The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 21.0387  Wednesday, 29 September 2010

[1]  From:      Anthony Burton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
     Date:      September 27, 2010 3:41:25 PM EDT
     Subj:      Re: SHK 21.0384  Actor Doubling 

[2]  From:      Paul Barry <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
     Date:      September 27, 2010 7:51:37 PM EDT
     Subj:      Re: SHK 21.0379  Actor Doublings
 
[3]  From:      Tom Reedy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
     Date:      September 28, 2010 10:32:51 PM EDT
     Subj:      Re: SHK 21.0384  Actor Doubling
 

[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:         Anthony Burton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:         September 27, 2010 3:41:25 PM EDT
Subject: 21.0384  Actor Doubling
Comment:      Re: SHK 21.0384  Actor Doubling

Bill Blanton's opinion that "Shakespeare wrote himself into the play as Shylock 
the Jew" and then doubled as Lorenzo, comes very close to my view that Will 
wrote himself into the play as both Shylock and Antonio, alternating roles on 
successive performances and adding a rich new dimension to Portia's "Which is 
the merchant here? and which the Jew?" Every audience, lacking playbills, 
calendar watches, or iPhones, would have felt the same anxious uncertainty 
before the day's performance and thus, Willy-nilly, become doubly engaged with 
Portia in her initial confusion.

It's all so obvious.

If, as likely for any serious actor Will went to synagogue to prepare for his 
Shylock days, it would go on nicely to explain where he met his Dark Lady and 
why his romantic inclinations were frustrated. The Lorenzo-Jessica plot no doubt 
arose during that period of preparation, Will immortalizing in wish fulfillment 
the love that dared not speak its name.

I once dated a girl from New Jersey, and that didn't work out either.

Tony

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:         Paul Barry <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:         September 27, 2010 7:51:37 PM EDT
Subject: 21.0379  Actor Doublings
Comment:      Re: SHK 21.0379  Actor Doublings

In calculating cast size for HAMLET, remember you need four guards to carry the 
corpses of Ophelia and Hamlet and to physicalize Claudius' power and to protect 
him from Hamlet. They don't even have to be actors.

PAUL BARRY

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:         Tom Reedy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:         September 28, 2010 10:32:51 PM EDT
Subject: 21.0384  Actor Doubling
Comment:      Re: SHK 21.0384  Actor Doubling

>I do not have anything to offer on any of the other plays, or on doubling in 
>general. 
>
>Bill

For this relief much thanks.

Tom Reedy



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