The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0647 Thursday, 27 September 2007
From: Alan Dessen <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 26 Sep 2007 10:05:59 -0400
Subject: 18.0640 Authorial Intention
Comment: Re: SHK 18.0640 Authorial Intention
Am I the only reader of the postings on this topic to wonder how the
many distinctions, arguments, and counter-arguments about "authorial
intention" pertain to a staged play, particularly a play staged by the
Lord Chamberlain's or King's Men? Although Tiffany Stern has argued
that group rehearsals were the exception, not the norm, clearly the
mounting of a play was a collaborative process, with an attached or
in-house playwright (e.g., Shakespeare, Heywood, Fletcher, Massinger) at
hand to participate and, at least to some degree, affect the onstage
choices. Moreover, evidence survives (though not from Shakespeare's
company) for the practice of having a playwright read a new play to the
actors soon to stage it. How would such a practice have influenced the
performance to come?
In short, should or should not the material conditions of London theatre
in the 1590s and early 1600s be part of this discussion?
Alan Dessen
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