Report: Nearly half of London's students have not been to a theater or seen Shakespeare.

Despite living in the same city that William Shakespeare wrote many of his plays and saw them enacted, a new report from London's Social Mobility Commission says that almost half of London's students haven't been to a theater to see a play, never mind The Globe Theater reconstructed to showcase the Bard's work.

In the past decade, The Globe Theater--through donations by Deutsche Bank--has had 150,000 London students see a Shakespeare play free of charge, with 20,000 alone visiting in the past year treated to see The Taming of the Shrew.

The study showed that specifically 44% of students had never seen a theatrical performance. Indeed, Georghia Ellinas, head of learning at Globe Education, told the BBC, "We hear from teachers that some London school students who come to the Globe, living only two or three miles away, have never seen the Thames before."

The reason seems to stem from an income gap, where poorer students and their families can't afford the discretionary income required to see the theater, never mind the cost of traveling public transportation for the six mile round trek.

The Social Mobility Commission looked into various activities and income gap issues, and found it wasn't just the theater, per BBC:


"It found that trips to the theatre, galleries, the cinema or the zoo were all more likely for wealthier families - with the likelihood of such visits rising and falling in a way directly linked to family income."


I'm not sure how Shakespeare would have taken this to know seeing a hyena exhibit or checking out the next Fast and Furious entry are as difficult for many to see than one of his plays.

Does this mean Vin Diesel = Shakespeare?

At least in one sense.

Copies of Shakespeare's First Folio to begin hitchhiking across America.

To celebrate the anniversary of Shakespeare's 400th birthday, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is sending copies of the Bard's First Folio on a tour of the country, starting today in...Oklahoma? Because if we're all being honest, Tulsa is a natural start for all things from Renaissance England.

There are 233 known remaining copies of Shakespeare's First Folio in existence of the 750 originally printed, which is a strikingly high number, all things considered. A third have survived 400 years? By comparison, Sir Thomas Malory wrote Le Morte d'Arthur (a version of the King Arthur fable) in 1485, and there are only two known first edition copies in existence today, one of which is incomplete. Shakespeare's First Folio is doing pretty well by comparison.

The Folger Shakespeare Library owns roughly a third of those remaining 233 copies--82 to be precise--and will circulate a half dozen of those copies across America. Oklahoma included, each of the 50 states will host a copy anywhere from three to four weeks, but only at one location per state. This is great if you live in Rhode Island (Brown University, April 11 – May 1), and not so hot if you live in Alaska (Juneau, Alaska State Libraries, Jul 26 – Aug 24).

But nothing's hot in Alaska, I guess.

Mother wants texts banned from high school, while mildly confused about plots.

"My feeling is once something is that graphic, is there not another book? Cal is not Hamlet. There are other books about oppression."

That would be Siobhan Fallon Hogan speaking, a mother of a senior at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional School District in New Jersey--and she's none too pleased about the books and plays her nearly-adult son has to read for school.

Hogan has started a petition, garnering 250 signatures, and has taken her case to the school board to have two specific texts removed from required reading lists: the aforementioned Cal, and the play Death and the Maiden. Both texts are award winners, both are read widely in high schools across the country, and both usually aren't banned.

Cal does involve some violence, and includes a sex scene. Death and the Maiden has a back story about rape and similarly involves some violence. Both are seemingly too much for Hogan or her son's tender sensibilities to handle.

But Hogan apparently hasn't read much of Shakespeare's dramas, and especially not Hamlet, if she thinks it's a feel-good story. Why? Let's count up the deaths in Hamlet--and how they died--shall we?

• Hamlet is stabbed to death by a rapier coated in poison by Laertes!
• Laertes is stabbed to death by a rapier coated in poison by Hamlet! (What timing!)
• Gertrude is accidentally poisoned by Claudius!
• Claudius is poisoned in a couple ways by Hamlet!
• Opehlia decides to commit suicide by drowning!
• Hamlet's dad is poisoned through his ear!
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are both killed by pirates!
• And I don't know why I'm using so many exclamation points, but it seems appropriate!!

This doesn't even include Horatio, who was all set to off himself as well, but Hamlet talks him out of suicide, saying that someone needs to be left to tell the story of what happened. As if that isn't the most obvious thing Shakespeare ever wrote.

No decision has come down yet from the school board as to whether the two texts will be removed from the required reading list.

One thing is for certain though. Hogan was right. Cal is no Hamlet. Cal is a lot less violent and a lot more gentle to read.

Hamlet might have been fat. Or maybe he was skinny. Maybe he was a yo-yo dieter. Everyone's confused.

The one problem Shakespearean scholars have is that ol' Bill isn't coming out with any new material, and there is only so much you can research a play or sonnet before things get repetitive. And things got repetitive a long, long time ago with Shakespearean studies.

Which leads to a recent article on Slate by Isaac Butler that examines whether Hamlet was actually fat, and not the fairly healthy--dare say skinny--man most envision and portrayed in numerous adaptations of the play.

That's right. Things have become so thin (heh-heh) on Shakespearean studies, scholars are looking at character waistlines.

After examining various incarnations of the word "fat," as well as the word's use--and non-use--in alternative publications of the play, as well as looking to the original actor who played Hamlet, Butler believes we need to stop envisioning the Danish prince as skinny.

"The only way to break this cycle is to create a counter-tradition of overweight Hamlets, opening up the role to actors we would not have normally considered," Butler writes.

Because I know I, for one, can't enjoy Hamlet without knowing his BMI.