English 236
SHAKESPEARE: STAGE CENTERED APPROACHES
Professor Mazer
Fall 1997
Office Hours: Tu 1:30-3:00; Th 1:00-2:30
Bennett Hall 305, x7382
e-mail:
cmazer@english.upenn.edu
I. Language, objectives, action: Sonnets; Chorus and scenes from
Romeo and
Juliet.
- John Barton, Playing Shakespeare (chapters TBA)
- Cicely Berry, The Actor
and the
Text (chapters TBA).
II. Shakespeare's Stage and Stagecraft: Romeo and Juliet.
- Essays and chapters by Alan C. Dessen:
- "Linking Analogues" (from Elizabethan Drama and the Viewer's
Eye).
- "Elizabethan Darkness and Modern Lighting," and "Theatrical
Metaphor: Seeing and Not-Seeing" (from Elizabethan Stage
Conventions and Modern Interpreters).
- "Much virtue in As," and
"The Vocabulary of 'Place,'" (from Recovering Shakespeare's
Theatrical Vocabulary). (bulkpack)
III. Romeo and Juliet: Text and Performance.
IV. Reinventing the Conventions: Measure for Measure.
- October 28: in-class visit from member(s) of ACTER (A Center for
Theatre, Education, and Research).
- (Optional, but strongly encouraged: extra workshop sessions on
Saturday, November 1, with members of ACTER).
- REQUIRED THEATREGOING: October 29, 31: Measure for Measure,
ACTER,
Zellerbach Theatre, Annenberg Center.
- POSSIBLE THEATREGOING FIELD-TRIP: November 1: Antony and
Cleopatra,
North Broadsides, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Majestic
Theatre
(to be arranged).
V. Playing the Scene/Building a Play: All's Well That Ends
Well.
VI. The Actor: Creating a Role.
- Carol Rutter, Clamorous Voices, (chapters TBA) (reserve)
- Philip
Brockbank, ed., Players of Shakespeare 1, Russell Jackson
and
Robert Smallwood, eds., Players of Shakespeare 2 and
Players of
Shakespeare 3; (chapters TBA) (reserve).
VII. Speaking the Verse, Creating the Character.
- Richard Paul Knowles, "Shakespeare, Voice, and Ideology:
Interrogating
the Natural Voice"
- Sarah Werner, "Performing Shakespeare: Voice
Training and the Feminist Actor," with responses from Cicely
Berry,
Patsy Rodenburg, and Kristin Linklater, and follow up response
from
Sarah Werner (bulkpack)
VIII. The Director: Conceiving a Production: All's Well That Ends
Well.
Requirements/Grading:
There will be TWO take-home assignments, at dates to be announced, and A
FINAL TERM PAPER/PROJECT on All's Well That Ends Well. ATTENDANCE IS
REQUIRED AT ALL CLASSES, as is scene-work as assigned. ABSENCE FROM ANY
CLASS AT WHICH YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO PRESENT A SCENE, ESPECIALLY IF
IT IS WITH A PARTNER WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE REFLECTED IN YOUR GRADE.
You are responsible for scheduling your own rehearsal time for assignments
that require it. Lateness to class impedes our collecive work, and is a
discourtesy to your fellow students; consequently, if you arrive in class
after warmups have begun, you must ask permission of your fellow students
to
be readmitted into the classroom by singing the "the Late Song" (to the
tune
of "Please Release Me"):
Please forgive me, I was late,
I'm so sorry to make you wait.
Won't you let me come back in?
Please forgive me, and let me act again.
If you cannot persuade your classmates to admit you into that day's class,
it
will be counted as an unexcused absence.
Books to be purchased, Pennsylvania Book Center, 37th and Walnut:
- John Barton, Playing Shakespeare, Methuen.
- Cicely Berry, The Actor and The Text, Applause.
- William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, Pelican.
The Bulk-Pack can be purchased a the Campus Copy Center (3907 Walnut
Street).
Use your own editions of the Sonnets, Romeo and Juliet, and
Measure for
Measure, or access the electornic editions (especially the ones with
multiple old-spelling texts) below.
I have set up a listserv for this course on e-mail, to which you have been
automatically subscribed (if this is not so, contact me via e-mail). You
will automatically be sent a copy of every e-mail message posted to the
listserv, and any message you send (to mazer236@english.upenn.edu)
will be
distributed to everyone who signs up (including the professor). Important
announcements about assignments and due dates, and notices about local
theatre events, will be posted regularly. The listserv can also be used
by
you and your classmates as a clearing house for thoughts and impressions
about the readings and the lectures (but remember: everything you post
can
be read by everyone; if you have any private comments, or any private
replies
to a query you read on the listserver, you should respond privately to the
individual's own e-mail address, rather than replying through the
listserv).
Here are some hot links to some interesting Shakespeare sites:
- Electronic texts of Shakespeare's
plays and poems (via gopher).
- Photographic facsimiles of the 1619 Quarto of King
Lear and of the 1623 First Folio of King
Lear from the University of Pennsylvania Library.
- A web site for Scholarly
editions of Shakespeare on the Internet,
including linked editions of the multiple texts of Romeo and
Juliet, Hamlet, and King Lear.
- The Enfolded
Hamlet, a searchable text linking Q2 and F editions, edited by
Bernice Kliman.
- An excellent Shakespeare web site,
including links to other sites, and a list of
favorite sites.
- The Shakespeare Web home
page,
and in particular the list of
Shakespeare
Companies, Festivals, and Productions.
- The home page for the Shakespeare
Globe Center. (Hey, the whole
project may be historiographically questionable, but it's an awesome
building, not to mention a home page with some great graphics and some
great links).
- The home page of ACTER,
A Center for Theatre,
Education, and Research, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
- McGill University's Shakespeare
Resource Page.
- A study guide to A
Midsummer Night's Dream, including
free
computer software.
- The
Encyclopedia Brittanica Shakespeare site, including some
vintage
audio and silent-movie video clips for downloading.
- The home page of The World
Shakespeare Bibliography
- The complete works of
Christopher Marlowe, from Tufts University.