The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0829 Thursday, 21 September 2006
[1] From: Peter Farey <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 21 Sep 2006 09:52:41 +0100
Subj: Re: SHK 17.0820 RSC Appeal to Educators
[2] From: Wan-yu Lin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 21 Sep 2006 12:21:30 +0100
Subj: RE: SHK 17.0820 RSC Appeal to Educators
[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Peter Farey <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 21 Sep 2006 09:52:41 +0100
Subject: 17.0820 RSC Appeal to Educators
Comment: Re: SHK 17.0820 RSC Appeal to Educators
I find it surprising that no mention has yet been made - or if it has I
must have missed it - of what I believe to be the best way of all of
learning to love Shakespeare: actually performing in his plays before an
audience. This was certainly my own experience, even though I was
'taught' several of his plays at school, and was lucky enough to be
within a short bus-ride of the Old Vic when sixpence regularly bought me
a seat up in the gods.
I was reminded of this on Tuesday evening, when I attended a performance
of an abridged *Henry V*, put on by the UK's National Youth Theatre to
celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their first production, also
*Henry V*, which I was lucky enough to be in. Several of the original
cast were there, in fact, and were invited up on stage to join them for
the curtain call. The founder of the NYT, Michael Croft, by 1956 had
already gained an enviable reputation for getting stunning performances
from boys he roped in from the football team and the Combined Cadet
Force, and who had initially strongly resisted both the idea of acting
in general, and Shakespeare in particular.
My son is an actor who also works with children a lot of the time, and
not all that long ago I went to a production he was involved in (H5 yet
again) where half a dozen professional actors were joined by about fifty
12-14 year olds from schools in the Slough area. The professionals took
on the major roles, and the youngsters all of the minor ones, plus the
Chorus. I was able to see the assessments that these kids wrote about it
when it was all over. There was a clear unanimity about how much they
had enjoyed it, the experience had been 'wicked' and Shakespeare had
obviously been found not the slightest bit boring. Perhaps the only
downside might be that, despite none of them ever having been on stage
in their lives before, around three quarters of them, asked about what
they wanted to do when they left school, now said that they wanted to be
an actor!
Peter Farey
http://www2.prestel.co.uk/rey/index.htm
[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Wan-yu Lin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 21 Sep 2006 12:21:30 +0100
Subject: 17.0820 RSC Appeal to Educators
Comment: RE: SHK 17.0820 RSC Appeal to Educators
I'd like to respond to what Anne Cuneo wrote about the Shakespeare
project in the Joux Valley. (perhaps not strongly relevant to the title
of the thread) Could I ask her to say a bit more about the village's
response to Tchekov, Brecht, Moli
