Exit, Pursued by a Bear

The greatest (or perhaps the wackiest) stage direction in the history of theater appears in Act 3, Scene 3 of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale”:

“Exit, pursued by a bear.”

It’s rare to find a fan of Shakespeare who doesn’t laugh out loud at this stage direction, but it appears to be a serious issue for Will: The character who is “pursued by a bear” (Antigonus) is actually killed off-stage by the marauding critter. Pity the poor modern director who has to figure out how to make this stage direction work without turning it into an SNL skit.

But this is pretty serious business after all. Take a look at the Media page and see what my security camera picked up in Breckenridge earlier this week. Yikes!

As a reminder, my book A Memorable Honor:  Shakespeare, Lincoln, and the Art of Leadership is now an Amazon bestseller and hot new release.  It will be published on September 15.  You can preorder today on Amazon.com and the Barnes and Noble website. The book is an Amazon bestseller and hot new release. Even the bears are excited!

Until next time.

Frank

P. S. If you haven’t done so, please add your name to the “Who Art Thou” link below to receive updates as we get closer to the September 15 publication ofA Memorable Honor: Shakespeare, Lincoln and the Art of Leadership.