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Hi moans!Saw some interest in more reading in the comments, so I decided to read some Shakespeare stuff, a couple sonnets and some dramatic, romantic, funny, and villainous monologues by some of his most famous characters. There's also some chatting of course, too, of what I like about Shakespeare and what's interesting about the selections. Really enjoyed this and would love to do more, maybe on stream sometime? Take care, august 🌨️

Comments

stroopwafel 🌸

"shall I compare you to a summer's day" LIL OL MEEEEE??? 💝🌻🌞

ainzzzzkii

taking me back to my uni days when my TAs would nerd out on shakespeare. i minored in lit and I love this ty ✨💜

charlie

i didn't like shakespeare until i saw andrew scott perform hamlet and now i'm a fan so i'm really excited for this!!

jennifer 💘

oh hell yeah, i’m beyond geeked for this one. finally my english minor is relevant.

Jennifer Luiza

Ok so MERCUTIO AND ROMEO 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Kristin

How the fuck did you know I loved Billy Shakes, oh my god I mean I'm kidding, of course you didn't know, but NOW you know that I do love Billy Shakes forever and so much and always have. This is such an incredible delight, especially after the weekend I've had. I wish I could convey the strength of my smile in words but let it suffice for me to just say that I am smiling!!! Now lets see how well this pairs up with Clea's theme from E33 as background music lol ETA: when i say i love him i don't mean the adoration and idolizing you brought up fjkds it's really more that the WRITING, the emotional core of it and not so much the plot around it, that is so staggering and incredible. i don't know any other writing in english that makes me love words more than a shakespeare play or sonnet. i don't know any other writing in english that makes me want to keep writing and play with words and try to find their melodies in different arrangements the way his writing does. whenever i write i try to let the words fill my mouth and make it move/twist/pause/flow the way his writing can, so i love any chance to hear people read his work so i can know what kind of pacing and music they can pull and then voice from his words.

Rose

This makes me SO nostalgic bc my parents met while they were both actors in a West End show (Shakespeare) so I was not expecting this. Really enjoyed listening to this!!

Andrea 🍁

How fun!! Just getting started, but to your point early on about how performance can have such a huge impact on understanding of the work/words, I want to mention Andrew Scott’s Hamlet as a perfect example (from a 2018 Scandi-noir production of the play). There’s something about the way he delivers the lines that just seems to make their meaning so much more accessible to the modern audience. I "got" a lot more of that play than I had before. There are lots of scenes available on YouTube if anyone is interested. And then if we're talking about the transformative properties of performance, of course we must mention Harold Perrineau's Mercutio from Romeo + Juliet, one of my favourite performances of anything ever, period. (Edit: You covered it!! Definitely the best part of that movie, and I like a lot about that movie!) (Hah, just finished the first sonnet and, as could have been predicted, your commentary is a delight) Also, this is a little tangentially related, but I will take literally any opportunity to recommend to people the documentary film Nothing Like a Dame (also 2018), which features Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, and Joan Plowright in conversation with one another about their careers and coming up together as actresses, particularly on the London theatre scene in the 50s and 60s -- including mentions of some of the notable Shakespeare productions they were involved with. It is SO funny, so interesting, so sharp and acerbic in places... just a delight. If anyone hasn't seen it and the sound of it appeals, go watch!

sarah 💫🌼

Haven’t finished listening yet but this is SO FUN and I would absolutely love to hear more monologues/soliloquies, either on stream or as SFW audios! +1 to the remarkable succession monologue suggestion (@jennifer + @gabriella), maybe you could perform some lines from Tom and/or the iconic Kendall rap 🎤

Natasya Raskolnikovna

My favorite of his work is The Merchant of Venice and it's so bizarre how removed I am from "relating " to it, yet I feel the most seen in those pages . I see myself so deeply in Antonio and Portia ( which makes the soul sharing/reflection aspect really interesting). I haven't listened to this SFW fully yet but I'm so excited for it!

Steph ♊︎

Oh yippee. Let's nerd it up. Back in Professor August's classroom again. *pulls out notebook and pen and Google and crosses legs* Seriously, though, this was cool. I love your brain. And what an emotional ride through all of those solliquis and sonnets and monologues (also, I too struggle to pronounce solliquy (or even spell it correctly) . What a silly word). The Mercutio part was really powerful, and you're right that the soldier section sits differently when you read it like that. If you ever do another one, some of mine: Puck's epilogue from A Midsummer Night's Dream. "If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended, that you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear." He's basically saying: if any of this was too much, just call it a dream. No harm done. I think he’s my favourite character in Midsummer. Ariel's song from The Tempest. "Full fathom five thy father lies / of his bones are coral made / those are pearls that were his eyes / nothing of him that doth fade / but doth suffer a sea-change / into something rich and strange." The idea that what looks like everything falling apart is actually everything falling into place. Nothing is destroyed. It just becomes something you couldn't have predicted. Sonnet 29. The one where he starts at his lowest, "myself almost despising," and then he thinks of one person and the whole thing turns. "Like to the lark at break of day arising from sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate." Everything is dark and then one person makes him realise he wouldn't be anyone else. Not that anything changes. Just that he stops agonising because he sees what he has. I have found that relatable when times have felt dark. Like there’s something new and special coming. Juliet's "What's in a name?" from Romeo and Juliet. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." I actually had to memorise this one when I played Serena in Fame years ago, which is funny when you think about it; a character performing a character quoting Shakespeare about love. But I've always loved how the whole speech is about stripping away the labels. Call it what you want. The thing underneath doesn't change. Sonnet 116. "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. Oh no, it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken." I know it's one of the famous ones but I don't care. The idea that real love just... stands there. You can throw weather at it and it doesn't move. It doesn't need conditions. It doesn't even need to be returned. It just is. Anyway, those are just a few of my favourites. I loved listening to these. You’re so incredibly talented. I hope you know that.

Omgpwnies

I so appreciate you giving us some insight into your relationship with Shakespeare prior to jumping in. I work in the arts, developing the work of writers from underrepresented and underserved communities. Obviously there is next to no money in the arts and the amount of times a theatre company or a government agency will fund yet another bland adaptation of an already overexposed Shakespearean play instead of supporting fresh perspectives and innovative storytelling makes me want to walk off a cliff. In saying that, there’s no denying that his work so often speaks to the truth of what it is to live and feel and be in the world. I loved your performance of the balcony scene. That scene is such a pure expression of Romeo’s loverboy energy and one of my favourites. A final thought, how do we feel about musical theatre? We know you can sing, we know you can act, I feel like it’s a logical next step 🤔 Currently on repeat in my house is “New York” from Two Strangers. Sam Tutty has the most incredible diction and I think you’d be able to give him a run for his money.

Liv

So I listened to a Smosh podcast episode about a month ago where they read Taming of the Shrew and I IMMEDIATELY was like I need August to do something along those lines. This is PERFECT, I can’t wait to listen!!!!

Caraaa

“Out of her own goodness, make the net that shall enmesh them all”is fire ngl

mimi :p

who here has seen/ heard of the musical “Something Rotten” 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️ Love reimagining shakespeare through that lense

Wilt

I’ve not listened to or read Shakespeare as an adult, as it just reminds me of being bored in school. It would seem August is the only person who could get me to open a chat about good ol’ Billy S. It was nice to hear some context. And his enthusiasm makes it much more fun!

Kirsten

the smile I smiled when you said Benedick!!!!! Much Ado >>>>>>> (this post is why I upgraded to this tier lmao)

fitzsy 🐞

Unfortunately for me and my sanity, I could hear you smiling while you were performing Mercutio's monologue from R&J and my brain could not focus on what was being said... 😵‍💫 We'll try again later. BUT BUT BUTTTT! I locked tf back in for Benedick's monologue, my smart-ass eventual loverboy!! He and Beatrice are my favs. Thank you for including Much Ado in this selection! I loved your rendition of his little internal spiral. Giggled at "but doth not the appetite alter??!?" like okayyyyy... and straight up laughed at "I do spy some marks of love in her" like sure whateverrrrrr, man. As a girlie who would also rather DIE than give any sign of affection to anyone I like, this speech was so silly and fun to hear from his side. HAHAHAHA Truly a treat, thank you, August! :) Requesting anything from Macbeth next if we're keeping to the Shakespeare theme!

Ellll

I already knew I’d love this sfw before listening but DAMN!!! Thank you for the people who suggested this I owe you my life 🧎‍♀️

Page Chase

You feed this English/Creative Writing girlie so well! If you did the prologue from The Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English, I might explode. Your comment about "guys going out" in Baz Luhrman's Romeo+Juliet reminds me of my AP English group project where my friends and I filmed a scene from Love's Labour's Lost as set in a sleepover and all gossiping about guys. On a tangential note, I recently saw a video of an Italian poetry professor listening to Kendrick Lamar and commenting on it. This just reminded me of my annotated Shakespeare with tons of contextual footnotes. There is a reason Kdot won the Pulitzer and I feel like his work will continue inspiring study like this in the future.

mia ☆

My inner AP English student is screaming 😭 this is also giving me flashbacks to the testing out bookish concubine audio 🫪 which is giving me intense cravings for a part 2

everseensaturn

As someone who has written extensively about Shakespeare’s relationship to race I completely agree with your assessment on his deification. There is so much of Shakespeare to love and appreciate but like all things we are allowed to leave space for nuance.

Magdalena Layla

My favorite Shakespeare quote is “Hell is empty and all the devils are here” from *The Tempest*. I’m in the middle of renovating my apartment, and since I also have a private practice there, I thought it would be a great quote for a doormat to welcome patients. Recently, it was a quote from Dante: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” ;) But I was looking for something new. Thanks for the reminder.

everseensaturn

For the next SFW I’d suggest a little romance book club! Announce what book at the start of the month and then those who have the time can read or re-read it as well, and then you can share your thoughts in a format just like this one! I know you’ve mentioned still having romance as a genre as your blind spot, and this might be a good way to fill that gap. In almost every writing class or course or workshop I’ve done we’ve done something similar and I strongly believe a writer has to first be a reader My suggestions for a good intro to romance that avoids a lot of the things you mentioned not enjoying about the genre (two dimensional characters, predictable plot etc). I tried to think of a mix of time periods and perspectives. 1. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920) - How social systems shape desires 2. Writers & Lovers by Lily King (2020) - The desperation we feel as we age out of our “youth” but still hold onto to our “childish dreams” 3. Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (2021) - What it means to fall in love while existing as a minority in a society that only sees you as capable of being strong and violent 4. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1878) - No one writes characters like Tolstoy, and I feel like more than any other book Anna Karenina shows you all the possibilities of romance

cheyenne ☕️

as someone with a degree in literature who focused on shakespeare in my senior year, this made me unspeakably happy. i was driving and everytime you introduced the next soliloquy i was literally cheering out loud and so excited to hear it. thank you for this!!! 🩷

party mom

mercutio said "touch grass"

Nara

Haha Damn it! I was laughing the whole time and it just kept me so hyped. This honestly feels like a gateway to a whole new world for you whether it turns into a novel or some kind of mixed content. This is literally why I want to stick around on Moans. And your raw voice?? So good. Please keep doing this.

JammyJam

Have we talked about a potential bard audio?! Because this is absolutely beautiful!!!

Gabriella 🥭

OH⁉️ So THREE Dirty Talks this month, great!!!!!! This is coconuts, I am so so SO excited to dig in! There better not be any Macbeth in here or I’m gonna be p.o.’d (positively overwhelmed) 😮‍💨

saaki

So very delightful and fun! I’m mostly only aware of the general plots of all of these, except Othello, so I did look the selections up to enjoy the audio to the fullest. Getting to hear a bit of a variety of characters AND the lovely sonnets (sometime the eye of heaven doth shines too hot 😔) was a treat! Iago’s speech was incredible and like honestly sinister-sounding, especially the laugh before “divinity of hell”, and the last hard “and out of her own goodness make the net that shall enmesh them all”. And then the way your voice went all 🌸soft🌸 for Romeo right after! So good. In my Othello annotations, when Cassio says, “You advise me well” after Iago advises him to go to Desdemona, I have literally written “what no he doesn’t, think!!!” lol. I’ve been having that thing happen where you notice something you usually don’t and then it starts appearing everywhere, with plays this past week (like saw a clip of Ncuti Gatwa in Earnest before this audio dropped). Add this audio, and I guess it’s all a sign I need to read some Shakespeare soon. And also get into some different interpretations and analyses, which is always such a joy. I’m gonna read one (from @rachel’s amazing recs) after my current read is done I think, gotta keep the momentum going 🫡

Nóri

I love whimsical Shakespeare, so A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of my favorites. Many moons ago, I saw a performance on Mezzo, and it was mesmerizing. I was supposed to do homework, but no one was home, and I somehow stumbled upon it. couldn’t move from the screen. The Winter's Tale and Twelfth Night are also top contenders Sonnets 116, 61, and 75 are also beautiful. 130 always cracks me up. I had a Restoration to Victorian English lit class, and we read and watched all kinds of interesting stuff, including A Lady’s Dressing Room by Jonathan Swift, which reminds me of Shakespeare’s 130. I wasn’t familiar with 60, but it goes well with S’s 55 and Edmund Spenser’s 75 You know, I was just thinking about rewatching Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. It's such a weird, overwhelming film but has interesting moments. When I think of that film, the first few things are always Young Hearts Run Free + Mercutio’s drag performance or Romeo’s knight in shining armor costume and blue shirt Haven't seen the Much Ado adaptation in a while, but that's a fun watch for sure. Thanks for reminding me of that. Btw, Kenneth Branagh was involved in a bunch of Shakespeare adaptations, including a 4-hour-long Hamlet, which I haven't yet mustered up the courage to watch because 4 hours?? There’s also that Zeffirelli one with Mel Gibson as Hamlet, which I have seen but can’t freaking remember at all, as usual. There's also an absurd Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth btw. what more…oh, has anyone seen that Othello where Branagh plays Iago and Laurence Fishburne plays Othello? I like those villains who are evil for the sake of being evil. No tragic backstory, nothing to dissect or understand, but Iago is so rotten that I can’t even deal with him, and his sole existence is pissing me off. One of my favorite Shakespeare adaptations is A Midsummer Night's Dream from 1999. The cast is great, and it's strikingly beautiful visually. Not the best otherwise, but I still enjoy it for what it is…a glittery (seriously so much glitter), horny fever dream this space makes me feel spoiled

Trillian

"Just say a few lines from Othello and they’ll thin you’re a hell of a fello” -Cole Porter. 😀 This was cute and fun! Great time of year to watch Much Udo About Nothing, too... Or, oh!, Shakespeare in Love! That movie is magical, too 🪄 "Strangely enough, it all turns out well. How? I don't know. It's a mystery." Movie changed my life

felicia

This was so fun. I LOVE Othello and love (and hate) Iago, too. Great picks. And +1 for Oscar Wilde and specifically The Importance of Being Earnest!!

Trillian

For live streams, I wish there was a way for audience to participate.. like as the chorus, somehow? Maybe zoom?

sarah 💫🌼

Decided to jot down these timestamps in case anyone wants to find a specific passage from the audio! 📖 • 5:16 - Sonnet 18 (Shakespeare) • 6:48 - Sonnet 60 (Shakespeare) • 10:41 - Mercutio’s Queen Mab Speech (Romeo and Juliet) • 16:19 - Benedick’s Monologue (Much Ado About Nothing) • 18:32 - Man Delights Not Me Soliloquy (Hamlet) • 22:25 - Iago’s Soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 3 (Othello) • 24:27 - Romeo’s Balcony Monologue (Romeo and Juliet) The “hi everyone! 🙂” here is top 5 cheeriest intros ever‼️I listened to this on my early evening walk today and was once again struck by how delightful it is to hear your voice recite poetry + various passages (romantic, villainous, philosophical) out in nature. Maybe it’s the easy, gentle musicality of your tone that fits the vibrant harmony of trees, birds, and sunlight so well but it’s such a lovely experience!🌿✨ I had so many thoughts while listening but I think the most pressing is that this gave me the same reaction I had after listening to the sundered isles SFW: you are so good at what you do bc you actually love doing it. You can tell you have a real fondness (and natural talent) for acting and character work by how much FUN you had with these scenes! Especiallyyyy mercutio omfg, my older sisters were obsessed w Romeo + Juliet (1996), I remember being transfixed watching Harold Perrineau singing “young hearts run free” and delivering his monologue in that glittery silver number 🪩🤩 your breathless, almost frantic delivery of the soldier’s war flashbacks bit + “This is the hag / when maids lie on their backs / that presses them” was so evocative and immersive, I almost walked into a tree 🤕 The way your voice went positively dreaaaamy for the loverboy Romeo reading was so!!!!!! 🥹💘🦋💭🌝✨ sooo so sweet and tender, I could practically hear you smiling wistfully, longingly gazing up at Juliet on her balcony with heart eyes 😍🪽🪟the delivery of “they say the lady is…wise, but for...ˡᵒᵛⁱⁿᵍ ᵐᵉ..” in the Benedick monologue cracked me UP and I loveddd the dark laugh before “divinity of hell!” + sinister reading of “out of her own goodness, make the net that shall enmesh them all” from Othello 😈 I really enjoy Shakespeare but I’m not super familiar w all his works so I really appreciated the backstory you provided! As far as future soliloquies/monologues (fun accents optional but always preferred), the opening monologue from The Batman (2022) could be fun, or Fleabag’s “I want someone to tell me what to wear in the morning” monologue? Luthen’s “what is my sacrifice?” speech in S1 E10 of Andor is killer, I’d also happily eat up anything from lotr ofc! The English nerd in me is doing cartwheels at the possibility of hearing MORE poetry, play, or general readings, YAHOO! 🤸🏻‍♀️📖🪶

Ari 🌕

Please do some Poe readings sometime closer to Halloween. I’d love to hear you read the Raven. Also, I’d die if you did Nellie’s monologue from The Haunting of Hill House. “Think of that and of me when you stand in the rain. I loved you completely. And you loved me the same. That's all. The rest is confetti.”

DivineFeminine

I started listening mid lava lamp restoration thinking it’d just be something nice in the background. 🎧 Next thing I know I’m one hand on the doorway, staring into the distance or honestly…directly at the wax, like a dramatic scholar contemplating mortality, devotion, and the unbearable fragility of the human experience 😔 The whole Shakespeare idea was genuinely so fun! Listening to you embody the personalities and emotional undercurrent behind each character made each selection feel so alive and distinct. The shifts in pacing, delivery, and emotional intensity gave each character their own presence. Some moments felt softer and more vulnerable, others more restless or emotionally charged, and the Othello portrayal genuinely shifted the atmosphere a little 🌪️ and Mercutiooooo 😭 not trying to single anything out because everything was genuinely so good, but there was something especially electric and uncontained about that portrayal that made him feel ridiculously vivid ⚡️ Not sure if you’re looking for recommendations for future audios or streams 👀 *but* I honestly think you’d be incredible as Edmond Dantès from The Count of Monte Cristo & not just because it’s one of my favorites either 👀 no no, but because there’s such a strong mix of restraint, bitterness, elegance, and quiet fury in that character that I think you’d do an amazing job bringing all of those layers out. His conversations with Abbé Faria, “The Night,” “Luigi Vampa’s Bill of Fare,” the gradual transformation over time, and ultimately his revealing moments would all be incredible! Side note: I really enjoy the movie facts, references, or little commentary around certain passages. Your cinephile brain clearly goes crazy making connections while reading and it makes everything feel more expansive and layered in a really fun way 🎥 Anywayyy, I really loved the selections and selfishly hope you do more of these because at some point the lava lamp stopped being a lava lamp and became a visual metaphor for the human condition 🥸 Thanks August! ☀️

alyce

Love this!!

AutumnWhispers

Omgomgomg this is a dream come true for me I cannot wait to listen!!!

AutumnWhispers

Do I need therapy if the Iago soliloquy turned me on?

frickatives

IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST YES YES YES YES 😍

R

I would love to hear you read someone from the play version of Clue. I think it’d be quite silly and fun:)

Ruby❤️‍🩹

Loved this!! Also love to hate Iago, the best Machiavellian villain 🙂‍↕️ My personal favourite is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and there’s a stunningly beautiful film adaptation directed by Jiří Trnka. It’s done entirely with stop-motion puppets 🥰 Big fan.

stroopwafel 🌸

yall i'm watching hamnet on the plane and the beginning scene (aka the only part I've watched so far) feels so august?! it was like seeing an august audio come to life 🫨

Trillian

Just realized, Taming of the Shrew didn't make the list? 😀

ari 🐈‍⬛

listening to this to unwind from a shitty day. thank you august!!

cc

You sounds slightly different in this one

BabyJBeCray

My grandma was a English Lit professor, she apparently got drunk at dinner parties and would recite Shakespeare sonnets. I desperately want to share this with her, but I don't want to explain it 🤣