The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1909 Saturday, 19 November 2005
From: Robert Projansky <
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Date: Friday, 18 Nov 2005 02:54:53 -0800
Subject: 16.1898 Patrick Tucker Workshop at Tufts
Comment: Re: SHK 16.1898 Patrick Tucker Workshop at Tufts
Don Weingust writes:
>The Tufts University Department of Drama & Dance will be sponsoring
>a free Shakespearean acting workshop with Patrick Tucker, this Saturday,
>November 19th, from 2-5pm, in the Balch Arena Theatre on the Tufts
>University (Medford) campus.
If you are an actor (or any SHAKSPERian interested in Shakespearean
verse and stage technique) within reach of the Balch Arena Theatre on
the Tufts University (Medford) campus, I urge you to do whatever it
takes to get to the Patrick Tucker workshop on Saturday.
Patrick Tucker's text-based systematic approach for preparing verse
performance is the complete toolbox for acting Shakespeare, and I don't
believe you will find anything better in the English-speaking world. He
shows that Shakespeare has given you everything you need right there in
the text -- Shakespeare directing you in almost every line he wrote --
and PT teaches you, simply and systematically, how to mine it -- some of
it real treasure buried in plain sight -- for the stage. Adopting PT's
approach to the verse will make your performance smarter and more
satisfying for you and your audience. He's also a very engaging teacher
and a lot of fun, and he lives and works on the other side of an ocean,
so if you can you should grab this rare (and free!) chance to see and
hear him do his stuff. For non-actors it's a chance to learn from a
really brilliant teacher how Shakespeare should be played.
I know from the archives that Patrick Tucker has come in for
considerable scorn in SHAKSPER both for his theories about how
Elizabethan players prepared for performance and for his notion that
performing Shakespeare unrehearsed, from cue-scripts, is a great idea
for today's stage. Never mind that. Regardless of whether or not those
ideas have merit, his verse technique is as good as it gets.
Warning: exposure to Patrick Tucker's verse technique will probably make
you much less satisfied with what you hear performed out in the world by
most non-Tucker-trained performers, some of them highly-acclaimed
Shakespearean actors. Worse, you may find yourself deploring the general
state of Shakespearean verse technique pretty much everywhere you hear it.
Bob Projansky
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