Hello Everyone,
There are so many of you I donot know but now that I finally have had the chance to read the many emails of the past few weeks, I feel I do know many of you.
I deeply appreciate and identify with Susan's testimonial of what Winedale has meant to her. When I was 19 and a lost soul in 1973, Doc introduced me to Winedale, a book called The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and lots of characters, whose impact I feel to this day. From 1973 to 1975, I watched Robert Jackson and Terry Galloway embody comic anarchy in Taming of the Shrew, fell in love with Alice Gordon as Beatrice (it's ok, my wife knows all about it), and learned to play Falstaff by falling off the roof of the theater barn during a raging rainstorm. It's great to know others have had similar experiences over the years (although not the broken leg, I hope) and to know that blessing we call Winedale is alive and well. It's also gratifying to know 37 years later Robert Jackson still worries about learning his lines and is obsessed with scenes about pitching woo and Alice and Mary still have the ability to organise our lives.
Your recommendations of scenes greatly influenced my suggestions, especially Clayton's eloquence about the power of the space there, Jayne and Kathy's "La Ronde" idea, and Gail's thoughts on the nature of the Winedale "family."
Of course, I'm cool with whatever everyone decides.
The scenes that I'm recommending are not only influenced by your thoughts, but, selfishly are scenes I would enjoy and would want to see as an audience member.
Notes on a few of my selects:
Like others, I feel Bottom's dream
Is a perfect beginning. I also feel the very end of MND is a perfect, magical ending.
The Richard II speech is something that has resonated with me politically as strongly today as it was when I first heard it during the reign of Richard Nixon. It has immense dramatic power.
And I am convinced that the last scene of Winter's Tale out of context of the complete play is a satisfying, complete play in itself.
The * are full scenes, the other
speeches are very brief and in many cases would serve as transitions between the fuller scenes.
First half - Conflict/Indecision
Bottom's Dream 4.1 lines 200-219
*Merchant of Venice 1.2 lines 1-133 Portia's suitors can be done very creatively with lots of actors acting out the stories told.
Romeo and Juliet 1.4 lines 53-95
Queen Mab speech
*King Lear 2.4 lines 1-309 Lear
confronts Regan and Goneril (intense-lots of characters)
Cymbeline 4.2 lines 291-332
Imogen (Fidele) awakens with a dead body next to her
*Taming of the Shrew 4.2 lines 1-211 Petruchio returns home with Kate (lots of characters-comic anarchy)
Tempest 4.1 lines 148-163
"Our revels now are ended............
A turn or two I'll walk
To still my beating mind."
Second half- Reconciliation/Resolution
*Brush Up Your Shakespeare
(Everybody involved should be
part of an extended rendition)
*2Henry IV 3.2 lines 1-219
Shallow/Silence/Falstaff/others
Reminiscences about the past with their pals and then conscription of a few reprobate soldiers
(Lots of characters)
*King Lear 4.6 lines 1-80 Edgar/Gloucester father/son reconcile
*Much Ado 4.1 lines 255-336
Beatrice and Benedick reconcile
(the real wedding) following the aborted wedding
Richard II 3.2 lines 144-177
"Let's talk of graves, of worms, of epitaphs...............subjected thus,
How can you say to me I am a king?"
*Winter's Tale 5.3 lines 1-155
(Entire scene is a play in itself--
Lots of characters, magical and
surprising)
*Midsummer Night's Dream 5.1
Lines 371-438 Oberon/Titania/Puck
(As many ethereal fairies as possible should take part)
All the best,
mb
________________________________
From: weeklong-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
To: weeklong-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Sent: Sat May 29 13:56:08 2010
Subject: [Weeklong-l] **IMPORTANT: Call to Reunion Action!**
Dear Fellow Winedale Weeklongians,
On behalf of Doc and the Committee of Cheerleaders, I hereby emit a big Go, Team, Go!
We would like to get the whole scenes-choosing and role-casting process done and roles disseminated by June 6, when the first session of Camp Shakespeare begins and Doc will be all-consumed by it. To meet that deadline, we must strictly adhere to the ones leading up to it.
Attached is the revised master list of scenes I sent you a few days ago. A a few people weighed in with a more ideas. Also, Robert Jackson, please forgive me for not including your list of scenes the first time around. It and newer material is now included and marked in bold-face type.
Here is the process just ahead:
By Midnight, MAY 31: Send your top ten scenes to alicegordon(a)earthlink.net. (I will immediately forward all lists to Doc and the Committee. Just trying to give everyone only one email address to type in.) Considering the themes we’ve all been talking about, please send us your top ten scenes from the complete list. Feel free either to cherry-pick from the list; to vote for one of the concepts sketched out or fully fledged by Gail, Robert P, Robert J, or Matt; or to choose both concept and scenes to make your own list. (If I have overlooked other concepts since the whole group has been talking, please remind us all as soon as you can). Kathy and Jayne’s and Clayton’s proposals seem ways and examples of how to approach any group of scenes once we’re at Winedale, and feel free to state your support or comments about such approaches as well. Our sense is that a lot of us are excited about what they are suggesting.
Please keep in mind the time limit we’ve set forth and the number of participants in each scene. Doc urges us to favor ensemble scenes (six or more characters) in the balance, and also to balance longer and shorter scenes. Remember there will be weekenders and audience pop-ups with whom we will share the matinee.
By June 2: Doc and Committee come up with final list of scenes. The committee and Doc will look at the preferences mathematically, see what rises to the top, and then work out the final choices by considering ensemble or what works better or what’s more appropriate for the context. Once we have the final list, it will be sent out to everybody. Please keep an eye on your email inbox that day.
By June 3: Your requests or preferences, if any. When you get that list, please let us know if you have very special preferences for roles you would like to play or scenes you would like to take part in. Once we get that information, we’ll have at the casting.
June 5: Deadline for roles to be cast.
June 6: List of roles sent to whole group.
Courage! This will mean a fast week-plus coming up.
Make your best haste,
All best wishes,
Alice