January
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0027 Tuesday, 16 January 2007 From: Amy Ulen <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, 15 Jan 2007 23:29:42 -0800 Subject: Shakespeare High Podcast & Invitation Happy New Year to all SHAKSPER members! One of my goals this year is to add more content to Shakespeare High, and I started that by creating a podcast. The podcast will air approximately every two weeks and will include site updates, reviews, play/character discussions, interviews, etc. Those of you who subscribe to the podcast and provide feedback/suggestions will drive the content. More information is available at http://www.shakespearehigh.com/pac/podcast/index.shtml or in the Cafeteria at http://www.shakespearehigh.com/cafeteria/index.php?board=3.0 . The most recent podcast includes a review of Seattle Shakespeare's energetic COE. If you are new to Shakespeare High or have not visited in a while, you will also find that we have a new message board. Unfortunately, we were unable to archive the past five years of discussion, but we are looking forward to a fresh start. If you tend to lurk on SHAKSPER, please consider joining us in the Shakespeare High Cafeteria (http://www.shakespearehigh.com/cafeteria/) and let your voice be heard! Sincerely, Amy Ulen http://www.shakespearehigh.com/ _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0026 Tuesday, 16 January 2007 From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 Subject: F. Murray Abraham stars in rare double bill FROM: The Oneida Daily Dispatch 01/15/2007 F. Murray Abraham stars in rare double bill By Wayne Myers, Dispatch Drama Critic http://zwire.townnews.biz/site/news.cfm?notn=1&ncdr=1&newsid=17717808&BRD=1709&PAG=461&dept_id=68844&rfi=6 NEW YORK - New York was abuzz as the Delacorte Theater, Central Park home of the New York Shakespeare Festival, neared completion in early 1962. But the story quickly became about the play that New York Shakespeare Festival founder Joe Papp selected to inaugurate the Delacorte with on June 18, 1962-Shakespeare's 1597 "The Merchant of Venice." The cast featured George C. Scott as the Jewish moneylender Shylock and James Earl Jones as the Prince of Morocco. By that point, "The Merchant of Venice" had a long, colorful history of protest. Now the NYSF production-and WCBS-TV's announcement that there would be a live telecast of the staging on CBS-was about to enlarge that history. New York City's most influential rabbis came out against the production and the telecast of the play, viewing the character of Shylock as reinforcing ugly stereotypes of Jews. It became a national story. The play would end up running for 17 performances at the Delacorte. Citing the international media and research firm Arbitron, Helen Epstein, in her book, "Joe Papp: An American Life," wrote that "the televised broadcast was seen in 800,000 homes by an estimated audience of two million viewers." There is almost no track record of outrage, however, over performances of Christopher Marlowe's 1590 "The Jew of Malta"-probably because it's rarely performed now, especially stateside, even in New York. But it was hugely popular in London from its first performance around 1590 through the closing of the theaters in 1642. If "The Merchant of Venice" inevitably draws protest for its character Shylock, what can be expected from "The Jew of Malta?" Now Theatre for a New Audience is mounting both plays as a double bill with a 14-member ensemble that includes F. Murray Abraham at the Duke on 42nd Street in New York. That's chutzpah. [ . . . ] Editor's Note: I read an interesting article the other day that I found at the website "All About Jewish Theatre," which describes itself as "The Global Website to promote and enhance Jewish Theatre and Performing Arts Worldwide. The article, "A very Jewish villain," by Jonathan Freedland appears to be a reprint from a 2004 edition of the Guardian. The piece is a review of Michael Radford's feature film The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino as Shylock. Many of the issues that it examines have been much discussed on SHAKSPER in the past: Is The Merchant of Venice a profoundly anti-Semitic work? Is Shylock a villain? and so on. What I found most interesting was the discussion of the play in the medium of film: "For the very nature of the medium aggravates the traditional dilemmas of staging The Merchant of Venice." This issue is the reason that I mention this review, and I am not inviting a rehashing of those topics that have been thoroughly discussed in the past. The article can be found at http://new.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1113 -Hardy _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0025 Monday, 15 January 2007 From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, January 15, 2007 Subject: 18.0018 What's in a Name? Comment: Re: SHK 18.0018 What's in a Name? Last week, I solicited suggestions for a name for the upcoming new feature that I have been calling the SHAKSPER Roundtable, a designation that would distinguish it from the everyday discussions that take place on SHAKSPER. I would like to thank everyone who sent me suggestions. They were thoughtful and provocative. Here are some of those I received: "SHAKSPER High Table" "The Globe" "Roundtable Forum Number 1" Internet-, Web-, Net- or Electronic Seminar EMPAD, for Electronic Moderated Panel Discussion The RETREAT, The SANCTUARY, or The WEEDED GARDEN The PRIVY COUNCIL or The STAR CHAMBER "Shakespeare Challenge" If I were assign these responses to two groups, I would call one group the creative suggestions and the other the descriptive suggestions. Roger Leeming <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > represents the creative suggestions: ***** In Love's Labour's Lost, Act I, scene i, lines 13 - 14, the King of Navarre says, 'Our court shall be a little academe, Still and contemplative in living art.' The editor of The Arden Shakespeare version, H.R. Woudhuysen, notes that 'academe/academy: a unique Shakespearean form. The Academy was originally the name of Plato's school in Athens. It was taken up in the mid-fifteenth century by the Medici, rulers of Florence, and imitated at other courts, esp. in France, where academies held formal discussions of matters relating to philosophy and to the arts.' Since the following line in the quotation may be interpreted as meaning 'calmly and consistently meditating on the living quality of art', I would respectfully propose 'SHAKSPER Academe' as the title for the SHAKSPER Forum/Roundtable since 'academe' is, as aforementioned, a uniquely Shakespearean term and since the word describes a distinctive 'milieu' in which special and formal discussions take place. ***** Larry Weiss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > represents the descriptive group: ***** Since the program will be confined to a narrowly defined topic, and there will be a reading list which I presume all participants will be expected to follow, with the discussion moderated by a leader, this sounds like nothing so much as a "seminar." Why not just call it that? "Symposium" or even "colloquium" will also do, but are not are precise. ***** Although I appreciate the more creative suggestions, I was looking for a designation that, even though prosaic, was more descriptive. Since traffic had been rather slow lately, I decided to put my three choices to an informal vote of the membership. 1. SHAKSPER Seminar OED: "a select group of advanced students associated for special study and original research under the guidance of a professor." American Heritage: "A small group of advanced students in a college or graduate school engaged in original research or intensive study under the guidance of a professor who meets regularly with them to discuss their reports and findings." 2. SHAKSPER Colloquium OED: "A meeting or assembly for discussion; a conference, council. spec. an academic conference or seminar." American Heritage: "An academic seminar on a broad field of study, usually led by a different lecturer at each meeting." 3. SHAKSPER Roundtable (The original title) OED: "Used generally to denote a number of persons seated round a circular table, or imagined as forming a gathering of this kind; spec. an assembly of people for a conference or discussions at which all participants are accorded equal status Also transf., a collection of opinions or remarks on a particular subject. American Heritage: "A conference or discussion involving several participants." If you have a preference from among these three, please let me know, and in a few days I will let the list know my decision. Hardy _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0024 Monday, 15 January 2007 From: Norman Myers <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 12 Jan 2007 18:47:01 -0500 Subject: A Question Fellow SHAKSPERians-- I've heard that the best way to learn is to not be shy about confessing one's ignorance. So. . . I think I understand "historicism", but what, exactly, is "presentism." Remember: Keep it simple. Thanks, Norman Myers Professor Emeritus Bowling Green State University _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.
The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0023 Monday, 15 January 2007 From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Monday, January 15, 2007 Subject: Globe-ness Dear SHAKSPEReans, Both of the newspapers I read had articles about an exhibition, "Reinventing the Globe" at National Building Museum as part of the Shakespeare in Washington festival. Hardy New York Times January 13, 2007 Imagining, and Reimagining, the Globe By Jeremy Kahn http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/theater/13glob.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1168664400&en=4fa5ef6861aebb22&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - Of all the debates about Shakespeare, it is perhaps second only to the enduring controversy over the identity of the author himself: what exactly did the Globe Theater, where many of his plays were first performed and his troupe resided, look like? Did it have 16 sides or 8, 20 or 24? The argument swirls with all the passion of Stratfordians versus Oxfordians, who each claim the playwright as their own. Over the last 200 years, attempts have been made to reconstruct the Globe on almost every continent. And the theater's basic design elements, such as they are known, have inspired loose architectural interpretations that range from the polygonal Festival Theater in Stratford, Ontario, to a Globe made entirely of ice hundreds of miles above the Arctic Circle in Sweden. The continuing fascination with Shakespeare's theater and the myriad efforts to replicate its spirit - and, in many cases, its actual form - is the subject of "Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century," an exhibition that opens on Saturday at the National Building Museum here as part of the city's six-month Shakespeare in Washington festival. For the exhibition, a Building Museum curator, G. Martin Moeller Jr., commissioned five architects to design hypothetical Shakespearean theaters that would evoke the playwright's essence yet be thoroughly modern. The resulting proposals are striking and whimsical and sometimes just a little bit weird, not unlike Shakespearean drama itself. Before arriving at these contemporary concepts, however, the exhibition walks through a history of the Globe and what can only be termed Globe mania. In 1599 Shakespeare's acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, paid for construction of the Globe on the south bank of the Thames, in what was then emerging as London's theater district. [ . . . ] The Washington Post All the World's His Stage By Philip Kennicott Monday, January 15, 2007; C01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011401289.html The Globe, Yesterday and Tomorrow The Globe Theatre, the site of so many of Shakespeare's theatrical triumphs, is a fetish object. It is the Valhalla of Bardolotry, a place every decently educated school kid can picture in detail even if, as scholars readily admit, much of what it looked like is simply unknown. As a piece of architecture, it has been dust and compost for more than four centuries, but the Globe keeps recurring, being rebuilt and re-imagined, as if only there (or in some facsimile) can Shakespeare really come alive. At first glance, the National Building Museum might seem an odd choice to be brought into the big tent of the Kennedy Center's Shakespeare in Washington festival. But, of course, there's always the Globe, and so the museum is doing its part, with an exhibition devoted to the old Elizabethan polygon, open to the air, on the south bank of the Thames. The surprise is that "Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century," which opened Saturday, is smart, fresh and idiosyncratic. Perhaps because architecture is an art with real money at stake, or perhaps because architects are by nature intellectually lively people, the highlight of the Kennedy Center's rather diffuse Shakespeare festival may turn out to be this small but lively survey devoted to the larger idea of "Globe-ness." The show is divided into two parts. The first is a historical look at Elizabethan theaters, and at the persistent fascination with re-creating the Globe over the ages. The second half shows the work of five different architects or architectural teams who were given the challenge of rethinking the Globe for a new era. Their contributions amount to a fascinating overview of the strengths and pathologies of contemporary architecture, including the strange obsession for getting people "engaged" with friendly or open buildings (as if cold and serene buildings, like the Taj Mahal, or dour, overbearing ones, like the Pantheon, weren't "engaging" enough). So the exhibition moves from the old Globe, seen in drawings and paintings and described in old documents, to the globe itself, suggested by one theatrical plan that would use Internet technology to link multiple performances of "Macbeth," around the world, together into a seamless, virtual show. [ . . . ] _______________________________________________________________ S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List Hardy M. Cook,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net> DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the editor assumes no responsibility for them.