Thank you Doc for kicking this off and I too am enjoying the conversation.
I love the mix idea as a celebration of Miss Ima’s vision, Doc’s vision, the hard work and play and sweat and tears of so many people from so many different backgrounds and life experiences over five decades, the never ceasing from exploration.
I also love the idea of opening this day up to the broader public and UT community so that they can share in the wonder as well. As Doc said, this is something that UT should be celebrating, and the world should take note: Nothing like this program or this
place exists anywhere else and it is going and growing at age 50. If the idea is to celebrate what Shakespeare at Winedale hath wrought in a half-century, then the amazing swirl of performers of all ages and experiences and connections is a resounding answer.
Like Alice, I want to see it all.
I also think what Bruce and Lynn and others are saying is: The tradition of a week in residence, being stuck together in sometimes challenging and uncomfortable ways, and working together to delve into the mysteries of a whole play, is a treasured
Anciano experience, and has led every five years since 1995 to epiphanies and discoveries that might not come in a weekend. Perhaps there’s a way to keep that tradition going too, for those who have found it deeply rewarding and want to give it one more go,
and for others who have always wanted to live it (survive it, some of the old-timers might say!) and haven’t yet.
Speaking of the mix, the young guys and gals in the clip below, from yesterday morning in East Austin, want in. Some of them were BORN ready to rumble. And without Shakespeare at Winedale, and Doc accepting me to the class of ’83, and David
Sharpe inviting me to join his Shakespeare Encounter squad of high-school-visiting Winedalers in 1985, and a chain of other moments in time, none of these third graders would have been at Franklin’s yesterday to startle the folks in the famous long line with
a joyful Prologue to Henry V. These kids, and the 17-years-long roster of Outreach students, too many for me to count — many of whom, if the word of younger siblings is anything to go by, still treasure and occasionally squeeze into their
Winedale shirt from a decade or so ago — are part of the story of these 50 years too.
love,
cs
Grateful to hear so many thoughts so far, and I want to say I'm happy to join any meetings that take place in Austin.
One thing I'm hoping is that we can find ways to include those folks who won't be able to spend a week or even a couple of days at Winedale before the reunion or who don't live in a city where there are other alums they could spend some time working up a scene
or scenes with as the Austin crew did in 2010. An idea that's been rattling around in my head is a Sonnet Marathon, where people could sign up in advance to perform a particular sonnet and at some point during the weekend, all 154 could be performed back to
back, maybe under the pecans, maybe somewhere else. Or maybe just chunks would be scheduled at different places at different times over however many days we're there.
In my mind, it's a wide-open format, with ancianos, James' students, and past and present Camp Shakespeareans all in the mix, perhaps even performing together. I expect a lot of people would perform solo, but why not have two people, three, a dozen collaborating
on one sonnet the way they would a scene? I remember how Doc assigned us the Patchen poems with the idea of making a full performance out of each one. It was terrifying, but it worked at getting us to prepare alone. (Hey, anyone want to do some Patchen poems?)
Anyway, it would allow people who might be able to show up for only a day to have a chance to perform, even as a solo. They sign up in advance, prepare on their own, and show up and do their 14 lines.
I'm sure there are complications that haven't occurred to me, but I just thought it might be worth thinking about.
Yours in Will,
Robert
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