The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 11.0476 Friday, 10 March 2000.
[1] From: Ronald Moyer <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 8 Mar 2000 12:01:51 -0600 (CST)
Subj: Re: SHK 11.0447 Modern Dress Query
[2] From: Nicole Imbracsio <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 9 Mar 2000 12:29:19 -0700
Subj: Re: SHK 11.0471 Re: Modern Dress Query
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Ronald Moyer <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 8 Mar 2000 12:01:51 -0600 (CST)
Subject: 11.0447 Modern Dress Query
Comment: Re: SHK 11.0447 Modern Dress Query
There are several reasons why some various production teams have chosen
to re-set productions of Early Modern scripts. In brief, some of the
reasons are: 1) to clarify class/ economic/ occupational/ etc.
relationships for audiences unfamiliar with renaissance customs (modern
dress and/or eclectic designs, such a many Bogdanov productions); 2) to
reduce visual "interference" which may distract contemporary audiences
from a needed focus on language; 3) attempts to freshen visual reference
while (hopefully) reinforcing thematic concerns (anachronistic but,
often, non-modern setting; e.g., Twelfth Night to self-conscious
romanticism of c. 1800; chaotic, post-apocalyptic, "road warriors"
setting for Macbeth; fascist setting for RIII, Caesar); 4) in situations
with limited casting pools (many school productions), to choose/create
worlds offering opportunities to more women and/or young actors in the
casts (e.g., women soldiers, Guildenstern, Horatio, etc.); 5) to
explore/emphasize particular themes; 6) to produce on limited budgets;
and, for some folks, 6) just to be different.
Ivan Fuller, now teaching at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, USA, completed a PhD dissertation addressing the question of
anachronistic productions of Shakes' scripts. Excerpts from the
Dissertation Abstracts entry are included below:
TITLE: A CRITICAL CASE STUDY OF ANACHRONISTIC PRODUCTIONS OF
SHAKESPEAREAN TEXTS
AUTHOR: FULLER, IVAN WALTER, II
DEGREE: PH.D.
YEAR: 1990
INSTITUTION: BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY; 0018
SOURCE: DAI, VOL. 52-03A, Page 0740, 00333 Pages
DESCRIPTORS: THEATER; LITERATURE, ENGLISH
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to provide a list of
guiding values and/or criteria that directors of a
Shakespearean text might be able to apply to their
decision-making process when consciously choosing to
stage the text in an anachronistic setting--defined in
this study as any period other than Elizabethan.
A case study was conducted by interviewing five
directors who had directed an anachronistic production
of Shakespeare. These directors and their productions
were: David William's Troilus and Cressida at the
Stratford Festival in Ontario, Peter Moss' Much Ado
About Nothing at the Stratford Festival in Ontario,
Richard Monette's The Taming of the Shrew at the
Stratford Festival in Ontario, Ronald Shields' Twelfth
Night at Bowling Green State University, and Philip
Kerr's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the University of
Michigan. From these interviews, a list of guiding
values and criteria was compiled....In addition to
presenting the rationale for the choices made, this
study
also discussed the implementation process that led to
the
final production and an evaluative discussion of the
five
productions based on critical reviews and directorial
post-
production evaluations....
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nicole Imbracsio <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 9 Mar 2000 12:29:19 -0700
Subject: 11.0471 Re: Modern Dress Query
Comment: Re: SHK 11.0471 Re: Modern Dress Query
>Nicole Imbracsio writes that, in the recent film of Romeo and Juliet,
>guns are used in place of swords in order to 'demonstrate the
>timelessness of the work'. Eh? I'd say it demonstrates exactly the
>reverse.
>
>T. Hawkes
What I meant was that in "modernizing" the setting of the play the film
allows for an audience to realize how the tale of Romeo and Juliet
transcends time and place (it's not just about some guys running around
in tights and swords). I, many others, love the Zefferelli (sp?) film-
but high school students today may not find it as beautiful as I did.
Actually, I feel that the recent film did a much better job in
demonstrating the play's acts of violence as "senseless," than the older
film did. I am not saying that Baz's film is entirely brillant-but some
aspects of it (such as the guns) were very clever.
-N.
