September
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0941. Monday, 22 September 1997. [1] From: David M Richman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 19 Sep 1997 12:10:07 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0938 Q: Helena's Entrance [2] From: W. L. Godshalk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 19 Sep 1997 16:34:17 -0400 Subj: Re: SHK 8.0939 Re: Helena [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: David M Richman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 19 Sep 1997 12:10:07 -0400 (EDT) Subject: 8.0938 Q: Helena's Entrance Comment: Re: SHK 8.0938 Q: Helena's Entrance "My legs are longer though to run away." (Quoting from memory). We staged Helena as always running; always in pursuit, or pursued. For her first entrance, she was running in pursuit of Demetrius. (She didn't know where he was. Hermia's line stopped her. There are, of course, myriad ways to stage this entrance. Good luck. David Richman [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: W. L. Godshalk <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 19 Sep 1997 16:34:17 -0400 Subject: 8.0939 Re: Helena Comment: Re: SHK 8.0939 Re: Helena Roger Gross writes: >There isn't enough textual info to compel any choice we might make. My >choice has always (in 3 productions) been to assume that Helena was >looking for Hermia (or perhaps just looking for a good place to cry) >when she stumbles upon Hermia and Lysander in the midst of a bit of >coochie-coo. She does an abrupt about face, hoping to escape without >being seen. But she fails. In Q, though not in F, Helena enters with Egeus, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius in the play's first scene (TLN 24). No exit is marked-which isn't that unusual. So she may exit almost anytime and then return. But is it possible that she lurks around the borders of the scene until she is spotted by Lysander and greeted by Hermia (TLN 190-192)? Perhaps she is leaving the scene when she is stopped. Yours, Bill Godshalk
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0940. Friday, 19 September 1997. [1] From: Rachana Sachdev <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 22:11:26 -0400 Subj: CFP: Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference [2] From: Michelle Haslem <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 19 Sep 1997 13:14:45 +0000 Subj: CFP: Nature and Artifice in Renaissance Poetry [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rachana Sachdev <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 22:11:26 -0400 Subject: CFP: Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference Call for Papers Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference: Cultural Performances Susquehanna University invites you to send students from a Shakespeare/ Renaissance Drama / Early Modern Literature class to participate in the Third Annual Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference to be held in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania (about 50 miles north of Harrisburg) on November 21 and 22. Papers, workshop discussions and performances dealing with Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, King Lear, and Richard III would be especially welcome. We solicit papers dealing with all aspects of these plays, though the main focus of the conference is on live performances (including opera) and films based on Shakespeare's plays. Papers should be about 7-9 pages long (reading time about 15-20 minutes), and should preferably have an interesting or original take on either the plays themselves or the performances. Detailed abstracts of papers will be due by November 7. It is understood that the papers and performances will be largely works in progress. Our main purpose for the conference is to create a greater awareness of the seriousness of all intellectual enterprises. We also hope to establish a community of undergraduate students who are able to converse about academic subjects with increasing excitement, confidence, and fluency. In past years, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in the students' willingness to take themselves and their work seriously as a consequence of the conference. The conference will begin at 2:00 on Friday afternoon, and will include a plenary speaker and some brief live performances by the Theater and Music departments at Susquehanna University on Friday evening. On Saturday, we hope to schedule both regular presentation sessions as well as workshops on individual plays. Workshops will require about 5 minutes of prepared materials by each participant. We will conclude with a post-conference party early Saturday evening, though participants could leave around 4:00 on Saturday. Please announce the conference to your students. For further information, contact Dr. Rachana Sachdev English Department 514 University Avenue Susquehanna University Selinsgrove, PA 17870-1001. Ph: (717) 372-4200 Fax: (717) 372-4310 e-mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michelle Haslem <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 19 Sep 1997 13:14:45 +0000 Subject: CFP: Nature and Artifice in Renaissance Poetry Dear Shakespereans, The next meeting of the Northern Renaissance Seminar Group will be at University College Chester on Sat 15th November. Papers of 20-30 mins reading time are still welcome on the subject of Nature and Artifice in Renaissance Poetry - submit a short abstract by email or by post to the address below. Anyone wishing to attend can contact us for further info. Michelle HaslemThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Graham Atkin c/o English Dept University College Chester Cheyney Road CHESTER
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0939. Friday, 19 September 1997. [1] From: Edna Z. Boris <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 04:30:02 -0400 Subj: F. Owen Chambers [2] From: Roger Gross <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 16:23:24 -0500 (CDT) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0938 Q: Helena's Entrance [3] From: Harry Teplitz <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 16:39:26 -0700 (PDT) Subj: DC Tempest -- another review [4] From: Joanne Gates <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 13:55:06 -0500 (CDT) Subj: Queries on Other Shakespeare Spin-Off Films [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Edna Z. Boris <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 04:30:02 -0400 Subject: F. Owen Chambers To answer Louis Swilley's question about F. Owen Chambers' handling of "To be" and "nunnery," I must first explain that I've been looking for evidence of stagings of Hamlet's monologue with Hamlet shown as aware of the presence of Polonius and Claudius spying on him. If anyone knows of any such productions, PLEASE let me know. Anyway, F. Owen Chambers has Polonius place Ophelia in an Oratory upstage left where there is a book that is chained to a table, and that is the book that she is to look at. The King and Polonius then exit right center and Hamlet immediately enters from left center with a manuscript of the play scene. After the first line, "To be, or not to be, that is the question," the directions say that Hamlet "goes to Curtains C & pulls them aside tosses Ms away to L & comes down to seat R.C." ; then later just after Hamlet asks Ophelia where her father is but before she answers, the directions say that he "looks up & sees Polonius & king disappear behind curtains R. Entrance"-twice Hamlet draws his sword and exits in pursuit of the King & Polonius, the first time at "farewell" and the second time at "a nunnery, go"; his final "To a nunnery go! go! go!" is said with Hamlet standing with sword drawn. Chambers' making Hamlet so active in pulling the curtains aside and in twice drawing his sword and running off stage is different from most other productions I've looked at. [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Roger Gross <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 16:23:24 -0500 (CDT) Subject: 8.0938 Q: Helena's Entrance Comment: Re: SHK 8.0938 Q: Helena's Entrance Ed Pixley inquires about Helena's entrance in 1.1. There isn't enough textual info to compel any choice we might make. My choice has always (in 3 productions) been to assume that Helena was looking for Hermia (or perhaps just looking for a good place to cry) when she stumbles upon Hermia and Lysander in the midst of a bit of coochie-coo. She does an abrupt about face, hoping to escape without being seen. But she fails. Roger Gross U. of Arkansas [3]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Harry Teplitz <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 16:39:26 -0700 (PDT) Subject: DC Tempest -- another review I, too, saw both the recent version of the Tempest by the DC Shakespeare theater and their production 7 years ago. My memory of the previous show is a little dim, but from what I recall the new one is much improved. For one thing, they now have the benefit of a much larger and more modern space. The old show was set on a raked stage where the floor had the design of a clock. The library setting this time seems to inform the text more clearly. In fact, the design elements are really the star of the new show. It is a beautiful production, from the sunset lighting of the rear screen to the movable walls of the library. The acting in the show is very good, as is usual for the company. The actor playing Prospero (in both shows) is strong and clear. He is a little reserved for my taste, however, showing only hints of an inner struggle. My major complaint with the show is that I found Prospero's character arc difficult to follow. The events of the play were clear, but not their motivation. Ariel was clever and physical; I agree he was a "Puck-like" spirit. Caliban was intense, though his accent seemed a little unstable. He also suffered from being the centerpiece of a concept that was not fully realized. Stephano and Trinulo steal the show in each of their scenes. The various lords (King of Naples, Duke of Milan, etc. ) are well played but a little indistinct. Their costumes are very similar, as is their bearing, and I wonder if those not familiar with the script can really tell them apart. Conceptually, the show is in a bit of a muddle. As another post mentioned, most of the spirits are played by African-American actors. Certainly the Caliban scenes suggest that this was intended to be an important theme-Caliban is not monstrous, only "primitive". In his final scene, Prospero describes him as deformed, though he is in perfect shape; the scene is staged with Caliban surrounded by fancily dressed white actors, while Ariel watches from the side. I think the show would have done better to go further with the concept or otherwise not bother. One final note-after the breaking of the staff, the stage lights are turned off and the work lights are turned on, eliminating the "magic" or the theater and illuminating some of the audience. I was particularly fond of this effect, having done a similar trick in a production of Hamlet this summer. [4]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Joanne Gates <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 13:55:06 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Queries on Other Shakespeare Spin-Off Films The review of a new Verdi Macbeth in the Wall Street Journal reminded me to ask: PBS aired a spectacular Verdi Macbeth in the early '80s. Scene changes were done as erector-set constructions, magically dissolving and growing, changing dimension. Big duet between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth took place on a human size chess board with her knocking over chess pieces. Does anyone know if this film is available? Also, a "cats" special, I think on A&E gave brief mention to an Italian director who had filmed a Cat version of Romeo & Juliet. He chose for his animal cast a breed of cats that could swim, and there was a brief clip of a white cat plunging into water (the balcony scene??). I'm interested to know if anyone else has heard of such a film. Joanne Gates
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0938. Thursday, 18 September 1997. [1] From: Ed Pixley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 17 Sep 1997 12:45:05 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Helena's Entrance [2] From: Richard A Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 17 Sep 1997 15:38:44 -0400 (EDT) Subj: A Midsummer Night Night's Wet Dream [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Pixley <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 17 Sep 1997 12:45:05 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Helena's Entrance Last night, as my cast and I began text work for our upcoming production of MND, using the New Folger as our basic script, we were surprised by the gloss on Helena's entrance (I.1.183). Lysander announces the entrance: "Look, here comes Helena." Hermia has the next line, "Godspeed, fair Helena. Whither away?" The Folger glosses "Godspeed" as "a conventional greeting." Since Helena does make an entrance and since Lysander even announces her entrance, a greeting would seem to be in order. One of my undergraduates, however, challenged that, pointing out that "Godspeed" is usually a shortened way of saying "God speed you on your way," a farewell rather than a greeting. Moreover, "whither away?" seems to ask "where are you going," not "where are you coming from?" >From this, we concluded that Helena is not coming to join Hermia and Lysander, but is on her way to some other place, and Hermia's line interrupts her in her progress, giving an entirely different dynamic to Helena's first line, "Call you me fair?" She must abandon whatever intention was carrying her to another destination so as to respond to Hermia's perhaps unwelcome adjective. I've checked all the other editions I have on hand and none of them gives any gloss to the line (except to identify Elizabethan perceptions of "fair"). Nevertheless, I couldn't help wondering whether there is an editorial assumption that Helena is making an entrance with the intention of joining Lysander and Hermia. There must be other directors out there who have dealt with this. Does anyone care to respond? Or am I just belaboring the obvious? While I'm at it, Hermia's vow to join Lysander in the woods (in the speech immediately preceding this) is sworn on a series of pretty unreliable things, including "all the vows that men have ever broke." Is she telling him that she is taking an incredible risk in promising to join him-that she is, in fact, really trapped into a situation over which she has no control? Shakespeare's women, with good cause, do not have a lot of confidence in their men's ability to hold up their ends of bargains. Yet over and over again they seem to have little choice but to place themselves at risk on the promises their men have made. Cheers, Ed Pixley [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard A Burt <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 17 Sep 1997 15:38:44 -0400 (EDT) Subject: A Midsummer Night Night's Wet Dream Does anyone know anything about the director or production history of a film (on video) called A Midsummer Night's Wet Dream? Does anyone have a copy? Thanks Richard
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 8.0937. Thursday, 18 September 1997. [1] From: Terry Craig <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 17 Sep 1997 09:10:16 -0400 (EDT) Subj: Ian McKellen Macbeth [2] From: Franklin J. Hildy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 17 Sep 1997 18:13:07 -0400 Subj: New Globe [3] From: Matthew Gretzinger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 17 Sep 1997 10:41:07 -0400 Subj: Re: SHK 8.0935 Re: Spinoffs [4] From: Ron Ward <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 21:29:59 +1200 (NZST) Subj: Re: SHK 8.0916 Re: Criticism on the Web [1]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Terry Craig <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 17 Sep 1997 09:10:16 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Ian McKellen Macbeth Anyone interested in the Ian McKellen *Macbeth* might try The Continental Shop in Santa Monica. Their catalog lists the film at $39.90 and I believe it's ready to play on American video systems (NTSC). Address and Phone: The Continental Shop 1619 Wilshire Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90403 (310)-453-8655 [2]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Franklin J. Hildy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 17 Sep 1997 18:13:07 -0400 Subject: New Globe It seems that many of us saw the same production at the new Globe this summer. For those of you who could not make it over there, do check out "Henry V at the Globe" which will be broadcast on PBS on Nov 5th as part of the Great Performances series. Let me add my voice to those who have noted that Mark Rylance did not direct the shows done at the Globe and is not directly responsible for their short comings. He did select the directors but his choices were rather limited for a variety of reasons. Like many of you on the list I was more impressed with the theatre than the productions this summer (enjoyed Henry V very much, found Winter's Tale embarrassing) but as one of those who worked on this project for the last 13 years I must say this was only to be expected. William Poel and Nugent Monck, the two men who blazed the trail in rediscovering Elizabethan staging conventions early in this century, always said they worked with armatures because professional actors were too set in their ways to be able to quickly adapt to the demands of this very different approach to performance. We saw this in the workshop season of 1995, in the prologue season last year, and in the shows this summer. But the more experienced the actors get with this space the better they are at using it and I understand from those who saw the productions in the final week of the run that they were much better by that time than they had been in June. Ironically there are probably a lot more actors in America who would understand how to use the Globe than there are in England but the real problem is the directors who still think in terms of proscenium arch theatre and TV frames and still refuse to allow anyone to help them with understanding the special qualities of that dynamic building. If you saw Damon and Pythias last year you know how successful a show can be when the director(Gaynor Macfarlane) consulted with someone who had a solid understanding of the building-in this case Rosalind King, who had been part of the 1995 Workshop Season. I hope Ms Macfarlane will be invited back again. By contrast, the director of Two Gents last year and the director of Winter's Tale this year were not receptive to assistance from those who understood the building and chose rather to embark on self indulgent rehearsal techniques that did not serve the actors in preparing them to take the stage in this building. They did their actors a disservice and I hope they will not be asked to work at the Globe again. The director of Henry V, Richard Olivier, did make an honest effort to understand the unique characteristics of the Globe and while I did not agree with his interpretation of the play there was clearly a keen intelligence at work in this production. Olivier seems to have understood that this was a laboratory that needed to be experimented with, not just another theatre like the Barbican or Drury Lane. I hope he will be back in the future. Modern designers are also a problem in this space. They are not use to factoring the decoration of a theatre when they conceive of their design. Henry V designer, Jenny Tiramani seems to really understand the nature of the work being attempted at the Globe and she is Mark Rylance's great find for the company. They designer for Winter's Tale, on the other hand, just didn't get it. He knew what the building would look like but seem to have had no clue as to how that would impact his design. It would have looked great at the Barbican Pit but at the Globe it just looked silly-one friend commented that the designer thought this was "Leontes,Prince of Tires," but you had to see all the steel belted radials on stage to get the joke. All those involved are learning and the more they learn the better they will get at using this stage-this was always the plan of the project. Globe performances are very different form those in the West End but I like the experience of going to the Globe and would not miss it. Standing seems to be the best way to experience these shows and for those who do not like the benches may I suggest the Gentlemen's Rooms-there are chairs there. [3]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Matthew Gretzinger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Wednesday, 17 Sep 1997 10:41:07 -0400 Subject: 8.0935 Re: Spinoffs Comment: Re: SHK 8.0935 Re: Spinoffs >In _Good Omens_, by Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, reference is made to the >rare "lost quartos" of Shakespeare, the three plays never reissued in >folio and now lost to scholars: _The Comedie of Robin Hoode, or, The >Forest of Sherwoode_, _The Trapping of the Mouse_, and _Gold Diggers of >1589_. In reference to Gaiman, I'd like to add _The Tempest_ issue of Sandman Comics, and an issue of the series "The Doll's House," in which Shakespeare figures briefly as a character "who'd bargain, like Kit's Faustus," for the "boon" of being able to write well. There's also _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, in which Oberon, Titania and the fairies watch a performance of the play in which (I think) W. S. himself takes a part. [4]----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ron Ward <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Thursday, 18 Sep 1997 21:29:59 +1200 (NZST) Subject: 8.0916 Re: Criticism on the Web Comment: Re: SHK 8.0916 Re: Criticism on the Web Billy Houck says > >What we need to do is teach our students to know crap when they read it. That requires thinking about. The expression is too loose to be sure whether his intention is to tell student what crap is and make sure they follow his guide lines. The faculty of good taste can not be taught. It is a part of an adult awareness, but can be covered over by rubbish acquired in many ways. So in a way you need to unlearn bad habits not learn new ones. That is an alternative view anyway.