Tales From Shakespeare: Folios & Follies (2021)
Using film to focus on the smaller moments & more human details of Shakespeare's most famous stories.
And also a bunch of jokes.
“As the writer/director of the piece, a lot of this comes from my own time onstage in Shakespeare productions. The vast majority of the tales (& the postscripts) grew out of my own experiences on stage, trying to share a modicum of what it feels like to share the stage with an actor/actress that is really inhabiting their role. Sharing the stage with someone like that creates such a vital connection that I felt I wanted to bring the audience into that intimate proximity and allow them to be a part of it- in much closer (cinematic) confines rather than witnessing a story in its classical theatrical setting. The list of stories we draw from almost exactly mirrors my own Shakespearean stage resume (Much Ado, Midsummer, Hamlet, Mac, R&J, Winter's Tale). Being in a play, always gave me ample opportunity to reflect on moments that struck me as noteworthy- whether sublime or peculiar. Regarding the latter of those, while all of our vignettes are told with love of their source material- some of them lovingly point out and explore short-comings- the sexism of Shakespeare's time being a large one.”
Nathaniel Scott
Among the shorts:
Romeo & Juliet: Seasons (4 vignettes that seek to take the poetry of Romeo & Juliet and share the love and language with couples of all ages).
Ophelia, Lady of Denmark & Hamlet, King of Denmark (vignettes that follow characters we know- to their graves- and from their graves).
The Macbeths: Sound & The Macbeths: Fury (a tale that looks at wrongly gaining the good and a tale that looks at losing love and life in dreams and darkness).
A Midsummer's Tale & A Dream Ever After...
Much Ado About the Something & A Little Ado About After...
Two Ladies of Venice...
And more surprises along the way.
