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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