We could actually do this, you know. I’m remembering John Russell Brown’s Free Shakespeare, in which he proposes that we do away with directors and designers and instead just cast some actors, send them their sides, have them memorize their lines, maybe let them meet on and off for a couple of weeks, and then presto! turn them loose in front of an audience.
I’m game. For scenes, mind you, not for an entire play. (Marc, this could be a fun GHP thing as well.)
As mentioned before, we’ve got the Court Square and all its attendant night spots to play with.
Any ideas for scenes? I have a book or two of scenes, actually.
How about the thing about the guy complaining about his dog? That’s pretty hysterical.
Or we could do Pyramus and Thisby?
This will be a good change from all the street preachers. We need to have our shrimp signs ready.
The guy complaining about his dog is a monolog (MV). Let’s do scenes, two or three guys, not comic. (Comedy’s all about the setup.)
Maybe Brutus and Cassius arguing? Or King Henry and Prince Hal?
And who says it has to be two male characters? Antony and Cleopatra, Brutus and Portia, Mistresses Ford and Page, Rosalind and Phebe.
Or Rosalind and Orlando.
Now taking nominations from the floor.
BTW, here’s the Open Source Shakespeare. Anyone have another source?
Since we’re in an election year and heading into a recession, perhaps the “pound of flesh” scene towards the end of Merchant of Venice?
Marc mentioned one time doing perhaps something from Timon of Athens. I like the Apemantus stuff a bit. And it’s not overdone, since it’s a problem play.
I love all the stuff with Lear and his Fool. I generally enjoy playing the Fool.
Brutus and Cassius … you mean Act IV, Scene 3, the tent scene? That could work.
It’s the turn of a new century; still early enough for the next re-discovery of true “Shakespeare in Performance.” If not us, who?
Since I’m guilty of first deploying that powerful Shakespeare signifier in our most recent chats, I should come clean on my motives. I was being more Lichtenbergian in my use of the Bard’s Name than Bardolatrous since I was confessing to thinking about writing a post to announce a theoretical project and also noting my final re-consideration of the whole idea. I’m always up for playing some Shakespeare, but I had another agenda. If we do play around, I may try to impose my agenda somewhat just to see what happens, but ultimately those goals may not serve the players’ goals, so I have to be careful.
My interest in exploring playing Shakespeare really fast has more to do with a big neurotic creative preoccupation which two days ago I actually started referring to as EFFACEMENT. It’s a personal preoccupation and might be an artistic dead end, but I’ve decided to try and commit to it for a while anyway because it is cultural, anthropological, historical, clearly personal, aesthetic, theoretical, and political all at the same time, at least in how it allows me to position myself. So much bullshit in coming clean, eh?
I want to explore performing Shakespeare very, very fast because I want to eliminate the possibility of actors doing what they would “normally” do with the material, and once that possibility is gone, I want to welcome something new when it emerges. To me, it’s like creating choreography where you make a physical commitment and invite the dancers to invest in a specific approach to time and duration and the images, themes, emotional world, all tend to follow from that commitment. What new theatrical signs and wonders might emerge in such a new temporal performance template? What would happen to meaning, narrative, event, etc?
As Dale would say, “Just do the damn play.” Of course. This is an experimental concern very much removed from any notion of the “Shakespearan” or of any conventional narrative theatricality. Shakespeare is chosen as much for the “word hoard” as for the characters and tales. The storytelling performer harnesses time in a certain way to “bring a character to life” through the text. The word hoard has to be negotiated in a particular way to support the illusion of the unfolding story. If the text is grappled with in a different time scheme, “character” may go away.
So if we go forward with our playing plans, I might encourage some “exploration” along these theoretical lines, but I will remember we still have to do the damn play.
Clearly my appreciation for dance and music are influencial, here. There is a film by Michael Apted called, I think, CREATIVITY. Among the artists profiled in the film are two Canadians from the dance world, a choreographer and his primary female dancer, can’t remember their names. The accelerated temporal choices of these two were radical and harrowing and really got me to thinking. Plus, there’s Blau, of course, and his work in Elsinore and Crooked Eclipses. Vocal Sequence work has also inspired this.
More on EFFACEMENT to come. There’s a Lichtenbergian desire to compose a long essay, of course.
And what’s say we set aside references to GHP.
Fast Shakespeare sounds fun to me. I’m in.
re:GHP
Hey, I was just sayin’.
Otherwise, sure, I’m in. But I also get to impose the JR Brown restriction: no rehearsals, just memorization in advance, then play it.
I agree with Dale. Just tell us what we’re doin’, Chief.
All of the above was just to explain why when we gather I may be of several minds. Me no chief. Me brave maybe. Me strange one tending stew pot, definitely, and giggling.
You brought it up. That makes you chief. Call the gathering date, give me my lines, I’m there. I’m sure Barb’s game, too.
Meanwhile, I’ll be working on the Lichtenberg screenplay. And, of course, the Buttocks Thing.
Call for scenes.
I nominate MM, III.i, l.1278-1390.
I second the nomination.
More, anyone?
Shakespeare Behind Bars = Two Thumbs Up (me and Barb).
You can stream it on Netflix.
Hmmm, dare I question the choice by our resident Shakespeare expert? I was thinking of something a little lighter, but that is only because of the way I am feeling. I’ll gladly agree to this especially since I have no plans to participate in this project at this time.
Actually, my idea was that we have several of these scenes. My suggestion was just the first. Of several. ::ahem::
I guess I didn’t read your opening post carefully enough. You specifically called for scenes. I am appropriately chatised.
And I will continue my search for scenes. I may even be be able to participate in ones somewhere in the future.