February
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 4, No. 114. Sunday, 28 February 1993. From: Tom Loughlin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 27 Feb 1993 11:13 pm EST Subject: What Playwrights Do Gary Goldstein's comments via John Mucci have such an elementary logical fallacy that I wonder if he knows what exactly it is that a playwright does. He makes the argument that because several of Shakespeare's characters use language which is unflattering to Jews (and blacks and many other types of people) that therefore Shakespeare himself is, nay, must be, a racist. That kind of a statement is not only logically incorrect, it betrays that Mr. Goldstein has little understanding of the creative process of playwrighting. Playwrights write characters which attempt to reflect people as they live in the real world; reflecting what they say, how they speak, what their basic attitudes towards life and their surroundings are. To my knowledge, Shake- speare wrote next to nothing which is unquestionably reflective of his own personal ideas or prejudices, nothing which did not contain the mask of the theatre. Shakespeare was a master at creating character, but I don't think anybody has the right to state categorically that because any certain character speaks or acts a certain way that therefore this is a clear reflec- tion of the playwright's mind. It's simply an illogical conclusion. It is not the playwright's job to judge the moral or ethical qualities of the characters she or he creates; it is simply the playwright's job to write them honestly and truthfully, present them to us, and let us view their actions and behaviors and reflect accordingly. The effort to demonstrate that Shakespeare "was a (fill in the blank)" by pointing to his characters and what they say is *ipso facto* a false and misleading argument, for it betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the art form and the medium which is theatre. As clear as it is that he was capable of putting slanderous speech into the mouths of his characters, he was also quite capable of putting wisdom, truth and beauty into the mouths of many others, yet I would not nor could not say that this makes Shakespeare a wise and truthful man. Any speculation as to his personal beliefs are simply that -- speculation. His very genius lies in the awareness that he came at every question from every angle he could find, and asked every question he could think of, while providing few answers. The pitiful attempts to reduce his genius to this or that single point of view are disingenuous, and almost always point to the writer's own personal limitations. --------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Loughlin * BITNET Dept. of Theatre Arts * loughlin@fredonia SUNY College at Fredonia * INTERNET Fredonia NY 14063 *This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Voice: 716.673.3597 * Fax: 716.673.3397 * "Hail, hail Freedonia, land of * the brave and free." G. Marx ---------------------------------------------------------------
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 4, No. 113. Saturday, 27 February 1993. From: Bernice Kliman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 27 Feb 1993 19:39 EDT Subject: 4.0101 Q: Folger Library and Theatre Comment: Re: SHK 4.0101 Q: Folger Library and Theatre The Shenandoah Shakespeare Express will be at the Folger Theatre on March 20. I know because I am in a workshop that weekend. This is a great group, and if you can see them, you're in for a treat. Call them at 1-800-SAY-PUCK to get information about their DC plans. Steven Booth wrote a wonderful review of their work in a recent SQ. 1/2 price tickets are usually pretty easy to get at Landsburgh and at Arena. Call and ask if you should arrive early. They are both good at telling you your chances. I also know a great B&B if you need a fairly inexpensive place to stay. Let me know. Have fun in DC--a great place, but be careful. Yours, Bernice W. Kliman 516-671-1301 [Editor's Note: I too would encourage you to see The Shenandoah Shakespeare Express and to read Stephen Booth's piece in SQ (43: 479-483). Let me quote the second paragraph for you: "I first saw The Shenandoah Shakespeare Express perform in Washington, D.C., in July of 1991. I haven't thought the same since about Shakespeare or the theater." Let me also put in a plug for The Shakespeare Theatre's *Comedy of Errors*. In particular, I thought that Philip Goodwin did a stunning, an unforgetable job as the Antipholi and the set -- oh the set . . . -hmc]
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 4, No. 112. Saturday, 27 February 1993. From: Thomas G. Bishop <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Saturday, 27 Feb 93 17:06:14 -0500 Subject: Ohio Shakespeare Conference 1993 The Ohio Shakespeare Conference for 1993 will take as its title "There the Whole Palace Open'd": Court and Society in Jacobean England The conference will be held in Cleveland under the joint sponsorship of Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State University. The proceedings will open 8 pm Thursday March 25th with a welcome and Plenary Address by Prof. Stephen Orgel and close after the Conference Banquet on Saturday March 27th. The conference proceedings will be conducted at the Marriott-Society Center Hotel in downtown Cleveland. The title expresses the conference's intent, which is to open up all the relationships between the Jacobean court and the rest of Jacobean culture to inquiry in all the relevant disciplines, by both scholars and practitioners. Ben Jonson's masque "Oberon, the Fairy Prince" will be presented in CWRU's elegant Excelsior Ballroom, and will provide a rich opportunity for conference participants to experience a significant work in a genre almost never realized on stage, in a production that will place equal emphasis on all the elements of scene, dance, music, costume, speech and action. The program surrounding the production will include plenary addresses by leading scholars in various departments of early modern cultural history. Invited speakers are to be: Prof. Leeds Barroll, "Queen Anna and the Appropriation of the Masque" Prof. Peter Holman, "Jacobean Dance Music" Prof. Fritz Levy, "The Return to Italy" Prof. Stephen Orgel, "The Dream, the State, the Stage" Prof. Annabel Patterson "Bevis was Believed" Thirty papers and presentations besides will be offered, together with a plenary discussion of the production of "Oberon" with the artists-professional team responsible for the staging, including: Mr. Barrie Rutter (Stage Director) Mr. Ken Pierce (Choreographer and Lead Dancer) Mr. David Douglass (Music Director) Mr. E. Guy Hare (Designer, after Inigo Jones) During the conferecne weekend Claire Bloom will be appearing in a one-woman show on Shakespeare's women at the Great Lakes Theater Festival (216-241-6000) and a biracial production of "The Tempest" will open at Karamu House (216-795-7070). Interested parties should call the CSU Department of English (216) 687-3955 or detach and return the form below. Hotel reservations (@ a special rate of $75 per night) should be made soon at 1-800-228-9290, specifying Marriott-Society Center and Ohio Shakespeare. Conferees who plan to fly to Cleveland should consider taking advantage of the cheap travel arrangement the Conference has with USAir: to arrange low fares to the conference, call 1-800-334-8644 (8am-9pm EST) and obtain reservations under Gold File Number 36940036 "Oberon" conference. The conference acknowledges sponsorship from USAir, the Cleveland Foundation, John Carroll University and Baldwin-Wallace College, as well as Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State University. We look forward to seeing you in March. _____________________________________________________________________________ Name________________________________ Institution__________________________ Address______________________________________________________________________ I/We will attend the 1993 Ohio Shakespeare Conference. Number of persons____ I enclose the conference registration fee of $75 per person (Graduate students $25) Fee includes tickets and transportation to "Oberon" admission to all conference sessions. Amount ___________ I wish to reserve_____places at the Conference Banquet @$15 Amount ___________ I wish to pay by __ check (payable to Cleveland State University) __ Visa no.___________________________ Expires______ __ Mastercard no._____________________ Expires __________ Signature __________________ -- Tom Bishop "I saw the danger, yet I walked Dept of English Along the enchanted way, Case Western Reserve University And I said let grief be a fallen leaf Cleveland, OH 44106.(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) At the dawning of the day." P.K.
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 4, No. 111. Friday, 26 February 1993. From: David A. Bank <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 26 Feb 93 21:34:28 GMT Subject: 4.0108 Shakespeare, Jews, and Anti-Semitism Comment: Re: SHK 4.0108 Shakespeare, Jews, and Anti-Semitism For Jay Halio and John Dorenkamp: As I tried to explain, I have difficulty attaching terms like "racist" or "anti-semitic" to types existing only (or almost only) in books, and there can be little doubt (C.J. Sisson notwithstanding) that Jews in 16th century London were very few. The stereotypes of the period - as Jay Halio concedes - are derived from tradition, and they include Turks and Mohammedans as well as Jews. No one has suggested that, in MV, Shakespeare tries to excite (or exploit) an antipathy in his audience to *real* Jews; to Jews that is as a community in England. They were marginal almost to the point of invisibility. My question is this: should we be using terms like "racist" and "anti-semitic" of MV or whatever in these circumstances? I really don't see how it helps our understanding of the mentality/ies of the period. Obviously one accepts John Dorenkamp's point that Jews in literature - including the Bible - were "very much part of the culture of Shakespeare's time". Yet not *so* very much. The *Short Title Catalogue* of British printed books (1475 to 1640) lists 22 first editions, 20 second editions, issues etc. with "Jew", "Jews" or "Jewes" as part of the title. I offer this as indicative information merely. The proportion of titles on a *per annum* basis is between 0.15% (the lowest, in 1635) and 0.77% (1611), as a percentage of all British books published in the period. One's impression of most of these books is that their references to Jews have the purpose of Christian amendment *of Christians*. May this be an important part of MV too? David Bank Univ. Glasgow
Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 4, No. 110. Friday, 26 February 1993. From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. > Date: Friday, 26 February 1993 Subject: *Shakespeare Survey 44* Now Available *Shakespeare Survey 44*, "Shakespeare and Politics," is now available from the Cambridge University Press. Below is the volume's Table of Contents: SHAKESPEARE SURVEY 44, "Shakespeare and Politics" List of Illustrations Shakespeare and Politics by BLAIR WORDEN Language, Politics, and Poverty in Shakespearian Drama by WILLIAM C. CARROLL Some Versions of Coup d'etat, Rebellion and Revolution by PIERRE SAHEL Woman, Language, and History in The Rape of Lucrece by PHILIPPA BERRY Love in Venice by CATHERINE BELSEY Two Kingdoms for Half-a-Crown by DOMINIQUE GOY-BLANQUET 'Fashion it thus':Julius Caesar and the Politics of Theatrical Representation by JOHN DRAKAKIS Demystifying the Mystery of State: King Lear and the World Upside Down by MARGOT HEINEMANN Tragedy, King Lear, and the Politics of the Heart by TOM McALINDON The Politics of Shakespeare Production by JOHN RUSSELL BROWN Shakespeare in the Trenches by BALZ ENGLER Shakespeare's Earliest Editor, Ralph Crane by T. H. HOWARD-HILL Shakespeare's Falconry by MAURICE POPE Telling the Story of Shakespeare's Playhouse World by ROSLYN L. KNUTSON Shakespeare Performances in England, 1989-90 by PETER HOLLAND Professional Shakespeare Productions in the British Isles, January-December 1989 compiled by NIKY RATHBONE The Year's Contributions to Shakespeare Studies 1 Critical Studies reviewed by R. S. WHITE 2 Shakespeare's Life, Times, and Stage reviewed by RICHARD DUTTON 3 Editions and Textual Studies reviewed by H. R. WOUDHUYSEN Books Received Index