Twelfth Night: Act 1, Scene 4

Since we last saw Viola back in act 1, scene 2, she's had a haircut, found some clothes that look exactly like the clothes her drowned brother wore, adopted the name "Cesario", and has managed to inveigle her way into the inner circle of Duke Orsino. Whatever else she is, she's resourceful. 

As we move forward through Twelfth Night, here are some things to keep in mind:

  1. In Shakespeare's time, women weren't allowed to act on the stage, so all the female roles would have been played by boys. This makes everybody's total inability to realize that Cesario is actually a girl much more understandable.

  2. If you are going to see a production of Twelfth Night, please do not get hung up on how much Cesario does NOT look like a boy (unless you're seeing an all-male production). It's called "willing suspension of disbelief".

  3. Having said that, please do feel free to laugh at how totally clueless everybody is about Cesario's true gender identity. No one in Illyria is particularly sharp on the uptake.

Tune in Thursday to see what happens when "Cesario" meets Olivia!

Dramatis Personae | 1. 1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 

Twelfth Night: Act 1, Scene 3

Everyone has been talking about the Countess Olivia, so let's swing over to her household and see what's going on over there!

I love Sir Andrew. He's a total idiot, but such an endearing one. Sir Toby, meanwhile, is a dick. 

FUN FACT: Maria's name is pronounced "mah-RYE-ah" and not "mah-REE-ah". Fortunately, "Toby" and "Andrew" are pronounced pretty much like you'd expect them to be.

Dramatis Personae | 1. 1 | 1.2 | 1.3

Twelfth Night: Act 1, Scene 2

My scene-by-scene re-telling of Twelfth Night saunters on, with today's comic seeing the introduction of one of Shakespeare's great female leads: Viola. 

FUN FACT: The name "Viola" isn't actually mentioned by any character until the last scene of the play! We literally have no idea what her real name is until the last scene. 

OTHER FUN FACT: "Viola" is pronounced "VIE-oh-lah" and not, as I originally thought in my youth,  "vee-OH-lah". One is a famous Shakespearean heroine, the other is a massively underrated string instrument.

And don't ask me about her cunning plan to disguise herself as a singing eunuch. I don't know. I just don't know.

Dramatis Personae | 1.1 | 1.2

 

Twelfth Night: Act 1, Scene 1

You've checked out the dramatis personae, so let's get right into the opening scene of Twelfth Night, with one of Shakespeare's most famous opening lines!

Orsino is such a drama queen. He's also kind of an obsessive stalker at this point, with no respect for boundaries or for other people's feelings.

Don't be like Orsino, guys. He's got some good lines, but his interpersonal skills need help. Tune in next week to see if he gets it!

Good Tickle Brain on Air!

When I was at the Folger Shakespeare Library, I had the good fortune to chat with Austin Tichenor of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, who kindly interviewed me for their weekly podcast. It is now up and you can listen to me and Austin chatting about Good Tickle Brain! 

Also (and I swear I'll stop harping on about this soon) be sure to check out my Patreon page! For a small monthly subscription, you not only help me continue making stick figure Shakespeare comics, but you also get access to a variety of fun, exclusive perks!

Twelfth Night: Dramatis Personae

Time for another scene-by-scene retelling of an entire Shakespeare play! This time around I'm going to try my hand at adapting my first comedy, and it's one of my favorites: Twelfth Night. 

Let's get thing started with a good old who's who...

LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!

Also, be sure to check out my Patreon page! For a small monthly subscription, you not only help me continue making stick figure Shakespeare comics, but you also get access to a variety of fun, exclusive perks!

Guffaw and Order: Touchstone

On the opposite end of the clown spectrum from Dogberry (totally oblivious idiot) is Touchstone (brilliant, witty conversationalist). However, he often goes overboard, which can be just as incomprehensible...

Moral of the story: Don't get into an argument with Touchstone.

Tune in again next week, when we'll launch on another scene-by-scene adventure!

In case you missed it, Good Tickle Brain is now on Patreon! Help support my work creating stick figure Shakespeare comics and get fun rewards, like bonus comics and video drawing tutorials!

Guffaw and Order: Dogberry

Shakespeare's clowns have a reputation, founded or unfounded, for being extremely challenging for modern audiences to digest. In this week's comics, we take a closer look at one particularly egregious offender: Dogberry.

Poor old Dogberry... Nobody understands him.

...no, I mean, seriously... nobody understands a word he's saying...

In case you missed it, Good Tickle Brain is now on Patreon! Help support my work creating stick figure Shakespeare comics and get fun rewards, like bonus comics and video drawing tutorials!

Fun at the Folger, part 4: Speak the Speech

It's another looooong post today, folks, but that's because I just haven't been able to stop reliving my dream trip to the Folger Shakespeare Library. This is the last one, though, and wraps up the highlights of my Free Folger Friday talk on April 29. Thanks to everyone who came!

First, I had to show up early before the talk for a sound check.

You see... about a year ago I was daydreaming about being interviewed about my comic and thought "Oh gosh, if anyone ever asks me what my favorite speech from Shakespeare is, I'd better have a good answer." So I went out and memorized one of the most notorious monologues in the entire canon, the Salic Law speech from Henry V 1.2. I've always had a soft spot for this speech, despite its reputation as a horrible, rambling, brain-twister of a speech that is almost always cut down in performance. In case you're interested, here's one of my favorite renditions of the speech, courtesy of the great Tony Church:

Anyways, when Brandon, the Folger Theatre's sound guy, asked me to talk so he could adjust the levels of my mic, I seized the opportunity to finally deliver the Salic Law speech on stage and, more importantly, in front of a captive audience who couldn't run away. It was glorious.

The talk itself was a conversation between me at Kate Pitt, who works with the Folger's public programs unit and is an absolutely lovely human being. We chatted about how I got into Shakespeare (my dad's fault, mostly), how I started drawing stick figures (literally cannot draw anything else), and, most excitingly, the future of Good Tickle Brain.

Actually, I'm really excited about going full-time on Good Tickle Brain. There are SO many projects I want to work on, and now I can at least pretend that I'll have enough time to get to all of them. (If you're interested in supporting me, please visit the Good Tickle Brain Patreon page, which I've just launched. More on that later...)

Then it was time for Q&A with the audience! 

To be perfectly honest, I've only seen Timon of Athens once in my life. It was a brilliant production with some devastating performances, but much-younger-me totally failed to engage with the material, which crucially didn't involve people running around hitting each other with swords. I'd actually genuinely love to see Timon again and give it another chance, now that I am older and pretending to be wiser.

Anyways... if you're in the DC area you should totally go see the Folger's production of Timon of Athens next year because (a) it doesn't get performed very often and who knows when you'll have a chance to see it again, and (b) it's probably going to be awesome. 

After the Q&A, a large whiteboard was rolled out and I did some live-drawing. It wasn't my best work, artistically, because I've never drawn my stick figures that large before, but it got the point across. The point being "STICK FIGURES ARE NOT HARD TO DRAW". 

I then asked the audience to give me a secondary character from Shakespeare's plays, about whom I would then draw an impromptu three-panel play. Someone (sorry, I can't remember your name!) shouted out "Toby Belch", so I got to work. 

Here's the final comic, cleaned up from its whiteboard incarnation:

It may not be my best work, but it's the first time I've tried improv comic-ing, which was quite a lot of fun!

Anyways, a HUGE "thank you!" to everyone who showed up to my talk and to everyone who stopped by afterwards to chat and get things signed. You were such a great audience, so warm and welcoming, that I complete forgot to be a nervous wreck at the prospect of speaking for the first time in public about my comic. 

If you want to see photos of the event, check out this album on Facebook - all photos by Brittany Diliberto over at Bee Two Sweet Photography. 

Thanks (again) to the Folger for inviting me to come play in their wonderful playground, and thanks (again and always) to Kate Pitt for masterminding everything and geeking out with me about how awesome Emilia is. I can't wait to come back.