(Notice how I keep steering threads onto the weeklong-l mailing list? I knew you did.)

I thought Susan's posting was great as well, and I can't help thinking it would be wonderful if we could show both that we can still do what we used to do (mostly) and that we've come a long way and have new experience and understanding that informs our performances.

When Doc had Joy and me play Juliet and Romeo in 2005, we first took it as a sort of joke, and we hammed it up. Doc noted that we weren't performing so much as "commenting" on the text, and after that we played it straight, and the fact that we were older than the usual R&J, I think, informed our reading of the texts in ways it could not have been if we'd done the same scene 30 years ago.


--Mike



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pees, Robert <rpees@akingump.com>
Date: Tue, May 4, 2010 at 10:11 AM
Subject: RE: [Weeklong-l] Lynn Redgrave and "Shakespeare For My Father"
To: "weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org" <weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org>, "mnemonic@gmail.com" <mnemonic@gmail.com>


Susan, nicely said!  Clayton, great ideas for joyful and festive scenes!  And to follow up on Jayne's proposal, if we need a short standalone textual launch pad for the “huge musical fantastical Hollywoodesque rubber-chicken-throwing farting dancing looking upon the hedges pub drinking Terry in drag or with big hanging boobies a-la Adriana ensemble comedic scene,” I would suggest as a possible candidate the passage introducing the Dance of the Twelve Satyrs in The Winter’s Tale, IV, iv (which could also be useful simply as an intro to a less ambitious dance):
 

Servant
Master, there is three carters, three shepherds,
three neat-herds, three swine-herds, that have made
themselves all men of hair, they call themselves
Saltiers, and they have a dance which the wenches
say is a gallimaufry of gambols, because they are
not in't; but they themselves are o' the mind, if it
be not too rough for some that know little but
bowling, it will please plentifully.

Shepherd
Away! we'll none on 't: here has been too much
homely foolery already. I know, sir, we weary you.

POLIXENES
You weary those that refresh us: pray, let's see
these four threes of herdsmen.

Servant
One three of them, by their own report, sir, hath
danced before the king; and not the worst of the
three but jumps twelve foot and a half by the squier.

Shepherd
Leave your prating: since these good men are
pleased, let them come in; but quickly now.

Servant
Why, they stay at door, sir.

Exit

Here a dance of twelve Satyrs

 

 

Best,

Bob


From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of susan todd
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2010 11:06 AM
To: mnemonic@gmail.com; weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] Lynn Redgrave and "Shakespeare For My Father"

Very interesting. I saw Redgrave when she played Prospero at the Globe in London. Her take on the character and his relationship to Miranda was very tender. She was criticized for being a weak Prospero, and it's true she was no powerhouse. But for the first time, I liked Prospero and felt his motivation was truly "in care of [Miranda]." In terms of redemption, resolution, and love, she brought it on.

Thanks for the recommendation, Mike!

On this note, I'd be interested in discussions about doing scenes that might illuminate the life-lessons and truths we all took from Winedale. I, for one, learned that "in theater, anyone can be anything" (Doc). While at Winedale, I was a 39-year-old wife and mother of three, but I became a young maid, a male octogenarian, a gaoler, a bawd, a soldier, a boy, and more. I saw the reason why when someone like Lynn Redgrave plays Prospero, I learn new things about Prospero. When Doc shook up traditional gender/race/age/body type-casting, amazing things happened. I now know that what he was doing was rare in theater--and it still is. Most folks in the theater world don't seem to get it, but it's what Shakespeare is telling us, satirically, when Quince and Company discover they can represent a lion and a moon rather than producing the real thing on stage. In everything I do, I keep touting the principle of "anyone can be anything," and I learned it at Winedale.

--Susan

On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 9:11 AM, Mike Godwin <mnemonic@gmail.com> wrote:

Not sure if we can plunder this for ideas, as Terry suggests, but the recent passing of Lynn Redgrave made me think of "Shakespeare For My Father," which I was lucky enough to see in Chicago in 1994.  I liked it very much. As you may know, Redgrave used Shakespeare to mediate her feelings about her father, about redemption, about resolution, and about love. And of course there was plenty of comedy in there too. It made me wonder if there was an affordable copy of the play on Alibris or another of the used-book sites.

Later today, I hope to put together a short summary of the plays we've mentioned so far as serious candidates for scenes.


--m



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