Paul williams bluegrass biography of william shakespeare
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Tracing the steps from poetry to the stage
Paul Vasterling, the artistic director at Nashville Ballet, based in the Tennessee city that is also Williams’ hometown, read the book in 2016 and knew immediately that he wanted to adapt it for the stage. “The images the book pulled up for me are very dancelike,” Vasterling said. “Poetry is close to dance because it’s open to interpretation, and you bring yourself to it.”
“Lucy Negro, Redux” tells the story of a slice of Shakespeare’s love life from the perspective of the so-called Dark Lady for whom many of his sonnets were written. Some scholars and readers, including Williams, believe that the Dark Lady was Dark Luce or Lucy Negro — not just a woman with dark eyes and hair, but a black woman who owned a brothel in London.
In the ballet, “Attitude: Lucy Negro Redux,” which is to have its premiere on Friday in Nashville, Williams’ poetry is both script and part of the music. She will read some poems onstage, including a sequence that Vasterling said inspired a danced montage of Lucy’s past, her life as a prostitute, her struggles and, finally, her claiming of her own power. A pas de deux with Lucy and Shakespeare was inspired by a section of the book called “Happy Duet of Lucy and Shakespeare.”
“One of the undercurrents of those
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People/Characters William Shakespeare
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Hank Williams
American singer, songwriter, and musician (1923–1953)
For other people named Hank Williams, see Hank Williams (disambiguation).
HiramKing "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer-songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century. Williams recorded 55 singles that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, five of which were released posthumously, and 12 of which reached No.1.
Born and raised in Alabama, Williams learned guitar from African-American blues musician Rufus Payne. Both Payne and Roy Acuff significantly influenced his musical style. After winning an amateur talent contest, Williams began his professional career in Montgomery in the late 1930s playing on local radio stations and at area venues such as school houses, movie theaters, and bars. He formed the Drifting Cowboys backup band, which was managed by his mother, and dropped out of school to devote his time to his career. Because his alcoholism made him unreliable, he was fired and rehired several times by radio station WSFA, and had trouble replacing several of his band members who were drafted during World War II.
In 1944, Williams