Me too, I am energized by what Jayne and Kathy describe, all of us creating worlds and scenes together, the flow. I just can't do the white skirt. Black, please. Gail and I talked about this the other week, the economy of it, the way it can help focus on the words. It makes me think of the RSC's Nicholas Nicholby, and, long before that, experiencing theatricality at Winedale so many years ago.
Can we please lay to rest concern about no fun or bawdiness? That's not in our DNA, and no one has been advocating that! What scenes are there that fit our themes that will allow for great fun? The last act of Midsummer has been mentioned, the finale of Comedy of Errors (it's true there is a party scene and brothel scenes with a frustrated madam and her pimp, in Pericles)...allez, un peu d'audace!
Ta,
Mary
----- Original Message ---- From: "Pees, Robert" rpees@AkinGump.com To: "weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org" weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Fri, May 21, 2010 6:38:39 AM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Wow, I'm excited by all of these ideas. Although I agree that the consensus seems to be that multiple scenes from multiple plays is the way to go, a play like Pericles might lend itself to a manageable distribution of lines. The chorus Gower could be divvied up among several players. And perhaps even Pericles himself could be played by more than one person--last summer the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Company in upstate New York assigned the role to three actors of various ages.
Bob
________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon [alicegordon@earthlink.net] Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:53 AM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Actually, Jayne and Kathy,
I think the concept you put forth is so flexible and rich that almost any scene could flow from any other. Having everyone on stage, or a large group at any given time, makes for the possibility of built-in transitions wherever they are called for. It makes me think of Peter Brook's Majahbarata (spelling); Theatre du Complicite at its most imaginative and physical. Throw in the duty of performers onstage but not integral to the main action to toss this king a crown or that princess a cape or that thug a knife‹reunion history shows that when we put out the black and white outfit idea and all agree it's great we immediately succumb completely to plundering the costume/prop treasure heap when we get to Winedale‹and you have a complete support system:
You have always at hand, 1) the main characters in the scene, 2) the secondary and tertiary characters, 3) the emergers from the crowd or the shadows to take over as a scene changes, 4) all the help you need with [minimal] costumes, props, and sound effects, crowd effects, and PEOPLE effects--people forming themselves into a wall, a bridge, a boat, a forest.... Talk about ensemble! Talk about reunion!
To do this would require incredible discipline, intuitive listening, sharing of the stage both metaphorically and really, and lots of Gatorade. It would limit the amount of time we could go off by ourselves to work on things but would instead provide us with a sympathetic, demanding, understanding audience (ourselves!) to bolster each and every one of us during our entire creative process. It also likely could draw on many if not all of the conceptual suggestions laid out thus far.
I love it.
All that said, I also love that the notion of one whole play has come up. Past reunions have presented The Comedy of Errors, Midsummer, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Mary and I confided to one another a couple of weeks ago that thinking about the scenes in Pericles that had to do with mystery and magic, reunion and reconciliation, lost and found, comedy and bawdiness, had us seeing that this play has it all--and in the bargain plentiful opportunities for a whole class to engage and delve and shine. So were we to do one play, I would vote for that one.
But the consensus seems to be scenes. And that Winedale tradition is honorable and exciting and deep and fun in equal measure.
There you have my excited late-night thoughts about your wine-inspired approach.
A sip of whisky to you all, Alice
From: "Suhler, Jayne" jsuhler@mail.smu.edu Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Thu, 20 May 2010 21:58:23 -0500 To: "weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org" weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Conversation: For Your Consideration Subject: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Kathy and I are sitting in my backyard drinking wine. Sound good? It is. We are talking about what we remember most from Winedale: laughter, wonderment, discovery. Here are some of our thoughts, halfway through our first bottle.
Picture if you will: A series of scenes from different plays, flowing/melding/morphing directly from one to the next, without break. The people already on stage become part of the next scene and so on. Accessories and props can help in the transformation. (The rubber chicken, as always, will be in Kathy's pants.)
Imagine, if you will, Lear and Falstaff on stage together, if only for a moment. Wonderment.
In some ways - follow us here - this allows us to consider scenes in a different way. It raises new possibilities, new revelations. As Lear and his Fool finish, a man from the back table rises and sees a dagger. He becomes Macbeth. Or maybe a woman on a bench rises and goes into "What a rogue and peasant slave am I..." She is Hamlet.
Someone yells out from the side aisle, and Petruchio enters and all left on stage become servants, including Hamlet. Laughter.
This would take some serious thinking to put together scenes that could reasonably follow one another. But we think it's possible. We wanted to throw our idea out here in the spirit of brainstorming and exploration. Discovery.
Minimal, simple costumes. Black pants/skirts, white shirts? This would allow everyone to turn around and become someone else immediately, on stage, before the audience. Sometimes people would leave and come back, maybe the stage would be empty for a moment, or one person might be left standing to perform a sonnet or a song. He is joined by Kate and it is Petruchio and Kate, and they are joined by the weird sisters around their cauldron, and that becomes Bohemia, which turns into fairies and so on until finally, at the end, Prospero is left standing. "Our revels now have ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, are all spirits and have melted into air. Into thin air..."
Obviously, it doesn't have to be ANY of these scenes we've mentioned. It can be all of those wonderful scenes everyone else has thrown out for consideration. We can have partial scenes, soliloquies, songs. And a little bear baiting and a back trick or two.
Again, we're just writing out loud, submitting our thoughts into the conversation. Maybe it sounds like we're talking more process than substance, but we're not. We really believe that we can find connections and discover themes that we never knew before. Unless that's the wine talking. Let us know.
Kathy & Jayne
From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Maggie Megaw [maggie@bizaffairs.com] Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 12:58 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] thoughts from an old brain
This is fun! and such a change from the usual contents of my in box on an average morning. Given, say, two weeks I¹d love to do two plays, but I think we will mix it up more and have more opportunity to play if we go with a variety of scenes. So here¹s my vote for suites of scenes from a (small) handful of plays. The problem I kept butting up against in trying to find one scene each from a number of different plays organized around‹for instance‹the theme of reunion/ reconciliation is that it seemed heavy on the dessert table, leaving the savory dishes aside. Both for the players and for the audience, that seemed a less satisfying prospect than this does. Lots of endings with no beginnings. Mary and Gail seemed to be heading in this direction a few days ago, and now Bruce and Matt and Jackson have made the point that taking several scenes from 3-4-5 plays would allow for a range of scenes that would make better sense together, add up to more to sink our teeth into, more fun, more texture, more meaning. That and the fact that this structure would allow us to take off from very different starting points‹AYL v. Lear v. Comedy v. Winter¹s Tale v. iHIV (Gail¹s failed reunion idea, which I love) v. Taming v. MSN, for instance‹to arrive at their final but very different expressions of reconciliation (and in some cases magic). I think once we have the plays, the choice of scenes will almost take care of itselfŠ
-----Original Message----- From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 8:21 AM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Weeklong-l] thoughts from an old brain
I was looking forward to working on scenes from a number of plays, even it
meant two scenes each from, say, ten plays (however, the time works out),
i.e. Gail's idea of the storm and the reconciliation, and I, and I thought
others, going back to the beginning of the discussion, were hoping to study
a wide range of plays, juxtaposing Shakespeare's different approaches to two
or three themes. And making each scene as rich as possible; the iceberg
where 7/8's of the mass is below. That's a lot of work!! But it's a lot of
putting word to the action, action to the word, and much good thinking about
both.
On the other hand, doing two full plays in a week will mean we spend all our
time running lines! Is this Winedale? Or an anxiety dream of regional
theater? Perhaps I'm too blunt, and possibly need to take a nap. I'm
terrible at this email conference. And keep swearing to keep my mouth shut.
I'll say no more. And be a hermit. Mum.
-Jackson
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Meyer" Bruce.Meyer@UTSouthwestern.edu
To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org; kozusko@mac.com
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] thoughts from a brain that is spendingtoo muchtime
in the
Actually, i AM serious about the two play suggestion - massive
undertaking, so just the kind of impossible task that we are best suited
for....
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Kozusko kozusko@mac.com
Sent: 5/20/2010 8:20:53 AM
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] thoughts from a brain that is spending too
muchtime in the real world....
Dear All,
A grinning and excited second for Bruce's suggestion that we consider
longer chunks of fewer plays so that we can get some of the playlong
arcs into our storytelling. And two full plays is a great idea, I
think, if you're serious.
Matt
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