It’s hard to make a living as an artist. Full stop.
No matter what stage of your career you’re at, it’s hard. And talking about that might be even harder.
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Welcome to Ruff Reads Autumn, a bonus book club session curated and facilitated by Ruff Reader Cass Marcus Davey! This fall we’re diving into one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest (and earliest) tragedies: Titus Andronicus! Here we go!
TITUS ANDRONICUS by William Shakespeare
Thursday September 25th at 8pm on Zoom
Cass has put together an incredible list of resources to help you find copies of the play in various formats. Find it here: Fall Ruff Reads resources
DM us or contact christine@shakespeareintheruff.com for the Zoom link. (Don’t have time to read the play but still interested in the conversation? Join us anyway!)
About the play, from the Folger Shakespeare Library:
**CW: Titus Andronicus contains scenes of violence, rape, mutilation, and cannibalism.
Titus Andronicus overflows with death and violence. Twenty-one sons of the Roman general Titus Andronicus have died in battle, leaving four alive. After defeating the Goths, Titus permits the sacrifice of the oldest son of their queen, Tamora.
Titus helps Saturninus become emperor. Saturninus plans to marry Titus’s daughter, Lavinia. Instead, she marries Bassianus, aided by Titus’s sons, one of whom Titus kills. Saturninus then marries Tamora. The stage is set for multiple revenge plots.
Tamora’s lover, Aaron the Moor, instructs her two sons to kill Bassianus, then falsely implicates two of Titus’s sons. Tamora’s sons also rape Lavinia, cutting off her tongue and hands. To save his sons from execution, Titus cuts off his own hand, but Aaron sends him their heads.
Lucius, Titus’s last son, leads an army of Goths against Rome. Titus kills Tamora’s sons and serves them to her in a pie. In the ensuing events, Lavinia, Tamora, Titus, and Saturninus all die. Lucius becomes emperor and sentences Aaron to death.
Announcing RUFF READS AUTUMN: TITUS ANDRONICUS!
Curated by Ruff Reader Cassandra Marcus Davey, this bonus session of #RuffReads explores Shakespeare’s early, bloody tragedy. Join us!
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When we turn Timon into Tiff’ny, a lot of things change. Want to talk about women, money, and power? Us too!
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Four fictional, century-spanning, interwoven texts exploring extreme wealth and capital? (And the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for fiction?) Let’s go!
TRUST by Hernan Diaz
Thursday May 29th at 8pm on Zoom
DM us or contact christine@shakespeareintheruff.com for the Zoom link. (Don’t have time to read the book but still interested in the conversation? Join us anyway!)
Get ready for an evening filled with fun, entertainment, and the opportunity to support the arts in our community!
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Shakespeare co-wrote Timon of Athens with Thomas Middleton. Who was he? And how was his writing similar to (and different than) Shakespeare’s? Let’s find out.
A Trick to Catch the Old One by Thomas Middleton
Thursday April 24th at 8pm on Zoom
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They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and what could be more Shakespearean than imitating and adapting? (Here’s looking at you, Saxo Grammaticus.) In these drop-in classes led by Nathaniel Hanula-James, you’ll read a short scene or play, identify an interesting tool the writer’s using, and then give it a whirl yourself.
Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare by Will Tosh
Thursday March 27th at 8pm on Zoom
DM us or contact christine@shakespeareintheruff.com for the Zoom link. (Don’t have time to read the book but still interested in the conversation? Join us anyway!)
Straight Acting is available at Queen Books (10% off with the code RUFFREADS), the Toronto Public Library, as an Audiobook and as an eBook. Also check out our December 31s, 2024 Ruff Radio episode with author Will Tosh!
From the Publisher:
Was Shakespeare gay? The answer is both simpler and more complex than you might think . . .
Shakespeare’s work was profoundly influenced by the queer culture of his time – much of it totally integrated into mainstream society. From a relentless schooling in Latin and Greek homoeroticism, to a less formal education on the streets and in smoky taverns, from the gender-bending of the early comedies to the astonishingly queer literary scene that nurtured Shakespeare’s sonnets, this is a story of artistic development and of personal crisis.
Straight Acting is a surprising portrait of Shakespeare’s queer lives – his own and those in his plays and poems. It is a journey back in time and through Shakespeare’s England, revealing a culture that both endorsed and supressed same-sex desire. It is a call to stop making Shakespeare act straight and to recognise how queerness powerfully shaped the life and career of the world’s most famous playwright.
About Will Tosh:
Will is interim Director of Education (Higher Education and Research) at Shakespeare’s Globe, where he is responsible for undergraduate and postgraduate course, events for adult learners, and the Globe’s scholarly research programme. Will researches and writes about the literature and culture of Shakespeare’s England, and his work at the Globe includes dramaturgy, new writing development, and public engagement in person, in the media and online.Will is the author of Playing Indoors: Staging Early Modern Drama in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (2018), and Male Friendship and Testimonies of Love in Shakespeare’s England (2016), which revealed the intimate social circle of the Elizabethan spy Anthony Bacon. His most recent book is Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare, which was published to wide acclaim in 2024. Will writes and reviews regularly for academic journals as well as the Times Literary Supplement and other news publications.
A toast to our artists and supporters
Wednesday March 19th, 2025, 7pm (doors at 6:30)
Ladybug Wine Bar, 514 King St. E, Toronto.
Tickets: $150
“With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls” — Coriolanus
Come in from the cold, grab a glass of wine, and join us in a toast to Ruff’s generous patrons and supporters: the folks who make our experiments in adapting Shakespeare possible. Our winter fundraiser will be an elegant evening at Ladybug Wine Bar in Toronto’s East End. Mingle with Ruff’s artists, taste exquisite wines hand-selected for our event, enjoy performances from past and current Ruff adaptations, and get a sneak peak at our upcoming summer reimagining of Timon of Athens.
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