Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 7, No. 0620.  Friday, 23 August 1996.

(1)     From:   Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 19 Aug 1996 20:17:06 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 7.0616 Re: Folio as Acting Script

(2)     From:   Don Weingust <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 22 Aug 1996 13:22:34 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 7.0616 Re: Folio as Acting Script

(3)     From:   Chris Gordon <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Wednesday, 21 Aug 96 18:24:06 -0500
        Subj:   Query: Neil Freeman scripts


(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 19 Aug 1996 20:17:06 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 7.0616 Re: Folio as Acting Script
Comment:        Re: SHK 7.0616 Re: Folio as Acting Script

Though I've never worked with Tucker, I have worked with Freeman.  While I was
never entirely convinced by the historical accounts used as background to a
practice of exploiting typesetting details by way of forcing a fuller
consideration of the text's surface play, they aren't really necessary.

The real issue is not the insoluble, "Did Shakespeare indicate acting decisions
for his players in the details of these texts?" but rather, "Will *we* suspend
our disbelief long enough to use un-normalized texts in workshopping and
performing?"  I know that my (still rather sketchy) acting improved
significantly on using these sorts of details to disturb the surface of the
text, and open possibilities within it.

Cheers,
Sean.

(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Don Weingust <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 22 Aug 1996 13:22:34 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 7.0616 Re: Folio as Acting Script
Comment:        Re: SHK 7.0616 Re: Folio as Acting Script

Thanks to Gabriel Egan for comments.  Re: the scholarly consensus on the
editing and printing of F1, I would appreciate hearing of any specific works
you'd care to recommend as particularly illuminating.

Tucker finds less problematic the compositorial inconsistencies, for example,
than he does the four-hundred-year tradition of editorial improvement.  Those
improvements, Tucker argues, make it much more difficult for actors to
successfully accomplish the text work one must when confronting these plays.

Re: the subject of rehearsal, Tucker doesn't argue that there was no rehearsal
whatsoever, but that like references to the concept in the available
literature, it was scant indeed.  Such reference includes "rehearsal" as a
run-through for the purpose of censorial approval, fairly removed from what we
would think of as rehearsal today.  Perhaps a contemporary cognate might be
daytime soap-opera, where the time alloted rehearsal is minimal, a good deal of
direction is built into the text, and there is a fair bit of convention in the
style of playing.  Tucker not only relies upon evidence about the enormous
rigor and wide variety of the performance/memorization schedule (leaving little
if any room for formal rehearsal), but the simple fact that neither Shakespeare
nor his sharers stood to earn a penny on the boards without an audience.

Are there references to this subject in the scholarly literature where the
performance issues surrounding F1 are taken up in any detail, rather than
simply dismissed?  Continued thanks.

Don Weingust
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(3)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Chris Gordon <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Wednesday, 21 Aug 96 18:24:06 -0500
Subject:        Query: Neil Freeman scripts

I know this subject has been discussed in the past, but I thought the quickest
way to get information would be to ask. Does anyone have the address to which
to write for printed and electronic versions of the Shakespeare texts that Neil
Freeman has produced? I know he is at UBC and I tried e-mailing him there, but
the message was bounced back. I'm looking for _Coriolanus_ in particular; any
and all assistance is appreciated. You can e-mail me directly at
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Thanks! --Chris Gordon

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