Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 4, No. 359. Saturday, 5 June 1993.
From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, June 5, 1993
Subject: New on the SHAKSPER FileServer: PERFORM SEMINAR Package
SHAKSPEReans,
Since I became the editor of SHAKSPER, I have tried to encourage innovative
uses of the Conference and its FileServer. We are, in many ways, pioneers
in an emerging medium. Our creativity sets the parameters of that medium --
SHAKSPER is truly what we make it. With this flourish, I am pleased to
announce yet another use for SHAKSPER.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by SHAKSPERean Lyn Tribble of Temple
University. On the behalf of the members of the NEH Seminar "Shakespeare and
the Languages of Performance," which met at the Folger Shakespeare Library over
the past academic year, Professor Tribble inquired if the SHAKSPER FileServer
might be an appropriate place for the members of this seminar to store the
workbook they were compiling as a result of their explorations. My YES
response barely contained my glee at being able to have the SHAKSPER FileServer
used to disseminate a body of information of great potential benefit to anyone
who teaches Shakespeare.
In her note that accompanied these files, Professor Tribble wrote the
following:
The workbook is the joint production of the NEH Institute,
"Shakespeare and the Languages of Performance," directed by Lois Potter
and held at the Folger Library once a month from September to May.
We hope that the workbook will be useful to our fellow Shakespeareans
and that it might initiate further exchanges about pedagogical issues.
Because of the size of the Workbook, I am making it available as a "package."
SHAKSPEReans may retrieve PERFORM PACKAGE from the SHAKSPER Fileserver by
issuing the interactive command, "TELL LISTSERV AT UTORONTO GET PERFORM
PACKAGE SHAKSPER." If your network link does not support the interactive
"TELL" command (i.e., if you are not directly on Bitnet), or if LISTSERV
rejects your request, then send a one-line mail message (without a subject
line) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., reading "GET PERFORM PACKAGE SHAKSPER."
Should you have difficulty receiving this file, please contact me at
<This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.> or <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>.
For an updated version of the file list, send the command "GET SHAKSPER FILES
SHAKSPER" in the same fashion. For further information, consult the
appropriate section of your SHAKSPER GUIDE.
The excerpt below contains the contents and a few paragraphs of the
introduction to the Workbook.
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Shakespeare and the Languages of Performance
Folger Shakespeare Library
September 1992-May 1993
Electronic Workbook
Feel free to copy and distribute as you like
CONTENTS
I. Introduction Lois Potter, Univ. of Delaware
II. Reviewing
A. The Art of Reviewing Lois Potter, Univ. of Delaware
B. Student Reviewing Evelyn Tribble, Temple Univ.
III. Directing Students in Class
A. Performance as Close Reading:
Notes on Directing Non-Actors
in the Classroom Kurt Daw, Keenesaw State Univ.
B.Finding a Place to Play:
Teaching in Non-traditional Spaces Garry Walton, Meredith College
C.How to Direct Student Scenes
in Class David Sauer, Spring Hill College
IV. Using Media in the Classroom
A. Using Slides in Class Lois Potter
B. Text, Eyes, and Videotape:
Screening Shakespeare
in the Classroom Stephen Buhler, Univ. of Nebraska
C. Some Suggestions for
Videotaping Performances & Classes David Kranz, Dickinson College
V. Bringing Acting Companies
To Campus Garry Walton
VI. Performance History in the Classroom
A. Performance History and the
Lecture Class, Among Others Stephen Buhler
B. Theatre History and Performance
Reconstruction Sally Banes, Univ. of Wisconsin
Madison
VII. Acting Techniques
A. Voice and Text Mary Corrigan, Univ. of
California, San Diego
B. Shurtleff Meets Shakespeare Kate Pogue, Houston Community
Central College
VIII. Writing Assignments
A.The Writing Component in
Shakespeare and Performance Courses:
Generating Student Responses Ann Christensen, Univ. of Houston
B. Writing About Performance Geri Jacobs, Jackson Comm. College
C. Writing in the Classroom Michael Shea, Southern Conn. State
D. Towards a Director's
Conception: Writing Assignments
in the Shakespeare Classroom Deborah Montouri, Univ. of
Missouri, Columbia
IX. Multicultural Approaches
Expanding cultural horizons through
classroom performances & workshops Milla Riggio, Trinity College
X. Seventeen Ways of Looking at
Hamlet The whole group
XI. Bibliography: Shakespeare
& Performance The whole group
INTRODUCTION
Lois Potter, University of Delaware
"Shakespeare and the Languages of Performance" was a new departure for the
Folger Institute: a course meeting one weekend a month throughout the academic
year rather than for an intensive period, like the NEH summer institutes, or
one afternoon a week, like the other Folger seminars. The new format was
primarily the idea of Lena Orlin, director of academic programs at the Folger.
She felt that an Institue with a strongly pedagogical emphasis would work best
if spread over a whole academic year, so that members could try out ideas
raised in the seminars and report back on the results.
After Lena asked me to direct this course we worked together on its structure,
each of us contributing about half the suggestions for speakers and projects.
The plan was to balance theory and practice, scholarship and its application in
pedagogical terms, sessions with hands-on experience and talk-sessions. Two of
the events were to be open to the public: Harry Berger's lectures in November
and (with a limit on numbers) Ralph Cohen's visit with the Shenandoah
Shakespeare Express in March. We were lucky in that we did not have to modify
this plan at all: thanks to Lena's careful advance planning and the prestige of
the Folger, everyone we asked was able to come at the time we wanted. Two
sessions, apart from the introductory one, were dedicated to the group's own
work. At the halfway point, in February, individual members were to present
projects about their teaching. In our last session in May, we were to produce
something that would be a record of the year's work. My previous experience of
directing a seminar at the Folger had convinced me that it helps if a group has
a tangible goal at which to aim--in this case, a workbook based on the
information and ideas resulting from the seminar. So this too was built into
the course from the beginning.