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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0440  Thursday, 11 May 2006

[1] 	From: 	David Crystal <crystal@DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
	Date: 	Wednesday, 10 May 2006 13:15:13 +0100
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 17.0418 A Roof on the Globe?

[2] 	From: 	Jeremy Fiebig <figurativelyspeaking@gmail.com>
	Date: 	Wednesday, 10 May 2006 08:58:41 -0400
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 17.0427 A Roof on the Globe?

[3] 	From: 	Elliott Stone <elliott.stone@comcast.net>
	Date: 	Wednesday, 10 May 2006 17:20:48 -0400
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 17.0427 A Roof on the Globe?

[4] 	From: 	John Crowley <crowley999@comcast.net>
	Date: 	Thursday, 11 May 2006 08:00:27 -0400
	Subj: 	Roof on the Globe


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		David Crystal <crystal@DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
Date: 		Wednesday, 10 May 2006 13:15:13 +0100
Subject: 17.0418 A Roof on the Globe?
Comment: 	Re: SHK 17.0418 A Roof on the Globe?

 >I feel somewhat dismayed by the thought that the Globe's raison
 >d'etre is so comprehensively nullified by putting a roof on it!

'Roof' is perhaps a misleading word. It is more an enclosing, using the 
system described. You can still see the sky, and the groundlings will 
still get wet. I've seen the first drawings and they look really 
exciting - and well within the spirit of the Globe, which is to explore 
the dramatic potential of the space. The effect as the audience enters 
the theatre should be quite something.

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		Jeremy Fiebig <figurativelyspeaking@gmail.com>
Date: 		Wednesday, 10 May 2006 08:58:41 -0400
Subject: 17.0427 A Roof on the Globe?
Comment: 	Re: SHK 17.0427 A Roof on the Globe?

The sentiments expressed in Wednesday's posts reflect the willingness 
among audiences and scholars to see the Globe become something other 
than it's been.  With some notable exceptions, the Globe has to this 
point avoided becoming a "designer's theatre" -- one in which the 
elements of production outweigh the very basic requirements of the text.

At the risk of tooting too loudly the horn of original practices, the 
move by the Globe appears in some measure to deny itself -- the 
building, and the imagination required to engage that building and its 
players.  Instead of "playing" dark and funereal in broad daylight, the 
audience is caused to "feel" dark and funereal by an element that 
Shakespeare presumably did not have at his beck.

I see this move as a lack on ingenuity rather than an application of it.

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		Elliott Stone <elliott.stone@comcast.net>
Date: 		Wednesday, 10 May 2006 17:20:48 -0400
Subject: 17.0427 A Roof on the Globe?
Comment: 	Re: SHK 17.0427 A Roof on the Globe?

I believe that a very good case could be made that every Shakespeare 
play was written to be performed indoors. There may be those critics 
that believe the plays were written to be performed first at the Globe 
but I am not persuaded. Tom Stoppard might have written the script for 
"Shakespeare in Love" showing Queen Elizabeth viewing R&J at her local 
playhouse but my sneaking belief is that they took the play to her.

There are many plays within the play in the Shakespeare Canon and they 
all were performed indoors. The most famous, of course, is the Hamlet 
Mousetrap performed in a castle. The "rude mechanicals" might have 
rehearsed outdoors but even they performed their Thisbe before the Court 
in a palace!

Best,
Elliott H. Stone

[4]-------------------------------------------------------------
From: 		John Crowley <crowley999@comcast.net>
Date: 		Thursday, 11 May 2006 08:00:27 -0400
Subject: 	Roof on the Globe

Is there clear evidence that Elizabethan theaters didn't have such 
screens?  Frances Yates and others have shown how much the Elizabethan 
theater builders thought of themselves as heirs of the classical 
theater, wanting for instance to replicate the (now quite 
unintelligible) sound amplification system described by Vitruvius. 
Maybe they adopted this concept too.

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Hardy M. Cook, editor@shaksper.net
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