In the Spring 2012 issue of Cascade (which is a University of Oregon magazine), there is a short piece titled "'Tis (Not) the Winter of Our Discontent." The title is a play on the opening line of Richard The Third. The piece itself is about a group of freshmen attending a production of The African Company Presents Richard III at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. "This was the third year Middlebrook has taken students to Ashland, a tradition she plans to continue next fall by taking students to a performance of either Shakespeare's Henry V or Romeo and Juliet (page 17).
And then in the Fall 2012 issue there are two brief mentions of Shakespeare. The first is in an article titled "Theater as a (Re)Defining Experience." This piece doesn't actually refer to any of Shakespeare's plays, but rather to a theater company in the line, "The latter objective was a motivating factor behind his decision to direct Dominic Cooke's Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Arabian Nights, as his first UO production last spring" (page 16).
The second reference is in a piece titled "Whose National Culture?" which is about a 2010 Arizona law that bans Chicano ethnic studies from being taught in primary schools and high schools. "Other books banned under the Arizona statute include Drown, by Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz, The House on Mango Street by American Book award winner Sandra Cisneros and even Shakespeare's The Tempest" (page 19). (I haven't looked into this statute, but while it seems absolutely ridiculous, it doesn't really ban any books. After all, these books will still be available; they just won't be taught. None of those books were taught at my high school either. Still, what's going on in Arizona?)
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