tone or another.”[3] Shakespeare doesn’t attempt to come to any significant conclusion within this particular sonnet because no resolution is needed.

References

1. Hilton Landry, The Marriage of True Minds: Truth and Error in Sonnet 116, Shakespeare Studies, 3 (1967) p.98 -110
2. Neely, Carol Thomas. PMLA, Vol. 92, No. 1. (pp. 83-95). Modern Language Association: Jan., 1977.
3. Garry Murphy, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, explicator, 39:1 (1980:Fall) p.39 – 41

Brooklyn Heights Promenade, Brooklyn

“The Brooklyn Heights Promenade will take your breath away. Made famous by cameo appearances in movies like Annie Hall and Moonstruck, it is one of the most romantic spots in New York City, and has been the destination for thousands of first dates, wedding proposals and anniversary celebrations. One-third of a mile long, it offers a vista of the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline and the majestic Brooklyn Bridge. Lined with flower beds, trees, benches and playgrounds, the promenade is a favorite destination for tourists, joggers, strollers, families and lovers.

Looking out on the East River, the promenade is bordered by grand townhouses and mansions, and is part of Brooklyn’s first Historic Preservation District. The adjacent neighborhood of charming brownstone homes and quiet streets is well worth investigating. Brooklyn Heights encapsulates the history of New York and America. The Dutch first appeared in 1645, forming the settlement of “Breuckelen” near the site of today’s Borough Hall. The bluffs of Brooklyn Heights were already a popular location in the 18th century when many of Manhattan’s early merchants built mansions there overlooking the city on the island below. It was from Brooklyn Heights that George Washington watched the Battle of Brooklyn unfold into a terrible defeat for the young Colonial Army. Under the cover of darkness on August 29th, Washington’s army crossed the East River from Fulton Ferry, below where the Brooklyn Bridge rises today, leaving Brooklyn to the British. Learn more about New York’s colonial past.

During the 1800’s, New York and Brooklyn boomed and many of New York’s wealthiest investors settled in Brooklyn Heights. In 1807, Robert Fulton captained his steamboat, The Clermont, from Brooklyn on its maiden voyage up the Hudson River. In 1814, Fulton gained a franchise to operate ferry service via steamboat from Brooklyn to Manhattan. As the population exploded, Brooklyn became a city in 1833, and throughout much of the 1800s was the third most populous city in America.

In the mid-1940s Robert Moses wanted to construct a new expressway right through the heart of Brooklyn Heights. He was stopped by the outcry of the Brooklyn Heights Association, and a solution emerged to build a two-tiered highway above the waterfront. The Promenade was constructed in part to insulate the neighborhood from the noise of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. It opened to the public in October 1950 and has been a magnet for local residents and visitors alike for over half a century.” [1]

References

1. http://www.nyharborparks.org/visit/brhe.html

ACTOR – Virginia Donohoe

Virginia is thrilled to be involved in the Sonnet Project and all things NYSX, having previously appeared in their production of Island and one wonderfully raucous ShakesBEER pub crawl. Favorite roles include: Viola in Twelfth Night, Phebe in As You Like It, Louise in The Underpants, Sorel Bliss in Hay Fever. She earned her MFA from Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Playhouse. Virginia lives in Los Angeles with her husband Rich and two crazy kids. They are nice and she likes them.

DIRECTOR – Jesse Gebryel

Jesse Gebryel is a screenwriter, director, and sunset chaser living in Sunnyside, NY. When he’s not traveling the world at lightning speed producing video for IBM, he uses his spare time to write and direct films.

PRODUCER – James Arden

James Arden has worked in front of the camera for 15+ years with HBO,NBC,WB, BBC and FOX. He’s taking time to work on the other side and is proud to participate in the Sonnet project.

Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
For that deep wound it gives my friend and me!
Is’t not enough to torture me alone,
But slave to slavery my sweet’st friend must be?
Me from myself thy cruel eye hath taken,
And my next self thou harder hast engrossed:
Of him, myself, and thee I am forsaken;
A torment thrice three-fold thus to be crossed.
Prison my heart in thy steel bosom’s ward,
But then my friend’s heart let my poor heart bail;
Whoe’er keeps me, let my heart be his guard;
Thou canst not then use rigour in my jail:
     And yet thou wilt; for I, being pent in thee,
    Perforce am thine, and all that is in me.

 
Analysis
Shakespeare curses his lover for hurting both he and his friend. It wasn’t enough to torture just one of them, but she had to make his friend her slave too? Her cruel attractions have made him no longer his own man, but the friend, who is like a second self, has been enslaved even more cruelly. Shakespeare has been abandoned by him, by himself, and by her; a triple torment multiplied by three. He would happily be her prisoner, if only he can bail out his friend. He begs to be his friend’s guard, that he might have companionship while the lady torments him. He concludes saying that because he belongs to her, everything that’s in him is hers, and his friend is in his heart.

 
Scholar’s Corner
Because sonnet 133 is the first to directly refer to the “friend”,[1] there is some controversy concerning the subject of that word. Joel Fineman argues that in this sonnet, the poet feels trapped by the Dark Lady, who represents the constraints of a heteronormative society. She has taken the “friend,” or the poet’s homosexual side, from him, preventing the poet from living in his self-created utopia of homosexuality with the Young Man, [2] Unlike the young man sequence, in which the poet “defines his own identity [. . .] as poet and lover,” in the Dark Lady sequence, particularly sonnet 133, “the poet-lover of the [D]ark [L]ady will discover both himself and his poetry in the loss produced by the fracture of [his ideal identification as homosexual]”. Other critics argue that the Dark Lady has enslaved a literal friend, the Young Man, [3] creating a love triangle between the poet, the Young Man and the Dark Lady. [4] “The suggestion is that the friend had gone to woo the lady for the poet and, according to friendship convention [. . .] the lady fell in love with the messenger”. [5] Leishman also calls her a “bad angel who has tempted away that good angel his friend”.[3]

 
References
1. Atkins, Carl D., ed. Shakespeare’s Sonnets With Three Hundred Years of Commentary. Cranbury, NJ: Rosemont Publishing & Printing Corp., 2007

2. Fineman, Joel. Shakespeare’s Perjured Eye: the Invention of Poetic Subjectivity in the Sonnets. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986

3. Leishman, J. B. Themes and Variations in Shakespeare’s Sonnets. New York: Hutchinson & Co., 1961.

4. Pequigney, Joseph. Such is My Love: A Study of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985

5. Mills, Laurens J. One Soul in Bodies Twain: Friendship in Tutor Literature and Stuart Drama. Bloomington: Principia Press, 1937

 
McGolrick Park Shelter Pavilion
Monsignor McGolrick Park is located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, between Driggs Avenue to the south, Russell Street to the west, Nassau Avenue to the north, and Monitor Street to the east.

 
History
The land for the park was acquired by the city in 1889 and the park was open by 1891. It was originally called Winthrop Park after an assemblyman, Col. Winthrop Jones, who was instrumental in obtaining the $132,825 appropriation for the purchase, and who was also the son of the Parks Commissioner. He died in 1890, shortly after the Park’s creation. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jones was a Maine native and co-owned a lumberyard at the corner of Kent and West Streets. In 1941 the park was renamed for Monsignor Edward J. McGolrick (1857-1938), pastor of St. Cecilia’s Roman Catholic Church nearby. Winthrop Jones had had no children, and so left no family in Greenpoint to oppose the renaming of the park he had helped establish.

 
The Pavillion
“In 1910, the architectural firm of Helmle and Huberty erected this pavilion here in Monsignor McGolrick Park. One of many Brooklyn buildings and structures designed by Helmle and Huberty, the crescent-shaped structure of brick and limestone features an elegant wood colonnade connecting two buildings. Each building served as a comfort station, one for men, and the other for women. The pavilion was designed to invoke the feeling of 17th and 18th century French garden structures. The structure is currently listed on the National Register and is protected as a New York City landmark.”

“Over the years, the structure, exposed to the elements, fell into disrepair. An $850,900 rehabilitation in 1985 provided a new roof, repaired and replaced the brick and stone walkways, removed graffiti, reconstructed the masonry, and replaced windows and doors. The reconstruction plan also reworked the shape of the structure to its original crescent plan, for it had been altered over time. The new interior rooms feature comfort station facilities as well as a community room, and kitchenette.”

“The 1985 reconstruction strayed slightly from the initial design, and a $552,000 renovation in 2001 paid for by Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden returned the pavilion to its original condition. A metal roof was installed over the colonnade, which was also raised by four feet. The renovation also removed old coats of paint from the base of the building. The brick, limestone, and granite received a cleaning and the masonry was repaired. On the inside of the buildings, replicas of the original ceiling fixtures were installed. The restrooms in the north building of the pavilion have been refitted with separate entrances for men and women and made handicap-accessible.”

“The architects Helmle and Huberty designed many notable buildings in Brooklyn during the early 1900s, including the Hotel Bossert in Brooklyn Heights, the Spanish Baroque St. Barbara’s Roman Catholic Church in Bushwick, and the Greenpoint Savings Bank in Greenpoint. Above all, the two most famous structures Helmle and Huberty designed are located in Prospect Park: the limestone and yellow brick Tennis House (1910), and the Boathouse (1904). The pavilion in McGolrick park along with the winged victory War Memorial and the Monitor and Merrimac Monument adorn this park with an impressive array of artwork.” [1]

 
References
1. http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/mcgrmcgolrickpark/monuments/1051

ACTOR – David Lapkin
David Lapkin is very excited to be working with The Shakespeare Exchange again, after previously appearing in staged readings of The Island and Much Ado About Nothing. A graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, some of his other shows include Black Snow (Yale Rep Theater), Measure for Measure (Pearl Theatre Company) and For Those Of Us Who Have Lived in France (Blue Coyote Theater Company). His voice was also heard on cartoons such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kirby: Right Back At Ya!, and Pokemon. Thanks to Vince, Ross, and everyone at The Sonnet Project for this opportunity.

DIRECTOR – Mischa Auzins
Mischa Auzins is a NYC based freelance screenwriter, director, and producer, originally from Sydney, Australia.
In Sydney, where he begun his film career, Mischa worked for a number of years, mainly in the advertising
industry. Later on, he ventured away from film towards IT. Yet, even as exciting as that was, it wasn’t
exciting enough to quench his creative urges. Coming full circle, Mischa has returned to his first passion in
the visual medium of storytelling.

Aside from working on numerous films, shorts, music videos and commercials, Mischa’s recently
completed works include the films #3C, Vox and Mosquito. His next film, First Kiss, currently in preproduction, will be produced later in 2013.

Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,
When I against myself with thee partake?
Do I not think on thee, when I forgot
Am of my self, all tyrant, for thy sake?
Who hateth thee that I do call my friend,
On whom frown’st thou that I do fawn upon,
Nay, if thou lour’st on me, do I not spend
Revenge upon myself with present moan?
What merit do I in my self respect,
That is so proud thy service to despise,
When all my best doth worship thy defect,
Commanded by the motion of thine eyes?
     But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind,
     Those that can see thou lov’st, and I am blind.

Analysis

Sonnet 149 is the words of an abused lover who would rather stay than go.

Billy asks his cruel lover, how can she say he doesn’t love her when he sides with her over himself? He thinks on her while forgetting himself. He punishes himself to suit her whims. He is to her as a good and loyal servant; all of the best in him worships the worst in her, and all it takes is one look to command him. But, he bids his love, go on abusing him, because he realizes she love people who can see, and when he is blind to her abuse.

Will’s Wordplay

Throughout the sonnet he has listed her faults, but concludes admitting he is blind. Although she hates Will, she loves “those that can see; for although he is blind to her faults, she still refuses him, she must love only those who don’t want her. A classic case of wanting what you can’t have!

Washington Street, DUMBO

Washington Street in DUMBO is a scenic location with a lot of history. DUMBO, an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, is a neighborhood in Brooklyn. It encompasses two sections: one located between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, which connect Brooklyn to Manhattan across the East River, and another that continues east from the Manhattan Bridge to the Vinegar Hill area. A staircase connects Washington Street to the Brooklyn Bridge walkway.

On December 18, 2007, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to designate the Dumbo section of Brooklyn as the city’s 90th historic district.

Fun Facts About Washington Street

The cardboard box was invented in the Robert Gair building on Washington Street by Robert Gair, a Scottish emigrant, which is why the area was known as Gairsville for a long time.[1] The building is now home to Etsy.[2]

The view from Washington Street appears very often on the TV show “Gossip Girl” to inform the viewer of the scenario change from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

References

1. “About Dumbo”. Dumbo NYC, Brooklyn. DumboNYC.com. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
2. Graham, Jefferson. (2013, May 7). It’s hip to be tech in Brooklyn’s Dumbo. USA TODAY, p 5B.

ACTOR – Dana Watkins

Dana Watkins was last seen in The Culture Project’s production of Tennessee Williams last full length play In Masks Outrageous and Austere. Other roles include Achilles among others in Verse Theatre Manhattan’s production of Kings, and My First Time which enjoyed a two and a half year run at New World Stages, F. Scott Fitzgerald in the world premiere of Allan Knee’s The Jazz Age at 59E59, Marat/Sade (Corday), Native Son (Jan Erlone), Macbeth (Banquo) and The Cherry Orchard (Trofimov) at the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Charles in The French Lieutenant’s Woman at The Fulton (world premiere), Kafka in Stanley Walden’s Letter to My Father at the Kaye Playhouse (U.S. premiere), John Worthing in “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Scapino in “Scapino!”, Hal in Henry IV parts I and II at the Workshop, and Poe in the one man show An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe. Dana has appeared in innumerable plays and readings and workshops, working with Naked Angels, the Mint Theatre Company, the Westbeth Theatre Center, Expanded Arts, and the sketch comedy group Commedia Dell’ Jilles among others. TV: “OLTL,” “Guiding Light,” “The City.” Film: Christmas with Holly, How to be a Man, The Empath, Dreamgirl, Unbridled. Dana Watkins has been performing since the age of seven. In his nine years as a boy soprano both in the chorus and as a soloist at the Metropolitan and New York City Operas he performed in almost every opera with children, including The Magic Flute, Tosca, Gianni Schicchi, The Cunning Little Vixen, Wozzec and Billy Budd and working with such directors as Frank Corsaro, John Dexter and Franco Zeffirelli. He toured annually with both companies, as well as performing with many east coast opera companies. Other roles include Amahl and the Night Visitors at BAM (directed by Giancarlo Menotti), and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem. He has produced both the Off Broadway production of Allan Knee’s The Jazz Age at 59E59 theatre and Black Nativity Now Off Broadway at The Theatre at St Clements with his company Lost Generation productions. Graduate of SUNY Purchase.

DIRECTOR – Dylan Endyke

BIO COMING SOON

Love is too young to know what conscience is,
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:
For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body’s treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason,
But rising at thy name doth point out thee,
As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,
He is contented thy poor drudge to be,
To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.
     No want of conscience hold it that I call
     Her love, for whose dear love I rise and fall.

Analysis

Sonnet 151 explores a man’s powerlessness in the face of his carnal responses.

Willy admonishes his lover, asking her to not accuse him of sin, since she might find herself guilty of the same; specifically her infidelity of sleeping with his friend. Willy’s sin, on the other hand, is self-betrayal by allowing his body rather than his soul to steer his actions. While his soul may have loftier goals, his body’s “rising” and “falling” reduces poor Willy to no more than his phallus, and by giving in to his desires, he enslaves himself to his lascivious lady.
 

Will’s Wordplay

The bawdy imagery of the poem, from Willy’s willy or “nobler part” in line 6 “rising at thy name”, its “rise and fall” at line 14, has been discussed extensively. Hot dog!
 

Scholar’s Corner

Sonnet 151 has been compared to a verse by 17th–century author Joseph Swetnam—published in 1615 under the pseudonym Thomas Tell-Troth, in a pamphlet titled The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women—satirizing the vices of women. “The woman’s best part call it I dare / Wherein no man comes but must stand bare / And let him be never so stout / T’will take him down before he goes out.” Both poems imply that sex subordinates the man to the woman.

Nathan’s Hotdogs, Coney Island, Brooklyn

How many can you eat? The original Nathan’s Famous restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

Nathan’s began as a nickel hot dog stand in Coney Island in 1916 and bears the name of co-founder Nathan Handwerker, an polish immigrant, who started the business with his wife, Ida Handwerker. Ida created the hot dog recipe they used, and Ida’s grandmother created the secret spice recipe. Handwerker, an employee of Feltman’s German Gardens, was encouraged by singing waiters Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante to go into business in competition with his former employer. He and Ida spent their life savings of $300 to begin the business. Handwerker undercut Feltman’s by charging five cents for a hot dog when his former employer was charging ten. At a time when food regulation was in its infancy and the pedigree of the hot dog particularly suspect, Handwerker made sure that men wearing surgeon’s smocks were seen eating at his stand to reassure potential customers. The business proved immensely popular. The expansion of the chain was overseen by Nathan Handwerker’s son, Murray Handwerker.

A second branch on Long Beach Road in Oceanside, New York, opened in 1959, and another debuted in Yonkers in 1965. Murray Handwerker was named the President of Nathan’s Famous in 1968. All were sold by the Handwerker family to a group of private investors in 1987, at which point Nathan’s was franchised and a great number of establishments were opened around New York City and beyond. The company went public in 1993 and Bill Handwerker, the founder’s grandson, left the company three years later.

The original Nathan’s still exists on the same site that it did in 1916. Having been open for business every day, 365 days a year, the stand was forced to close on 29 October 2012 due to Hurricane Sandy. Despite a small fire on 4 May 2013, the stand re-opened later that month. Service is provided year-round inside, and during the summer additional walk-up windows are opened to serve the larger seasonal crowds.
 

4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest

The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest has been held at the original location on Coney Island every year since about 1972 in conjunction with Independence Day. According to legend, on July 4, 1916, four immigrants held a hot dog eating contest at Nathan’s Famous stand on Coney Island to settle an argument about who was the most patriotic. A man by the name of Jim Mullen is said to have won, although accounts vary. In 2010, however, promoter Mortimer Matz, admitted to having fabricated this legend with a man named Max Rosey in the early 1970s as part of a publicity stunt. The legend grew over the years, to the point where The New York Times and other publications were known to have repeatedly listed 1916 as the inaugural year, although no evidence of the contest exists prior to 1972. The 1978 annual contest was held on Memorial Day rather than July 4. In 1993, a one-time, one-on-one contest under the Brooklyn Bridge was held between Michael DeVito and Orio Ito.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the competition was dominated by Japanese contestants, particularly Takeru Kobayashi, who won six consecutive from 2001-2006. The Japanese competitors introduced advanced eating and training techniques that shattered previous competitive eating world records. The rise in popularity of the event coincided with the surge in popularity of the worldwide competitive eating circuit.

In recent years, a considerable amount of pomp and circumstance have surrounded the days leading up to the event, which has become an annual spectacle of competitive entertainment. The event is presented on an extravagant stage complete with colorful live announcers and an overall party atmosphere. The day before the contest is a public weigh-in with the mayor of New York City. Some competitors don flamboyant costumes and/or makeup, while others may promote themselves with eating-related nicknames. On the morning of the event, they have a heralded arrival to Coney Island on the “bus of champions” and are called to the stage individually during introductions. In 2013, six-time defending champion Joey Chestnut was escorted to the stage in a sedan chair.

The competition draws many spectators and worldwide press coverage. In 2007, an estimated 50,000 came out to witness the event. In 2004 a three-story-high “Hot Dog Eating Wall of Fame” was erected at the site of the annual contest. The wall lists past winners, and has a digital clock which counts down the minutes until the next contest. Despite substantial damage suffered at Nathan’s due to Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, the location was repaired, reopened, and the 2013 event was held as scheduled.

ACTOR – Richard Price

Off Broadway: The Waiting Room (Billie Holiday Theatre). Off-Off Broadway: Karl Marx and Jimmy in East Side Stories (The Metropolitan Playhouse). Regional: Nigel in Rock n’ Roll (Studio Theatre, DC); Lodovico in Othello (Folger Shakespeare Theatre); Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing (Olney Summer Shakespeare Festival); Robert in Boeing Boeing and a Clown in The 39 Steps (New Harmony Theatre); The 39 Steps, The Crucible, The Elephant Man (Northern Stage); Last Gas (Opera House Arts); The 39 Steps (Mason Street Warehouse); Oliver!, Shakespeare in Hollywood, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hope Summer Repertory Theatre); The Taming of the Shrew, The Grapes of Wrath, La Bete (Theatre at Monmouth); The Odd Couple (Carousel Dinner Theatre.) Television: Law and Order, All My Children. Training: M.F.A. Penn State, BA Towson University. Love and gratitude to my wife for all her support.

DIRECTOR – Stephanie Gardner

Stephanie is a writer and director for theater and film. To view work and learn more about her artistic endeavors, please visit thestephaniegardner.com. As a filmmaker, she has written, directed and produced over fourteen short films, most recently, And If I Stay, a dark romantic drama shot in Montreal (andifistay.com). Other credits include, Ten to One Films, where she wrote and directed a film a month for ten months; Love Yourself by Tha Ghecko Brothas, a music video she directed which speaks out against domestic violence; and video and editing work for Yale University, and Gonzalez & Company Insurance Agency. Here´s what Stephanie has to say about her work:

Above all else, I am an artist. No matter where in the world I am, or what occupies my time, I hope to constantly create artistic works, be it theater or film, music or poetry. Works that stimulate. Pieces that provoke. Experiences that cause people to think and feel in unimaginable ways. Most importantly, I aim to bring people together to create and experience these works together.
As a writer, I am fascinated by the intricacies of human interactions, especially exploring dynamics and power shifts in intimate relationships. As a director, I endeavor to discover rich and new terrain, to reach deep, raw emotions and present situations that are often uncomfortable. As a producer, I seek to bring together talented and interesting people to create works of art that stimulate audiences to think and feel beyond their everyday realm.

I have written, directed and produced musical comedies; stage plays; and short films, for both live action and animation. Additionally, I write feature length screenplays, and have received a Masters of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Asia, where I lived in Singapore and travelled South East Asia and beyond. My works have been produced internationally and in the United States, including the District of Columbia, New York, Pennsylvania, and Singapore. I am a graduate of The George Washington University with a Bachelors degree in Dramatic Literature, Music, and Creative Writing.

To view work and learn more about Stephanie’s artistic endeavors, please visit thestephaniegardner.com.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY – Susan Chau

Susan Chau currently lives in New York, working in film and television along with some online media. She received her MFA in film production at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia, based in Singapore. Early during her time in New York she interned at the production company, Kontent Reel. There she assisted the editor in the 6 part documentary series Design E2, a documentary on sustainable architecture. The series aired on PBS, an affiliate of the BBC. In May 2012 she made Josephine, a narrative short, which she wrote and directed. The film was supported by Panavision, which awarded the project The New Filmmaker’s Grant.

Past works include, LIYA a story of friendship between two women; and Antiquarian, a documentary about a Russian-Jewish Sculptor, who converted his gallery into an antique shop where he is now a watchmaker. Her latest project is Parachute, an educational music video she directed for PBS Kids.