March
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.0600 Friday, 28 March 2003 [1] From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 25 Mar 2003 22:25:57 -0500 Subj: No Holds Bard: Women Using Shakespeare [2] From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 26 Mar 2003 16:36:48 -0500 Subj: Bringing Down the House--Shakespeare Dog [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 25 Mar 2003 22:25:57 -0500 Subject: No Holds Bard: Women Using Shakespeare March 25, 2003 No Holds Bard: Women Using Shakespeare to Forge New Works By Leonard Jacobs In an age when self-developed theatrical projects are great ways for young performers to make their mark, women are increasingly turning to Shakespeare for inspiration. From solo plays to plays using music, dance, and original monologues and dialogues, women are freely appropriating almost anything relating to the Bard -- his plays, his sonnets, even his biography -- to forge highly original works that showcase female sensibilities, perspectives, and talent. The roots of this trend go back to Shakespeare's time, when actors were exclusively male -- women only began playing Juliet, Kate, Cleopatra, and the like after the playwright's death. In modern times, women often play male roles: Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet, Ruth Maleczech as Lear, and last month, Blair Brown as Prospera in Emily Mann's production of "The Tempest" at the McCarter Theatre Center. For more, go to http://www.backstage.com/backstage/features/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1848523 [2]------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 26 Mar 2003 16:36:48 -0500 Subject: Bringing Down the House--Shakespeare Dog Fairly early on in the Steve Martin comedy Bringing Down the House, a racist heiress played by Joan Plowright owns a bull dog named William Shakespeare. There is a later slang reference by Martin's character to African-Americans as "dogs" that gets him thrown into his pool. The dog Shakespeare is also mentioned at the end of the film. _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.0599 Thursday, 27 March 2003 From: Sandi Carroll <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 25 Mar 2003 16:08:42 -0500 Subject: The Public Theater's AS YOU LIKE IT I thought you might have a suggestion or two on Shakespeare groups in the New York City metro area that would be interested in group discount tickets to our production of As You Like It. I've included here more information about the production and our discount rates, and any thoughts you have would be greatly welcomed. Sandi Carroll Marketing & Audience Development The Public Theater t: 212.539.8682 f: 212.539.8735 AS YOU LIKE IT Six actors playing fourteen roles. Fun, fast-paced, and fresh from the FringeNYC. Dear Group Leader, The Public Theater presents AS YOU LIKE IT written by William Shakespeare, directed by Erica Schmidt. Using only their own inexhaustible imaginations and the infinite imagery of Shakespeare's language, six actors take on all fourteen roles. First presented in a parking lot on the Lower East Side, this fast-paced physical tour-de-force captures the raw energy and beautiful simplicity of one of Shakespeare's most clever comedies. The Public Theater is pleased to welcome back the talented young director, Erica Schmidt, whose work first appeared here as part of our NEW WORK NOW! Festival. Her directing credits include DEBBIE DOES DALLAS (Off-Broadway at the Jane Street); SPANISH GIRL (Second Stage Uptown); ROMEO AND JULIET (Outdoor Garage); THE WHITE DEVIL, and DON'T BLINK (The Directors Company). Schmidt was also the recipient of The Princess Grace Directing Fellowship Award, 2001. She is currently directing a workshop of THE KING STAG at the Theatre for a New Audience, as well as SLAG HEAP at The Cherry Lane Alternative. AS YOU LIKE IT begins March 25th, with performances Tuesday through Saturday at 8 pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm and a special matinee on Wednesdays at noon which is great for school groups. Groups of fifteen or more not only benefit from discount tickets, but also have access to post-performance discussions (when available). Group rate ticket prices are $25 each for fifteen or more, and $20 each for student groups. To reserve your tickets, please contact the Marketing and Audience Development Department at (212) 539-8682. Call now to book your tickets as this offer is subject to availability. BEYOND THE STAGE After selected shows, join us for an opportunity to meet the cast, talk with the director, or hear from the playwright, and be part of a post-show discussion. This is your chance to experience what goes on beyond the stage. Each discussion will be hosted by a guest moderator immediately following the performances. BEYOND THE STAGE scheduled for AS YOU LIKE IT. March 27 (8 pm), April 16 (12 pm), April 24 (8 pm). OTHER HAPPENINGS AT THE PUBLIC: NEW WORK NOW! This Spring we will be holding our tenth annual NEW WORK NOW! play and musical reading festival. Admission to NEW WORK NOW! is free. Over the last ten years we have celebrated and developed works by over 100 artists including Suzan-Lori Parks, Tony Kushner and Nilo Cruz. This year's two-week festival will showcase the most outstanding new plays of the year, with one week devoted exclusively to the work of Latino playwrights. Become part of The Public Theater's creative process and join us in discovering the theater of tomorrow. _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.0598 Thursday, 27 March 2003 From: Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, 25 Mar 2003 15:43:18 -0400 Subject: 14.0574 Re: Questions Comment: Re: SHK 14.0574 Re: Questions In answer to James Conlan, I wasn't particularly disputing Shakespeare's access to systems of precedence, only the transparency of the example, which, I think, is open to a number of possible interpretations. More importantly, I should think, Shakespeare's awareness that precedence matters in certain situations doesn't necessarily imply that he's referring to it everywhere. I'm aware of the layout of an essay, for instance, but I don't use it to structure my e-mails. For that matter, aren't characters listed in order in part simply because it's impossible to list them all at once? Is Rosencrantz more highly honoured than Guildenstern? Is Gertrude snubbing one by mentioning the other first? Yours, Sean. _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.0597 Thursday, 27 March 2003 From: Roger Nyle Parisious <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 24 Mar 2003 16:26:16 -0800 (PST) Subject: 13.2346 Willobie His Avisa Comment: Re: SHK 13.2346 Willobie His Avisa >> From: Laurie Warner <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > >> Date: Monday, 25 Nov 2002 19:19:18 -0800 >> Subject: Willobie His Avisa >> >> Has any information emerged in recent years >relating >> to Henry >> Willoughby, the alleged author of "Willobie his >> Avisa", either being a >> real person or, if not a real person, as to whom >> could have written the >> book? I have had this on my machine for many months hoping that someone could supply something a bit more comprehensive than my own efforts. As no one has as yet replied, perhaps my summary of some very old news may, with luck, stir my hypothetical informants to act The last Stratfordian treatment appears to be B.N. DeLuna,"The Queen Declined:An Interpretation of 'Willobie His Avisa'"(Oxford,l970).Prior to this publication it had been generally accepted that the initials "W.S" for the "old actor" were an inevitable hit at William Shakespeare. H.W. would then with equal inevitability be Henry Southampton (not an obscure Oxford college boy who was only, perhaps, drug in for the embarrassment which the use of his initials would occasion to the actual targets). This rather self-evident interpretation is supported by the fact that this publication contains both the first allusion to Shakespeare's "Lucrece"("and Shake-speare paints poor Lucrece rape") and the first use of the hyphenated form. Under these circumstances, if the author were Henry Willobie, he must have been aware that his use of the ,at least, ambiguous double initials "H.W." and "W.S." could cause him (and Will) no end of possible social, not to mention political, difficulties. Officially the work was being edited for publication by "Willobie's" room mate "Hadrian Dorrell" who "found" it while his friend was on Continental tour.Hadrian hopes that his buddy won't mind that he has rushed off with the purloined manuscript to an undercover publisher,so struck is HD with the literary genius exhibited by the work.Needless to say no evidence of the existence of an Oxford student named Hadrian Dorrell has ever surfaced.To make things even more obvious,an pseudonymous sequel published two years later,"Penelope"s Complaint",announces that Henry is dead(he actually had an approximate twenty years of life ahead of him) but, don't break down folks, his brother Thomas Willobie will be taking his place as commentator on the still accelerating scandal.All this smacks of blatant and malicious fraud over every nook and cranny ;and the Will Shakspere we all (except the most rigid neo-Oxfordians) agree was the old actor seems to have been a prime target for the satire,whatever its now obscure overall intention may have been. Miss DeLuna(whom I dubbed a neo-Stratfordian in my articles in the Elizabethan Review,l998) changed all this with her claim that Willobie's Avisa was really Elizabeth Tudor(not an Oxford bar maid whom H.W. and W.S. had on the make).She ,however,amiably conceded that W.S. might well be our Will but ,in any event, his friend "H.W." was really a split personality concealing both Robert Dudley and his stepson Robert,Earl of Essex.T his thesis received a number of sympathetic--and/or straight faced--reviews. God help Charlton Ogburn Jr. if he had pulled a stunt like that! Actually he did pull a stunt like that and incorporated Miss DeLuna thesis into his magnum opus, but he at least was conservative enough not to view H.W. as a Doppelganger. So, at least from the vantage point of a remote Appalachian village, the subject rested until recently. I found a mere six contemporary internet references to Miss DeLuna's once rather widely discussed work, and nothing more recent on the subject, including Ogburn's somewhat confused contribution. Actually, though it has been scarcely noticed, David Kathman in response to a sequence of insistent questionings by Diana Price and Pat Dooley back in 2001 announced (July 29th,to be exact) on HLAS that he had enough historical parallels to satisfy him that Henry Willobie was the author of "Avisa" and that, while he had no evidence of the existence of Hadrian Dorrell, he had found that Henry had a good friend of the same surname, one Thomas. The question of whether Thomas D. was an Oxford student or not was left hanging besides the pennant," Semper Eadem" on Avisa's tavern. David was coming back to that the next day. It has been nearly two years now. Please enlighten us, David. This is an absolutely key issue in Shaksperian biography, one which serious biographers (except for, after a fashion, DeLuna and Ogburn) have virtually ignored since the early l940's. In anticipation of your reply, I will ask a couple of questions. Have you discovered any evidence of the existence of Henry's smarter older brother Thomas?(I do not recollect that Hotson found any traces of him in "By Me William Shakespeare")And ,if so, do you believe Thomas went along with the hoax about his brother's death, and really is the author of the TW material in "Penelope's Complaint"? If the answer is no, would not the parallel use of a non-existent Hadrian(with a real last name) be just another example of how far the pseudonymous satirist was willing to go in his efforts to harass Will and his friends? Roger Nyle Parisious _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 14.0596 Thursday, 27 March 2003 From: Charles Weinstein <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 24 Mar 2003 15:49:01 -0800 Subject: Critical Encounters of the Negative Kind "But what of 'destructive' criticism, which is far and wide alleged to be bad? The terms 'constructive' and 'destructive,' as applied to criticism, have no meaning whatever. There is only good and bad criticism. What indeed might 'constructive' mean in reference to a critique? From the author in question, 'Like me, don't knock me!' which is an absurd request. From the pedagogue, 'Show him or her where and how the thing could be improved!' But any genuine artist would resent the critic's offering to remake his work; only school compositions can so be treated by teachers, and it may be that even they should not. I cannot write someone else's book, play or scenario for him; I can only point out where and why he lost me--and that, I suppose, would already be considered 'destructive' criticism. To the casual layman, 'constructive' criticism would be, 'Go easy on him, he is doing his best.' But this is the worst fallacy of all: it assumes that art does not really matter. If a surgeon's patients die on him, one after the other, does one excuse him by saying he did his best? Can a statesman's, a military commander's, an educator's errors be excused so cheaply? No; because those things matter. Whereas art, it would seem, does not. But to the critic to whom art is important, sacred, and, ultimately, coextensive with life itself, to produce bad art and to condone it--and thereby give rise to further bad art and finally drive out the good--are the two most heinously dangerous sins imaginable. And the most destructive." --John Simon, "A Critical Credo" (1967). _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.