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 I’d 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 here’s 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. Winter’s Tale v. iHIV (Gail’s 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 itself…
-----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
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
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Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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 knifereunion 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 Winedaleand 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 aroundfor instancethe 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 pointsAYL v. Lear v. Comedy v. Winter¹s Tale v. iHIV (Gail¹s failed reunion idea, which I love) v. Taming v. MSN, for instanceto 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 itself
-----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
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
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
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
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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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Thanks for laying to rest the no-fun concerns so Winedalishly, Mare Babes.
Love, Al
From: Mary Collins mmcollins50@yahoo.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 04:07:43 -0700 (PDT) To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Weeklong-l] Theatricality/
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
To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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
Weeklong-l mailing
list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
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Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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Jayne, Kathy,
I, too, love LOVE your concept.
Just doing a play kind of bores me. It's too expected, too Winedale as usual.
What you are proposing would be our homage to everything that has been done in that barn over all these long, wonderful years. Just reading the sentence about Lear and Falstaff sharing a stage, however briefly, made me shiver. I think it's brilliant.
And it gives us another way into the scenes -- each one of us picking g a character we most love or hate or are comically thrilled by and then, following our rough guidelines about love put asunder/love by reunion regained, choose the scene that best represents them in that arc of circumstance . I bet you those characters and those scenes could be easily shaped around our themes.
And guys, I am deeply thrilled by the idea of sharing the stage in that manner with all of you. It makes it less about the individual performances and more about the group that is up there together being both audience and performers.
Love, Terry
-----Original Message----- From: Alice Gordon alicegordon@earthlink.net To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Fri, May 21, 2010 12:53 am 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
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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I've been away from email (and will be for another two days) but wanted to drop a quick suggestion for scenes. We use the old Northrop Frye "Argument of Comedy" model (something Doc made everyone read, I think) to stitch together a Shakespeare "comedy" by choosing and arranging scenes from comedy, tragedy, and romance that reproduce the narrative arc that structures all the comedies (and romances, and failed comedies Lear, R&J, Othello, Coriolanus, and selected histories etc.) Scenes, in other words, that fit in big categories, from PROBLEMS to GREEN WORLDS to RESOLUTIONS.
So we'd start with 4 or 5 (or x) "problem" scenes, in which grumpy old men insist on grumpy old privilege and derail their children's fun (Egeus, Lear, Oliver) or other "problem" characters do their thing (RIII, Leontes). Then we stage disguises, departures, fake deaths: characters leaving for alternative spaces where grumpy old men can't get their way. Followed by all the wonderful party scenes: sheep shearing, Malvolio-tricking, prison shenanigans from Measure, 3.1 from Comedy of Errors, foresters in As You Like It, Outlaws from 2 Gents, tavern scenes from Henriad, but also the act 3 Heath scene(s) from Lear, maybe the cashiering of Cassio, Richard III's preacher-and- prayer ruse, etc. Then we do marriages and reunions and mystical redemptions across the canon. I think we could even do bits of tragedy there in the end, and really, the idea is sort of more an obvious approach to stringing together scenes than it is anything else, but it should, in any case, help us get at narrative arcs while not confining us to a single play.
Matt
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne [jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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 I’d 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 here’s 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. Winter’s Tale v. iHIV (Gail’s 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 itself…
-----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
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
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Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne [jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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 I’d 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 here’s 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. Winter’s Tale v. iHIV (Gail’s 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 itself…
-----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
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
_______________________________________________ Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
_______________________________________________ Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company Cheek by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth. The two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants and t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to sword play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who stood by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards and couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson [rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne [jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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 I’d 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 here’s 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. Winter’s Tale v. iHIV (Gail’s 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 itself…
-----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
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
_______________________________________________ Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
_______________________________________________ Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
_______________________________________________ Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's "storm/reconciliation" concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing scenes directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas. The overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create its own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be sitting in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost. Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company Cheek by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth. The two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants and t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to sword play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who stood by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards and couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson [rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne [jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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 I’d 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 here’s 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. Winter’s Tale v. iHIV (Gail’s 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 itself…
-----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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Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
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Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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Jackson, you are reminding me why in 1973 I walked around with my jaw chronically dropped at your energy level and wisecrackery. Thanks! (Bringing a chin strap this summer.)
Xo a
From: Robert Jackson rjax@netcom.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:02:39 -0400 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's "storm/reconciliation" concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing scenes directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas. The overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create its own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be sitting in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost. Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company Cheek by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth. The two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants and t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to sword play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who stood by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards and couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson [rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne [jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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 aroundfor instancethe 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 pointsAYL v. Lear v. Comedy v. Winter¹s Tale v. iHIV (Gail¹s failed reunion idea, which I love) v. Taming v. MSN, for instanceto 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 itself
-----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
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
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I am sitting here in tears of joy as I read through my emails. What fun. Yes, yes, and yes. stan
Kirsten Kern,PhD, LMTI Texas Healing Arts Institute School of Massage, Day Spa and Clinic 7001 Burnet Road Austin, TX 78757 stan@texashealingarts.com 512 323 6042
-----Original Message----- From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:44 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Jackson, you are reminding me why in 1973 I walked around with my jaw chronically dropped at your energy level and wisecrackery. Thanks! (Bringing a chin strap this summer.)
Xo a
From: Robert Jackson rjax@netcom.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:02:39 -0400 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's
"storm/reconciliation"
concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing
scenes
directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas.
The
overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create
its
own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be
sitting
in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost. Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company
Cheek
by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth.
The
two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants
and
t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to
sword
play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who
stood
by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards
and
couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson [rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne [jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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Hi all:
We woke up this morning hung over and wondering what the heck we had written. No, just kidding. Are you kidding? We could hardly make it past 10:30 before calling it a night. I'm afraid our all-nighters may (I said may) be behind us.
But we did wake up still feeling pretty good about the "scene morphing" idea. So we were truly excited and happy to see that some of you think it worthy of discussion! Alice, tossing the king a crown to transform a scene, yes. Terry, sharing the stage and making this even more collaborative than ever, yes. One thing that we thought this might do is keep us from having to spend a lot of our time split into small groups during our week.
We even - dare we mention this? - let our minds consider what might happen if we made the stage a tavern. A pub. A public place, where all things can happen. Wrestling matches happen in pubs, Merry Wives have happy hours in pubs, wives call out their husbands in pubs, people sit by themselves and brood in pubs, Romeos meet Juliets in pubs. Songs are sung and dances are danced in pubs.
That may be going way, way too far, but we also recalled that this sort of discussion is exactly how we always spent the first weeks at Winedale every summer. Letting our imaginations run wild. Maybe we then pulled back, but always, always we took something important from those creative sessions.
Thanks, Doc, for giving us this opportunity one more time and thank heavens for email!
Kathy is on her way back to Austin for a busy week of work and I'm leaving town for a week. But we look forward to reading all the incoming mail....
Kathy & Jayne
P.S. Jackson: The wine was a nice pinot grigio in a box, selected by the wine specialist at Costco ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Stan Kern [stan@texashealingarts.com] Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:33 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I am sitting here in tears of joy as I read through my emails. What fun. Yes, yes, and yes. stan
Kirsten Kern,PhD, LMTI Texas Healing Arts Institute School of Massage, Day Spa and Clinic 7001 Burnet Road Austin, TX 78757 stan@texashealingarts.com 512 323 6042
-----Original Message----- From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:44 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Jackson, you are reminding me why in 1973 I walked around with my jaw chronically dropped at your energy level and wisecrackery. Thanks! (Bringing a chin strap this summer.)
Xo a
From: Robert Jackson rjax@netcom.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:02:39 -0400 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's
"storm/reconciliation"
concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing
scenes
directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas.
The
overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create
its
own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be
sitting
in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost. Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company
Cheek
by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth.
The
two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants
and
t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to
sword
play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who
stood
by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards
and
couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson [rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne [jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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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You two weren't just drinking from the bottle (or box, as the case may be)--you were drinking from the Well. Talk about ratcheting up the excitement.
-----Original Message----- From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:01 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Hi all:
We woke up this morning hung over and wondering what the heck we had written. No, just kidding. Are you kidding? We could hardly make it past 10:30 before calling it a night. I'm afraid our all-nighters may (I said may) be behind us.
But we did wake up still feeling pretty good about the "scene morphing" idea. So we were truly excited and happy to see that some of you think it worthy of discussion! Alice, tossing the king a crown to transform a scene, yes. Terry, sharing the stage and making this even more collaborative than ever, yes. One thing that we thought this might do is keep us from having to spend a lot of our time split into small groups during our week.
We even - dare we mention this? - let our minds consider what might happen if we made the stage a tavern. A pub. A public place, where all things can happen. Wrestling matches happen in pubs, Merry Wives have happy hours in pubs, wives call out their husbands in pubs, people sit by themselves and brood in pubs, Romeos meet Juliets in pubs. Songs are sung and dances are danced in pubs.
That may be going way, way too far, but we also recalled that this sort of discussion is exactly how we always spent the first weeks at Winedale every summer. Letting our imaginations run wild. Maybe we then pulled back, but always, always we took something important from those creative sessions.
Thanks, Doc, for giving us this opportunity one more time and thank heavens for email!
Kathy is on her way back to Austin for a busy week of work and I'm leaving town for a week. But we look forward to reading all the incoming mail....
Kathy & Jayne
P.S. Jackson: The wine was a nice pinot grigio in a box, selected by the wine specialist at Costco ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Stan Kern [stan@texashealingarts.com] Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:33 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I am sitting here in tears of joy as I read through my emails. What fun. Yes, yes, and yes. stan
Kirsten Kern,PhD, LMTI Texas Healing Arts Institute School of Massage, Day Spa and Clinic 7001 Burnet Road Austin, TX 78757 stan@texashealingarts.com 512 323 6042
-----Original Message----- From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:44 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Jackson, you are reminding me why in 1973 I walked around with my jaw chronically dropped at your energy level and wisecrackery. Thanks! (Bringing a chin strap this summer.)
Xo a
From: Robert Jackson rjax@netcom.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:02:39 -0400 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's
"storm/reconciliation"
concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing
scenes
directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas.
The
overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create
its
own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be
sitting
in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost. Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company
Cheek
by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth.
The
two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants
and
t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to
sword
play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who
stood
by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards
and
couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson [rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne [jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Weeklong-l mailing list
Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
Weeklong-l mailing list Weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/weeklong-l
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I too am just loving this email conversation. Imagine that a few tablecloths from the pub are quickly turned into togas, and then the raucous drinking scene from Antony and Cleopatra begins with all of its boisterous toasts ("A health to Lepidus!), its silly crocodile jokes, the dance of the Egyptian Bacchanals, and a song:
Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne! In thy fats our cares be drown'd, With thy grapes our hairs be crown'd: Cup us, till the world go round, Cup us, till the world go round!
And Plumpy Bacchus could be pantomimed by John Falstaff.
--Bob
-----Original Message----- From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Maggie Megaw Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 5:24 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
You two weren't just drinking from the bottle (or box, as the case may be)--you were drinking from the Well. Talk about ratcheting up the excitement.
-----Original Message----- From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:01 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Hi all:
We woke up this morning hung over and wondering what the heck we had written. No, just kidding. Are you kidding? We could hardly make it past 10:30 before calling it a night. I'm afraid our all-nighters may (I said may) be behind us.
But we did wake up still feeling pretty good about the "scene morphing" idea. So we were truly excited and happy to see that some of you think it worthy of discussion! Alice, tossing the king a crown to transform a scene, yes. Terry, sharing the stage and making this even more collaborative than ever, yes. One thing that we thought this might do is keep us from having to spend a lot of our time split into small groups during our week.
We even - dare we mention this? - let our minds consider what might happen if we made the stage a tavern. A pub. A public place, where all things can happen. Wrestling matches happen in pubs, Merry Wives have happy hours in pubs, wives call out their husbands in pubs, people sit by themselves and brood in pubs, Romeos meet Juliets in pubs. Songs are sung and dances are danced in pubs.
That may be going way, way too far, but we also recalled that this sort of discussion is exactly how we always spent the first weeks at Winedale every summer. Letting our imaginations run wild. Maybe we then pulled back, but always, always we took something important from those creative sessions.
Thanks, Doc, for giving us this opportunity one more time and thank heavens for email!
Kathy is on her way back to Austin for a busy week of work and I'm leaving town for a week. But we look forward to reading all the incoming mail....
Kathy & Jayne
P.S. Jackson: The wine was a nice pinot grigio in a box, selected by the wine specialist at Costco ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Stan Kern [stan@texashealingarts.com] Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:33 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I am sitting here in tears of joy as I read through my emails. What fun. Yes, yes, and yes. stan
Kirsten Kern,PhD, LMTI Texas Healing Arts Institute School of Massage, Day Spa and Clinic 7001 Burnet Road Austin, TX 78757 stan@texashealingarts.com 512 323 6042
-----Original Message----- From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:44 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Jackson, you are reminding me why in 1973 I walked around with my jaw chronically dropped at your energy level and wisecrackery. Thanks! (Bringing a chin strap this summer.)
Xo a
From: Robert Jackson rjax@netcom.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:02:39 -0400 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's
"storm/reconciliation"
concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing
scenes
directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas.
The
overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create
its
own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be
sitting
in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost. Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company
Cheek
by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth.
The
two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants
and
t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to
sword
play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who
stood
by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards
and
couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson [rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne [jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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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Hi, all, this is heady indeed. Yay and praise the stars and the skies generally.
Meanwhile, I am in a factory of my own making compiling the list of all the scenes suggested for the Big Decision coming up. A favor to ask: Those of you who sent such suggestions as "R&J nurse scenes" or "2 Gents,Pirates," if you could provide acts and scene numbers it would save my fingers from a lot of flipping through big thin Riverside Shakespeare pages for the exact locations within the plays.
I'll start: Rather than, Pericles, jousting scene, I meant Pericles, Act II, scene ii. (But ooo, also II,iii....)
Most gratefully, Alice
From: "Pees, Robert" rpees@AkinGump.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 17:33:51 -0400 To: "weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org" weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Conversation: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I too am just loving this email conversation. Imagine that a few tablecloths from the pub are quickly turned into togas, and then the raucous drinking scene from Antony and Cleopatra begins with all of its boisterous toasts ("A health to Lepidus!), its silly crocodile jokes, the dance of the Egyptian Bacchanals, and a song:
Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus with
pink eyne!
In thy fats our cares be drown'd, With thy grapes our hairs be
crown'd:
Cup us, till the world go round, Cup us, till the world go
round!
And Plumpy Bacchus could be pantomimed by John
Falstaff.
--Bob
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Maggie Megaw
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 5:24 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
You two weren't just drinking from the bottle (or box, as the
case may be)--you were drinking from the Well. Talk about ratcheting up the excitement.
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:01 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
Hi all:
We woke up this morning hung over and wondering what
the heck we had written. No, just kidding. Are you kidding? We could hardly make it past 10:30 before calling it a night. I'm afraid our all-nighters may (I said may) be behind us.
But we did wake up still feeling pretty good about
the "scene morphing" idea. So we were truly excited and happy to see that some of you think it worthy of discussion! Alice, tossing the king a crown to transform a scene, yes. Terry, sharing the stage and making this even more collaborative than ever, yes. One thing that we thought this might do is keep us from having to spend a lot of our time split into small groups during our week.
We even - dare we mention this? - let our minds consider what might
happen if we made the stage a tavern. A pub. A public place, where all things can happen. Wrestling matches happen in pubs, Merry Wives have happy hours in pubs, wives call out their husbands in pubs, people sit by themselves and brood in pubs, Romeos meet Juliets in pubs. Songs are sung and dances are danced in pubs.
That may be going way, way too far, but we also recalled that
this sort of discussion is exactly how we always spent the first weeks at Winedale every summer. Letting our imaginations run wild. Maybe we then pulled back, but always, always we took something important from those creative sessions.
Thanks, Doc, for giving us this opportunity one more time and thank
heavens for email!
Kathy is on her way back to Austin for a busy week of work
and I'm leaving town for a week. But we look forward to reading all the incoming mail....
Kathy & Jayne
P.S. Jackson: The wine was a nice pinot
grigio in a box, selected by the wine specialist at Costco
From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Stan Kern [stan@texashealingarts.com]
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:33 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
I am sitting here in tears of joy as I read through my emails.
What fun.
Yes, yes, and yes. stan
Kirsten Kern,PhD, LMTI Texas Healing Arts
Institute
School of Massage, Day Spa and Clinic 7001 Burnet Road Austin, TX
78757
stan@texashealingarts.com 512 323 6042
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikime
dia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:44 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
Jackson, you are reminding me why in 1973 I walked around with
my jaw chronically dropped at your energy level and wisecrackery. Thanks! (Bringing a chin strap this summer.)
Xo a
From: Robert Jackson rjax@netcom.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:02:39 -0400 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's
"storm/reconciliation"
concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing
scenes
directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas.
The
overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create
its
own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be
sitting
in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost.
Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company
Cheek
by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth.
The
two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants
and
t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to
sword
play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who
stood
by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards
and
couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________
From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson
[rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne
[jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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
To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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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As You Like It: Act V, sc. 2. -- Act V, sc. 4. ("howling of Irish wolves" followed by Hymen's mirth in heaven.)
--m
On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 2:56 PM, Alice Gordon alicegordon@earthlink.netwrote:
Hi, all, this is heady indeed. Yay and praise the stars and the skies generally.
Meanwhile, I am in a factory of my own making compiling the list of all the scenes suggested for the Big Decision coming up. A favor to ask: Those of you who sent such suggestions as "R&J nurse scenes" or "2 Gents,Pirates," if you could provide acts and scene numbers it would save my fingers from a lot of flipping through big thin Riverside Shakespeare pages for the exact locations within the plays.
I'll start: Rather than, Pericles, jousting scene, I meant Pericles, Act II, scene ii. (But ooo, also II,iii....)
Most gratefully, Alice
From: "Pees, Robert" rpees@AkinGump.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 17:33:51 -0400 To: "weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org" weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Conversation: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I too am just loving this email conversation. Imagine that a few
tablecloths
from the pub are quickly turned into togas, and then the raucous drinking scene from Antony and Cleopatra begins with all of its boisterous toasts
("A
health to Lepidus!), its silly crocodile jokes, the dance of the Egyptian Bacchanals, and a song:
Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus with
pink eyne!
In thy fats our cares be drown'd, With thy grapes our hairs be
crown'd:
Cup us, till the world go round, Cup us, till the world go
round!
And Plumpy Bacchus could be pantomimed by John
Falstaff.
--Bob
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Maggie Megaw
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 5:24 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
You two weren't just drinking from the bottle (or box, as the
case may be)--you were drinking from the Well. Talk about ratcheting up
the
excitement.
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:01 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
Hi all:
We woke up this morning hung over and wondering what
the heck we had written. No, just kidding. Are you kidding? We could
hardly
make it past 10:30 before calling it a night. I'm afraid our all-nighters
may
(I said may) be behind us.
But we did wake up still feeling pretty good about
the "scene morphing" idea. So we were truly excited and happy to see that
some
of you think it worthy of discussion! Alice, tossing the king a crown to transform a scene, yes. Terry, sharing the stage and making this even
more
collaborative than ever, yes. One thing that we thought this might do is
keep
us from having to spend a lot of our time split into small groups during
our
week.
We even - dare we mention this? - let our minds consider what might
happen if we made the stage a tavern. A pub. A public place, where all
things
can happen. Wrestling matches happen in pubs, Merry Wives have happy
hours in
pubs, wives call out their husbands in pubs, people sit by themselves and brood in pubs, Romeos meet Juliets in pubs. Songs are sung and dances are danced in pubs.
That may be going way, way too far, but we also recalled that
this sort of discussion is exactly how we always spent the first weeks at Winedale every summer. Letting our imaginations run wild. Maybe we then
pulled
back, but always, always we took something important from those creative sessions.
Thanks, Doc, for giving us this opportunity one more time and thank
heavens for email!
Kathy is on her way back to Austin for a busy week of work
and I'm leaving town for a week. But we look forward to reading all the incoming mail....
Kathy & Jayne
P.S. Jackson: The wine was a nice pinot
grigio in a box, selected by the wine specialist at Costco
From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Stan Kern [stan@texashealingarts.com]
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:33 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
I am sitting here in tears of joy as I read through my emails.
What fun.
Yes, yes, and yes. stan
Kirsten Kern,PhD, LMTI Texas Healing Arts
Institute
School of Massage, Day Spa and Clinic 7001 Burnet Road Austin, TX
78757
stan@texashealingarts.com 512 323 6042
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikime
dia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:44 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
Jackson, you are reminding me why in 1973 I walked around with
my jaw chronically dropped at your energy level and wisecrackery. Thanks! (Bringing a chin strap this summer.)
Xo a
From: Robert Jackson rjax@netcom.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:02:39 -0400 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's
"storm/reconciliation"
concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing
scenes
directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas.
The
overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create
its
own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be
sitting
in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost.
Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company
Cheek
by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth.
The
two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants
and
t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to
sword
play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who
stood
by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards
and
couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________
From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson
[rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne
[jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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
To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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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IRS Circular 230 Notice
Requirement: This communication is not given in the form of a covered
opinion,
within the meaning of Circular 230 issued by the United States Secretary
of
the Treasury. Thus, we are required to inform you that you cannot rely
upon
any tax advice contained in this communication for the purpose of
avoiding
United States federal tax penalties. In addition, any tax advice
contained in
this communication may not be used to promote, market or recommend a transaction to another party.
The information contained in this e-mail
message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If you have received this communication in
error,
please notify us immediately by e-mail, and delete the original message.
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On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 3:03 PM, Mike Godwin mnemonic@gmail.com wrote:
As You Like It: Act V, sc. 2. -- Act V, sc. 4. ("howling of Irish wolves" followed by Hymen's mirth in heaven.)
--m
On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 2:56 PM, Alice Gordon alicegordon@earthlink.netwrote:
Hi, all, this is heady indeed. Yay and praise the stars and the skies generally.
Meanwhile, I am in a factory of my own making compiling the list of all the scenes suggested for the Big Decision coming up. A favor to ask: Those of you who sent such suggestions as "R&J nurse scenes" or "2 Gents,Pirates," if you could provide acts and scene numbers it would save my fingers from a lot of flipping through big thin Riverside Shakespeare pages for the exact locations within the plays.
I'll start: Rather than, Pericles, jousting scene, I meant Pericles, Act II, scene ii. (But ooo, also II,iii....)
Most gratefully, Alice
From: "Pees, Robert" rpees@AkinGump.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 17:33:51 -0400 To: "weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org" weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Conversation: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I too am just loving this email conversation. Imagine that a few
tablecloths
from the pub are quickly turned into togas, and then the raucous
drinking
scene from Antony and Cleopatra begins with all of its boisterous toasts
("A
health to Lepidus!), its silly crocodile jokes, the dance of the
Egyptian
Bacchanals, and a song:
Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus with
pink eyne!
In thy fats our cares be drown'd, With thy grapes our hairs be
crown'd:
Cup us, till the world go round, Cup us, till the world go
round!
And Plumpy Bacchus could be pantomimed by John
Falstaff.
--Bob
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Maggie Megaw
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 5:24 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
You two weren't just drinking from the bottle (or box, as the
case may be)--you were drinking from the Well. Talk about ratcheting up
the
excitement.
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:01 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
Hi all:
We woke up this morning hung over and wondering what
the heck we had written. No, just kidding. Are you kidding? We could
hardly
make it past 10:30 before calling it a night. I'm afraid our
all-nighters may
(I said may) be behind us.
But we did wake up still feeling pretty good about
the "scene morphing" idea. So we were truly excited and happy to see
that some
of you think it worthy of discussion! Alice, tossing the king a crown to transform a scene, yes. Terry, sharing the stage and making this even
more
collaborative than ever, yes. One thing that we thought this might do is
keep
us from having to spend a lot of our time split into small groups during
our
week.
We even - dare we mention this? - let our minds consider what might
happen if we made the stage a tavern. A pub. A public place, where all
things
can happen. Wrestling matches happen in pubs, Merry Wives have happy
hours in
pubs, wives call out their husbands in pubs, people sit by themselves
and
brood in pubs, Romeos meet Juliets in pubs. Songs are sung and dances
are
danced in pubs.
That may be going way, way too far, but we also recalled that
this sort of discussion is exactly how we always spent the first weeks
at
Winedale every summer. Letting our imaginations run wild. Maybe we then
pulled
back, but always, always we took something important from those creative sessions.
Thanks, Doc, for giving us this opportunity one more time and thank
heavens for email!
Kathy is on her way back to Austin for a busy week of work
and I'm leaving town for a week. But we look forward to reading all the incoming mail....
Kathy & Jayne
P.S. Jackson: The wine was a nice pinot
grigio in a box, selected by the wine specialist at Costco
From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Stan Kern [stan@texashealingarts.com]
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:33 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
I am sitting here in tears of joy as I read through my emails.
What fun.
Yes, yes, and yes. stan
Kirsten Kern,PhD, LMTI Texas Healing Arts
Institute
School of Massage, Day Spa and Clinic 7001 Burnet Road Austin, TX
78757
stan@texashealingarts.com 512 323 6042
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikime
dia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:44 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
Jackson, you are reminding me why in 1973 I walked around with
my jaw chronically dropped at your energy level and wisecrackery.
Thanks!
(Bringing a chin strap this summer.)
Xo a
From: Robert Jackson rjax@netcom.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:02:39 -0400 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's
"storm/reconciliation"
concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing
scenes
directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas.
The
overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create
its
own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be
sitting
in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost.
Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company
Cheek
by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth.
The
two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants
and
t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to
sword
play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who
stood
by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards
and
couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________
From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson
[rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne
[jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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
To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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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Great R&J nurse scene: Act I, Scene 3. The nurse holds forth, introducing us to her nursing methods and her long-deceased husband, while Juliet laughs, and Mrs. Capulet waits patiently for her to shut up so she can tell Juliet that she's gonna marry Paris.
Another great nurse scene: Act II, Scene 4. Mercutio, Romeo, et. al. The nurse comes with her "servant" Peter to give Romeo a message from Juliet. Her entrance is later, but the entire scene is wonderful. ________________________________________ 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 4:56 PM To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Hi, all, this is heady indeed. Yay and praise the stars and the skies generally.
Meanwhile, I am in a factory of my own making compiling the list of all the scenes suggested for the Big Decision coming up. A favor to ask: Those of you who sent such suggestions as "R&J nurse scenes" or "2 Gents,Pirates," if you could provide acts and scene numbers it would save my fingers from a lot of flipping through big thin Riverside Shakespeare pages for the exact locations within the plays.
I'll start: Rather than, Pericles, jousting scene, I meant Pericles, Act II, scene ii. (But ooo, also II,iii....)
Most gratefully, Alice
From: "Pees, Robert" rpees@AkinGump.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 17:33:51 -0400 To: "weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org" weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Conversation: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I too am just loving this email conversation. Imagine that a few tablecloths from the pub are quickly turned into togas, and then the raucous drinking scene from Antony and Cleopatra begins with all of its boisterous toasts ("A health to Lepidus!), its silly crocodile jokes, the dance of the Egyptian Bacchanals, and a song:
Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus with
pink eyne!
In thy fats our cares be drown'd, With thy grapes our hairs be
crown'd:
Cup us, till the world go round, Cup us, till the world go
round!
And Plumpy Bacchus could be pantomimed by John
Falstaff.
--Bob
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Maggie Megaw
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 5:24 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
You two weren't just drinking from the bottle (or box, as the
case may be)--you were drinking from the Well. Talk about ratcheting up the excitement.
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:01 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
Hi all:
We woke up this morning hung over and wondering what
the heck we had written. No, just kidding. Are you kidding? We could hardly make it past 10:30 before calling it a night. I'm afraid our all-nighters may (I said may) be behind us.
But we did wake up still feeling pretty good about
the "scene morphing" idea. So we were truly excited and happy to see that some of you think it worthy of discussion! Alice, tossing the king a crown to transform a scene, yes. Terry, sharing the stage and making this even more collaborative than ever, yes. One thing that we thought this might do is keep us from having to spend a lot of our time split into small groups during our week.
We even - dare we mention this? - let our minds consider what might
happen if we made the stage a tavern. A pub. A public place, where all things can happen. Wrestling matches happen in pubs, Merry Wives have happy hours in pubs, wives call out their husbands in pubs, people sit by themselves and brood in pubs, Romeos meet Juliets in pubs. Songs are sung and dances are danced in pubs.
That may be going way, way too far, but we also recalled that
this sort of discussion is exactly how we always spent the first weeks at Winedale every summer. Letting our imaginations run wild. Maybe we then pulled back, but always, always we took something important from those creative sessions.
Thanks, Doc, for giving us this opportunity one more time and thank
heavens for email!
Kathy is on her way back to Austin for a busy week of work
and I'm leaving town for a week. But we look forward to reading all the incoming mail....
Kathy & Jayne
P.S. Jackson: The wine was a nice pinot
grigio in a box, selected by the wine specialist at Costco
From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Stan Kern [stan@texashealingarts.com]
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:33 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
I am sitting here in tears of joy as I read through my emails.
What fun.
Yes, yes, and yes. stan
Kirsten Kern,PhD, LMTI Texas Healing Arts
Institute
School of Massage, Day Spa and Clinic 7001 Burnet Road Austin, TX
78757
stan@texashealingarts.com 512 323 6042
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikime
dia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:44 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
Jackson, you are reminding me why in 1973 I walked around with
my jaw chronically dropped at your energy level and wisecrackery. Thanks! (Bringing a chin strap this summer.)
Xo a
From: Robert Jackson rjax@netcom.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:02:39 -0400 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's
"storm/reconciliation"
concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing
scenes
directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas.
The
overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create
its
own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be
sitting
in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost.
Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company
Cheek
by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth.
The
two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants
and
t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to
sword
play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who
stood
by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards
and
couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________
From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson
[rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne
[jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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
To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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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There are probably better scene examples, but to the form....
STORMS OF WOO (in no particular order)
Romeo & Juliet, Act 1, scene 5, the wooing but beginning with “Why, how now, kinsman, Wherefor storm you so.?"
Much Ado 4,1, Benedict & Beatrice alone
Taming of the Shrew, 2,1 Petruchio & Kate
Henry V, 5,2 King Henry & Katherine (w/ interpretor Alice): that ole Anglo-French Woo until “Here comes your father.”
Richard III, 1, 1, Richard & Anne (yummy)
RAINBOWS AND WOE
Taming, 5.2, ( Kate’s speech of reconciliation and the end of the play.)
Henry V, 5,2 from “Enter the French Power …” to the end and peace and then chorus of doom.
R&J’s death scene 5,3 to end of the play, peace between the families
Much ado, 5.4 ending with the dance...
Richard III, 4,4, starting with King Richard to Queen Elizabeth “Stay Madame, I must talk a word with you.” This is his wooing of Q. Elizabeth for her daughter to be Richard's NEXT queen, before the climatic battle of the play. - I know, I know, what's reconciled? I'm still working on that. Nothing?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Alice Gordon" alicegordon@earthlink.net To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 5:56 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Hi, all, this is heady indeed. Yay and praise the stars and the skies generally.
Meanwhile, I am in a factory of my own making compiling the list of all the scenes suggested for the Big Decision coming up. A favor to ask: Those of you who sent such suggestions as "R&J nurse scenes" or "2 Gents,Pirates," if you could provide acts and scene numbers it would save my fingers from a lot of flipping through big thin Riverside Shakespeare pages for the exact locations within the plays.
I'll start: Rather than, Pericles, jousting scene, I meant Pericles, Act II, scene ii. (But ooo, also II,iii....)
Most gratefully, Alice
From: "Pees, Robert" rpees@AkinGump.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 17:33:51 -0400 To: "weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org" weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Conversation: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I too am just loving this email conversation. Imagine that a few tablecloths from the pub are quickly turned into togas, and then the raucous drinking scene from Antony and Cleopatra begins with all of its boisterous toasts ("A health to Lepidus!), its silly crocodile jokes, the dance of the Egyptian Bacchanals, and a song:
Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus with
pink eyne!
In thy fats our cares be drown'd, With thy grapes our hairs be
crown'd:
Cup us, till the world go round, Cup us, till the world go
round!
And Plumpy Bacchus could be pantomimed by John
Falstaff.
--Bob
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Maggie Megaw
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 5:24 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
You two weren't just drinking from the bottle (or box, as the
case may be)--you were drinking from the Well. Talk about ratcheting up the excitement.
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:01 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
Hi all:
We woke up this morning hung over and wondering what
the heck we had written. No, just kidding. Are you kidding? We could hardly make it past 10:30 before calling it a night. I'm afraid our all-nighters may (I said may) be behind us.
But we did wake up still feeling pretty good about
the "scene morphing" idea. So we were truly excited and happy to see that some of you think it worthy of discussion! Alice, tossing the king a crown to transform a scene, yes. Terry, sharing the stage and making this even more collaborative than ever, yes. One thing that we thought this might do is keep us from having to spend a lot of our time split into small groups during our week.
We even - dare we mention this? - let our minds consider what might
happen if we made the stage a tavern. A pub. A public place, where all things can happen. Wrestling matches happen in pubs, Merry Wives have happy hours in pubs, wives call out their husbands in pubs, people sit by themselves and brood in pubs, Romeos meet Juliets in pubs. Songs are sung and dances are danced in pubs.
That may be going way, way too far, but we also recalled that
this sort of discussion is exactly how we always spent the first weeks at Winedale every summer. Letting our imaginations run wild. Maybe we then pulled back, but always, always we took something important from those creative sessions.
Thanks, Doc, for giving us this opportunity one more time and thank
heavens for email!
Kathy is on her way back to Austin for a busy week of work
and I'm leaving town for a week. But we look forward to reading all the incoming mail....
Kathy & Jayne
P.S. Jackson: The wine was a nice pinot
grigio in a box, selected by the wine specialist at Costco
From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Stan Kern [stan@texashealingarts.com]
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 2:33 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
I am sitting here in tears of joy as I read through my emails.
What fun.
Yes, yes, and yes. stan
Kirsten Kern,PhD, LMTI Texas Healing Arts
Institute
School of Massage, Day Spa and Clinic 7001 Burnet Road Austin, TX
78757
stan@texashealingarts.com 512 323 6042
-----Original Message----- From:
weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikime
dia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:44 PM To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your
Consideration
Jackson, you are reminding me why in 1973 I walked around with
my jaw chronically dropped at your energy level and wisecrackery. Thanks! (Bringing a chin strap this summer.)
Xo a
From: Robert Jackson rjax@netcom.com Reply-To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:02:39 -0400 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Here's my vote:
We take Matt's "narrative arc" construction of Gail's
"storm/reconciliation"
concept, using Jayne Suhler's technique of "flowing/melding/morphing
scenes
directly from one to the next, without break" (e.g. Macbeth/Banquo become Hamlet/Horatio and weird sisters/ grave-diggers), while the rehearsal process would include improvizing with Gail's "Cheek by Jowl" ideas.
The
overall "narrative program" - for lack of a better pharase - will create
its
own meaning - or not - but--
(--Jeez, I just got the feeling we are going back to an original Winedale, cir.1971 - hopefully doing it better- before we did our first full length play performance "The Tempest" in what? '73?.)
In one of his frist emails, Mr. Pees had a great set of scenes already catagorized . . .
Do we necessarily start with Prospero and end with Prospero? . . . I mean for this "program".
Thank goodness we have "Doc and The 6 Gals" (great name for a band) to put all those ingrediants in that receipe, with the time restraints, etc.....
And, of course, add lots of 'bawdy fun" for Terry and me, who'll be
sitting
in the backyard drinking . . . wine.. . .
Or, alternatively, we just do a production of Love's Labor's Lost.
Whatever.
Now, if we just had an old barn or something....
(nap time)
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:24 PM Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Dear Everybody,
Continuing in this vein of simplicity, I was lucky to see the company
Cheek
by Jowl in March and wrote to Mary then about this way of working I loved:
I saw last night the Cheek by Jowl company's new production of Macbeth.
The
two women wore long back skirts over leotards, the men black cargo pants
and
t-shirts. The set was wooden boxes of various heights. It was all so simple and you therefore heard every word. Everything, from death to
sword
play was mimed, with minimal sound effects (often made the actors) who
stood
by watching in various configurations. I was high as a kite afterwards
and
couldn't fall asleep til nearly 3 a.m. It just got my juices flowing. OMG, I thought, we could do this: we can be simple and not worry about fancy costumes and just be massively creative and smart. I was over the moon. We are so going to have fun.
Two months later, the backyard, wine-drinking women reminded me of that night!
Best, Gail ________________________________________
From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Robert Jackson
[rjax@netcom.com] Sent: 21 May 2010 16:32 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
Me too...uh, was that a Samantha West, Pinot Noir, 2006? - just curious. Sorry... reading, reading, reading...
----- Original Message ----- From: "McDonald G." G.McDonald@soton.ac.uk To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] For Your Consideration
I completely love this idea and this way of working. Wish I'd be in the backyard with you all.
Best, Gail ________________________________________ From: weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org
[weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Suhler, Jayne
[jsuhler@mail.smu.edu] Sent: 21 May 2010 03:58 To: weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org 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
To:
weeklong-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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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IRS Circular 230 Notice
Requirement: This communication is not given in the form of a covered opinion, within the meaning of Circular 230 issued by the United States Secretary of the Treasury. Thus, we are required to inform you that you cannot rely upon any tax advice contained in this communication for the purpose of avoiding United States federal tax penalties. In addition, any tax advice contained in this communication may not be used to promote, market or recommend a transaction to another party.
The information contained in this e-mail
message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail, and delete the original message.
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