Crafting Shakespeare

False Friends

2012-02-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this phrase on wikipedia while reading about something else-- and realized these "false friends" are old friends of mine, Shakespeare introduced them to me!
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A Year Later...

2012-02-07T19:09:00.000-08:00

...I've finally updated some of the pages on this blog! "How To" has had its first revamping, and the new page "Operatives" has gone up. Feel free to leave a comment on this post if you'd like clarification, or have a suggestion or a question. It's a work in progress, and I appreciate your patience!

Moving Day!

2011-01-25T15:05:00.000-08:00

I created a blog for the last show I dramaturged for, Hamlet, and ended up putting together some useful information that had been rattling around in my head. Today I moved it all over to this blog! A little redecorating, and Crafting Shakespeare is finally getting to seem like home. Definitely some more boxes to unpack, but I'm nearly moved in.

One note on the information in the new tabs: more will come. More tabs, and more information on each. As it happened, I posted a lot of my initial thoughts, and then followed up with folks individually-- which meant I stopped writing. It has a rather cliff-hanger-ish feel to it. But over the next few months I hope to flesh this information out more (and tidy it up) so that it is more useful to you.

Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions, let's get this party started! --Jill

Ready to Wordle?!

2010-08-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.wordle.net/

If you have a big speech, I highly recommend you run it through Wordle, which will make a "word cloud" of your speech. Perhaps it's only fun, perhaps it will be strangely enlightening...

I can only post the link, not the image, but here is the one I made out of "To be or not to be":
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2267686/To_Be_Or_Not_To_Be

Choices are so difficult...

2010-07-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share something Andrew and I were saying as he helped me lug my books to the car the other night.

There are so many exciting possibilities for any question, and there is a lot of ambiguity, so you can't really say one is "right, obviously".

But your performances will be stronger if you are playing something specific. (Even if we can't tell exactly WHAT you meant, we should know you really MEANT something.)

And the heartbreaking part is that if you have 6 possibilities and choose one, 5 are left behind, like puppies at the shelter, all looking at you with their big puppy-dog eyes, as if to say, "But it COULD be his ambition to be king, right? Take me home, please..."

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"Rules"?

2010-07-27T02:18:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to take another running stab at explaining my opinions on "rules" in Shakespeare. Note, this is just how I feel, take it for what it's worth.

Here's my thing-- I believe in my heart that all that each of us has is a bag of tricks. Some tricks are old, and most people carry them in their bag; some tricks are newer or more controversial, so not everyone puts them in their bag. And when we get together, sometimes we swap tricks -- "Have you heard about rising iambic?!"-- and sometimes we defend our tricks and why we carry them and how important they are. And sometimes we get all high and mighty and insist our tricks are the best, and sometimes some of us go so far as to insist that this particular bag of tricks is "the only way to do Shakespeare". As John Barton said, "That way madness lies."

Scansion Handout Link

2010-07-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

~~I may edit this later to add a quickie rundown of the info I gave you, but for now-~~- This information is now posted in the tabs above, but here is the link to the handout if your dog ate yours (or your cat peed on it, as is common in my house!).

http://www.box.net/shared/mjaj4bzqxc

This should let you in to download the file. If you run into problems, just email me.

Elizabethan pronunciation

2010-07-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/royal-shakespeare-company/id152360011

The RSC has a podcast on what scholar David Crystal believes is the Elizabethan dialect. This link will take you to a page which will direct you to iTunes, where you can download the podcast (#3). Enjoy!

WAIT! It's #3 on the page, but when you actually subscribe to the free podcasts, it's #2.

Cutting to a fine point

2009-12-21T13:52:00.000-08:00

In my last post I discussed what it's like to get a cut script, and the choices you have to make regarding the intention of the cut. In this post, I'd like to discuss how we get there.

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Cuttings

2009-12-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

Rarely will you perform a full-length version of a Shakespeare play. Sometimes whole scenes, subplots, or characters are removed, but more often the script is "thinned" or "pruned" by slicing out lines within scenes.

There are two schools of thought on how to approach this.

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My philosophy on scansion

2009-12-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

The greatest resistance to using the tool of scansion in Shakespeare is the reticence of the actor to be "told" how to say a line, as if knowing the scansion means there is only one way to deliver a line. Actors fear that they will have no freedom to "do their own thing" and that this will lock them into doing it "the right way". I sometimes feel actors see me as Barry Fife in Strictly Ballroom, screaming "NO NEW STEPS!" But that's not it at all. (I'm more like Fran's abuela at the beginning of this clip, telling you to feel the rhythm and don't worry about your feet!)
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