Twelfth Night: Two Writing Assignments Cezarija Abartis The following is a pair of writing assignments. The second is an assignment inviting students to analyze one scene in a play. I use the assignment most frequently with Shakespeare, but I have adapted it for writing assignments on Homer's Odyssey, Voltaire's Candide, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Dickens' Hard Times, as well as contemporary novels. The first is a writing assignment for an analysis of a performed scene. The scene I showed to my colleagues in the Folger Humanities Institute, "Shakespeare Examined Through Performance," was IV.ii of Twelfth Night. I chose this scene because it's short, because it's susceptible to various performance interpretations, and because it's an especially difficult one for students to visualize. Comedy always is difficult for inexperienced viewers to imagine, and painful comedy may be even more difficult. I showed three videotaped versions of this scene, all aired first in Great Britain. 1) Year of first showing: 1970; Publisher: John Dexter Productions / Precision Video; Producers: John Dexter and Cecil Clarke; Director: John, Sichel; Cast: Alec Guinness (Malvolio), Tommy Steele (Feste), Ralph Richardson (Sir Toby Belch), Sheila Reid (Maria). Time for this scene: about 4 minutes, 10 seconds. 2) Year of first showing: 1980; Publisher: BBC/Time-Life TV; Producer: Cedric Messina; Director: John Gorrie; Cast: Alec McCowen (Malvolio), Trevor Peacock (Feste), Robert Hardy (Sir Toby Belch), Annette Crosbie (Maria). Time for this scene: about 5 minutes, 5 seconds. 3) Year of first showing: 1988; Publisher: Renaissance Theatre Company; Director: Kenneth Branagh; Cast: Richard Briers (Malvolio), Anton Lesser (Feste), James Saxon (Sir Toby Belch), Abigail McKern (Maria). Time for this scene: about 7 minutes, 45 seconds. Each succeeding version grows in length and in melancholy, so that the last one becomes something like "The Tragedy of Malvolio." In the first, Malvolio is irritated and indignant; in the second, he is distressed; in the third, he has been so abused he is crushed and hopeless. Feste moves from being clownish, to being contemplative, to being reluctantly brutal. The prison sets become progressively darker and more confining. The first is rollicking; the last is despairing. It is interesting to students to see how the same words--more or less--can be interpreted in such different ways. A writer is a person who enters into sustained relations with the language for experiment and experience not available in any other way. . . . A reader is a person who picks up signals and enters a world in language under the guidance of an earlier entry made by a writer . . . . Anyone enters that world of writing or literature by writing or reading, venturing forward part by part, unpredictable part by unpredictable part. (Stafford 12) Questions for Responding to a Performance of Twelfth Night Specific questions that might be appropriate to a discussion of IV. ii of Twelfth Night: -What is the effect of the music, the songs? -How are sound effects used? -What is the "dark room" like? Consider the light, the bars, the space of the enclosure, the levels of the stage. -How is the viewer's sympathy engaged, managed, alienated? With which character at what point? Does this shift throughout the presentation? What acting strategies (gestures, posture, tone of voice, rate of speaking, makeup, costumes) does the actor employ? -What lines are omitted? To what effect? Paper due: Length: "I've always disliked words like inspiration. Writing is probably like a scientist thinking about some scientific problem, or an engineer about an engineering problem" (Doris Lessing qtd. in Winokur 70). "Or, seen from another angle, form is the creation of an appetite in the mind of the auditor, and the adequate satisfying of that appetite. This satisfaction--so complicated is the human mechanism--at times involves a temporary set of frustrations, but in the end these frustrations prove to be simply a more involved kind of satisfaction, and furthermore serve to make the satisfaction of fulfillment more intense" (Burke 31). Works Cited Burke, Kenneth. Counter-Statement. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968. Stafford, William. "Writing and Literature: Some Opinions." Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation. Ann Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P, 1978.12-13. Winokur, Jon, comp. Writers on Writing. Philadelphia: Running Press, 1986. A composition is a bundle of parts. When you compose, you "get it together," but the "it" is not a matter of things or "words"; what you get together in composing is relationships, meanings. In composing, you make parts into wholes; you compose the way you think--by seeing relationships, by naming, defining, and articulating relationships. What makes it hard is that you have to do two things at once: you have to bundle the parts as if you knew what the whole was going to be and you have to figure out the whole in order to decide which parts are going to fit and which are not. The only way to do that is to keep everything tentative, recognizing that getting the parts together, figuring out the whole, is a dialectical process. (Berthoff 47) DEVELOPMENT BY EXAMPLE / ILLUSTRATION / DETAIL TOPIC: Choose one scene from ___________________________ and analyze it. Answer the most interesting, most relevant questions. In this paper you are asked to examine the function of a portion of the play--one scene. What is the function of this scene? Does it advance the action? Does it develop the characters? Does it illustrate the theme or themes? What would be lost if this part were omitted from the play? What does this scene do? How is it like other episodes? How is it unlike them? What comes immediately before it? What comes after it? Why is it in this play? What is the difference between how the scene begins and how the scene ends? What is the character(s) like at the beginning of the scene? at the end? The last time this character(s) appeared, what was he or she like (topics of conversation, actions, gestures, mood)? And the time after the scene you are discussing? Discuss the different emotions in this scene (if they are interesting) and the psychology of the characters. How has Shakespeare prepared us for this scene? What are the surprises in this scene? How does this scene sum up past events and/or foreshadow future events? LENGTH: 700-1200 words (typed, manuscript format) Please underline the topic sentence of each paragraph. Please include your rough drafts and notes. Rough draft due: Revised draft due: "Only that which does not teach, which does not cry out, which does not condescend, which does not explain, is irresistible" (W.B. Yeats qtd. in Solodow 236). "The theme . . . of any work of art is: 'Life is like this.' But to expand the meaning of 'this' requires the whole story . . . . A story is not a kiddy-car containing a message. A story is a formal structure which the author builds around you; in the process you learn to see some portion of the world in a new way and you experience certain esthetic responses and certain emotions" (Knight 230). Works Cited Berthoff, Ann E. Forming~Thinking~Writing: The Composing Imagination. Rochelle Park, NJ: Hayden Book Co., 1978. Knight, Damon. "An Annotated 'Masks."' Those Who Can: A Science Fiction Reader. Ed. Robin Scott Wilson. New York: New American Library, 1973. 209-31. Solodow, Joseph B. The World of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1988. Abartis Page 3 Emory British Studies Program Sheila Cavanagh English 312 Summer 1996 Class: MW 11-1 Office Hours: TBA Welcome to Oxford and to Studies in Shakespeare! We will be looking at Shakespeare and performance this summer. In addition to the regular class sessions, we will be attending several Royal Shakespeare Company performances in Stratford, visiting the newly reconstructed Globe Theatre and taking a Shakespearean tour through the Ashmolean Museum. We will also have video sessions scheduled for each of the plays we study. Class requirements: Attendance and class participation are required. Since this course contains fewer class sessions than a semester-long course, it is particularly important that you arrive to class on time and ready to participate. Assignments will be expected at the beginning of class. If you miss class, arrive late, or come unprepared, your grade will reflect these lapses. Please come prepared to take full advantage of the Shakespearean opportunities available to us in Oxford. As You Like It Assignments Class One: Each of you will be assigned a character to "follow" as you re-read and view the play. As you read, mark the lines that this character delivers as well as other lines in the text that refer to her/him. Make notes in the margins when you come to speeches, lines, words, gestures, etc. which seem particularly significant or perplexing. If you find words that you don't know (or don't know in this context), please look them up in the OED and make a note of which meanings which might work in these instances. If there are places where you're not sure what this character is doing (for example, a character who remains silent throughout much/all of a scene), please make a particular note of those moments. Bring your annotated text to class along with a short paper discussing your discoveries about this character. Among the issues you might consider are: what are the central questions or problems this character presents to an actor? Which scenes/situations are most interesting or confusing to you? Why? Where is the character speaking in poetry and where in prose? What might this information tell you either about the character or about what is going on in the play? Is there any kind of historical information which would be useful as you grapple with this character and this play? Can you tell how old this character is? What are his/her physical characteristics? What kind of information along these lines does the play give you? Where does the play leave you guessing? We will be viewing at least one of the film versions of this play before our second class. While you're watching the play, make mental notes of the ways that the actors and director respond to the questions you've raised. Class Two: In preparation for this class, please read 91-145 in Valerie Traub's Desire and Anxiety and write a short paper in response to the issues she raises. Using evidence from the text, discuss some of your points of agreement and/or disagreement with her arguments. If she talks about the character you were assigned for our last class, please come prepared to discuss whether her perspective adds to, contradicts, or alters any of your preliminary conclusions about that character. If she does not talk about your character, choose one she does discuss and arrive ready to consider how the view in this article might affect our understanding of that character. In class, we will be talking about your papers and the issues they raise. Class Three: In preparation for this class, we will be attending the RSC production of As You Like It. While you are watching the play, pay particular attention to the RCS's choices about "your" character. What does s/he look like physically? How is s/he dressed? Where does her/his presentation of particular lines correlate with your reading? Where does it differ? Does the production include all of your character's entrances and speeches or are there cuts? Are any of your character's lines given to other characters? How do the cuts or changes affect your reading of the text or viewing of the production? Are there any choices in the production --either dealing with your character or not--which surprise you, annoy you, charm you or provoke any other particular response? Please write a two page response to the production, talking about the choices made concerning your character, but also including other noteworthy elements of the performance. We will be discussing the production choices and your responses in class. We will also be going back to the text to probe further into the implications of these choices. Macbeth Assignments Class One: In preparation for this class, please read the play carefully. Pay particular attention to the characterization of the central figures. Make note of the comments they make about themselves and that others make about them. If you find contradictions or unclear passages, make sure you write those down for class discussion. Watch for the various ways the play makes suggestions about the characters' possible motivations for their actions and for the interplay between the "natural" and "supernatural." For example, where are concerns about power prominent? What kinds of power seem to be at stake? What other motivational forces are discussed or alluded to? How do you interpret the "supernatural" elements of the text? Does the text suggest that they are "real" or imagined (n.b., this may not be consistent)? As you work on this assignment, keep in mind that these characters are not real people. Draw your evidence from the text, not from psychological or social factors which you imagine would be relevant in real life. Bring your notes to class and be prepared to discuss them and/or write about them. Class Two: Before class two, we will be viewing at least one film version of Macbeth. While you are watching the film(s), make note of the ways that the actors/director/production suggest answers to the questions discussed in class. Please bring to class a short paper responding to one (or both) of the film(s). Choose a character, scene, or production issue (costume, set, etc.) and discuss how the film(s) captured or contradicted your reading. Be sure to go back to the text and use specific lines, etc., to support your points. Feel free to discuss elements that are present or absent from the film(s), i.e., places in the text which got cut from the film version. We will be discussing these points in class. Class Three: Before class three, please read the Macbeth essays in Shakespeare's Late Tragedies and make note of points you agree with, dispute, or don't understand. Please also bring to class your notes which compare one element of the play in the versions we have seen (or read about in the essays). You might look at a character, line(s) performed or omitted, costuming, a feature of the set, or some other aspect which interests you. Please go back to the text of the play and remind yourself of what the text indicates about this character/scene, etc. Be prepared to refer to the text of the play as well as to the things you noted in the productions and the essays. If there is one version which "gets it right" or misses the mark completely in your opinion, please discuss this in your paper. We will be discussing these choices in class. Troilus and Cressida Assignments Class One: In preparation for class, please read the play carefully. If there are passages, lines, or actions which you do not understand, please mark them and bring them to class for discussion. We will be focusing on the characterization of Cressida today, so please be thinking about any challenges you see associated with her character. In preparation for class two, please read Valerie Traub's essay "Invading Bodies/Bawdy Exchanges" (pages 71-90) and write a short paper responding to the issues she raises there. Remember to go back to the text to find support for your arguments. Class Two: In this class, we will be discussing the issues raised by the essay. We will also be dividing the class up into groups in preparation for our viewing of the RSC production of Troilus and Cressida. Each group will be assigned a particular element to watch for in this production and will be reporting back to the class about their findings. During class today, you should subdivide responsibilities among the members of your group and arrange a short meeting (either on the bus back to Oxford or at another time). Each of you will be speaking briefly to the class as a whole. The four groups will be focusing on: 1. Programs: Questions to ask might include: what information is included, what is omitted? Does the program privilege a particular interpretation of the play or does it map out various possibilities? How much of this program appears to be a "generic" (or Shakespeare) program and what elements seem to be specific to this production? In your group, you might assign some students primary responsibility for analyzing the program before the production and others for a post-production review. Members of this group should also review as many editions of the play as they can locate in order to assess the range of information which a program might include. Please come prepared to talk both about the program and about these editions. 2. Costumes and Props: This group might divide themselves up into "costume" and "prop" subdivisions. If you are working in this group, remember that the text will only give occasional hints about these elements. Before making your class presentation, please "research" some of the choices which interest you by going back to the text and looking for lines, comments, etc., which either support, contradict, or remain silent on the range of choices possible. 3. Sets and Lighting: This group will probably work best if divided in two. Here also, the text will give very limited information to determine set design (and stage lighting as we know it clearly wasn't an issue). It might work best if you decide in advance who is going to pay particular attention during Act I, II, III, etc., so that you can be better prepared to remember moments to "research" in the text after you see the production. 4. Casting/Characterization: This group might divide up the characters in the text to focus on. Please pay attention to both casting and characterization. Think, for example, whether the physical appearance of any of the actors helps shape the audience's response to his/her characterization. Be prepared to talk about any choices regarding characterization which seem distinctive. Also, go back to the text to remind yourself about textual elements which seem to support or contradict the production choices you focus on. Class Three: Group Presentations Final Class: Final papers and notebooks due in class We will be discussing the productions and videotapes you have viewed outside of class. Each of you is required to view at least one production as the basis for your final five page paper critiquing either a local Shakespeare production or a film version of a Shakespeare play. You might focus on some of the elements we have discussed concerning the other plays on the syllabus or devise a new approach. Please use textual evidence from the play as well as references to the film/production. Feel free to use one or more versions of the same play. Please also turn in your class notebook, which will include all written assignments (whether formal papers or notes) for the summer. Please mark each item clearly with a description of the assignment it responds to. Interpreting Shakespeare as Performance: Using a Dramaturg's Program Book as the Core Project in an Undergraduate Shakespeare Course Clare-Marie Wall After several months of participating in the NEH Institute "Shakespeare Examined Through Performance," I became convinced that I needed to throw out my usual syllabus for English 189: Shakespeare, and begin again. At Cal State Fresno, the English 189 course is a one-semester introduction to Shakespeare's major works, required of all students who are seeking a teaching credential in English. It is not the only Shakespeare course we offer: we have one-semester upper division seminars titled Tudor or Stuart Shakespeare, Women in Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Tragedies, etc., taught as we wish by the seven department members who teach Shakespeare. But 189 is the most common course, and we usually offer three sections (25 students each) every semester. Our Shakespeareans vary in background and approach: we have several New Historicists, other traditional Close Readers and Old Historicists, and several who blend feminist and performance approaches, as I do. Of us all, I have had the most theatrical experience, as actor, dramaturg and assistant director for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and other theatres. Yet I have limited my use of performance pedagogy to the comparative showing of videos, to talking about performance issues, and to requiring production reviews. While those methods are certainly valuable, I was conspicuously avoiding having my students do more practical theatre work, by acting, directing or designing. Instead, I encouraged us only to talk and write about performance. Spring 1996 seemed the right time to stop talking and start doing. Unfortunately, I could not quite jettison my desire for substantial "coverage," that specter familiar to most teachers of undergraduate courses. In English 189, I usually cover at least twelve of Shakespeare's plays in the course of a fifteen-week semester, and I simply couldn't imagine doing fewer than seven plays. I also remained wedded to a substantial writing requirement, and to the need to get students into the library for research. I figured I could give up midterms and final exams, and instead use weekly quizzes to test students' close reading of the scripts. In my revised course, I would spend much more time getting students to open their mouths and get on their feet to work on speeches and scenes together. But I had an additional wish for the new course. To me, one of the joys of theatrical experiences, whether onstage or in the audience, is the creation of community. For the production team, collaborative artistry is the goal (even when a director guides or dictates the members of that team.) For the audience members, the play happens when they share a time and space with actors and with each other, and help the event occur. How was I to help students get some experience in the theatrical collaboration which is required to put a Shakespeare script on stage, and at the same time stretch their analytical and research skills? How could I help them learn what production teams do, and train them to be better audience members (and readers) at the same time? My solution was to use my own experience as dramaturg and devise a way for English literature students to combine their experienced research and writing skills with their inexperienced theatrical imaginative powers, and to hone both. A dramaturg, generally speaking, is responsible for knowing the literary and historical backgrounds of a particular script and its writer. She or he also usually has some practical theatrical experience, and is aware of past and present stage theory and practice. Depending on the director or theatre she or he is working for, a dramaturg is part of the collaborative team which decides on an approach to the script, works through design and casting decisions, participates in the rehearsal process in various ways, and prepares the audience members to enjoy the production by such means as public lectures and a dramaturg's program book of informative articles, illustrations and relevant quotations. For the 1982 Colorado Shakespeare Festival As You Like It, I and Roelof Veltkamp worked as dramaturgs, and published an elaborate program book to support director Lee Potts' vision of the play as an Enlightenment pastoral, demonstrating the value of generous love. We wrote articles on the play (synopsis, analysis, criticism), its stage history, and our production concept (courtly world, pastoral world, rustic world, scenery, music, costumes, lighting), and illustrated the book extensively. The 15-page program book provided me with an opportunity to bring together my background in art, history, literature, theatre and journalism, and to become a teacher of the audience as well, informing them about the long and complicated collaboration between director, designers, actors, musicians and assistants, and demonstrating some of the results. Research, collaboration, production. For me, those are the elements of any Shakespearean play which I wanted introductory literature students to experience. I decided to create an artificial process which would allow students to perform one of five "roles"--director, literary historian, theatre historian, designer, pedagogue--and then to collaborate with the rest of a group to reach a final interpretation of a script. If they only had actors, technicians, money, audience and time, this group-created final interpretation could ideally be performed. For class purposes, however, they would complete a written record of their work, and present their group interpretation to the rest of the students near the end of the semester. Their preparation of this interpretation would go on throughout the term, using some class time and much out-of-class time. In order to develop sufficient background, each student would need to read and re-read the script of their chosen play. They would need to spend library time to explore the traditions of literary criticism and stage productions, and then to find out more about design possibilities that would support their interpretations. After some weeks of individual research, they would meet together and begin to talk through their differing points of view. Their goal would be to gain some consensus, and decide how they could best present their interpretation, with what designs, what emphasis on scenes, what character interpretations, etc. Unlike current theatrical practice, the director would not have veto power, but would be an equal participant, and primary facilitator of the group's discussions. After some weeks of discussion, each of the individual group members would write a five- to ten-page paper summarizing their findings. The director would be responsible for writing an overview of the group's final interpretive approach, including thematic and character concerns. The designer would explain the rationale behind the costume, set, lighting, and music designs, and illustrate them in some way. The literary historian would present the relevant high points of past and recent criticism, especially that criticism which would support or contradict the group's interpretation in interesting ways. The theatre historian would set the current group's "production" in a historical continuum of performances on stage (and perhaps on film and video.) And the pedagogue would demonstrate a way to present the group's interpretation to an audience, either through the production of a program book, or a series of lectures and workshops, or a series of class preparations for a particular grade level. After the written assignments were completed, the group would have a two-hour slot to present their interpretation to the rest of the Shakespeare class. They might use lecture, film, workshop exercises, or extended performance of a scene or scenes from their "production." Ideally, two different "productions" of a single script would occupy each class period, so that everyone could see how different collaborations can result in different interpretations. Such were my best-laid plans. The syllabus which I gave to my 27 students on 31 January 1996 follows. After voting on the seven plays we would cover in the 15-week semester, I asked them to think about what "role" they would prefer to play, and whether they would rather work on A Midsummer Night's Dream or Hamlet. (Macbeth was added later, at one group's request.) In the following two weeks, we "covered" both Dream and Hamlet, discussing the scripts in enough detail that they could make an educated decision about which one they wanted to work on all semester. They then listed their preferred "roles" and plays (first, second and third choices). I was able to "cast" them and group them into five groups, two on Dream, two on Hamlet and one on Macbeth. Not everyone got their first choice. By that point in the semester, I had a good idea of who was reliable, who was thoughtful, and who might need more guidance; so I tried to tailor roles to what I perceived as their strengths. As with most casting, I had successes and failures in this process. I'm afraid there's no way to insure complete success, unless one has a class of students one knows well already. In the ensuing weeks of spring semester, the difficulties inherent in any collaborative venture quickly surfaced. Six students who had been assigned "roles" quietly dropped out of the process due to illness, work conflicts or sloth. Several groups were thus incomplete, and their work proved more difficult without all "roles" being filled. Then, even though the sick students resurfaced, two groups lost valuable collaboration time. As expected, some students worked well together; others became frustrated or apathetic, at least until the May 1 deadline began to near. Also, in giving class time over to their group work, I lost valuable hours when we could have been doing practical performance work. Still, I realized that many were enjoying the work. The books which I had put on reserve in the university library, supplemented by the Bergeron/de Souza Shakespeare: A Study and Research Guide, began to be checked out. Students came to my office, or phoned, with questions. After a four-hour session devoted to group-work for the Dramaturg's Program book, some groups began to meet outside of class (I encountered six students at 10 PM on a Saturday night working in Fresno's City Cafe.) We also devoted one hour weekly of our four-hour time to further group-work, starting in April. Regular class discussion continued to be fruitful. Sometimes we worked in a familiar literary way through close textual analysis of the scripts. For each Shakespeare play that I teach, I prepare a 4-5 page handout titled "Reading Questions." These "reading questions" are open-ended, but ask for students' detailed scene-by-scene responses, and more general interpretative conclusions . Having these questions with them as they read and re-read the scripts on their own helps students to explore for themselves some of the myriad choices offered by the written text. Thus they read "on their own," but get some idea of what they might look for as actors/directors/ audience/reader. They come to class better prepared with their own point of view. Then in class discussion, we elaborate on issues raised by the reading questions (such as genre, gender, theme, character and poetic style), and further explore the historical context of original performances in early modern London. Equal time, however, is always devoted to performance issues, such as choices of character motivation and action, design impact, and tonal effects. In Spring 1996, through a variety of class exercises (noted in the final syllabus below, and elaborated in our Recipe Book of Exercises) I tried to extend our area of discussion and experience further. The results of this experiment will follow in a Postscript section, which will include an overview of their group presentations to the rest of the class, comments on their individual work, and finally their own comments about what they thought of the course. I know now that when I next offer the course, I will use brief written assignments to guide students toward particular research areas, instead of allowing them the relative freedom of this semester. I know that those who already have some background in the period found the research easy; others, however, needed more guidance at the start of the process than I was comfortable about giving this semester. By structuring a set of required mini-papers on performance issues, I can also monitor the students' work in a more efficient way. Those who did not contribute enough to the group did not have any check on their sloth except the frustrations of the other group members. If I, however, had known about problems of discipline or just plain confusion, I could have helped sooner. Additionally, scheduled conferences with each group early in the semester would have helped. Although I did ask for reports from groups in March, I asked them to be given publicly, in class. I would have done better to have met with groups in private, where their worries could have surfaced without their losing any face before the whole class. Clare-Marie Wall Department of English, California State University, Fresno Fresno, CA 93740-0098 (209) 278-2248 email address: clare_wall@csufresno.edu Interpreting Shakespeare as Performance: Using a Dramaturg's Program Book as the Core Project in an Undergraduate Shakespeare Course Clare-Marie Wall part 2 SYLLABUS FOR ENGLISH 189: SHAKESPEARE SPRING 1996 Meeting Wednesday nights, 6:10-10:00 PM, for 15 weeks This course provides an introduction to Shakespeare's plays, with an emphasis on performance criticism and practice. We will be using the group creation of a Dramaturg's Program Book as the major project. TEXTS Shakespeare: A Study and Research Guide, Third Edition, Revised. Eds. David M. Bergeron & Geraldo U. de Sousa. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995. William Shakespeare. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. David Bevington, ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. GOALS OF THE COURSE Above any other goal of this course is your own personal engagement with some of Shakespeare's plays. You will need to read the scripts, imagine possible performances, re-read the scripts, view films and videos, mull over and re-read the scripts, then write and talk about and enact them. Reading a plot summary, or cribs, or the occasional scene, won't do. All assignments--whether prepared or improvised performances, critiques of performance, speculative writings or quizzes, group discussions, and preparation of dramaturg-book materials (see appendix)--are designed to help you respond richly, specifically and individually to these really remarkable works. When you first encounter Shakespeare's scripts (written texts), I recommend that you read aloud, that you listen to audiotape recordings in the Music Library while you read silently, that you view whatever productions you can, whether live or filmed. I will show parts of some videos, and the Music Library of CSUF has many excellent videotapes (BBC and others) available for viewing. Don't miss Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson's Much Ado About Nothing. Other films like the Branagh or Olivier Henry V, or the Zeffirelli Hamlet or Taming of the Shrew, are easily rented. Don't miss such superb versions as Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (Macbeth ) or Ran (King Lear ), for example, or the Kosintsev Hamlet and Lear. Orson Welles' Othello is now on tape as well. In addition to viewing films, you could also read scenes with a classmate or friend before we work in class. Remember that Shakespeare, as actor and theatre owner, knew that his playscripts were catalysts for theatre experiences. We have to work our imaginations hard to create them in the classroom or the study, even as actors and audiences do in the theatre. Always remember that what you are reading are Shakespeare's scripts (written texts). The actual plays (performance texts) are rich experiences of sound and movement, performed by actors in front of an audience. You, as READERS of plays, must be playwright, actors, director, designers, technicians and audience--all at once--in order to let the plays live fully in your imaginations. So as you read, keep in mind Tadeusz Kowzan's list of 13 theatrical systems: word, intonation, movement (blocking), gesture, facial mimicry, set, props, costumes, hairstyle, makeup, music, lighting, sound effects. Consider all of them as you read the dialogue and sparse stage directions of the script. And then let your imaginations go, to collaborate with the words and actions that Shakespeare provided. In teaching Shakespeare, I have always emphasized that we are reading only the pre-texts of the fully staged Shakespearean "plays." This kind of criticism is usually called "performance criticism" of Shakespeare. For the past five months, I have been a participant in a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. This institute, called "Shakespeare Examined Through Performance," is dedicated to exploring various methods of using in-class acting, production comparisons, and videos, in our undergraduate Shakespeare courses. To capitalize on this experience, and on my years of experience as an actor, dramaturg (literary advisor) and assistant director at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and elsewhere, I've decided to experiment this semester with a more emphatically performance-based approach to studying Shakespeare. Our exercises, acting, viewing of performances, writing, research and presentations will all support our explorations of the theatrical reality of these plays, and help you to enjoy and understand theatre experiences based on Shakespeare's scripts, to become better readers and critics of both scripts and performances, and to be better able to teach others to do the same. However, because this is an experimental semester, you can expect some variation in the syllabus. Here are my plans so far. I will not ask you to do any MORE work; I may however have to cut something. I am still tied somewhat to the familiar idea of examinations; so there will be weekly reading quizzes on the scripts assigned to be read. SCHEDULE Original plan 1/31/96, revised 2/7, 4/3 and 5/1/96. Never before have I been as open as I am today to decisions about which plays we will work on in this class. They're all so wonderful that I think we should do 35 or 36 plays. But I'm not yet insane, and I know we should limit ourselves to 6 or 7 for this kind of experimental class. I would like to propose the following plays: The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, King Lear, and The Winter's Tale. I also want us to view and discuss the Branagh/Thompson Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing, and the Judi Dench/Ian McKellen Macbeth directed by Trevor Nunn. We ABSOLUTELY MUST see Ed EmanuEl's direction of The Merry Wives of Windsor which will be playing on campus at our John Wright Theatre May 3-5 and 8-12, especially since no film or video can ever match a live performance. However, I also propose that we VOTE on which plays we do. So, during the first class of January 31, we will decide on seven plays to do together. Because I don't want to waste our first four hours, I will begin with a discussion of Shrew; but if the class chooses, we can move on to another next week. [After extended discussion and much lobbying for favorite plays, the class voted to substitute As You Like It and Othello, for Shrew and Measure. The following list of plays was approved. I here reproduce the final schedule which we followed.] SCHEDULE 31 January Introduction to course, theatre systems, dramaturg books Exercise: comparison of openings/framings of The Taming of the Shrew videos and Atomic Shakespeare 7 February A Midsummer Night's Dream. Introductory discussion; multiple plot structure, character criticism, poetic imagery, thematic concerns (imagination in love and art.) 14 February Hamlet. Introductory discussion with Dr. Laurel Hendrix. Overview, heroic tragedy situated in history. 21 February Hamlet cont. Antiheroic tragicomedy in other contexts. As You Like It . Discussion of students' interpretations. Extended warm-ups. Exercise: Variant performances of 1. 2. 231-260, with Orlando, Rosalind, Celia. Exercise: Redirection of scene by class members. 28 February Assignment of group projects: selection of 2 groups on Hamlet, 2 groups on Dream 1 group on Macbeth. Roles (director, lit crit, production critic, designer, pedgagogue assigned. As You Like It discussion continued. Exercise: choices of musical worlds for Dream, As You Like It. Exercise: creating different design versions of Frederick's Court and the Forest of Arden. 6 March Othello Introductory discussion. Exercise: comparison of Zeffirelli's film version of Verdi's Otello with Othello's 1. 3. narration, "Her father lov'd me." 13 March Othello, Macbeth Feminist and historical criticism. Willow scene/ witches, Lady Macbeth, evil and childbirth imagery. Character collages. 20 March Macbeth Scenes presented by CSUF theatre students: 1.1- 1.5, Sleepwalking scene 5.1. Discussion with actors and director Terry Miller. Exercise: extensive text work on Macbeth's 1.7 and 5.5. soliloquies by entire class. 27 March King Lear "What do you think this play is about?" Fathers, children, loss or gain, or both? Jan Kott, Theatre of the Absurd, Existentialism. 3 April Spring Vacation 10 April Group rehearsals and preparations for presentations. 17 April King Lear Discussion of tragicomedy, Verbal staging of heath scenes, Dover Cliffs, Awakening, 1 May FINISHED DRAMATURG'S PROGRAM BOOKS DUE, 6 PM. The Winter's Tale Exercise: showing of videotape Shakespeare: The Last Plays. Hall's rehearsal of beginning of play, discussion of variant approaches. Discussion of romance, masque traditions, myth. Exercise: showing statue scene, Barton's Playing Shakespeare: Passion and Coolness for the majority of class who had not read play, with discussion of staging choices for ending. 8 May Performances and Presentations on Hamlet 15 May Performances and Presentations on Dream 22 May Performances and Presentations on Macbeth Critical Reviews of Performances Due. REQUIREMENTS Whatever playscripts we finally decide on for our classwork together, certain requirements are fixed. They are as follows: 1. ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION in our discussions will help you to experience the plays, so be here physically and mentally. Since we meet only once a week, attendance is simply required. In case of an extreme emergency, please contact me before class, at least via a message on my office phone. I also expect you to read each play IN ITS ENTIRETY before the day we are scheduled to discuss it, and I suggest that you have something interesting and worthwhile to say about it when you come in. You should know the characters' names, plot details, important thematic and imagery patterns, the meaning of crucial speeches and words, and have done some thinking about staging difficulties. I will give weekly READING QUIZZES to confirm reading, your attendance and participation, so be on time, please. (No makeups on quizzes.) PARTICIPATION (Attendance, class participation in discussion, and written quizzes) = 35 % of your final grade. 2. This experimental section will ask you to do various acting and writing exercises. We will do warmups together, so please wear comfortable clothes and shoes to class. (You may be lying on the floor, so be prepared for dust.) You may be asked to paraphrase speeches, in other words to translate them into other language; so be sure you read carefully. You will definitely need to "get the scene or character on its feet," by speaking Shakespeare's words, and moving and interacting with other class members. You will be asked to respond to others' acting explorations, with courtesy and clarity and honesty. You will often work in groups: your dramaturg-book group will be your semester-long colleagues, but you will often work with others in pairs, trios, quartets and clumps. You will experiment not only with performing, but with directing and designing. You will probably do at least one collage, of a character or of a director's concept for a play. YOU WILL NOT BE GRADED ON YOUR ABILITY TO ACT, DIRECT OR DESIGN!!! I know that this is not a theatre class. You will be graded on your willingness to participate and to experiment, your thoughtfulness of analysis and interpretation, your ability to "read" like an actor, director or designer, your incisiveness and courtesy in your observation of others' work. PLEASE BE REASSURED! I will be continuing to clarify my expectations as the semester continues. PARTICIPATION IN THEATRE WORK = 30 % of final grade. 3. In addition to the weekly quizzes and in-class writings, you will have two longer written assignments: a CRITICAL REVIEW of a Shakespeare production and part of a DRAMATURG'S PROGRAM BOOK (See appendix.) The brief but detailed CRITICAL REVIEW should be of a complete Shakespeare production which you have seen within the past year, either live, on film, or on videotape. I can recommend the films directed by Branagh, Zeffirelli, Olivier, Kurosawa, Welles, Kosintsev. The recent Othello with Laurence Fishburne is still playing, and Ian McKellen's Richard the Third is on its way. The CSUF Merry Wives of Windsor will be performed in May, and all of us should go, definitely. In your review, you should give a personal response, concentrating on acting, concept, design, etc. as you wish. You may want to compare and contrast the version to your interpretation of Shakespeare's complete script, for excample, or even compare two versions of the same script. If you want to do extra credit, you may write more reviews of more productions. They're always a joy to read, and to reward. Your section of the DRAMATURG'S PROGRAM BOOK (see appendix) should be 5-10 pages at least, typed, double spaced and proofread. You also must turn in an annotated bibliography with your section. Sign-ups for plays and sections will begin soon (after introductory discussions of Hamlet and Dream, since those are the plays you will be working on in your groups.) Be thinking, therefore, about which play you would prefer to research and write on, and which kind of interpretive "role" you wish to play. You will be meeting regularly with your group on your chosen play, to discuss your findings, collaborate on a shared vision of the play which you can all agree on, and plan a good way to present your finished "production" and program book at the end of the semester. FINISHED DRAMATURG'S PROGRAM BOOKS MUST BE READY BY MAY 1! Presentations of those works to the class will follow. Reviews are due during the last class, May 22. EXTENDED WRITTEN WORK (critical review of a play and section of dramaturg's program book) = 35 % of final grade APPENDIX TO SYLLABUS FOR ENGLISH 189: SHAKESPEARE Sp 1996 READING A SCRIPT I am a devout believer in the theory which holds that when you read a "play," you read not essentially a finished work, but a script, a written text which is the jumping off point for the play in performance. (Tom Stoppard calls his scripts "pre-texts.") As far as I'm concerned, the fullest kind of playreading absolutely requires every reader to play all the roles (aloud and in motion, at least in one's vivid imagination), "direct" the production toward a satisfying single experience in time and space, to visualize and imagine the costumes, set, stage properties, and to hear the sound effects and musical score. Lastly, of course, each reader is the ideal audience member, participating fully with mind and feelings in the rich, complex experience of the play. We will be discusssing such issues in the course of the semester, naturally. But I want you all to keep thinking/feeling about the many systems of signs which are working at every moment onstage, and which are either called for explicitly by the playwright's written text, or potentially present in the performance text, experienced by the audience. Tadeusz Kowzan's list of 13 theatre systems is a starting point: word, intonation, facial mimicry, gesture movement, costume, hairstyle, makeup, sound, lighting, set, properties, music. Others might include the playing space (or theatre) itself, the program material, poster, pre-show entertainment. I always include the AUDIENCE as a crucial determining factor. DRAMATURG'S PROGRAM BOOK ON A PLAY In order to explore the acting, designing and directing roles, I am going to work from my own useful experiences as a dramaturg for various theatres, and ask you to join with fellow classmates to compile a Dramaturg's Program Book on one of Shakespeare's plays, which you will work on during the semester, and which will be due in May. There is nothing particularly mysterious about a dramaturg. In European theatres, traditionally, the dramaturg has served the company as a literary advisor--a reader of plays, a shaper of playwrights, an assistant to directors and casts, and a liaison with the audiences, via lectures, articles and, usually, a published Program Book on each one of the plays which the theatre company performs. This Program Book is more than a cast list: it is an introduction to the written text and the performance text, through essays by the director and dramaturg, quotations from previous criticism of the play (both written and performance texts), descriptive analysis of the design of this production, pictures, background on historical contexts, even bibliographical material for extra study. So, instead of asking you to write the usual extended paper, or even several shorter essays, I ask you to to participate in compiling a Program Book on a single play. You must choose between A Midsummer Night's Dream or The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. [One group lobbied successfully for Macbeth.] After this kind of preparation, you will know your play nearly as well as a theatre company member by the end of the semester. By then, we will have a superb collection of Program Books to go into our libraries, to use in our own reading, teaching and theatrregoing futures. Please make a copy for me to keep, and I will find a way to keep it in a permanent collection at CSU Fresno. Each of you will responsible for performing one "role"--director, literary historian, theatre historian, designer, pedagogue. Usually, the dramaturg reflects the director's and designers' work in the book, and performs the other three "roles" herself or himself. Most Dramaturg's Program Books include the following elements: 1. A 450-word plot summary (which can guide audiences toward your production's concept.) 2.** Director A director's "concept"--essay on what the director sees as the driving elements, the nature, the essence, of the play, at this time in this space. You, of course, are the director as well as a dramaturg. You might justify your reason for putting the play on, at this particular moment in history. 3.** Literary historian An extended critical essay on the script and the ways it has been read by dramatic critics over the years since it was written. Usually this essay puts the current production into a literary- historical context. 4.** Theatre or production historian An extended critical essay on the production history of the play, emphasizing certain acclaimed productions, and showing both traditional approaches and exciting revolutionary approaches. 5.** Designer An explanation and illustration of the design concept--words from set, costume, music designers are sometimes used. Illustrations would be helpful, such as production stills, relevant artwork, set mockup, costume renderings. 6.** Pedagogue Teaching exercises, or a plan for educating audiences about the play, this production, and their importance. 7.** An annotated bibliography of your sources and other relevant materials should be included. 8. Additional material could included quotations from theatre critics, scholars, historians, philosophers and scientists, other artists. Such passages often illustrate the director's concerns. Actors' interviews, past and present, and illustrations of past productions are interesting. So are directors' interviews, both for this and for past productions. Those sections with double asterisks will be written up by different members of your five-person group: the director, the literary historian, the theatre historian, the designer and the pedagogue. Each of you will need to include an annotated bibliography of your sources. I have put many useful books--including scholarly editions of the plays--on reserve in Madden Library in the Reserve Collection. Use them. Your contributions should be 5-10 pages long, typed, double-spaced, carefully proofread and worthwhile. If you wish to add material or revise your work between May 1 and the final May 22 deadline, I would welcome any improvements. Postscript to English 189: Shakespeare, Spring 1996 The first round of presentations and performances on Wednesday May 8 and the written work turned in the previous week, have justified the experiment of this semester to a large extent. The two groups on Hamlet demonstrated the variety of possible interpretations. Group A re-set their production to a 1920's American city, with mobsters instead of royalty as the power source. Group B imagined Denmark as an eclectic world which combined an oppressive medieval castle set with multi-period costuming to emphasize an omnipresence of degraded, rotting social evils which gradually engross all the characters of the play. Group A The first Hamlet group, consisting of five women, placed the action in an urban alley (battlements), nightclub (public and private court scenes) and a graveyard. Roaring 20's costumes, props and mores helped this group to emphasize the seedy underworld nature of Claudius and Polonius, and also to emphasize the two women in a post-enfranchisement world. Their feminist interpretation led them toward a wise and power-hungry Gertrude, whose soliloquy was resituated as a dying speech. Ophelia, in a Thelma and Louise echo, committed suicide as a final act of defiance, after having passed out marijuana and cocaine as her rosemary and rue, visibly pregnant all the while. Music by Duke Ellington, and a little Ravel's Bolero, was the score. Their presentation began with performances of Ophelia's 3.1. soliloquy, in an angry rather than weepy rendition, followed by her shocking mad scene. She connected strongly to our predominately female audience members, as well. Gertrude's closet and death scenes followed, with the all-woman casting emphasizing the group's issues. The designer followed their scenework with a presentation of costume and designs. A discussion led by the director then brought in the rest of the class, while a tape of jazz provided background. Group B This six-member group of 2 women and 4 men began with a series of mini-lectures by the production team, from director through pedagogue. Scenes followed. A moving prayer scene was followed by a closet scene which frightened the class members and brought wild applause. These non-actors had fully memorized, and passionately performed, surprising even themselves (they said) with their inventiveness. Again, I realize that future courses MUST include more scene work, especially allowing for large groups to work together all semester, as this one did, improving throughout the term. Everyone got very excited about what this group revealed, and our discussion lasted an additional hour. This group also produced a professional-quality Program-Book, invaluable for other students in the future. I also include some representative student comments. Since the semester is not yet over, I have not elicited or received any complaints. I'm sure there will be some, since this course was such a departure from the usual Shakespeare course. So far, though, these are favorable. 1. "What a difficult yet delightful process to research the words and productions of Shakespeare. The Dramaturg's Book allows for so much interpretation--an insight into many years of work. This class allowed the freedom to explore what is often left unexplored because of fear of not understanding. We were allowed to feel the words, the language, the scenes, the underlying strengths and weaknesses. I must say that, as a group, it was difficult to pull everything together. As an individual, I felt like I could never get enough. I think it would be satisfying to create a Dramaturg's Book on an individual basis--a semester-long project that would tie everything together for each individual. Yet, to go against myself, I've learned so much from everyone else. I wouldn't want to go against their interpretations or without them. Overall, this experience was exciting and worth every hour of work." 2. "I have taken Shakespeare before and the professor tried to get across the way in which these plays were put on. But having to actually become a director of the play Hamlet brought the significance together for me. Although learning the themes, plots and language and subplots are important, it was actively getting involved in the play that helped me to appreciate it all the more. It helped me to understand why he [Shakespeare] has been held in such high esteem. I think that this is a much better way to learn it than simply coming to class and reading it aloud." 3. "The beginning process of preparing for [Dream ] did not excite me much. But once I started reading and researching, things started to come together. The additional discussion of the play with my group members made concepts and themes more clear to me. My assignment as pedagogue made me realize the difficulty does not just lie in the learning but in the teaching presentation of the play. By the end of the semester, I feel I have a better grasp on this play than any of the others. I would recommend the future assigning of this project to other classes." English 189: Shakespeare Spring 1996 C-M Wall Books on Reserve Wm. Shakespeare. The Variorum Hamlet (2 volumes) The Variorum A Midsummer Night's Dream Hamlet (Arden/Methuen edition, ed. Jenkins) PR 2807 A2 J4 1982 The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet (1st quarto) PR 2807 A1 1992b Hamlet (New Cambridge edition, ed. Edwards) PR 2807 A2 E4 1985 Hamlet (2nd quarto facsimile) PR 2750 B07 1964 A Midsummer Night's Dream (Arden/Methuen ed.) PR 2827 A2 B68 (1979) Ernest Jones. Hamlet and Oedipus (Freudian reading of Hamlet) PR 2807 J63 1954 Eleanor Prosser. Hamlet and Revenge PR 2807 P77 1971 Leavenworth, ed. Interpreting Hamlet: Materials for Analysis (criticism anthology) PR 2807 L355 John A Mills Hamlet on Stage: The Great Tradition PR 2805 M54 1985 J.C. Trewin Five and Eighty Hamlets PR 2807 T74 1989 R.M Frye The Renaissance Hamlet: Issues and Responses in 1600 PR 2807 F79 1984 Raymond Mander, ed. Hamlet through the Ages (pictorial history from 1709) PR 2807 M37 1971 Robert Speaight. Shakespeare on the Stage PR 3091 S 58 Richard David. Shakespeare in the Theatre PR 3100 D38 Leigh Woods On Playing Shakespeare (actors' advice) PR 3112 W 66 1991 John Russell Brown. Shakespeare's Plays in Performance PR 3091 B73 1993 Andrew Gurr. The Shakespearean Stage, 1574-1642. PR 3095 G67 1992 Ann Pasternak Slater Shakespeare the Director PR 3891 S5 1982 Russ McDonald Shakespeare ReRead: The Texts in New Contexts PR 2976 S3383 1994 John Elsom, ed. Is Shakespeare Still Our Contemporary? PR 2976 I8 1989 John Drakakis, ed. Alternative Shakespeares PR 2976 A64 1985 Ivo Kamps, ed. Shakespeare Left and Right PR 2970 S52 1991 The Down and Dirty Guide to Scanning Verse: Some Hints to Help with Sounding Shakespeare's Words Kurt Daw Introduction For actors about to speak a few of Shakespeare's lines aloud for the first time the most intimidating thing is rarely the depth of the characterization, or the memorization, or even the unfamiliar language. It is the scansion. Characterization can be debated. Memory can be improved. Odd words can be looked up, often right there on the page in the extensive footnotes. But somehow word has gotten out that there is a non-negotiably right way to scan verse. That way is (I frequently hear) a closely guarded secret and incredibly difficult even for those who are allowed to be initiated into its mysteries. Scansion cannot be finessed! As an acting teacher I find such rumors cruelly overstated. My purpose in writing this guide is to help anyone facing this task for the first time to learn a few simple principles that will teach them everything they have to know to get started. The good news is that scansion isn't all that hard. I'll admit there are some fine points that can cow even the experts, but (for the actor) most of what needs to be done is quick and easy. This guide assumes nothing. It is written for beginners. It will give the reader the details needed to get started, and much of what s/he will ever need to know, but it is truly down and dirty. Scholarly reference is kept to a minimum, and technical terminology is usually avoided. There are a few notes at the end that will help those who want to go further to find sources that explore this topic in greater depth. This guide is for those who are bold at heart and short on time. What Not to Scan Let us leap in right away. The first thing to know is that much of Shakespeare's writing is not in verse, and there is nothing to scan. Vast portions of his plays are in prose. You can tell prose on the page because the words go all the way to the edge of the line, and the new line does not start with a capital letter. (I told you this guide assumes nothing!) If you look down the left margin of your page and see that every lines begins with a capital then you are seeing verse. You might be surprised, however, (after hearing all your life what a wonderful poet Shakespeare is) how much of the plays are not written in verse form. Prose doesn't require any special treatment. Just read what is set down for you. It is automatically right. What Scansion Is When you encounter parts of the plays that are in verse, then it is time to think about scansion. Scansion is the practice of checking the rhythm of speech written in verse. On a very fundamental level the purpose of writing a speech in verse in the first place is not to be "poetic," but to give it a pulse that makes it easier to speak and easier to hear. The actual sound of lines written in verse can be comprehended more easily by a listener than prose, because in addition to the tones and pitches, rhythmic clues help convey the message. (It is also marginally easier to speak because there are no unintentional tongue twisters as are so common in prose.) Scansion, despite the imposing sound of the word itself, is just the simple practice of checking the verse to be sure you understand its rhythm. (I frequently think that scansion would be less scary if we just called it "checking the rhythm.") What kind of rhythm do Shakespeare's lines have? They get their pulse by alternating the natural patterns of accented and unaccented words or syllables. Shakespeare tends to arrange these patterns in a form starting with an unaccented syllable and following it with a stressed syllable. A typical line strings together five of these unstressed-STRESSED patterns. Here is an example of a famous line that follows this pattern: He jests at scars that never felt a wound. 1 2 3 4 5 6-7 8 9 10 By numbering the syllables of this line from 1 to 10, you'll notice that all the important words (those getting stress) are on even numbers. There is only one two-syllable word in this line, and we always say it the same way, with the accent on the first syllable. I've never heard anyone say "ne-VER" and I'll bet you haven't either. It is placed in the line so that its naturally strong syllable falls on an even number. Notice that you don't have to do anything to make the line follow this pattern. Shakespeare did all the work. If you just read it, it will have the pleasant natural pulse described above. The technical name for lines that follow this pattern is "iambic pentameter," which is also called "blank verse" if the lines don't rhyme. You'll hear these terms thrown around so much that it is useful to have heard them, but knowing them is not essential to what you have to do. Most actors in my experience have heard this much, and even know to beat the lines out saying something like, "de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM!" In doing so, they often find lines right away that fit this pattern, like: The quality of mercy is not strained And live we how we can, yet die we must. In both these cases "scanning" the lines is just a matter of reading them, noticing the rhythm is exactly what is expected, and giving yourself a little pat on the back for knowing that. You don't make the lines fit the pattern, Shakespeare did that. You just read them. (The second one of these has a natural pause in the middle which we'll want to talk about more later.) Variations Finding these lines and recognizing them is rewarding and confirming. The first real scansion problem arises from the fact that actors immediately find even more lines that don't fit this pattern. That is because Shakespeare and his contemporaries regularly employed two variations on this pattern to keep it from becoming so rhythmic that it was boring. At the beginning of a line it is not uncommon to find the first two syllables reversed so that the line has a surprising and vigorous beginning. The pattern them becomes DUM-de de-Dum de-Dum de-Dum de-Dum. Here is a line that employs this variation: Now is the winter of our discontent 1 2 3 4-5 6 7 8-9-10 This line, the opening of Richard III, starts with more energy than is usual in the pattern we had previously discussed, but the variation is slight enough to preserve the general feel of the rhythm while giving it a subtle new interest. Here are a couple more examples: Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night Brutus, I do observe you now of late. In both of these you can hear the strength of the opening. This variation goes by the technical name of "trochaic variation, or trochaic inversion" but even experienced actors tend to shy away from using those names. It is simply thought of as the variation that happens at the beginning of lines. Notice you still don't have to do anything about lines employing this variation. You are not going to say "bru-TUS." If you read the line as you naturally would you find that you have "scanned" it correctly, employing the natural variation. The second variant form, like the first, requires no special action on the actor's part. It is a variation placed at the end of lines to break the monotony of marching up to a climactic final syllable every time. An extra unstressed syllable is placed at the line end (lengthening it out to eleven syllables) and creating a softened impact. The technical term for this is "feminine ending," but the sheer political incorrectness of that is making it fade from use quickly. It is perhaps best to think of this simply as the variation that happens at the end of lines. Here are a couple of examples of lines employing this variation, using an (E) to mark the final softened syllable: I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him 1 2 3 4-5 6-7 8 9 10 (E) Her dotage now I do begin to pity. Lines which employ this variation are very helpful in beating the problem created by every line banging to a halt in exactly the same manner. Rhythm is helpful in creating understanding, but it can become too predictable without subtle variation interspersed throughout. Combinations and Caesuras So is that all there is to it? Almost. You should know these two variations can be used in combination. Some lines start with the first variation and conclude with the second, like: Free from the bondage you are in, Messala. 1 2 3 4-5 6 7 8 9-10-(E) One final point needs our consideration. Remember the line from above with the pause in the middle? And live we how we can, yet die we must. Pauses of this nature are very common in Shakespearean lines. Like everything else it has a technical name, "caesura," which is a word that turns out to mean "pause." These pauses are important, because both variations can happen around such a pause. That is to say, the extra syllable of the second variation can happen just before such a pause: And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep 1 2 3 - 4 - 5 6 (E) 7 8 9 10 The first variation can sometimes happen just after the pause. Here is a famous line that employs a combination of a strong beginning just after the caesura, and an extra syllable at line's end. (Note beats 7 & 8 are inverted.) To be or not to be. That is the question. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10-(E) Lines sometimes include variations at both the pause and at the line end: My father's brother, but no more like my father 1 2 3 4 (E) 5 6 7 8 9 10 (E) This line actually has twelve syllables, but still meets the qualifications as normal blank verse working within the variations. Two important points to remember: First, these variations are only employed in two places-- at the line end/beginning, or at the phrase end/beginning on either side of the caesura. They never occur elsewhere in the line. (For that reason there are never more than two examples of each kind of variation in a line.) Second, they are temporary variations which only affect one small part of the line. In the beginning variation there is a strong syllable followed by a weak one (backward from the normal pattern) but the rest of the line immediately returns to the normal pattern. In the line ending variation there is an extra syllable at the end of the phrase or line, but at the next syllable the line pattern resumes it normal shape. In all these cases, there is nothing for the actor to do but read the line. Normal pronunciation of the words will yield the pattern the playwright wanted. The verse can be incredibly varied, yet still retain an underlying sense of the pulse so beneficial to the listening audience. So what is the big deal about scansion? Why does everyone act like it is so hard? You can see from the above that it isn't really difficult, though it might take a bit of practice to learn to recognize lines which employ variations to the regular pattern. To help you, let's create a checklist of what we know so far: 1. Is the line ten beats long, alternating stress and unstress? (That's the normal expectation.) 2. If not, is there a surprisingly strong start, or start to the phrase just after the pause, or both? (Then, it's normal, employing the line start variation.) 3. Is there an extra syllable at the end of the line, at the end of the phrase before the pause, or both? (Then its normal, employing the end of line variation.) All of these require recognition, but no special action. There are some times that the actor must take some action, however, and we'll turn to those now: Choice Moments Throughout Shakespeare there are lines which require some special attention on the part of the actor. These are two usual causes for this need. One is that we often write things down in a way that is slightly more formal than the way we actually speak them. The other is that occasionally things have changed since Shakespeare's time. In the first case, it is very important to notice that some words look like they have more syllables than they usually do when we speak them. "Interest," for example, looks like a three syllable word. In-ter-est. But in daily use almost everyone pronounces it as a two syllable word. In-trest. Shakespeare writes formally, but assumes you'll pronounce things the way people normally speak. His usual habit is to treat the word in its shortest form. For this reason, speakers feigning a high British accent to class up Shakespeare often get it especially wrong. When counting syllables you'll notice that many words need to be treated a bit disrespectfully. (Just for the record, the technical name for this process is "elision.") Here are a couple of examples: He hath more worthy interest to the state 1 2 3 4-5 6 - 7 8 9 10 Try saying this line treating "interest" as a three syllable word, and you'll instantly see the difficulty in speaking it. It is so much smoother when "interest" is elided as is normal in everyday speech. An honest tale speeds best being plainly told. Did you find the necessary change? If "being" is treated as a one syllable word it fits perfectly, and such is the way that people usually speak it when they are not trying too hard. If elisions are formally noted in the text, we call them contractions. "I'd," "He'd," and "you'll" frequently appear in the text in their contracted forms, but sometimes it is left to you to elide the words, as in: I had rather be a dog and bay the moon In this line the first two words are intended to contract into "I'd." The rhythm makes that plain. Contractions often occur between two words, and not just words you're used to seeing printed in short form. "The" usually contracts into the next word if it starts with a vowel, for example: "th'interest" or "th'inconstant." Don't be too respectful or you can ruin the pulse. (One word of caution about contractions: a fair number of times the contractions which are marked in the text are wrong. The word or words need to be spoken fully to create the rhythm. There are elaborate theories why this may be so, having to do with printers introducing changes in the text to conserve space or scribes saving time. Don't worry about why, just count the beats. If you are one beat short, it is probably because the contraction is marked incorrectly. A bit later in this essay an example of this is given.) So lets start a new checklist. Imagine you have encountered a line which isn't iambic pentameter, and which doesn't seem to conform to either of the two usual variations. Step one, then, is to: 1. Look for contractions or elisions. If the line is too long, and the extra syllable occurs in mid-line rather than at the pause (caesura) there is probably an elision needed. Here are a couple of practice lines. See if you can find the needed corrections: His noble kinsman - most degenerate king! She is a virtuous and a reverend lady. Below are the patterns of these lines in syllable counts. In the first line you can see that "degenerate" needs to contract to "degen'rate." In the second line you may have been temporarily alarmed to find thirteen syllables at first count. If you contract to "virt'chwus" and "rev'rend" you come down by two. The line then reads like a normal line, but also using both the beginning and the line end variations! Thus: His noble kinsman - most degenerate king! 1 2-3 4-5 6 7-8-9 10 She is a virtuous and a reverend lady. 1 2 3 4 - 5 6 7 8 - 9 10-(E) If the line is too short, make a quick check to see if there is an incorrect contraction marked. Words with "v" in the Middle There is a kind of contraction commonly practiced in Shakespeare's time which has now gone completely out of use. This form causes so much trouble that it needs a special category on our checklist all for itself. This is the elision of "v"s from the middle of words. We are vaguely used to seeing this in poetry in the word ever, which is frequently shortened to "e'er." It shows up all the time in hymns and Christmas carols. It was very common to Shakespeare's period, in many words. Devil, evil, seven, and given are all words frequently shortened in verse. Here is an example: =46rom Athens is her house remote seven leagues. 1 2-3 4 5 6 7 - 8 9 10 As you can see the line scans with seven as a one-syllable word, "se'en" pronounced something like "Sen." In cases like this, in consultation with your director and dramaturg, you must make a choice. The point of verse is easy intelligibility. In this case, however, honoring the rhythm may lead you to using a word that is completely incomprehensible to the listener. Most modern directors will instruct you to fully pronounce the word, but they'll appreciate you cheating it down as much as possible, to something like "sev'n." They'll also be impressed that you know about the "v" problem. So now our checklist looks like this: 1. Look for contractions or elisions. 2. Double check for "v" words. Expanded Word Endings Having done so, you may still find some lines that don't seem to scan. These lines are often too short. This is because there are classes of word endings that were pronounced in expanded forms in Shakespeare's time that are sometimes shortened in ours. These are words ending in "tion" and "ed." Words like "diseased" and "charmed" are sometimes pronounced "dis-ease-ed" and "charm-ed" in verse lines, because they were occasionally pronounced that way in everyday use in Shakespeare's time. Here are a couple of examples: Death's pale flag is not advanc=E9d there I bear a charm=E9d life, which must not yield Likewise, "tion" words are sometimes expanded, as in this line which requires the pronunciation, "im-ag-in-a-she-un": Such tricks hath strong imaginat=EDon. and The brightest heavens of invent=EDon Here are a couple of lines from Mark Antony's eulogy for Caesar: But Brutus says he was am/bi/ti/ous 1 2-3 4 5 6 7- 8- 9-10 and Brutus is an hon/or/ab/le man. 1 2-3 4 5 6 - 7- 8- 9 10 These lines will again require a consultation with the director, but the usual practice is to scan them fully, because, though their sound may be odd, their meaning is still perfectly comprehensible. Now that you know about expanded endings, here is an example of one of those lines with an incorrectly marked contraction. Unwatch=E9d needs to be fully expanded in this line, even though it is marked as a contraction in the text. From Hamlet: Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. So now our checklist looks like this: 1. Look for contractions or elisions. 2. Double check for "v" words. 3. Look for word endings needing expansion. Names A final category of check points is names. Names are notoriously variable in Shakespeare, changing in pronunciation from one context to another. For example, we usually think of Shakespeare's unfortunate lovers as Rome E. Oh and Jule E. Et, but at many points in the play you'll find their names must be pronounced more like Rome Yoh and Jule Yet. The most famous line in the play, for example, is the most often incorrectly scanned: Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore art thou Romeo 1 -2 3 - 4 5 - 6 7 8 9 - 10 This line ends at thirteen syllables in terrible rhythm unless Romeo's name is pronounced as two syllables. (It's a bit odd even then.) Time and time again, names in Shakespeare have a variable quality. Hermia (Herm-ya), Helena (Helen), Mercutio (mer-cu-show), and Titania (Ti-tan-ya) are just a few examples. Our checklist, now, reads: 1. Look for contractions or elisions. 2. Double check for "v" words. 3. Look for "ed" and "tion" words needing expansion. 4. Consider all names carefully. They can vary from line to line! All of this is simple, requiring no more than a bit of practice and patience. Over 99% of Shakespeare's lines (and those of his contemporaries, by the way) fit into these patterns. That is to say, within the bounds of the normal variations, and using the subtle adjustments listed above, they can be determined to "scan" normally. On very rare occasion you will find a word which scans in an unusual pattern because it was pronounced differently in Shakespeare's time. We usually say "r=E9-ven-ue," for example, but in many cases Shakespeare said "re-v=E9n-ue" with the stress on the second syllable. My manors, rents, revenues I forgo; Such deviations from contemporary practice are so rare that I have noticed they are usually footnoted in modern editions of plays. In any given play there are only three or four of these cases to be found. I was recently working on Brutus, and discovered this line of mine required an Elizabethan pronunciation: Nor construe any further my neglect. The second word has a first syllable stress, unlike its modern form, but this is actually the first line requiring such accommodation I have spoken on stage in a career nearing twenty years! It is quaint occasions like this that are trotted out to terrify young actors, but they are disproportionately rare in reality. The "rules" then are rather short. There are just a couple of other things you ought to know to speed you on your way. The first is that you don't always have the complete line to yourself. Many lines of verse are split between two or more speakers. When you find these, they are usually arranged on the page in a way that indicates this to you. For example: Orlando: I will not touch a bit. Duke: Go find him out. The indentation of the Duke's line is an indication that he is completing a verse line begun by Orlando. You must scan the whole line to understand your part. The second is that prose lines are sometimes thrown in, right in the middle of verse passages. This is usually apparent because they are no longer arranged as verse on the page, but a line shorter than a usual verse line will leave no indication. It begins with a capital and doesn't stretch to the margin. A totally arrhythmic line is a powerful acting note, but it can be disconcerting to the beginner. Of course, there are always exceptions to all the above. Magical beings usually speak lines which are only eight syllables long in Shakespeare, and normal characters occasionally speak lines of twelve. There are a few lines that even the most dedicated scholars can't quite figure out. If you have gone through the checklist and looked at all the possibilities, and you still cannot make sense of the line's form, then treat it as an acting note. A deliberately strange line is sometimes introduced to create a strange effect. The purpose of scanning is not to regularize the verse, but to understand it. If you encounter an oddity, relish it! If you want to know more about this subject, I recommend : Brubaker, E.S., Shakespeare Aloud: A Guide to his Verse on Stage. Lancaster, Penn: Published by the Author, 1976. This little book (from which many of the examples in this paper are taken) covers the whole subject in greater depth, but is still clear enough to be accessible to beginners. For those interested in the advanced lesson, look at: Spain, Delbert. Shakespeare Sounded Soundly: The Verse Structure & the Language. Santa Barbara: Garland-Clarke Editions/Capra Press, 1988. Very Brief Words About Speaking Verse Scanning verse and speaking verse are very different subjects, the latter being much more complicated. Mastering verse speaking will probably require that you spend some time studying with a good theatrical voice teacher at some point. I can only offer a few quick pointers to get you started, and at the end of this paper I'll direct you to a title or two which might help. 1. The first thing for you to know is that most beginning speakers of verse break it up into units of meaning, but in doing so they distort the form so much that all the advantages of verse disappear. To be, or not to be. That is the question. Such a reading is not uncommon, but in good verse speaking, it is useful to keep the rhythm and flow going so that the listener can "hear" the form. Read to the end of the line. If the unit of meaning stops there, then take a breath at that point. If the phrase continues into the next line, then lift (or stress) the final word in the line, but continue without pausing. This practice eliminates much unnecessary waiting. I've seen a rehearsal cut fifteen minutes out of its previous running time, just by eliminating unnecessary pauses. 2. Verse can, and should, be spoken faster than prose. I've seen performances of Shakespeare spoken at 1200 lines per hour, as opposed to the equivalent of normal speech, which is about 700 lines per hour. I find this a tad fast for my taste, but 1000 per hour is a perfectly comfortable speed. Audiences, in fact, are rarely aware of the speed. The verse seems exciting, not rushed! When practicing your verse, work at speeds that are comfortable. By your final rehearsal, however, you need to push yourself to speak faster than you are comfortable. Your listeners will be ahead of you if you choose to talk at the same speed as you do in everyday conversation. 3. Keep the energy going to the end of the line. Verse lines are almost always climactic, meaning their point sits in the last word or two. In everyday speech, however, we usually put all the important stuff in the beginning and let our sentences trail off. When you are working with verse it is important to reverse your usual habits. A line should grow in intensity: In sooth, I know not why I am so sad. This creates a sense of connection and involvement in the listener. The opposite habit, where lines trail off in the end, dismisses the listener's attention. I have often attended shows which were criticized for a slow pace which were, in actuality, traveling fast enough. The "end-drop" syndrome, however, made them seem interminable. These three simple starting points are just the tip of the iceberg, but by following them you will find the structure of the verse (which you have worked so carefully to scan) will be clear to the listener. =46or those wanting more information about verse speaking I recommend the following works on the subject: Berry, Cicely. The Actor and the Text. Revised Edition ed. New York: Applause Books, 1992. Berry, Cicely. Voice and the Actor. 1st American Edition ed. New York: Macmillan, 1974. Linklater, Kristin. Freeing Shakespeare's Voice. New York, New York: Theater Communications Group, 1992. Linklater, Kristin. Freeing the Natural Voice. New York: Drama Book Specialists, 1975. Good luck and good speaking! Kurt Daw-May 1996 An Introduction to Reading Shakespeare A Class Exercise Based on A Midsummer Night's Dream (2.1.81-117) Tom Gandy This is a versatile exercise. It can be modified to work with a carefully selected passage from any play. I chose A Midsummer Night's Dream because I have four videotape versions of the play; I chose this particular passage--Titania's explanation of the bad weather caused by her quarrel with Oberon (See Appendix One)--because I like it and wanted to work with it. It is also a semantic gold mine. The passage is essentially non-dramatic--a long, uninterrupted speech. The same format will work, but somewhat differently, if you choose a more dramatic scene. I discuss early in a course the difficulties of reading Shakespeare. Shakespeare's language, in its power and beauty, is for experienced readers a principal joy of the plays. To a beginning reader, alas, this same language stands as a formidable barrier. This unit can alleviate the language difficulties by convincing students that they are not alone in finding Shakespeare difficult reading, by identifying for students some sources of their difficulty, and by providing them some methods by which they can overcome their difficulty. Shakespeare's language should be a bridge, not a barrier. This exercise introduces students to the plays both as texts to be read and as performances to be experienced. Shakespeare as performance was rarely discussed in my college courses during the technologically challenged sixties and seventies. Indeed, Shakespearean performance then was comparatively rare: there were but a handful of summer Shakespeare festivals, and film was the only readily available (and awkward and expensive) medium. Procedure 1. Distribute the 37-line passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream (2.1.81-117) (Appendix One) and explain the dramatic situation of the speech and its significance to the play as a whole. (The speech serves as exposition to the sub-plot involving the quarrel between Titania and Oberon, and it helps tie the world of faerie in with the human domain. It reminds the audience that the mysterious world of faerie is not just a pleasurable fancy but, gone awry, a frighteningly destructive force.) Part of the brilliance of this passage is that the language in it is luxurious and beautiful, whereas the world it describes is one of famine, flood, plague, and utter discord. 2. Have the class, working as individuals, read quickly through the passage, underlining words they are not certain of and circling any words they have no recollection of having seen before. Explain that you are not going to collect their papers. 3. Have students form groups of four and prepare a master list consisting of all words underlined or circled by any group member. 4. As a class, go through the passage one word at a time and ask if any group list has that word underlined or circled. You will thus have a master list of all problematic words. This list isn't of much pedagogic use outside of this exercise, but it does illustrate the potential barriers to understanding. The first time I used this exercise, I tallied the underlined words in my class of twenty students, and I found that they had forty words underlined and circled. I had estimated that they would have thirty-seven such words. My thirty-seven words , however, didn't correspond all that closely to their forty. As you go through the passage with your class and construct the master list of misunderstood words, pause and discuss the implications of the words that you circle and underline. Ask students what they found confusing about the words. Pay particular attention to the following: A. Words which no one in the class underlined but which nobody may actually know. Such a word in this passage might be "corn": "The green corn/Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard" (94-95). "Corn," as G. B. Harrison notes in his 1952 edition, means "wheat, oats, barley, rye, but not maize." "Rheumatic" (105) is another likely candidate for this category. The term here refers to a respiratory ailment such as a common cold or allergy, not a skeletal disorder. If no one underlines "dale" or "mead" in line 83, ask the class if anyone will volunteer definitions. (One of my students said he knew "mead" was an alcoholic beverage, so he didn't underline it. This student was only slightly perturbed by the fact that this definition of the word didn't make any sense whatsoever in the context of the line.) B. Words underlined by only a few class members, but which others in the class let pass. Some students will recognize that the words seem to mean something other than the meaning they most commonly associate with the words. "Paved" and "fountain" in line 84 are good examples. "Paved" means that the fountain has a rocky bottom; the "fountain" is not a fountain at all, in the decorative or man-made sense of the word, but what we commonly refer to as a "spring." A student who has let both of these words pass unnoticed has conjured up an image of an artificial, ornamental fountain, lined with tiles, bricks, or stones set in mortar. Such an interpretation subverts the meaning of the entire passage, which is concerned with the fairies as creatures closely connected with nature and associated with earthy, natural, slightly mysterious elements such as springs. (There are in England and elsewhere in Europe a number of ancient springs--usually called "wells," the earliest meaning of that word--which have magical or supernatural associations in local folklore.) In the same line, the unusual word "rushy" refers to the presence of rushes or reeds, but some students may think it means "rushing." For students who misconstrue all three of these words, the imagery in the line is badly distorted. The "quaint mazes" in line 99 can be interpreted as referring to an elaborate botanical construction of hedges, but in this passage the phrase refers to an intricate network of paths worn in the grass. Hedge mazes, then as now, were rare and expensive to maintain, and thus they were associated with a higher socioeconomic level than the simple village life depicted in this passage. C. Words underlined or circled by everyone in the class . Good prospects for this category are "murrion" (97), " Hiems'" (109), and "nine men's morris" (99). Texts usually footnote these words, but students often skim footnotes. The reference to nine men's morris is more revealing if students actually know a bit about how the game is played. (It is still played as aboard game). The name of the game is etymologically interesting even to experienced readers because of the word "morris." This word is generally associated with morris dancing, the word "morris" being a corruption of "moorish." In the game's name, however, "morris" is not a corruption of "moorish" but of "merels," a word of French origin meaning the counters or playing pieces--the "men"--used in a game; thus, the phrase is actually a tautology meaning "nine men's men." The nine men's morris and the quaint mazes mentioned above were apparently common aspects of English village life, an association lost to modern audiences. The implication of these references is that disorder in faerie is echoed in all human walks of life, from that of Bottom to that of Theseus. D. Underlined words which are still used in the same sense as in the passage and which students might reasonably be expected to know. This category is not clear-cut, of course, but words such as "progeny," "dissension," and "hoary" are in common enough usage that students ought to know them. 5. Discuss the play as a written text consisting of editorial choices. Refer students to the textual notes, especially if students are using a version like the Riverside in which such notes are extensive. Explain the use of brackets to signify editorial changes. Point out that in all three early printings--the two quarto versions and the first folio--this speech by Titania reads "chinne" instead of "thin" in line 109: " And on old Hiems' [thin] and icy crown/An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds/Is, as in mockery, set." "Chinne" seems perfectly acceptable until you come to the next line and find that Hiems is wearing a chaplet on it--assuming, of course, that you know where a chaplet is worn. Explain the concept of a textual crux and point out the confusion in line 101: "The human mortals want their winter here." Note, as does the Riverside, that most editors change "here" to "cheer" and, though the line may be clearer this way, there is no evidence that the author intended otherwise than "here," which does make sense, albeit a sort of convoluted sense: "People here find themselves entirely without the season of winter," or, "People desire the return of a normal winter season." "Want" can be a troublesome word to the new reader of Shakespeare. In this line, for example, it could mean either "desire" or "lack." Both make a sort of sense, but if you change "here" to "cheer" you've made an editorial choice which, however disambiguational it may be, is without textual authority. You might at this point choose to explain briefly the concept of "copy-text" and other basic textual terms, such as folio, quarto, and signature. You could also give students a copy of the first folio version, pointing out the typographical differences which can lead the novice into difficulties. For example, line 89 says that the winds have "suck'd up" contagious diseases from the sea. Readers unfamiliar with early typographical variants of "s" will invariably read "suck'd" with an "f" instead of an "s." 6. Show the videotaped versions of the speech. Show an excerpt starting with Oberon's "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania" (60). Following each video version, discuss with the class the implications of the production's choices. A. The 1935 Max Reinhardt version with Anita Louise as Titania cuts this speech entirely. I show from this version a longer scene wherein Titania's lines would ordinarily appear. Why might the speech have been cut? Could the actress playing the part have something to do with it? The elaborate music, dance, and pronounced visual emphasis of Reinhardt's version might help explain why the poetry suffers so. What is the overall effect of this cut on the motion picture version? Remind students of the passage's function in terms of the play as a whole. B. Peter Hall's 1968 version with Judi Dench as Titania (and with Diana Rigg as Helena and Helen Mirren as Hermia) breaks the speech up into fragments shot from different angles, varying distances, and in different settings. The effect was perhaps striking in 1968 because of its editorial ingenuity, but today's audiences may find it more annoying than clever. The technique does emphasize the magical qualities associated with the fairies, but is it worth it? How disconcerting did the students find the cutting technique in the scene? C. The 1982 New York Shakespeare-in-the-Park version with Michele Shay as Titania (Produced by Joseph Papp and directed by James Lapine and Emile Ardolino) uses a huge outdoor area and is filmed before a live audience. What implication might the spacious set have for such elements as pacing and movement? D. The 1981 BBC version (Directed by Elijah Moshinsky with Helen Mirren as Titania) is a stage play filmed without a live audience. Contrast Mirren's rapid delivery and lack of body motion with Shay's more expansive interpretation in the preceding version. Bring the issue of camera choices into the discussion here. The physical limitations of a the indoor stage probably contribute to the scene being shot as a close-up showing primarily a bust of Mirren holding the Indian boy, but Mirren's fast and flawless delivery and the steady view of her expressive face also serve to emphasize the language of the poetry rather than the dramatic situation. The importance of the video versions is that the same language which appears formidable and obscure to beginning readers of Shakespeare presents much less of a comprehension problem in performance. 7. Conclude by reassuring students that they are not alone in having trouble with Shakespeare's language. Language problems arise for a variety of reasons, among them: A. The English language has changed. B. Shakespeare had a tremendous vocabulary, using, according to some estimates, about 15,000 words in print. In comparison, the King James Bible uses only about 8,000 words. (The problems involved with accurate and meaningful word counts are another matter entirely, so these numbers are not to be considered authoritative) Interestingly, according to Stephen Pinker's The Language Instinct, average high-school graduates have a vocabulary allowing them to understand around 45,000-60,000 words. C. Some of Shakespeare's words have rarely been used other than in his works. D. Textual difficulties can create problems, as with "chinne" and "thin" in this passage. Editors make choices which solve most, but not all, of these problems. E. Occasional passages present the reader with a crux. Such passages are simply not unequivocally clear. F. Students must develop their own vocabulary so that current words, such as "progeny," which mean pretty much the same now as they did in Shakespeare's day and which are current in use, present fewer difficulties. The best way to develop vocabulary is to read often and carefully, using a dictionary. G. Viewing a performance of a play will eliminate many points of confusion. I end this exercise by reminding students that what they perceive as "Shakespeare," whether as reader or as audience member, is actually the result of a long series of choices made initially by Shakespeare and affected by 400 years of scholarship and performance history. Additional Reading Stephen Pinker's The Language Instinct : How the Mind Creates Language (New York: William Morrow, 1994) provides a solid, clearly written background to modern theories of language. A good source for information about filmed and video versions of Shakespeare's works is Shakespeare on Screen by Kenneth Rothwell and Annabelle Melzer (Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 23 Leonard Street, New York, NY 10013). For further readings about Shakespeare's language, see Bob Lane's Folger Institute project "Shakespeare's Language-Problems and Opportunities" which follows. Appendix One Diction Exercise A Midsummer Night's Dream 1. Read the following passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream (2.1.81-117): TITANIA: These are the forgeries of jealousy: 81 And never, since the middle summer's spring, Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead, By paved fountain or by rushy brook, Or in the beached margent of the sea, To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport. Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea Contagious fogs; which falling in the land 90 Have every pelting river made so proud That they have overborne their continents: The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain, The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard; The fold stands empty in the drowned field, And crows are fatted with the murrion flock; The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud, And the quaint mazes in the wanton green For lack of tread are undistinguishable: 100 The human mortals want their winter here; No night is now with hymn or carol blest: Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, Pale in her anger, washes all the air, That rheumatic diseases do abound: And thorough this distemperature we see The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose, And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds 110 Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world, By their increase, now knows not which is which: And this same progeny of evils comes From our debate, from our dissension; We are their parents and original. 2. Underline all words which you are unable to define with confidence. Be generous with your list, and don't be embarrassed by the number of words that you underline. No one is going to see your list. 3. Circle all words that you are completely unfamiliar with, words that you do not remember ever seeing in print before. 4. Working in groups of four, compare your list with others in the group and prepare a group master. Go through the passage one word at a time. If anyone in the group has a word underlined or circled, then underline or circle that word on a master copy kept by one group member. The master copy should contain all the words underlined or circled by any group member. 5. Discuss in your group the most confusing or difficult words. Appendix Two (NOTE: It proved impossible to format the appendix described below for inclusion on SHAKSPER) Confusing Terms in A Midsummer Night's Dream 2.1.81-117 The following three pages contain a chart representing the words from the passage that students often find confusing. The second column contains an approximation of the word's meaning in the passage. The third column contains the word's closest modern meaning, and the final column contains a speculative attempt, based mostly on classroom discussion, at explaining the reason(s) that the word is confusing to students. The Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's Tenth Collegiate Dictionary One provided valuable source material throughout this project, and especially in constructing the chart. Moors, Jews, and the Performance of Cultural Identity: Teaching Othello and The Merchant of Venice in the Diverse Urban Classroom Miranda Johnson-Haddad and Caroline McManus Introductory Comments: Defining the Pedagogical Challenge Caroline McManus: Recently one of my Shakespeare students, a mature Latina woman, told me regretfully after the initial day of class that she would have to drop the course. Pressed for her reason, she said, "You require us to perform scenes, and my accent is too strong--it wouldn't sound right." I convinced her to stay, using the "historicity-of-language" rationale, while simultaneously (I hope) acknowledging her feelings of anxiety. Noting that she was a psychology major, I asked why she had enrolled in the course (a requirement for English majors). She explained simply, "I just felt every educated person should know about Shakespeare." This anecdote dramatizes some of the challenges I face in teaching at California State University, Los Angeles, where the student population is roughly 44% Latino, 27% Asian-American, 19% white, non-Hispanic, and 10% African-American. Many of the students are recent immigrants, and many are the first in their family to attend university. Most of the students share a reverence for Shakespeare, and I need to respect their desire to be "initiated" into the study of the most canonical of Western authors. To that end, I ask them to analyze the complexities of early modern blank verse, to learn about the political, religious, and aesthetic aspects of Elizabethan and Jacobean culture, and to utilize primary as well as secondary sources. In short, I hope to make myself obsolete by encouraging them to develop the enthusiasm and the language and research skills they will need as future Shakespeare teachers (most of our majors are pursuing single-subject credentials) and informed playgoers. However, I don't want to teach them mindless worship of a cultural icon, a magical talisman which is somehow supposed to ensure them a more rapid and certain entry into upper middle-class society. I want them to read critically, to become aware of how Shakespeare's plays have served and continue to serve various social and political interests, and to lay claim to the plays themselves, whatever their socioeconomic or ethnic background. This entails raising provocative and sometimes disturbing questions about the texts' portrayals of social ostracization, assimilation, and acculturation. Achieving a balance between building up and demystifying the students' knowledge base is a tall order in a ten-week quarter. Many of the students speak English as a second language. Few, if any, have received detailed instruction in analyzing poetry or in English history. In one classroom, many "diversities" are present, including age, sexual orientation, discipline, career goals, and individual and culturally inflected learning styles. Accommodating and capitalizing on such differences demands variety in the types of assignments given and methods of assessment. One of the most effective means of meeting these challenges is to adopt a variety of performance approaches in the Shakespeare classroom. Asked throughout the quarter to perform monologues, dialogues, or, with a group, entire scenes, students become accustomed to appropriating Shakespeare's language, hearing his words spoken by themselves and their classmates in a variety of accents. Assignments that ask students to serve as actors, directors, screenwriters, critics, and editors give students the authority to make their own performance choices, heightening their awareness of the openness of Shakespeare's playtexts and increasing their confidence in their creative, analytical, and public speaking skills. Performing themselves, students can identify closely with the characters and situations represented in the texts; studying the development of Shakespearean performance reminds students of historical difference and raises issues of historiography and point of view. The collaborative nature of performance work is especially important at a commuting, urban campus such as Cal State LA's. The methods and exercises outlined below focus on Othello and The Merchant of Venice, plays that are both rewarding and perilous to teach because of the timeliness of the issues they address. My students have found Merchant particularly compelling, perhaps because most of them work at least part-time if not full-time while caring for families and pursuing the American dream via education; they understand the world of work and the ways in which human relationships can be commodified. The tension between Shylock and Jessica and her crossing of cultural boundaries resonate with students who participate in a home culture very different from the dominant culture. Analyzing and historically contextualizing the choices made in various productions of the play helps students discover the ways in which all culture and even identity is performative. Such a discovery is of supreme importance as we, together with our students, try to negotiate the current upsurge of anti-immigrant sentiment and learn to live more humanely in an increasingly diverse society. Miranda Johnson-Haddad: During my two years of teaching at Howard University, the oldest and most prestigious of the nation's historically black universities, I have significantly revised my approaches to teaching several of Shakespeare's plays in order to respond more thoroughly to my students' particular interests and concerns. At Howard, Shakespeare is still a required course for all English majors, and I begin each semester by asking my students which of them are present because they have to be and which of them would probably elect to take Shakespeare even if not required to do so. The students tend to respond honestly, and our discussion enables me to introduce several broad questions about the study of Shakespeare that I encourage the students to contemplate throughout the semester: Why are we still reading Shakespeare? Is he "universal," as critics have argued for so long? Why at Howard University in the nineties are English majors still required to take Shakespeare (which, incidentally, is no longer the case at Georgetown University, among others)? Who "owns" Shakespeare, and what issues are involved in this question of ownership? How "relevant" is Shakespeare to students' (and readers', and audiences') concerns today? Shakespeare's Othello is, for obvious reasons, a particularly sensitive and rewarding text to teach at Howard, because the play concerns racial conflicts and racist stereotypes that my students are still confronting. When I teach the play, I begin by suggesting that it is a play about racism, rather than a racist play, and the students and I consider the implications of that distinction. I remind them to pay attention to which characters speak the racist lines (Iago, Roderigo, Brabantio), and I briefly familiarize them with the traditions of racist criticism that still affect our reading of the play (see Bibliography). We discuss the performance traditions surrounding the play, and this discussion enables me to explain the difference between so-called non-traditional and colorblind casting practices, using my own published definitions for clarity (see Bibliography). In the teaching project described below I outline several specific pedagogical models for teaching Othello, including the use of performance exercises, videotape analysis, and class discussion. One particularly useful video analysis not described below involves comparing two different versions of 4.1 (Othello's seizure) as shown in the Olivier movie and the film version of the 1987 production directed by Janet Suzman in Johannesburg, South Africa. I select this scene because I believe it represents that moment in the play in which the potential for racist and stereotypical portrayal is most dangerously present. The scene also offers great performative opportunities--and challenges--for the actor playing Othello; it further provides Iago with extensive possibilities to reveal his own racism. Using these two clips permits comparison of a white actor in blackface with an actor who is not only black but African as well. Although I point out to students that Olivier's acting technique, which seems melodramatic and potentially offensive to us today, has to be understood within its own historical and personal context as a highly individualized performance, nevertheless some general observations are possible. From there we can progress to specific analysis of the performances involved, the staging, the various editing choices, and so on. Ideally, analysis and discussion of this scene can enable students to begin articulating their own convictions about the play, the characters, and the performativity of the text itself. The first time I taught Othello at Howard I was embarrassed and ill at ease, particularly with Iago's horrifyingly racist imagery in Act one scene one. But I quickly realized that to treat the play gingerly was to empower it in the wrong ways, and that to do so would undermine my central contention, which is that this play is about racism; it does not promote a racist ideology, although it may reveal the influence of racist traditions of thought (as does much of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century criticism of the play). In learning how to teach the play at Howard, I have found, as always, that my students themselves are my most enlightening instructors. Othello is as timely today as it has ever been, and if teachers approach the text with sensitivity and without fear, the resulting classroom discussions can be empowering and illuminating for all concerned. I. Classroom Assignments A. In-Class Performance Exercises 1) Merchant 2.1 Perform first to show Morocco's nobility, Portia's genuine admiration of him; then with Morocco as noble and Portia racist; finally Morocco as ridiculous and Portia racist. Discuss implications of such performance choices. 2) Merchant 3.1.42-73. Review Philip McGuire's definition of an "open silence." What are Solanio and Salerio doing during Shylock's speech? To what extent is Shylock marked as an alien "other"? How is the difference between insiders and outsiders conveyed? How is power distributed among them? How can that be conveyed? Relate to performativity of culture and Prop. 187. 3) Merchant 3.2. 220-327. How does each character present in the scene treat Jessica? How does she say lines 284-290, and how is her speech received? To what extent has Jessica been assimilated into the dominant Christian culture? How is this conveyed? Consider blocking, gestures, facial expression, costuming, accent, lighting, etc. 4) Note Iago's many racist slurs and images in Othello 1.1. Try performing this scene and speaking these lines in a variety of ways: as deeply racist and offensive; lightly or comically (is this possible? why or why not?); or in any other ways that occur to you. Think about the reactions of those listening to Iago: Brabantio and Roderigo. Are they shocked? amused? disgusted? Or is Roderigo enthusiastic? Now think about the implications for speaking these lines if the actor playing Iago is black. What could a black Iago suggest about these words and images? 5) Have one student read or recite Othello's lines 130-171 in 1.3 (his description of how he won Desdemona's affections with his traveller's tales) while other students (playing Othello, Desdemona, Brabantio, and any other characters deemed necessary to the scene) mime the scenes described without words. 6) Perform Othello 1.3 with a variety of emphases. For example, play it with the Senators being basically sympathetic to Othello, then with them barely tolerating him but needing him for his military prowess. What messages can the characters convey through inflection, gesture, body language, and so on? 7) Experiment with performing the first half of 4.1 (Othello's seizure). What performative challenges does this scene present? What opportunities for insights into Iago does it present? 8) How can silence (or gesture, body language, inflection, or facial expression) be used as a means of subverting a seemingly racist text? Select and stage a portion of one scene from Merchant or Othello using this strategy. 9) Perform the same speech, each time attempting to convey with voice and body language different degrees of social status (an exercise adapted by Milla Riggio from Audrey Stanley; see MR's article in SQ 46.2 [Summer 1995]: 196-209). Discuss with students the inherent performativity of cultural identity and the degree to which they all, consciously or unconsciously, use dress (costume), material possessions (props, sets), gesture, language, and accent or dialect to "play" different social roles. Assign as preparatory reading Brent Staples' essay "Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space" (The Winchester Reader, St. Martin's Press, 1988). 10) Select what seems to you to be a culturally or ethnically sensitive scene and read it several times, each time using a different combination of regional accents and different languages. Discuss the effects of your experimentation. Would any of these combinations be viable performance choices? If so, why? 11) Perform Merchant 3.1.1-74, first with Shylock as a comic figure outfitted with red wig and false nose, then with Shylock as a tragic figure. Where is "racism" located--in the text? the performance? the audience? What are the moral implications of actors or students "playing" or enacting a racial contempt they do not wish to feel or perpetuate? 12) How might the relationship between Shylock and Jessica be staged as a common cultural and generational conflict? Compare their attitudes toward religion, money, marriage. How does Merchant speak to those families who are maintaining a culture within the dominant "mainstream" American culture, especially families who have recently emigrated to the United States? 13) Select a significant property (Shylock's keys or knife, Desdemona's handkerchief, Othello's dagger, etc.) and discuss how it could be used in a particular scene. 14) How might performance choices link Launcelot Gobbo and Jessica? Consider Merchant 2.3-2.6. What are the implications of such a link? B. Small or Large Group Discussion Questions 1) How can otherness or sameness, alien or native status be signalled? Consider accent, costume, gesture, lighting, blocking, etc., as you discuss possible performance choices for Othello and Merchant. 2) Students at Howard are frequently troubled by the nature of Othello's appeal to Desdemona: is she attracted by him or by his "Otherness," his exoticism, and what that Otherness represents? (They cite his traveller's tales in 1.3 as an example, as well as his explanation about the origins of the handkerchief.) This can be a fruitful topic for discussion and one that adapts well to the diverse urban classroom. (The challenge is to steer students away from blaming the victim, Desdemona, although if the conversation drifts in this direction, that too can be a topic for reflection and debate--especially these days.) 3) Discuss the connotations of the names Bianca and Barbary within the context of the play as a whole. (This can also lead to discussion about possible casting choices for Bianca.) 4) Have students read examples of some of the more racist criticism of the past (e.g. Coleridge, Ridley; see Bibliography) and discuss how such critical perspectives may have informed our readings of the play, both in the past and more recently. 5) Debate, as directors today must do, whether to cut the scene in which Portia mocks her Moroccan suitor as too politically offensive or to leave it in as a way of linking Shylock to other outsiders in the play. Write up a rationale for your decision. Identify culturally sensitive scenes, lines, and words, and discuss what you would or would not cut and why. 6) Define colorblind and non-traditional casting. Have groups discuss how non-traditional casting might be used effectively in Merchant or Othello. What lines would gain new meaning? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such casting. If the topic is too sensitive to discuss, students could write anonymous papers read only by the instructor, who could then summarize the main points. After the students have made their own discoveries, share with them reviews of the Peter Sellars' Merchant and Miranda Johnson-Haddad's reviews of the Othello and Troilus and Cressida at the Lansburgh. 7) Comment on the use of colorblind casting and how it could affect Othello's treatment of interracial marriage, and then watch or read reviews of productions that utilize such casting and evaluate its success. 8) How is Shakespeare taught/performed/made to serve political purposes in other countries (consider Germany, Japan, Brazil, Russia, China, Israel, South Africa, for example) and in our own? Discuss Avraham Oz's "Transformations of Authenticity: The Merchant of Venice in Israel" in Foreign Shakespeare: Contemporary Performance, ed. Dennis Kennedy (Cambridge UP, 1993), Geraldo U. de Sousa's "The Merchant of Venice: Brazil and Cultural Icons" in SQ 45, and other pieces (see Bibliography). See also Orkin and Dollimore and Sinfield. C. Video Analysis 1) After modelling video analysis and discussing performance choices in the classroom, have students rewrite a portion of one of the plays as a screenplay. Put professional screenplays and strong and weak student samples on reserve. 2) Watch different depictions of the forced conversion of Shylock and of Othello's killing the "Turk" in himself. How are these conclusions staged? Discuss the implications of different depictions of effacing the "other." 3) Have students watch Shakespeare Wallah and/or Renaissance Man and analyze the assumptions about Shakespeare each film exposes or takes for granted. How does Shakespeare function as a cultural icon? D. Research-Oriented Assignments 1) As a group or individually, students can research the term "Moor" (OED) and do a research project on Moors as an historical group. What did the term mean (i.e. whom did it include) in the sixteenth century? In the twentieth? How have recent scholars and editors used the term to explain the play or justify their own prejudices? (For example, see Ridley's introduction to the old Arden edition of Othello.) 2) Examine the treatment of blackness in other Shakespearean works (Merchant of Venice, Titus Andronicus, Midsummer Night's Dream, Sonnets). 3) Assign each small group responsibility for one scene in an act (or an entire act if the class has time to do the full play) and a time period (early modern, Restoration/18th century, Victorian, Edwardian, modern). The groups will then research the performance history of the play during their time period and incorporate that time period's conventions in their performance. Groups should be prepared to discuss the ways that period represented the "other" (demonizing, converting, tolerating, exoticising, etc.). 4) What do Jessica, Shylock, Othello, Aaron, and Caliban give up to be accepted into the dominant culture of the play world? What social benefits does that world offer? What limits does the play place on the "outsiders'" incorporation into the dominant society? How might these issues be played out in performance? Discuss Adrienne Rich's "Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity" (Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose, 1979-1985, Norton, 1986). 5) Have students compare and contrast quarto and folio editions of Merchant and The Jew of Venice (1701) and discuss the differences. 6) Have students compile annotated bibliographies of recent reviews of a particular play and then write a metacommentary. What trends/innovations do they observe? 7) Compare and contrast the Patrick Stewart and the Ian MacDiarmid essays in terms of their approaches to preparing the role of Shylock, their conclusions re: Shylock's character, and their goals in playing the role. What are the benefits and drawbacks of each approach? What are the political implications of their decisions? 8) Research sumptuary laws and consult the woodcuts of Europeans, Moors of Africa, etc., in printed costume books (such as Recueil de la diversite des habits [Paris, Richard Breton, 1562]) What discoveries did you make? How could this information be used by designers in preparing for a production? 9) Analyze various visual images of characters/scenes from the plays, such as W. Salter's Othello's Lamentation (c. 1857, 55 in Folger catalogue), in which Iago is almost as dark as Othello, or J. C. Hook's Othello's Description of Desdemona (c. 1852, plate 17 in Folger catalogue), or the caricatured Shylock (early nineteenth century, 102 in Folger catalogue), or analyze the stills in Dennis Kennedy's Looking at Shakespeare: A Visual History of Twentieth-Century Performance (Cambridge UP, 1993). 10) How have the stage representations of Jews and Moors changed over the past centuries? What sociopolitical and economic circumstances might have contributed to those changes? II. Theatre Reviews and Performance History (selected) American Theatre. Review of Peter Sellars's Merchant of Venice. Bulman, James C. The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare in Performance Series. St. Martin's Press, 1991. Butler, Guy. Review of Dr. Cecil Manona's 1965 production of The Tempest. In Occasional Papers and Reviews of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa 7.1 (April-May 1992). Cusack, Sinead. "Portia in The Merchant of Venice." In Players of Shakespeare. Ed. Philip Brockbank. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985. De Sousa, Gerald U. " The Merchant of Venice: Brazil and Cultural Icons." Shakespeare Quarterly 45.4 (Winter 1994): 469-474. Donaldson, Peter. Review of Liz White's Othello. Shakespeare Quarterly 38 (1987): 482- 95. Doran, Gregory. "Solanio in The Merchant of Venice." In Players of Shakespeare 3. Ed. ?. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993. Flachmann, Michael. "'Swear by Your Double Self': Bassanio's Impersonation of Morocco and Aragon at the 1992 Utah Shakespeare Festival." Shakespeare Bulletin 11.2 (Spring 1993): 46-48. Hill, Errol. Shakespare in Sable: A History of Black Shakespearean Actors. Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1984. Johnson-Haddad, Miranda. Reviews of Shakespeare Theatre productions of Othello and Troilus and Cressida in Shakespeare Quarterly 42.4 (1991): 476-80 and 45.1 (1994): 98-102, respectively. King, Robert L. "Shylock after Auschwitz." Chicago Review 40.4 (1994): 59-67. Kingsley, Ben. "Othello." In Players of Shakespeare 2. Ed. Russell Jackson and Robert Smallwood. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988. McDiarmid, Ian. "Shylock in The Merchant of Venice." In Players of Shakespeare 2. Ed. Russell Jackson and Robert Smallwood. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988. Perret, Marion D. "Shakespeare's Jew: Preconception and Performance." Shakespeare Studies 20 (1987): 261-268. Popkin, Richard. "A Jewish Merchant of Venice." Shakespeare Quarterly 40.3 (Fall 1989): 329-331. Rafferty, Terence. Review of Oliver Parker Othello (1995), The New Yorker (Dec. 1995). Stewart, Patrick. "Shylock in The Merchant of Venice." In Players of Shakespeare. Ed. Philip Brockbank. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985. Suchet, David. "Iago in Othello." In Players of Shakespeare 2. Ed. Russell Jackson and Robert Smallwood. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988. Verch, Maria. "The Merchant of Venice on the German Stage since 1945." Theatre History Studies 5 (1985): 84-94. III. Literary Criticism (selected) A. Heterogeneous Classrooms: General Bulman, James C., ed. Shakespeare, Theory, and Performance (Routledge, 1996). Dollimore, Jonathan, and Alan Sinfield, eds. Political Shakespeare: New Essays in Cultural Materialism. Manchester Univ. Press, 1985. Drakakis, John, ed. Alternative Shakespeares. Methuen, 1985. Erickson, Peter. "What Multiculturalism Means." Transition 55 (1992): 105-114. Gardner, Colin. "Teaching Shakespeare in Southern African Universities: A Response to Martin Orkin's Shakespeare Against Apartheid." Shakespeare in South Africa 2 `(1988): 78-82. Hall, Kim F. "Uses for a Dead White Male: Shakespeare, Feminism, and Diversity." New Theatre Quarterly 11.41 (1995): 55-61. (The first part of the title was NOT Kim's idea.) Hendricks, Margo, and Patricia Parker, eds. Women, "Race," and Writing in the Early Modern Period. London: Routledge, 1994. Hidalgo, Nitza, Ceasar L. McDowell, and Emilie V. Siddle, eds. Facing Racism in Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review, 1990. Homan, Sidney. "The Merchant of Venice: A Play of Options for Teachers and Directors." CEA Critic: Journal of the College English Association 51.1 (Fall 1988): 52-66. Howard, Jean E., and Marion F. O'Connor. Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text in History and Ideology. Methuen, 1987. Kamps, Ivo, ed. Shakespeare Left and Right. London: Routledge, 1991. Kennedy, Dennis, ed. Foreign Shakespeare: Contemporary Performance. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993. Loomba, Ania. Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama. Manchester Univ. Press, 1989. Orkin, Martin. Shakespeare Against Apartheid. Ad Donker, 1987. Riggio, Milla. "The Universal Is the Specific: Deviance and Cultural Identity in the Shakespeare Classroom." SQ 46.2 (Summer 1995): 196-209. Roark, Christopher. Essay on teaching Hamlet and The Autobiography of Malcolm X in College English Association (CEA) Critic 57 (Fall 1994): 111-122. Ryan, Kiernan. Shakespeare. Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989. Semple, Hilary. "Shakespeare and Race." Shakespeare in Southern Africa 1 (1987): 30- 38. Singh, Jyotsna. "Different Shakespeares: The Bard in Colonial/Postcolonial India." Theatre Journal 41 (1989): 445-58. Vaughan, Alden T., and Virginia Mason Vaughan. Shakespeare's Caliban: A Cultural History. Cambridge, 1994. Von Ledebur, Ruth. "Reading Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with German Students." In Reading Plays: Interpretation and Reception. Ed. Hanna Scolnicov and Peter Holland. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991: 123-139. Wright, Lawrence. "Shakespeare and the Bomber Pilot: A Reply to Colin Gardner." Shakespeare in Southern Africa 2 (1988): 83-89. B. The Merchant of Venice Bonfil, Robert. Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy. Trans. Anthony Oldcorn. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 1994. Conolly, L. W. "The Merchant of Venice and the Jew Bill of 1753." Shakespeare Quarterly 25 (1974): 125-127. Dessen, Alan. "The Elizabethan Stage Jew." MLQ 35 (1974). Fan, Shen. "Shakespeare in China: The Merchant of Venice." Asian Theatre Journal 5.1 (Spring 1988): 23-37. Gaudet, Paul. "Lorenzo's 'Infidel': The Staging of Difference in The Merchant of Venice." Theatre Journal 38 (1986): 275-90. Katz, David S. The Jews in the History of England 1485-1850. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. McKendy, Thomas. "Gypsies, Jews, and The Merchant of Venice." English Journal 77.7 (November 1988): 24-26. Oz, Avraham. "'Which is the Merchant . . . and Which the Jew?': Riddles of Identity in The Merchant of Venice." In Tetsuo Kishi, Roger Pringle, and Stanley Wells, eds. Shakespeare and Cultural Traditions: The Selected Proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress, Tokyo, 1991. Newark and London: Univ. of Delaware Press, 1994. 155-173. Shapiro, James. Shakespeare and the Jews. Columbia Univ. Press, 1996. Thompson, John. "Modification of Stereotypes in The Merchant of Venice." English Studies in Africa 26.1 (1983): 1-11. C. Othello Bartels, Emily C. "Making More of the Moor: Aaron, Othello, and Renaissance Refashionings of Race." Shakespeare Quarterly 41.4 (Winter 1990): 433-54. (Good source of bibliography for historical information on Moors in early modern Europe.) Barthelmy, Anthony. Black Face, Maligned Race: The Representation of Blacks in English Drama from Shakespeare to Southerne. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1987. Erickson, Peter. "Representations of Blacks and Blackness in the Renaissance." Criticism 35.4 (1993): 499-527. (Useful source of addl. bibliography.) Hawkes, Terence, ed. Coleridge's Writings on Shakespeare. New York: Capricorn Books, 1959. Hunter, G. K. "Othello and Colour Prejudice" in Dramatic Identities and Cultural Tradition: Studies in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1978. Johnson, Rosalind. "African Presence in Shakespearean Drama: Parallels between Othello and the Historical Leo Africanus." Journal of African Civilizations 7 (1985): 276- 87. Jones, Eldred D. The Elizabethan Image of Africa. Charlottesville: Univ. Press of Virginia, 1971. ------. Othello's Countrymen: The African in English Renaissance Drama. Oxford, 1965. Kaplan, Paul H. D. "The Earliest Images of Othello." Shakespeare Quarterly 39.2 (Summer 1988): 171-86. Loomba, Ania. Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 1989. Mathews, Charles. Othello, the Moor of Fleet Street (1833). Ed. Manfred Draudt. Tubingen: Francke Verlag, 1993. Neill, Michael. "Unproper Beds: Race, Adultery, and the Hideous in Othello." Shakespeare Quarterly 40 (1989): 383-412. Newman, Karen. "'And wash the Ethiop white': Femininity and the Monstrous in Othello." In Fashioning Femininity and English Renaissance Drama. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1991: 71-93. Orkin, Martin. "Othello and the 'plain face' of Racism." Shakespeare Quarterly 38 (1987): 166-188. (Good source of bibliography for racist traditions of criticism.) Ridley, M.R., ed. Othello. London: Methuen, 1958, rpt. 1984. Tokson, Elliot H. The Popular Image of the Black Man in English Drama, 1550-1688. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1982. Vaughan, Virginia Mason. Othello: A Contextual History. Cambridge, 1994. IV. Videos, Visuals, and Related Materials (selected) The Jew of Mestri (Peter Paul Felner, Germany, 1923; adaptation of Merchant with English subtitles; Folger) Jubal (1956 adaptation of Othello as western; Folger) The Merchant of Venice (Jonathan Miller, 1973; Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright) The Merchant of Venice (BBC) Othello (Trevor Nunn, RSC; Willard White, Ian McKellan, Imogen Stubbs) Othello (Olivier) Othello (Oliver Parker, 1995; Laurence Fishburne, Kenneth Branagh, Ingrid Jacob) Othello (Janet Suzman, Johannesburg; John Kani) Renaissance Man (Penny Marshall, 199?; Danny DeVito) Shakespeare Wallah (Merchant Ivory, 1965; Sashi Kapoor, Felicity Kendal) comic book versions (Othello) Ivory, James. Savages, Shakespeare Wallah: Two Films by James Ivory. New York: Grove Press, 1973. Kendal, Geoffrey, with Clare Colvin. The Shakespeare Wallah. London: Sidwick and Jackson, 1986. Wayne, Valerie. "Shakespeare Wallah and Colonial Specularity." In Translations/ Transformations: Gender and Culture in Film and Literature East and West Selected Conference Papers. Ed. Valerie Wayne and Cornelia Moore. College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature, Univ. of Hawaii, 1993. Kennedy, Dennis. Looking at Shakespeare: A Visual History of Twentieth-Century Performance. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993. Pressly, William L. A Catalogue of Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library. New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press, 1993. Recueil de la diversite des habits. Paris, Richard Breton, 1562. Shakespeare's Language-Problems and Opportunities Bob Lane The purpose of this exercise is twofold: 1) to identify why it is that Shakespeare's language seems difficult, and 2) to give students the tools and the encouragement to work through the problems the language may present so that they can ultimately see the language as a resource, rich with opportunities for fleshing out the human drama of the plays. Pick a passage that contains instances of all the problems referred to in the handout (Appendix 1). I use (and will refer to here) the opening Chorus from Henry V. Go through the passage, working from beginning to end, pausing over the problems, with discussion of how to proceed when such problems are encountered. I will give examples of the problems referred to on the handout, starting with the first area mentioned there: syntax. The first reference on the handout, "the clothesline of meaning," is drawing attention to the need to identify the basic elements of each sentence in any Shakespearean dialogue. Understanding the structure of each sentence is a necessary condition for moving on to the questions of emphasis, character's intention, style of delivery, etc. The student simply must know what the speaker is saying at the basic denotative level, before issues of why and how she is saying it can be intelligently addressed. The opening phrase in the Chorus' speech ("O, for a muse of fire") is an instance of the omission of words-"O (what I wouldn't give) for a muse of fire," or "O (I long for and need) a muse of fire." Supplying the words makes clear what the character is saying, or makes clear the interpretive choices about what the character wants. Examples of other common problems in syntax appear in the speech as follows: -word order in lines 19-23, "Suppose within...parts asunder"; -delay of subject in "monarchies" (20), "fronts" (looks like it's the subject of the clause beginning with "Whose" [21], but turns out to be the objects of "parts" [22]); -delay of important information in lines 6-8, "and at his heels...crouch for employment"; and separation of related words and phrases in lines 5-6 with "Then should the warlike Harry...assume the port of Mars" (splitting the verb). =46or examples of an important diction problem (familiar looking words, but with strange meanings) see "invention" (2), "scaffold" (10), "object" and "cockpit" (11), and "girdle" (19). Outright strange words include "casques" (13) and "puissance" (26). =46or examples of the use of variation from regular rhythm for emphasis see the string of imperative verbs that begin lines ("Piece" [23], and especially "Think" [26], and "Carry" [29], as well as "Printing" [27] and "Turning" [30]) which emphasize the action on stage and the action needed from the audience by beginning those lines with a stressed syllable. Examples of paired words or phrases include "our imperfections...your thoughts" (23), "thousand parts...one man" (24), "we talk...you see" (26), "your thoughts...our kings" (28), all of which draw attention to the role the audience must/can play. Perhaps the most common example of the use of vocal inflection in response to punctuation is the rising pitch at commas in strings of phrases to create a build: "A kingdom...swelling scene (3-4), and "Carry them...hourglass" (29-31). The need for articulation is especially important with the short "a" sounds in "vasty fields of France" (12), and the aspirated initial "a" sounds of "affright the air at Agincourt" (14). This speech can also be useful for a discussion of different styles (naturalistic or rhetorical) because it lends itself to being played either for the personal relationship the Chorus figure solicits with the audience, enlisting them as partners in the performance to follow, or for the rhetorical virtuosity that commandeers their applause and whets their appetite for what is to come. The style adopted will, of course, have a decisive impact on the physical action the actor engages in. These examples are not by any means exhaustive, but illustrative of the use of this passage to touch on the items referred to in the handout set out in Appendix 1. I hope even this brief description allows you to see how careful attention to Shakespeare's language can lead, not just to better understanding of his meaning, but also to the use of the language as a vital element in the meaning that the production as a whole shapes and offers to the audience through all the visual and aural resources available to playmaker and audience alike. I have included here as Appendix 2 a handout on Preparing Your Scene which shows how integral to the preparation of a role detailed attention to Shakespeare's language is. It must, of course, be coupled with other work on character, relationships, and other elements of the situation of the play, otherwise the language will be recited, spoken for its own sake, rather than employed as an indispensable agent in the action of the play, integral to the human drama on stage. Attention to the many facets of the language will richly enhance that drama for both actor and audience. =46inally, I am also including as Appendix 3 a partially annotated, impressionistic bibliography on Shakespeare's language for those who want to explore its resources further. Appendix 1 Shakespeare's Language-Opportunities and Problems Sentences (. and ;): "The clothesline of meaning" - who is doing? what are they doing? to whom or what? Problems: The omission of words Unexpected word order Delay of important information Separation of related words/phrases Diction: "Words, words, words"- what do they mean, here? What do they tell us about character, relationship, role, situation? the logic of imagery? Problems: Words not ours Words not quite ours (familiar looking, strange meaning) Verse: Rhythm-the pattern of accented and unaccented syllables Orchestrating emphasis by varying the pattern Keywords, paired words (especially contrast): Shaping the meaning with empha= sis Punctuation: Structuring meaning through emphasis and pitch Pauses and Pacing: Rhythm and punctuation re-visited The problem of the long speech and the need for variety Sounds and Sense: The need for articulation "Styles": Naturalistic and rhetorical "Suit the action to the word": What body signals does the dialogue require, suggest, encourage, allow for? (posture, gesture, facial expression, movement, the orientation of bodies to one another) Appendix 2 Preparing Your Scene To prepare your scene there are five areas you need to work on, roughly in this order: language, intention, emphasis, rhythm, physical action. 1. Language. Before you can understand what you are doing in the scene, you must know what the language means (both yours and your partner's). Read and re-read the scene sentence by sentence (to periods or semi-colons). =46irst, you need to know what all the words mean. Consult the notes (and glossary) in the edition you are using. Keep in mind that words that look familiar to you may have had a different meaning when Shakespeare wrote them. Make sure you take account of any such changes in meaning. If you have questions, just ask me. Next, for each sentence make sure you can identify the "clothesline of meaning": the subject, the verb, the object. If you have difficulty, ask the following questions: - are there words missing? (for example, Henry V begins with the Chorus' line: "O for a muse of fire," which translates to something like "O [what I wouldn't give] for a muse of fire"; filling in the missing words will make clear to you what the line means, and help you decide what your character wants) - are the words in an unexpected order? For us the usual word order is subject-verb-object, i.e. "I ate the sandwich," but Shakespeare often has sentences in the form of "Ate I the sandwich," "The sandwich I ate," or even, "The sandwich ate I." When the word order is unusual you must be especially clear about which noun is the subject and which the object. - are important words separated by other words? For us subject and object or auxiliary and main verb (e.g. "have eaten," "did run") are usually close together, but Shakespeare has sentences like "the trust [subject] Othello puts him in, / On some odd time of his infirmity, / Will shake [verb] this island" (instead of "the trust Othello puts him in will shake this island on some odd time of his infirmity") Ideally, to make sure you understand the meaning of the language you should write out a paraphrase of all the lines in your own words. In addition to clarifying the meaning of the words, this will help you close the distance between you and Shakespeare's language by providing a kind of bridge, and it will help you decide what your intention is. 2. Intention. Shakespeare's characters are not reciting poetry, but doing something, performing some action, with their words. They want something from the other character and they are using language to get it. Try to come up with a concise, active statement of what your character wants in the scene as a whole. The best way to state this is in the form "I want to ________," e.g. to humiliate her, to praise him, to scare them, to inspire them, etc. If you believe your character's overall intention or goal changes in the scene, identify where that happens and what it changes to. =46ind verbs that move you, and that force you to deal with your partner in = a direct and personal way. For example, if your partner is trying to kill him/herself, your goal could be stated as "to remove the threat of suicide," but it is better stated as "to stop him from killing himself." If your partner is in a relationship with another person and you want her to love you instead, rather than stating the goal as "to encourage her to leave the other person" or "to attract her to you," state it as "to win her over," "to lure or seduce her away." A thesaurus can help you find the more active, direct verbs that move you toward your partner. Note: do not worry about how you feel; if both you and your partner find a strong intention and you commit to it, the conflict between you will produce emotion. Don't act out the emotion, go after your goal. Once you've identified your overall goal in the scene, go through your dialogue in detail and choose how you want to get what you want. If the goal is to stop him from killing himself you might try to dominate him at one moment or to persuade him at another or to calm him at another or to comfort him at another. It is important that you be as specific as possible here so that you will know what you are trying to do when you speak those words. If you know your specific action (=3D intention), you won't be thinking about how to say the words, you will do that naturally. Again, it is important that you state your action in a way that will move you to engage your partner. For example, to disapprove is not as effective as to censure or to slam or, even better if it's your way of speaking, to crack on; even better might be to berate or to denounce. Again, roaming around in the thesaurus looking for specific, animating verbs can be very helpful. Note: neither your overall goal nor the specific actions you take to reach it is set in stone. The first will develop and may change as you work on the scene and the specific actions must take account of what your partner is doing in the scene (if the would-be suicide is crying, trying to comfort him will likely be more effective than berating him). But the best way to explore the actions you take is to spell out those actions and to commit to them. If one of them doesn't feel right when you try it, change it and try another one. Within limits set by the text, you choose what your character wants and how s/he tries to get it. In making those choices you are creating your character and in that creation you are practicing the actor's craft. 3. Emphasis. Having worked on sections 1 and 2, you're now ready to identify the words that get extra punch when you speak. Doing this will give your language definite shape, which will help the audience understand what you are saying. Go through your dialogue and mark the words that get special emphasis. Pay special attention to the following words as candidates: active verbs (usually not forms of "to be"); words at the ends of lines; paired words (e.g. "That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold"); and words that pick up on what someone else has said or what you have said before. Don't overdo the emphasis or it loses its impact (no more than 2, or on occasion 3, rarely 4, per line). 4. Rhythm. The most frequent rhythmic pattern in Shakespeare is: da [unstressed] dum [stressed], da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum (with each "da" and "dum" representing one syllable). This is called iambic pentameter: each da-dum is called an iamb and there are typically 5 per line. Shakespeare frequently varies this pattern, usually for the sake of emphasis. To find out where the pattern is regular and where it varies, try to force the line into the above pattern by exaggerating it. When you find variation, ask yourself whether the variation is for the sake of emphasis. If you are in doubt about whether the pattern of unstressed/stressed syllables is regular or not, ask yourself whether you want the emphasis variation would create. If not, go with the regular pattern; save the variation for where you want and need it. One other note: because we know Shakespeare wrote great poetry, we often fall into the habit of making everything weighty and serious, which results in our speaking slowly and ponderously and frequently dropping the pitch of our voices (as we normally do at the end of sentences). This tendency sucks the energy out of the language and forces you to work harder to keep it alive and moving. To avoid this, raise the pitch of your voice at every comma and at the end of every line which does not end with a period. Go down in pitch only at a period or a semi-colon. In addition to keeping the energy up, this will also shape your dialogue for the audience (letting them know when you have reached the end of a thought), making it easier for them to understand it. There may be exceptions, places where you will drop your pitch at a comma, for example, but make an exception only after working with this pitch pattern long enough to get comfortable with it, and then vary from it only on rare occasions. 5. Physical Action. What you do with your body should be the result of all the work you've done in sections 1 through 4. It should grow out of your intention as expressed in your dialogue, not be imposed on it. Resist the temptation to plan your movements and gestures. But think and talk with your partner about what sorts of physical movements might go with your actions at any given moment. Especially consider when in the scene (if ever) you touch one another. Make sure you both specifically agree to any touching. There may be other moments when the dialogue requires you to plan a specific physical action in advance. Other than those instances, try not to build in movement and gesture, but allow yourself to commit so fully to your actions developed in the work on section 2 that your physicality flows naturally. Props often help you express your actions, so consider whether there are props you might use (or must use because the dialogue calls for them) to accent the action of the scene. Consider very specifically how the props help or hinder you from getting what you want in the scene, and therefore how you handle and use them. Besides serving as instruments this way, props may also have psychological or symbolic associations that you can use. For example, an object that belongs to a person may come to represent that person; an object that is part of a specific action in the play may serve as the reminder of that action (if it is over) or the harbinger of the action (if it is still to come). This may sound like a lot of work, but your preparation will make you comfortable and confident in the scene and your role in it. In addition, you will be making yourself an integral part of the story Shakespeare is telling, doing what one famous acting teacher told all his students to do: live fully in the imaginary circumstances of the play. The exhilaration of that experience is a reward richer than words can say. Appendix 3 An Impressionistic, Non-Exhaustive Bibliography of Works that May Help Students Overcome Obstacles Shakespeare's Language Poses- An Aid to Teaching More Than Research Cicely Berry, Voice and the Actor (New York: Collier Books [Macmillan], 1973) General introduction to using the voice for actors, but includes work on some Shakespeare passages. ________, The Actor and the Text (New York: Applause Books, 1992) Follows up her earlier work with an intensive study of work- ing with Shakespearean language. G.L. Brook, The Language of Shakespeare (London: Andr=E9 Deutsch, 1976) A useful concise introduction to the specific aspects of Shakespeare's language. Edward S. Brubaker, Shakespeare Aloud: A Guide To His Verse on Stage (E.S. Brubaker, 1976. Paperback copies available @ $5.25 from [a 1991 reference] E.S. Brubaker, 645 North Pres- ident Ave., Lancaster, PA 17603; ISBN 0-9613496-0-3). Focuses on pattern of accented and unaccented syllables. A good introduction (though some of the refinements, like contrac- tions, seem needlessly complicated in order to fit them into the overall scheme). Robert Cohen, Acting in Shakespeare (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co., 1991) An introduction for acting students that focuses on how to translate the words on the page to vocal effects on stage. Bertram Joseph, Acting Shakespeare (Theatre Arts Books, 1969) Though dated in a number of ways, still a classic on per- forming Shakespeare. Kirstin Linklater, Freeing Shakespeare's Voice: The Actor's Guide to Talking the Text (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1992) Combines work on getting Shakespeare's language into the body, with analysis of the various strategies of lan- guage that Shakespeare uses. Evangeline Machlin, Speech For the Stage (New York: Routledge, 1992) Focuses primarily on the various parts that make up the vocal instrument, but includes a chapter on "The Speak- ing of Shakespeare." Randal Robinson, Unlocking Shakespeare's Language: Help for the Teacher and Student (NCTE, 1988; $9.00 paperback; ISBN 0- 8141-5568-5). Addresses three important impediments to understanding Shakespeare's language: unusual arrangements of words (sequences that vary from modern expectations of subject-verb-predicate), omissions (of syllables, parts of syllables, and words), and words "not quite our own," i.e. familiar words with unexpected meanings. Each section introduces the topic with suggestions for classroom techni- ques to address it, followed by worksheets with specific exercises for students. Includes a useful list of familiar words with unfamiliar meanings (110 items divided into semantic groups) and a useful works cited list. Because it is so concrete, it would probably be very useful. Patsy Rodenburg, The Need For Words: Voice and the Text (New York: Routledge, 1993) Focuses on helping public speakers connect to the material they are speaking. Uses a number of examples from Shakespeare. Delbert Spain, Shakespeare Sounded Soundly: The Verse Structure and the Language (Los Angeles: Garland Projections, Inc., 1998; distributed by Capra Press, P.O. Box 2068, Santa Bar- bara, CA 93120; paperback, $13.00; ISBN 0-88496-274-1) Focuses, like Brubaker, on pattern of accents in Shakespeare's poetry, with much more detailed treatment but less readable than Brubaker. Tries to establish the regu- larity of the rhythmic patterns, and the variations, reduc- ing the true exceptions to a very small minimum. Includes a chapter on further reading and a brief appendix giving the pronunciation for contemporary words pronounced differently in Shakespeare. George T. Wright, Shakespeare's Metrical Art (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988) An in-depth examina- tion of the various aspects of Shakespeare's verse. What You Will A Prospectus for a Seminar Using Interdisciplinary Approaches to an Examination of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Paul Nelsen Rationale: Underlying objectives here are to foster understanding of how diverse fields of knowledge relate to one another and to cultivate awareness of how different disciplines of study can be brought to bear upon a common subject. Shakespeare's plays certainly offer a fecund and challenging body of material to examine from various perspectives. A single play can provide fertile ground from which cross-disciplinary lines of inquiry may sprout. The array of primary and secondary source materials--bibliographic, documentary, material, pictorial, musical, and comparative performance--that may be drawn into studies is immense. A range of assignments, exercises, and projects can be applied here to engage the skills and interests of students with divergent backgrounds and aptitudes. Because students so often regard perusal of Shakespeare as such a formidable undertaking, the magnitude of the challenge can produce a rich sense of reward as students feel empowered by acquiring a detailed understanding of one of his plays and recognition of how diverse fields of knowledge may relate to one another. This course can also help students develop areas of "basic skills"--observational, analytical, interpretive, and presentational. The nature of scholarship itself can be brought into play, demonstrating how different approaches to the evidence can sometimes produce remarkably different conclusions. We are all powerfully aware of the historical and ongoing dynamics of Shakespearean scholarship and how variously the same body of substantive subject matter has been viewed by different people at different times from different critical, political, and cultural perspectives. I think this kind of experience fosters learning how to learn. What is set forward in the syllabus is intended to read only as a guideline. The menu of things to do here probably reflects more than could be achievable in a thirteen-week regular semester, even in a six-credit seminar. Methodology: Although other plays would serve as well, what I have outlined here sets forward the example of using Twelfth Night as the platform text. I submit ten cross-disciplinary topic areas as possible focal points for a semester's study: Story, Language, Music, Geography, Religion, Psychology of Revenge, Alcoholism, Gender Issues, Theatre Architecture and the Sociology of Playgoing, and Interpretation. Investigations in some of these areas can also tie in evidence and/or methods used in other disciplines--e.g., anthropology, linguistics, or visual arts and iconography. Examination of historical evidence is central to every feature of the course. Each section could be examined from "then and now" perspectives--investigating issues of historical context but also questioning how we might relate elements of the play to modern cultures. As understanding of these separate parts accumulate, they add to an integrated comprehension of the whole. Studies will certainly include reading and research--from a variety of primary and secondary sources--and discussion. But I would also encourage multifarious assignments, exercises, projects, and presentations that go beyond the conventional read-and-discuss model. Much of this work could involve cooperative undertakings such as scene work, joint research/presentation projects, and in-class group exercises. My hope is that this kind of seminar would allow students with different skills and interests to feel they can make an integral and important contribution to the explorations and discoveries of the class as a whole. Instructors may be able to call upon colleagues, including those from other departments, to participate in appropriate sessions. Involving selected scholars can provide a way of diminishing superficiality of limited exposure to diverse fields of knowledge by summoning expertise to address focused problems rooted in an examination of the play. Colleagues are often flattered by such invitations. As long as the objectives of the class are understood by guest expert commentators, this kind of cross-fertilization will invigorate and inform deliberations and can provide valuable insights for students. In addition to the interdisciplinary topics of study, assignments can be designed to call upon students to apply skills more common to other areas of study than to literature. For example, I certainly include in my syllabus Audrey Stanley's graphing-of-the-scenes assignment (see "Recipes"). You might also think of engaging exercises involving collection, computation, and analysis of data reflected in words and imagery. Some students might even take special interest in the Shaxicon project and/or devise their own computer aided statistical analyses. To work successfully as a seminar, the number of students would have to be limited. Some of the ideas sketched out here might be transferable to larger classes as well. Given the emphasis on in-class presentations, I propose offering this as a six credit course that would meet twice weekly in three hour sessions. Please bear these cautions in mind: -I re-emphasize that what follows is offered only as a suggestive framework. I urge you to think of ways you might adapt, alter, expand, or improve upon this design. -Much of what is adumbrated in this syllabus can be cross-referenced to contributions of my Folger colleagues. As of the time this was submitted, our works were not yet collected into a whole. Consequently I cannot offer the convenient index references to their work. -The reading assignments indicated on the syllabus in no way exhaust the range of possibilities and may not reflect the best possible choices. If you are inviting colleagues to collaborate, pertinent suggestions for reading and assignments may come from them. -An alternative play from the canon could provide as worthy a hub for interdisciplinary studies as Twelfth Night. -Extensive readings and assignments are listed under several headings. A pedagogical tactic may be to assign separate readings to groups of students, asking them to write and/or present summary reports of what they have read for the benefit of their classmates. The Course: A Possible Syllabus Introductory Discussions Issues to examine: -Attitudes toward Shakespeare. -Attitudes toward history. -The pleasures and hazards of cross-disciplinary study. - Initial responses to the play. - Contextualizing the play in performance--past and present. Readings and other preparations: - The new Arden edition of Twelfth Night edited by Lothian and Craik. - Chapter 1 from The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents by Russ McDonald. - "The Universe and the Human Condition" and "Education" in Shakespeare's World: Background Readings in the English Renaissance edited by Pincus and Lockyer. - Memorize Orsino's opening speech. The story : "If this were acted upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction." Issues to examine: - What is "story"? - Unity of action and Multiple plots entwined. - Shakespeare's sources. - Presentation of Story: from page to stage. Readings and research: - Sections about the nature of story from Richard Schechner's Between Theatre and Anthropology; Victor Turner's Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors; =46ran=E7ois Laroque's Shakespeare's Festive World; and Robert Weimann's Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theatre. - "Twelfth Night" from Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. - Sections from Richard Levin's The Multiple Plot in English Renaissance= Drama . - Sections from Leah Scragg's Shakespeare's Tales. - Sections from Joan Rees' Shakespeare and the Story. - The portion on Twelfth Night from Bullough's Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare. - "Apolonius and Silla" from Farewell to the Miltarie Profession (1581) by Barnaby Riche - Assignments from Gl'Ingannati (1571) written by the Academy of the Introna= ti. - Chapter 6 from Muriel Bradbrook's The Growth and Structure of Elizabethan Comedy - "Happy Endgames," by Graham Holderness in Critical Essays on Twelfth Night edited by Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey. -Assigned scenes from the John Howard's complete text illustrated edition of Twelfth Night. - Examine iconography of selected paintings and engravings from sixteenth century sources (Check your library's holdings. Consult with a colleague in Art History. Learning to read iconography of paintings may fertilize students' understanding of how to read stagings). Possible projects and assignments: - Students take different scenes from the play and convert them into narrative fiction--as if the story were written as a novel. - Chart the progression of the play in a graph that reflects the length of each scene and the presence of characters within the scene (see Audrey Stanley's "Recipe"). - What happens to the whole of the story if we cut the Malvolio or the Aguecheek plot lines? - Storyboard fifty lines (approximately) of dialogue. - Present stagings of scenes. - Stage the transformation of Viola into Caesario as ritualistic dumb-show. - Present comparative plot elements drawn from the film Tootsie. - How might the actors in the original production have been dressed? How would you costume the characters for a contemporary staging? Language: Verse and Vernacular, from "Euphue" to "Bibble-babble" Issues to examine: - What is language? - What are the different levels of diction employed in the play and when is the language most difficult to comprehend? - Understanding verse and poetic speech. What is Euphue? -How is Shakespeare translated into other languages? - Can we "act" the meaning of unfamiliar words? Does the language of the stage go beyond the spoken text? Readings and research: - Chapters 2 and 3 from The Story of English by McCrum, Cran, and MacNeil. - "Understanding as Translation" from George Steiner's After Babel. - MacD. P. Jackson's "The Transmission of Shakespeare's Text" in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies, edited by Stanley Wells. -Chapter 6, "' To What End Are All These Words?': Shakespeare's Dramatic Language," from The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents by Russ McDonald. - Chapter 1 from John Barton's Playing Shakespeare and Chapter 2 from Cicely Berry's The Actor and the Text. - Chapter 1 from Alan Dessen's Elizabethan Stage Conventions and Modern Interpreters and Chapters 1 and 2 from his Recovering Shakespeare's Theatrical Vocabulary. - Geoffrey Hartman's "Shakespeare's Poetical Character in Twelfth Night" in Shakespeare and the Question of Theory. - Chapter 1 from David Bevington's Action is Eloquence. - The "Introduction" and Chapter 1 from Dennis Kennedy's Foreign Shakespeare= . - "Social Graces: Conduct and Language" in Shakespeare's World: Background Readings in the English Renaissance edited by Pincus and Lockyer (chapter includes passages from Castiglione's The Courtier and Thomas Wilson's The Arte of Rhetorique). Possible projects and assignments: - Select a verse monologue and prose passage to work with. - Paraphrase (or translate) passages assigned from Viola, Toby, and Feste. - Do scansion of Orsino 1.1 speech and your verse monologue. - Look up all unfamiliar words in the OED. - "Caveperson" the speech, reducing it to the fewest number of words required to convey intent. (see Recipe) - Using a verse monologue, circle all the verbs and underline all the nouns then speak the speech given heavy emphasis to the verbs, then do the same stressing the nouns. (see Recipe) - Identify caesuras, and antitheses and speak the words to reveal them. - Identify all the objects referred to in a speech. Assign all objects a specific place in the space around you. Speak the speech pointing very specifically to each object reference around you as the word surfaces. Alternatively, pay special attention to pronoun references--e.g., "you," "your," "I," "me," "my," etc.. (see Recipe) - Work with a partner. One of you will deliver the speech while the other will interrupt and say "WHAT?" any time what the speaker is saying is not understood. Respond to each "WHAT?" by repeating the word in the speech with greater effort to clarify its meaning. (see Recipe) - Work with a partner about your same size height and weight.. Find the energy in your speeches by speaking the words while trying to physically push your partner backward. Partner resists. - Using a concordance or word search engine on your computer (if electronic text is available), discover how many times variations of the word "love" (including synonyms) surface in the script. Are there other frequently used words that cluster into patterns that reveal something about character and action? Music : "If music be the food of love . . . " Issues to examine: - How does music affect us? Is it a kind of language? - Is music a common element of all cultures? - How did Elizabethan society value music? What types of music were played in what situations? - What kind of music today best parallels the songs found in the play? Readings and research: - From Thomas Wright's 1604 treatise, The Passions of the Mind. - "On Significance in Music" from Susan Langer's Philosophy in a New Key . - Sections from Peter Seng's The Vocal Songs in the Plays of Shakespeare. - The chapter on "Twelfth Night" from Shakespeare's Use of Music: The Final Comedies by J. H. Long. - Sections from Laroque's Shakespeare's Festive World, especially Chapter 2. - Sections from Shakespeare in Music, edited by Phyllis Hartnoll. - "Twelfth Night and Playhouse Practice" in Shakespeare's Theatre by Peter Thomson. Possible projects and assignments: - Listening to a selection of music from 16th-century songs to latter day musical settings inspired by Shakespeare--from Mendelssohn to Elvis Costello--evaluate how music reflects cultural values. - Read opening exchange between Orsino and Viola in Act 2 scene 4 with different background music. Continue through the singing of "Come Away Death." How do various musical backgrounds affect the acting and reception of the scene? - What music might you choose for a contemporary setting of the play? Geography: "What country, friends, is this?" "This is Illyria, lady." Issues to examine: - Where is Illyria? What kind of world is it? - How does a sense of place contribute to shaping the dramatic action? Why does Shakespeare set the play in Illyria? - Does Illyria seem like another world? What does it seem to have in common with Shakespeare's England? Readings and research: - John Gillies' Shakespeare and the Geography of Difference - Sections from William Camden's Britain, or a Chorographical Description of the most =46lourishing Kingdoms, England, Scotland and Ireland, and the Islands adjoining, out of the depth of Antiquity: Beautified with Maps of the several Shires of England. - Chapter 7, "Town and Country: life in Shakespeare's England," from The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents by Russ McDonald. - Sections from Francis Yates' Theatre of the World. - Sections from Leslie Hotson's First Night of Twelfth Night - Section from Stephen Greenblatt's Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World. - A selection of cartographic books showing maps from the Sixteenth Century to the present. - Other books depicting Elizabethan architecture, landscape, and interiors. Possible projects and assignments: - Where did Sebastian and Viola come from? If they are shipwrecked off the coast of Illyria, what might have been their destination? Track their journey. - What might Shakespeare have imagined Olivia's or Orsino's residence to look like? - If you were setting the play in today's world, where might you imagine "Illyria" to be? - Consider Maria's allusion to a "map" at 3.3.75-76. What might such a map have looked like to Shakespeare (see Gillies, Chapter 2)? Religion and Culture: "He is a kind of Puritan"--Malvolio as "Other" Issues to examine: - What resonances might allusions to "religion" have had to Shakespeare? - What power did Puritanism have in Shakespeare's London? - What is an "other"? Can Malvolio be treated as "other"? Readings and research: - "Religion" in Shakespeare's World: Background Readings in the English Renaissance edited by Pincus and Lockyer. - Chapter 9, "Politics and Religion: Early Modern Ideologies," in The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents by Russ McDonald - "Puritanism and the Dramatic Attitude" from The Shakespearean Moment by Patrick Cruttwell. - Sections from Ted Hughes' Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being. - Sections from Donna Hamilton's Shakespeare and the Politics of Protestant England. - Chapter 8, "Varieties of Religious Experience" from Graham Parry's The Seventeenth Century: The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English Literature, 1603-1700. - Chapter 6, "Faith and Knowledge," from S. Schoenbaum's William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life. - "A Conduct Book for Malvolio," by Louis B. Wright in Studies in Philology,= 31. - "The Religion of Twelfth Night," by Maurice Hunt in CLA Journal, 37. - "Dressing Malvolio for the Part," by John Gouws in Notes and Queries, 38. - "The Problem of Malvolio," by Cedric Watts in Critical Essays on Twelfth Night edited by Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey. Possible projects and assignments: - Dramatized readings of Elizabethan period sermons decrying the evils of theatre. - Dramatize Malvolio's off-stage exchange with Fabian (on bear-baiting) and Sir Toby and his fantasy of commanding Sir Toby. - Cast Malvolio. Consider a range of alternatives including unconventional statements involving race and gender. - An imagined journey from the City of London to the Globe in 1602, taking note of the environs of City and the Liberty of the Clink. - Stage 2.3 in two or three different ways: Malvolio as prig and revelers as jolly libertines; Malvolio as sympathetic and revelers as crude and despicable; both Malvolio and revelers as unsympathetic, hostile adversaries. Psychology of Revenge, Gulling and Notions of Comedy "And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges." Issues to examine: - What is revenge? What is the impetus for vengeful action in TN? - What is "gulling"? How does it relate to the comic and/or sinister actions of the characters? Readings and research: - Sections from Machiavelli's The Prince . - Dekker's "Gull's Hornbook" in E. K. Chambers' Elizabethan Stage, Vol. IV, pp.365-9. - Sections from Barbara Freedman's Staging the Gaze: Postmodernism, Psychoanalysis, and Shakespearean Comedy. - "Carnival and Cruelty," by Kate Flint in Critical Essays on Twelfth Night edited by Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey. - "The World of Twelfth Night," by Michael Gearin-Tosh in Critical Essays on Twelfth Night edited by Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey. - "Deception in Twelfth Night," by David Lewis in Critical Essays on Twelfth Night edited by Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey. - Freud on "Jokes and Laughter." - Sections for C. L. Barber's Shakespeare's Festive Comedy . Possible projects and assignments: - Chart the triangular rivalries that are contained within the play. What alternative plot implications can you imagine? - Stage 2.5 in various ways to measure dimensions of sinister behavior versus practical joking. Quaffing and Drinking "What 's a drunken man like, fool?" Issues to examine: - Is Toby an alcoholic? Is Sir Andrew? Feste? Maria? - What amount of alcohol did the average Elizabethan consume? - How does the "cakes and ale" issue figure into the play's structure? - Does Toby reform? Readings and research: - "'An Enemie in Their Mouths': The Discourse of Drunkenness in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama," in Dissertation Abstracts International, 54. - Lance Fogan's "The Neurologist of Avon" in New Scientist, 20 January 1990. - Some pertinent contemporary literature on alcoholism . - Articles on dramaturgical use of altered states to advance dramatic= conflict . Possible projects and assignments: - Stage selected scenes to examine possible degrees of drunken behavior. Gender Issues "I am all the daughters of my father's house / And all the brothers too. . .= " Issues to examine: - Does our view of gender differ from those of Elizabethan audiences? - What are the potential gender-bending dramatic situations in the play? Readings and research: - Chapter 8, "Men and Women: Gender, Family, Society," in The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents by Russ McDonald. - Peter Stallybrass' "Transvestism and the 'Body Beneath': Speculating on the Boy Actor" - Sections from Gender in Play on the Shakespearean Stage by Michael Shapiro= . - "Shakespeare's Violation: 'One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons'," by Douglas Green in Reconsidering the Renaissance edited by Mario DiCesare. - "Cross-Dressing, the Theatre, and Gender Struggle in Early Modern England," by Jean Howard in Crossing the Stage: Controversies on Cross-Dressing edited by Leslie Ferris. - Sections from Robert Kimbrough's Shakespeare and the Art of Humankindness. Possible projects and assignments: - Stage 2. 4 , 3.3, 3.1. 96-166, and/or 3.4 with common gender casting . - Connect gender disguise issues with scenes from Tootsie and from The Crying Game. Playhouses and Playgoers Issues to examine: - How are the classes and attitudes presented on stage reflected in the profile of playgoers in the audience? - What were the architectural features of the Elizabethan Public Playhouse? - In what other venues were plays performed? For whom? - How does theatre architecture affect the aesthetics of playgoing? Readings and research: - Sections from Andrew Gurr's Playgoing in Shakespeare's London . - Survey the new Globe by examining the web site: http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/ln/Globe/home:html - Section from Hotson's First Night of Twelfth Night . - Chapter 2, "Performances, Playhouses, and Players" from The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents by Russ McDonald. - Selections from Jean Wilson's The Archeology of Shakespeare: The Material Legacy of Shakespeare's Theatre. - "Twelfth Night and Playhouse Practice" from Peter Thomson's Shakespeare's Theatre - Possible essays from Shakespeare Survey 47 . - Sections from John Orrell's The Quest for Shakespeare's Globe . - Chapter 8 from Laroque's Shakespeare's Festive World . - Chapter 8, "The Vocabulary of Place," from Alan Dessen's Recovering Shakespeare's Theatrical Vocabulary. - Selections from Dennis Kennedy's Looking at Shakespeare. - Selections from Robert Speaight's Shakespeare on the Stage. Possible projects and assignments: - Imagining the stratified locations of different classes of the audience in the Globe Playhouse, stage the playing of a scene or monologue to address differentiated segments of the audience. - Stage scenes in various architectural settings. - Try to simulate conditions at the Globe. Stage scenes and have the rest of the class pretend to be various types of Elizabethan playgoers. - How would you design a modern day setting for Twelfth Night that would suit your stage? Interpretation Issues to examine: - What are the variables that relate to taking a play from page to stage? - Every performance is an act of criticism . - How do productions of Shakespeare's works, at various times and places in history, "hold . . . a mirror up to nature"? Readings and research: - Sections from Gary Taylor's Reinventing Shakespeare. - Sections from Robert Hapgood's Shakespeare, the Theatre Poet . - Sections from Richard Levin's New Readings vs. Old Plays . - Sections from Jay Halio's Understanding Shakespeare in Performance . - Cary Mazer's "Historicizing Alan Dessen" in Shakespeare, Theory, and Performance edited by James C. Bulman. - Viewings of three or four video versions of Twelfth Night . Possible projects and assignments: - Comparative analysis of interpretive cruxes found in different video versions of a scene or "moment." - Try "Parallel Scenario" exercise (See Recipes). - Presentation of a detailed "concept" for a production of Twelfth Night .
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