Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 5, No. 0421.  Wednesday, 11 May 1994.
 
(1)     From:   Bill Dynes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, May 10, 1994
        Subj:   SHK 5.0410  Qs: Doubling in *Lear*
 
(2)     From:   Milla Riggio <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 10 May 1994 10:58:09 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 5.0415  Re: Masks
 
(3)     From:   E. L. Epstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 10 May 1994 13:39:55 EDT
        Subj:   RE: SHK 5.0419  Re: Character
 
(4)     From:   Skip Shand <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 10 May 1994 16:07 EDT
        Subj:   Re: SHK 5.0418  Re: "The stately legate"
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Bill Dynes <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, May 10, 1994
Subject: Qs: Doubling in *Lear*
Comment:        SHK 5.0410  Qs: Doubling in *Lear*
 
The 1993 Colorado Shakespeare Festival (Boulder, CO) produced *Lear* in this
way, with one interesting side effect.  During the intermission I overheard one
 member of the audience proclaim to his wife that the Fool was _obviously_
Cordeila, disguised to remain near here father.  I'm sure they expected a
revelation in the second half that never came.
 
Bill Dynes
English Department
University of Indianapolis
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Milla Riggio <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 10 May 1994 10:58:09 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 5.0415  Re: Masks
Comment:        Re: SHK 5.0415  Re: Masks
 
On the question of masks, I have an a personal anecdote about modern masking to
add:  When staging OTHELLO at Trinity College a few years ago, I found myself
with a seminar on the play that featured about 10 African-American and
Caribbean black students in a class of 28.  We wanted to produce a stylized
black-on-white production:  black tuxedo pants and white shirts for actors;
raked black platform; black stools for watching actors not on "stage"; black
and white curtain to make the balcony and the storm and so forth.  And my 10
non-white students wanted to be in the play.  Color-blind casting was out.
Students became angry; offered to act in white face to be in the play.  After
much late-night talk (at least one all-night session between all 28 students in
a dorm room trying to sort out all this), we used white half-masks on all but a
small set of performers.  We cast the entire Venetian Senate, for instance, as
black students in white masks and left them there, turning their heads in
synchronized fashion, throughout the entire play.  All the "watchers" were
masked.  The effect was startling and very powerful. What began as a source of
terrible dissension became the center piece of the play. And, to the point of
this discussion, the masks were powerfully successful, though we did not mask
OTHELLO, DESDEMONA, IAGO, OR EMILIA.
 
Milla Riggio
 
(3)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           E. L. Epstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 10 May 1994 13:39:55 EDT
Subject: 5.0419  Re: Character
Comment:        RE: SHK 5.0419  Re: Character
 
Re character: as far as I can see, *real* character equals a recognizable chunk
of meat plus a recognizable way of speaking and thinking; *fictional* character
equals the speaking and thinking minus the meat. Comments?
 
E.L.Epstein
 
(4)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Skip Shand <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 10 May 1994 16:07 EDT
Subject: 5.0418  Re: "The stately legate"
Comment:        Re: SHK 5.0418  Re: "The stately legate"
 
Bill, you might see whether Samuel Chew's *The Crescent and the Rose* (1937)
turns up anything about earlier Persian legations. I looked at it years ago
when working on Robert Sherley's visit to England as Persian ambassador, and
found it helpful.
                                        Skip Shand

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