Act I: Witch Hunts    Act II: Power Plays    Act III: The Uses of Adversity

This Netprov project remixes video vignettes of the character contests from Shakespeare with the power-plays of our time. The work features multi-layered video and invites you to add words to the text flow, contributing to the politico/poetical drama.

• This video is a screen recording, capturing two loops through the Netprov live feed on August 8, 2018.

For each of the three acts, Witch Hunts, Power Plays, and The Uses of Adversity, participants can add fresh words to the work. Players are encouraged to borrow liberally from Shakespeare, from social media, remixing characters and scenarios that may illuminate or throw shade on current events, without naming real names, only literary ones. Directions: Please add text to this project by typing into the google form below. Or tweet to one of these hashtags: #witchhunts #powerplays #usesofadversity.  Please keep text contributions short and sweet!

ADD YOUR TEXT HERE! AND…Don’t forget to hit submit at the bottom!

At a loss for words? Try one of these online tools to automatically generate quotes, insults, dialogue… then alter and paste the remixed text into the form above.

• Random Shakespeare Dialogue Generator https://phrasegenerator.com/shakespeare
  Generates random Shakespearean monologue and poetry. Revel in deep metaphor. © 2018 Luke Rissacher.
• RANDOM SHAKESPEARE INSULTS GENERATOR
  The words and insults used by Shakespeare will be selected at random in a variety of combinations! http://www.literarygenius.info/a2-shakespeare-insult-generator.htm
• Shakespeare’s Insult Generator  
  This is a prop from the RSC and Google’s Midsummer Nights Dreaming (2013)  http://insult.dream40.org/
• Sonnet Generator
  https://www.poem-generator.org.uk/sonnet/

Special Thanks to:  Pete Willemsen for his code in Processing. Shakespeare in Motion Dancers – Rebecca Katz Harwood, Matthew Wagner, Kevin Dustrude. Sword players – Rebekah Meyer and Kayla Peters, coached by Tom Isbell. Additional video art by Kathy McTavish. The background videos were created in the Motion and Media Across Disciplines Lab at University of Minnesota Duluth, with help from Dan Fitzpatrick, Lisa Fitzpatrick, and Noah Miller.

This Netprov project repurposes experimental videos originally created for Remixing Shakespeare, a collaborative live performance event staged at Karpeles Manuscript Museum in partnership with The Folger Shakespeare Library, University of Minnesota Duluth, and KUMD radio. In honor of the national tour of Shakespeare’s First Folio, the band Low created original music to accompany early silent film adaptations of Shakespeare and improvised the live score to the night of experimental video projections.

Read more about the original presentation of Remixing Shakespeare here: https://joellynrock.com/portfolio/remixing-shakespeare/

“Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.”

Here are some screen grabs of text feed layered onto the background videos…