The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.1672  Monday, 22 July 2002

From:           Steve Roth <
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Date:           Friday, 19 Jul 2002 10:19:27 -0700
Subject:        All-Male Shrew

Hi All:

I'm posting this message for Stephanie Shine, artistic director of
Seattle Shakespeare Company <http://seattleshakes.org>. She's staging an
all-male Shrew in t

I've explained to her how the boy system worked in S.'s day (female
leads played by late-teen boys with years of resident apprenticeship,
who were probably less physically developed than late teens today), and
how we can't hope to re-create it. But I didn't have much input on how
to address the contemporary situation.

Advice welcome both in general, and particular relating to Shrew.

Questions:

How does/can an all-male production illuminate the text?

What are the pitfalls?

What works better? Worse?

Is the audience able to forget that they're watching adult males playing
females--suspend their disbelief?

If not, how does/can that inform the play?

Feel free to answer other questions that you think would help her.

Thanks,
Steve
http://princehamlet.com

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