E!-Online Presents
(The following article was written by Ken Neville for E!-Online. Mr. Neville used excerpts from an original Shakespeare channeling that Amy Bortner gave in October of 1996 exclusively for E!-Online.)
Q. Dan Quayle once criticized Murphy Brown for providing bad role models. How about Romeo and Juliet as role models to teenagers killing themselves for love?
A. I certainly did not want to establish a role model for adolescents in handling their passions. This was an exploration of conflicts between social orders. Romeo and Juliet represent a bridge between conflicting parties and viewpoints. The cement that created this bridge was their love. Love conquers all; love is that transcendental emotion that allows for the integration of opposing forces, and so creates peace. The tragedy is that man often destroys that transcendental quality in trying to possess that kind of love instead of expressing it.
Q. In the new Romeo (starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes), Mercutio is a cross-dresser; in Twelfth Night, a woman pretends to be a man; and in your day, all women were played by men. What's up with all this cross-dressing?
A. In some modern plays, there are women pretending to be men, so--in my day--men were actually playing the women pretending to be men. It seems rather in keeping with my sensibilities, then, to have Mercutio as a cross-dresser.
Q. There is a mention in your sonnets of loving men. Is this a physical love? Or merely the customary way of the time to refer to male friends?
A. Both. I wanted to introduce that cosmopolitan, multifaceted aspect of emotionality that is hidden just underneath formal structure. Homosexuality, pan-sexuality and trans-sexuality were more accepted in my day. I'm not surprised that neuroses and psychoses abound in your society because of such strict conventions.
Q. Is it really William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet when the characters wear Reeboks and Hawaiian shirts?
A. It does not concern me what they wear. It only concerns me that they stay true to the spirit of my writing.
Q. In that new film, Father Laurence grows his own dope, Romeo drops acid and police helicopters flutter overhead. Is this adaptation or sacrilege?
A. I would never consider anything that attempts to modernize my writings as a sacrilege. Rather, it's perhaps a sacrament that they do so, and I give it my blessing.
Q. In Looking for Richard, Al Pacino asks, "Is Shakespeare relevant today?" What do you think?
A. Yes. I've written my works to be relevant for anyone who reads them at any time of the day.
Q. Of all your plays, what is your personal favorite?
A. King Lear.
Q. Do you prefer Kenneth Branagh or Lawrence Olivier as Hamlet?
A. I'm not familiar with these people. I'm sorry.
Q. There's a lot of Freudian analysis of Hamlet's relationship to his mother, Queen Gertrude. In your mind, did they or didn't they?
A. I made it purposely ambiguous.
Q. Your courtroom facts were impeccable. Were you the John Grisham of your day?
A. I had studied law, yes. But I did not come to the bar.
Q. Some doubt that you are the true author of your plays. What do you say to these people?
I am the true author. All else is fraudulent.
Q. Some claim that either Christopher Marlowe or Ben Jonson was the true author.
A. As I said, we all conferred. We all knew of each other, and we respected each other's writing.
Q. Some say you are the author of the King James Bible, which was finished when you were 46. Forty-six words from the end of Psalm 46 is the word shake, and 46 words from the beginning is the word spear.
A. I was not the author, but I was a contributor, as many authors of our day were often asked to contribute to major works. I gave my criticism and commentary on certain chapters and galleys of the book.
Q. In your sonnets, there is a reference to the "Dark Lady." Who is this?
A. Death. And the dark lady with the angel of death.
Q. You attended Stratford's free grammar school. Any thoughts on public versus private education and the current debate over school vouchers?
A. My family felt obliged to expose me to the common man. In the public schools, you were exposed to life and all of its ramifications, and so, in a way, you became more well-rounded--more socially sophisticated, if you will, to the nuances of society.
Q. Despite the wealth of plays and sonnets, very little of your other writing survives--letters, journals, notes--why so little writing about your own life?
A. I often burned my letters and destroyed the evidence of my personal writing. I felt it more important that people remember me for the other writings.
Q. The Taming of the Shrew seems to advocate domestic violence to control women. Is that what you intended?
A. This was a parody of the types of relationships that were common in those days. Men and women insulted each other continuously in a barrage of metaphors and epithets that were to me symbolic references to what goes on in the human psyche, but that eventually brought them to a respect for one another. It is actually a play to show you how--if given the opportunity for emotions to be truly expressed--the human psyche comes to respect truth and its consequences.
Q. You've taken a lot of flak for your portrayals of weak--and often wicked--women in your plays.
A. Mmm. I loved women in my day. They created a role for themselves that sublimated them to the male patriarchy, yet they were really the power behind the throne.
Q. Are you still writing?
A. No. I am more involved with philosophical debate. I have been assigned a teaching role for spirits interested in ethics and morality. I work with philosophers such as Socrates
Q. Any tips for aspiring writers?
A. My advice is that if you love to write, you need not have my advice. If you do not love to write, then redirect your energies. You need to feel that if you do not write, you are not alive.
Q. Tips for aspiring actors?
A. The same applies. If you do not love acting, you are a poser and therefore a fraud
Q. Your plays were the soap operas of the times. If you were alive today, would you write for TV?
A. I would definitely keep to the stage. Television is so much pap, if you will. I would rather be in repertory.
Q. It was very kind of you to come.
A. Thank you, my lady, and thank you, my dear sirs. I will now take my leave from this control, and good evening to all of you.
(If you are interested in reading or purchasing the full transcript of this channeling, please contact the Ascordia Center at: 215.753.1616 or biz@ascordia.com the center at: biz@ascordia.com. with your request. All channeling audio tapes are $12.50 and audio tape transcripts are $10.00 apiece.)
