Hello!

[ShakespeareAndBorden]

Hello there, everyone! The name is Chase, and I’m a new member here to the forum. Well, new in terms of being a member but I’ve done my fair share of lurking. I decided to make an account and now I’m here! Thought it would be nice to introduce myself, though I realize there’s not really a designated place for that? So I hope this is alright.

Let’s see, I should share a little bit about myself, I suppose. I’m currently in grad school studying Shakespeare, hence the first half of my username, so acting is a very big passion of mine. Theatre in general tends to be. I’m also into playwriting, which is sort of what brought me to this forum years ago when I first started working on a Lizzie Borden based musical. It didn’t get very far in terms of development, but I’ve got something else in the works that’s a play and more on the abstract side of things. Who knows, maybe it’ll get finished and eventually published! The Borden case has always fascinated me since I was a kid, so that’s why I wanted to write something about it!

[Reasonwhy]

Hello, and welcome, ShakespeareAndBorden!
Always great to have writers on the forum, and I share your literary interests, so really looking forward to your interpretation of the case. Hope you will feel free to develop abstract theories/comments here; they’re some of my favorite posts to read.

[Kat]

Yes, Hello!
I was thinking about asking folks what got them interested in the Lizzie Borden case! I've always been asked that!
May I ask you that? I'm interested and curious!

[brianmoralss]

Hii ShakespeareandBorden!!! I am so glad I found your introduction to the forum, I also was brought to the Lizzie Borden case through theatre. Although I do not have the writing gift to be a playwright (I applaud your talents and wish I had the discipline to write a whole play). I actually focus on costuming, both conceptual design and the creation of it. I would love to hear more of your Lizzie musical and abstract play. I would also say welcome to the forum but I am a little late to the response. You started posting before I did!!!

[mbhenty]

A satire.



(Click on image to make BIG)

[Reasonwhy]

Hi, brianmoralss, and welcome!

I have read, and own, a copy of mbhenty’s play from the post above. I recommend it—it’s thoughtful and clever, using classical and historical figures and forms in a deep, sometimes wry think about the Borden saga. mbhenty’s approach is one I’ve never seen applied to the case before. Very original and impressive. If you do read it, please let us know what you thought

[mbhenty]

Thank you Reasonwhy for the kind words. Your review is greatly appreciated. And thanks for reading my work.

Writing, By the Naked Pear Tree, was a fun venture.

Poetry can be very dry and selectively personal, and difficult to decode, thus boring or meaningless. So, I added humor and folly to the poetic testimony, as did Ogden Nash, famous humorous and poet, did in his poems back in the thirties and forties. Most of ’Naked Pear” is meant to be waggish so it would not appear tedious but fun, since it was poetry and poetry not everyone’s interest.

So much of what has been written about the Borden case is dreadful and grisly. My desire was to sail away from dread and stir some jocularity.

I had a handful of Lizzie poetry I had written over the years and was uncertain what I wanted to do with them. So it was decided to include them in a play. Not all the poems in the play are meant to be amusing .

Much of the poetry not included in the testimony was meant to be consequential, if not pensive or meaningful. At least for me. Most plays can be a rigid and mechanical affairs, since they were written to be performed and don’t translate as well in book form as they do on the stage. Though the play was meant to be performed, and includes instruction for costumes and backdrops etc, I tried to make it an interesting read, flowing, with multi-sided clownish characters…. and to read like a novella . So that the play could carry itself as an engaging narrative in book form.

Like I said, it was a fun venture. I can highly recommend it for light reading… but then again I would, wouldn’t I ?

Michael Thomas Brimbau