SHAKSPER 1991: Staging Shakespeare's Unstaged Scenes

From: Ken Steele (ksteele@epas.utoronto.ca)
Date: 10/12/91 

Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 2, No. 256. Saturday, 12 Oct 1991.
 
 
(1)	Date: 	Thu, 10 Oct 91 14:31:21 CDT
	From: 	pinnow@stolaf.edu (Timothy Pinnow)
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 2.0252  Shakespeare's Unstaged Scenes
 
(2)	Date:   Fri, 11 Oct 91 10:41:03 EDT
	From: 	Lorin <ST702266@brownvm.brown.edu>
	Subj:   Re: SHK 2.0252  Shakespeare's Unstaged Scenes
 
 
(1)-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 		Thu, 10 Oct 91 14:31:21 CDT
From: 		pinnow@stolaf.edu (Timothy Pinnow)
Subject: 2.0252  Shakespeare's Unstaged Scenes
Comment: 	Re: SHK 2.0252  Shakespeare's Unstaged Scenes
 
I, for one would hope that David Richman is not in the minority.  Staging
the unstaged scenes is, in this actor/director's mind comparable to having
to create the "vasty fields of France."  Shakespeare's plays are a triumph
of the imagination--his and ours.
 
Tim Pinnow
St. Olaf College
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date:         	Fri, 11 Oct 91 10:41:03 EDT
From: 		Lorin <ST702266@brownvm.brown.edu>
Subject: 2.0252  Shakespeare's Unstaged Scenes
Comment:      	Re: SHK 2.0252  Shakespeare's Unstaged Scenes
 
Well, yes and no.  As a dramatist, faithfulness to the playwright is helpful
insofar as it adds to the production.  No-one stages an uncut version of Antony
and Cleopatra, Hamlet, or Taming of the Shrew, mostly because audiences today
are different than the audiences of yesteryear.
 
As to adding scenes... If the added scene brings something to light in that
particular production, then power to the people.  But I would agree, in most
cases there is little that comes out of the extra scene.  I would hesitate to
say these scenes should not be added.  I don't know if the plays contained many
silent scenes in their original production but I would doubt it.
 
But if I go to a production of MND and the last scene before Puck's apology is
a dance between the gods and mortals, I am likely to be impressed.  Or one day
I may see the porter killed in Macbeth.  Or lady Macbeth.  Or have a silent
scene between the third assassin and Macbeth.


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