Femnista: Star Wars / General News

With Rogue One coming out in December, I decided to capitalize on the opportunity to increase our readership by featuring Star Wars as our November / December 2016 theme. I’m searching for contributors! So far Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker, the Droids, and the Women of Star Wars have been claimed.

What would YOU like to write about? Han Solo? Chewy? The origins of George Lucas’ inspiration and the evolution of the franchise? The villains? Relationship dynamics? The spin-off novels and comic books? Please sign up! Leave a comment or fire me off an e-mail (for those that already have it) with what topic you’d like to cover.

The DEADLINE is Oct 20th. (If you choose Rogue One as your topic, you’ll have a December deadline, after the film’s release.) I’m open to multiple submissions from the same writers, so if you’re a total fan, no fear: you can contribute more than one article.

I’m also looking for suggestions for next year’s themes! What do you want to read?

General updates: Femnista now has a Twitter and  Tumblr account. Please follow us on both. It may take me awhile to tweet / reblog the archives. Thanks for being patient. As always, I’m grateful to anyone who shares the blog / webzine with friends and family. Please encourage them to sign up for our mailing list or add us to their blogroll, so they never miss an update.

West Side Story: The Updated Romeo and Juliet

JULY / AUG 2016: BY CAROL STARKEY

Leonard Berstein took Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and made it applicable to more modern audiences. While no one would say Romeo and Juliet is irrelevant, Bernsteins’s story takes on a life of its own. With numerous musical numbers and strong actors, West Side Story is a musical not soon forgotten.

Shakespeare’s World: The Globe

JULY / AUG 2016: BY MARIANNA KAPLUN

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players

What do we know about Shakespeare’s theatre? We always associate theatrical Shakespeare’s world with the name of the great English Queen Elizabeth I Tudor. And, definitely, it’s very true. In 1576 Elizabethan drama entered an entirely new era. James Burbage, a prosperous joiner, built a theatre in the style of an amphitheater near Bishopsgate in London and called it the Theatre (the word “theatre” had a meaning “the art of writing and producing plays”). Later, two others theatres opened north of the City of London: the Fortune in 1600 and the Red Bull in 1605. By then, on the south bank of the Thames on Bankside had appeared Rose in 1587, the Swan in 1595 and, finally, the Globe in 1599.

Anonymous: The Authorship Debate

JULY / AUG 2016: BY LILA DONOVAN

William Shakespeare is widely known all over the world as the talented writer of famous works such as Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, etc. He explores the human condition through his work and many of his characters are universal. At the same time he made his writing sound beautiful and poetic.

We Will Show Our Duty: The Avenging Sons in “Hamlet”

JULY / AUG 2016: BY RACHEL KOVACINY

Early in the first act of Hamlet, Claudius chastises his nephew for continuing to mourn his dead father, the late king. He says, “‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father.” He acknowledges that sons are “bound In filial obligation for some term To do obsequious sorrow.” But enough is enough, Claudius insists. Hamlet has fulfilled his obligations and should move on with his life now.

Hamlet, of course, disagrees.

Of Crowns and Changing Fortunes: Shakespeare’s Richard II

JULY / AUG 2016: BY LIANNE M. BERNARDO

For heaven’s sake let us sit upon the ground

And tell sad stories of the death of kings:

How some have been deposed, some slain in war,

Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,

Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed,

All murdered. For within the hollow crown

That rounds the mortal temples of a king

Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits […]

• III, ii, 150-157

Richard II is a historical play written by William Shakespeare, the first of the Henriad preceding the War of the Roses cycle. Readers may be familiar with the play from the first series of the BBC production The Hollow Crown in which Ben Whishaw played the titular character, or from the recent RSC stage production starring David Tennant. The play holds a curious place among canon in that it’s not staged as frequently due to its introspective nature. Its structural nature is also different from many of his other plays, being one of the few completely written in verse. Nonetheless Richard II is an intriguing play worth checking out for all of its rich themes and characterizations.