Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 5, No. 0385.  Tuesday, 3 May 1994.
 
(1)     From:   Harry Hill <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Sunday, 01 May 1994 17:39:46 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 5.0381  Re: Doubling in *MND*
 
(2)     From:   Annalisa Castaldo <ANNAL@TEMPLEVM>
        Date:   Monday, 02 May 94 13:25:51 EDT
        Subj:   Re: SHK 5.0381  Re: Doubling in *MND*
 
(3)     From:   Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Sunday, 01 May 1994 19:22:47 -0300
        Subj:   Re: SHK 5.0383  Spinoff: Monsterpiece Theatre
 
(4)     From:   John Drakakis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 02 May 94 13:11:00 BST
        Subj:   SHK 5.0363 Re: Quotations
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Harry Hill <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Sunday, 01 May 1994 17:39:46 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 5.0381  Re: Doubling in *MND*
Comment:        Re: SHK 5.0381  Re: Doubling in *MND*
 
Sarah Gannon at Smith RE masks in a Shakespeare play. . .you mean ALL
characters wearing faces on their faces? A bit odd, I'd say. Ben Jonson maybe,
but only maybe, making the humours unchangeably obvious. Jonson for the bozos,
certainly. Not even caricature but cartoon, surely? If it were a company of
only five actors playing fifteen roles, then the convention would be perhaps
understood and accepted. Otherwise I'd imagine the audience would yearn for
human facial expressions. A salutory acting exercise in the privacy of a
theatre school, without doubt, creating an accuracy of gesture as well as of
vocal nuance that can then be carried over into a real performance. Ihave seen
a deal of doubling, particularly enjoying Fool/Cordelia, which has often been
suggested as a Renaissance practice. That instance raises other considerations,
of course, such as the boy actor and the feminization of Lear through "Grace"
or whatever. Your question is much more interesting than my first reaction to
it led me to feel. Hm. In conclusion: the History plays are complex enough with
all their factions that doubling would have to be very skilled indeed, don't
you think? A caution to directors contemplating much doubling is found in the
Scottish play--
                        Double double?
                        Toil and trouble!
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Annalisa Castaldo <ANNAL@TEMPLEVM>
Date:           Monday, 02 May 94 13:25:51 EDT
Subject: 5.0381  Re: Doubling in *MND*
Comment:        Re: SHK 5.0381  Re: Doubling in *MND*
 
One more comment on doubling in *MND*....
 
At Wellesley, where I did my undergraduate work, there was a Shakespeare
Society which put on two plays a year. Since Wellesley is a woman's college,
all the roles where played by women (fair turnabout to Will, we always felt).
When they put on *MND*, they not only doubled the parts, but reversed the
"gender." This actually worked out wonderfully because the complications of a
woman playing a man and a woman, a human and a fairy allowed for some amusing
moments and some thoughtful ones. At least for me, the end result was that the
fairies beca me totally removed from the sphere of reality, even the reality of
the stage.
                                                        Annalisa Castaldo
                                                        Temple University
 
(3)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sean Lawrence <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Sunday, 01 May 1994 19:22:47 -0300
Subject: 5.0383  Spinoff: Monsterpiece Theatre
Comment:        Re: SHK 5.0383  Spinoff: Monsterpiece Theatre
 
Tell us you'll put the monsterpiece work on the LISTSERV, Hardy.
 
        Please.
        Sean.
 
[First chance I get.  --HMC]
 
(4)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           John Drakakis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 02 May 94 13:11:00 BST
Subject: Re: Quotations
Comment:        SHK 5.0363 Re: Quotations
 
Eating on the insane root again Bill! Or maybe too much Albuquerque sun!
Either way your universal writ doesn't run in this instance.
 
cheers,
John Drakakis

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