Eat, drink, and be merry!

“Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long,
And then they say no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallowed, and so gracious, is that time.”

So said Shakespeare about Christmas in Hamlet, 1.1. And, in this quote, we get a perfect snapshot of that combination of Christian and pagan traditions which were and still are so prevalent in the celebration of this holiday. In Shakespeare’s day, celebrating the Saviour’s birth didn’t necessarily mean you were off the hook when it came to the charms of fairies and witches. For, just like Halloween, the celebration of Christmas on December 25th has its origins in pre-Christian festivals. In pagan Britain, the end of December marked the winter solstice, when the longest, darkest days of winter were past. Naturally, this required some partying and feasting. Later, when Christianity arrived on the scene, Easter was, in fact, the primary holiday of the year. It wasn’t until the fourth century that church officials decided to institute a holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The only problem was the Bible does not specify any particular date as Jesus’ birthday. And, while sometime in spring would have made the most sense (given the whole shepherds watching their flocks thing), the end of December was chosen in order to absorb the pagan winter solstice activities. By the end of the sixth century, Christmas had made its way successfully to England, and the rest is history.

This holiday season is connected to winters of centuries ago though one especially unique link: this was the first time that a lunar eclipse has fallen on the winter solstice since 1638. In honor of this extraordinary event, I thought I’d promote some Shakespearean Christmas festivities. So, for those who are tired of the stresses of 21st century holiday shopping or listening to “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” for the umpteenth time, here are some alternatives.

The Earth’s shadow blankets the moon during this year’s rare lunar eclipse.

Everything you need to know to have a very merry Shakespearean Christmas:

Old Saint Nick and Other Traditions: The original Santa Claus was really a monk named Nicholas, who was born in third century Turkey. Renowned for his kindness and generosity and for giving away all his worldly goods, Nicholas became a very popular saint, particularly during the Renaissance. However, the image of him as a rotund, jolly gift-giver didn’t come along until much later. Instead of mourning the lack of Santa, though, you could appoint a Lord of Misrule for the duration of the holiday. Duties of the Lord of Misrule include presiding over the revelries, handing out gifts, devising entertainments, and calling people silly names. The Yule log was another common tradition of the time. In Elizabethan England, the Christmas season ran for twelve days, from Christmas Eve on December 24th to Epiphany on January 6th. The Yule log was brought into the house on Christmas Eve and was meant to burn throughout all twelve days.

Decorations: Can you have a Christmas tree? Sure, why not. Long before people brought trees into their homes for the holidays, evergreens of all sorts were seen as reminders of the life that would come again in the spring. As a bonus, hanging evergreen boughs over your door was believed to keep away ghosts and evil spirits during the winter. Germans are believed to have chopped down the first Christmas trees in the sixteenth century, and legend has it that Protestant reformer Martin Luther was the first to add lighted candles to the tree, a pre-cursor to our modern Christmas lights. (If you try this, make sure to keep a fire extinguisher handy.) Although in Elizabethan England you would be well ahead of your time, since Christmas trees didn’t make their way there until the German Prince Albert married Queen Victoria in 1840.

Christmas Revels: Favorite activities, which haven’t changed much over the years, included feasting, dancing, game playing, and storytelling. You could play the slightly harrowing game of “snapdragon,” which involves taking turns picking raisins out of a dish of flaming brandy and popping them in your mouth. And then, of course, there’s wassailing. The word “wassail” comes from the Saxon “wachs heil,” meaning “I give you health.” In towns and villages across England, groups would go from house to house singing songs and carrying empty cups which the master of the house was meant to fill with spiced ale, along with providing snacks such as cakes and cheese. If you wish to revive this tradition, some Elizabethan carols you could sing include the ultimate wassailing song, “Here We Come A-Wassailing.” Others which might be familiar to the modern listener are “I Saw Three Ships” (the ships in this traditional English folk song refer to the vessels bearing the supposed skulls of the three wise men to a cathedral in Cologne), “The Twelve Days of Christmas” (legend has it that this song was written for parents to pass on Catholic symbols to their children after Henry VIII supplanted Catholicism with the Church of England), and “The Holly and the Ivy” (both of which commonly festooned Elizabethan houses at Christmastime).

Refreshments: A mouthwatering picture of what graced the Elizabethan Christmastime table may be seen in Thomas Tusser’s 500 Points of Husbandry, published in 1573:

“Good husband and huswife, now chiefly be glad,
Things handsome to have, as they ought to be had.
They both do provide, against Christmas do come,
To welcome their neighbors, good cheer to have some.
Good bread and good drink, a good fire in the hall,
Brawn, pudding, and souse, and good mustard withal.
Beef, mutton, and pork, and good pies of the best,
Pig, veal, goose, and capon, and turkey well drest,
Cheese, apples and nuts, and good carols to hear,
As then in the country is counted good cheer.
What cost to good husband, is any of this?
Good household provision only it is:
Of other the like, I do leave out a many,
That costeth the husband never a penny.”

To try some of these recipes yourself, consult HistoricalFoods, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite websites. They have a recipe for that British Christmas staple, plum pudding, as well as one for authentic wassail.

Merry Christmas,

Natalie A.

PS. For some extra Shakespearean holiday humor, read about why Shakespeare hated Christmas (who knew?). Or check out these hilarious letters to Santa by Shakespearean characters. (Warning: rated PG-13!)

Centuries of Shakespeare

It is, of course, an oft repeated fact that Shakespeare’s plays have been performed, in some form, continuously since his death. For many years, however, there was a gap in my brain between the days of the man himself and the performance of his works today. My mind glossed over all those intervening centuries. Instead, there were only two Shakespeares: that of the Elizabethan era and that of modern theatre. Recently, I have begun to consider Shakespeare in other decades, and it has opened a whole new window into the past. It is especially fascinating to see how the art of early photography was used to document the theatre, and there is some magic element in seeing antique photographs from productions of these already-historic works. It is, essentially, a double layering of history upon history.

The Cleveland Press, part of the Cleveland State University Library, has an incredible photographic archive of Shakespeare in performance, and browsing through their collection was part of what piqued my curiosity in this heretofore unconsidered facet of Shakespeare. The oldest photograph which the Cleveland Press has is of stage actor Lawrence Barrett as Cassius in an 1870 production of Julius Caesar.

Barrett, looking very Roman as Cassius.

Looking at this photo led me down a new path of investigation, when I read that Barrett starred in this particular show alongside fellow actor Edwin Booth as Brutus. Now, Booth was perhaps the most famous Shakespearean actor of the nineteenth century. One of the biggest stars of his day, he was famous for his Hamlet, Richard III, and Shylock. Unbelievably, a wax cylinder recording of him performing Othello survives. Although the sound quality is poor, it’s spine tingling to hear this voice speaking from over a hundred years in the past, utilizing Shakespeare as the medium to reach across the intervening century.

Edwin Booth as Hamlet.

Edwin not only became famous as a player of Shakespeare but also became infamous as the older brother of John Wilkes Booth. That’s right – that’s the John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. In fact, John Wilkes himself had appeared onstage several times before his most famous performance at Ford’s Theatre. Only that previous fall of 1864, he, Edwin, and their brother Junius had acted together in Julius Caesar as Marc Antony, Brutus, and Cassius, respectively. Edwin disowned his brother after the assassination and was himself forced to retire from the public eye for several months. It did not incur any lasting damage to his reputation, however, as he is still lauded and respected today as a master of the theatre.

The brothers Booth: John, Junius, and Edwin in Julius Caesar.

The Cleveland Press collection also contains a photograph of Sarah Bernhardt, possibly the most famous female actress of the nineteenth century.

The glamorous Bernhardt as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, around 1890.

This compelling picture spurred me on to learn that Bernhardt later made her film debut in 1900 in Le Duel d’Hamlet, a brief two minute reel of Hamlet’s duel with Laertes in which she played the title role. This is believed to be first ever film adaptation of that play, and it is also noted for utilizing the new innovation of playing pre-recorded cylinders of the actor’s voices and sound effects along with the film. The entire film may be seen here, unfortunately without the soundtrack, which has been lost.

Drew strutting his stuff as Petruchio.

Or check out this dapper fellow, John Drew, Jr., another famous nineteenth century Shakespearean specialist. Drew came from a family of actors and is the uncle of John, Ethel, and Lionel Barrymore. This also means that he’s the great-great uncle of Drew Barrymore.

All of the photos in this collection are like breadcrumbs leading down a trail of interesting discoveries, as I realized once I began browsing through them. Each one uncovers all new stories of Shakespeare and the actors who have brought his words to life over the centuries. The costumes are so elaborate and the expressions so vivid that there is an instant connection across time, making the viewer regret not being able to see these theatrical giants in action. It is impossible not to look at a photograph without wanting to find out a little bit more about that actor, to imagine how they were celebrities in their own time and how their work is still influencing performances of Shakespeare today. For it is not just that Shakespeare of the Elizabethan theatre who has informed how his works are produced in the twenty-first century, but rather a series of building blocks of trends and innovations resting on the shoulders of these men and women and those who came before them.

Natalie A.

Shakespeare and...Thanksgiving?

Ah, Thanksgiving. That time of year for being with family and friends and for cooking ridiculous amounts delicious food…turkey and cranberries and sweet potatoes topped with globs of marshmallows and pumpkin pie! But is it possible to draw a connecting line between today’s epicurean extravaganza and foodie fetes in Shakespeare’s England? Absolutely. While Shakespeare wrote all of his plays well before the Plymouth colonists celebrated their first harvest with the Wampanoag Indians in 1621, giving birth to the Thanksgiving legend, the New World and its foods were no strangers to Elizabethans. And neither was the concept of a harvest festival. English harvest festivals abounded in the latter quarter of the Elizabethan calendar. November 11th marked the feast of St. Martin, and November 30th was the feast of St. Andrew, both denoting the end of the harvest season and the coming on of winter. On these days, Elizabethans would get together and stuff their faces, much as we do today.

In fact, a lot of what we consider traditional American holiday staples originated in England: stuffing the turkey with bread and dried fruit, apple pies, and even gingerbread houses. This is due to the intermingling of ingredients and cooking techniques which took place as Europeans explored the Americas and brought back various new items to their home countries, putting their own unique spins on them. The first turkeys arrived in England in the early sixteenth century by way of Spanish traders from the New World. These birds caught on quickly, being larger than the chicken and tastier than the swan or the peacock. Tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers, maize, beans, pumpkins, coffee, and chocolate, to name just a few, were some of the other imports. Furthermore, spices such as ginger, cinnamon, and mace had previously arrived in England during the Middle Ages, brought from the east by crusaders.

Indeed, you could say that Shakespeare was living during a pretty gastronomically exciting time. Elizabethans were taking full advantage of the spice trade, comparatively new in the history of the country, and now they also had a plethora of new products flowing in from the New World with which to experiment. While there are definitely plenty of recipes from the time which seem less than appealing to our modern palettes, some don’t sound half bad. Take this recipe for baked quinces (a relative of the pear), for example, from A Book of Cookrye, published in 1591: “Core your Quinces and fair pare them, perboyle them in seething licour, Wine or water, or halfe wine and half water and season them with Sinamon and sugar, and put halfe a dozen Cloves into your Pyes amongst them, and halfe a dozen spoonful of rosewater, put in good of sugar. If you will bake them a slighter waye, you maye put in Muscadell to spare Sugar.” Mmm.

There are many food references in Shakespeare’s plays, often used in a metaphorical sense. Interestingly, the word “corn” appears in several of Shakespeare’s plays. In 2 Henry VI, Duchess Eleanor questions her husband, “Why droops my lord, like over-ripen’d corn” (1.2.1)? Yet, in these cases, Shakespeare was not actually referring to the American corn with which we are familiar. Instead, “corn,” in the early modern context, meant “grain.” In this sense, corn provides a useful metaphor in several scenes for striking down an enemy. A harvest reference appears in 3 Henry VI, when King Edward speaks of cutting down his enemies “like to autumn’s corn” (5.7.3). In Henry VIII, Archbishop Cranmer predicts of the infant Queen Elizabeth that her foes will “shake like a field of beaten corn” (5.5.31). And while there are numerous references to feasting in Shakespeare’s works, along with several feast scenes featured in the plays, when specific foods are mentioned it is usually by “low” or comic characters. The Clown in The Winter’s Tale, for instance, describes his grocery list for a feast as follows: “Let me see: what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pounds of sugar, five pound of currants, rice […]. I must have saffron to color the warden pies; mace; dates […]; nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger […]; four pounds of pruins, and as many of raisins o’ th’ sun” (4.3.36-49). Also, there are many more references to wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverages than there are to chewable foods. For a nifty collection of each and every reference to food of all sorts in Shakespeare, from almond to zucchini, take a look at this site.

So, while Shakespeare and his contemporaries might have missed out on the traditional American Thanksgiving – which was only established on its current date in 1941 – and the joys of fifteen pound turkeys, French’s green bean casserole, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Black Friday, they were certainly familiar with the concept of coming together with those closest to them as the autumn drew to a close, enjoying the fruits of the harvest and celebrating with good food and good cheer. And Shakespeare, as he usually does, has some good advice to offer upon the occasion:

“O Lord that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.”
- 2 Henry VI, 1.1.19-20.

Natalie A.

PS. Should you want to try your hand at Renaissance cooking, HistoricalFoods.com offers recipes for “gilded marchpane” – a fantastical marzipan centerpiece favored by the Tudors – and even “buttered beere,” which I’ve been wanting to try since the first time Harry Potter sampled the stuff in Hogsmeade. And, if you wish to expand your horizons to the Stuart period, you can even try “roast wild boar,” “plague-water” (helpful for keeping away that pesky pestilence), and “toast of divers sorts.”

"Marvelous sweet music!"

In the course of my research, I frequently come across fun/entertaining/goofy items related to my current topic of investigation which, unfortunately, are not quite scholarly enough to incorporate into my educational writing for “Rehearsal Tools of the ASC.” Thus, I am discovering that this blog is the perfect outlet to share these random, bite-size bits and clips of information in a slightly less formal environment. Take, for example, what I have most recently been writing about: music. In searching out all there is to know on Shakespeare and music, I’ve become more and more aware of just how large a role this particular combination still plays in popular culture. A search for “Shakespeare” under the “Music” category on Amazon.com returns 884 results, encompassing everything from compilations of music popular in Shakespeare’s day to the Shakespeare in Love soundtrack; from Baby Einstein: Baby Shakespeare to Are You Shakespearienced? Heck, a person has only to turn on the radio to hear some toe-tapping Shakespeare. (A slightly different ending for Romeo and Juliet perhaps, but who hasn’t always wanted things to work out for those two, anyway?)

If one starts to pay attention, in fact, Shakespeare begins to turn up all over the place in music. Just listen closely to the lyrics in the Disney classic, Beauty and the Beast. In “The Mob Song” the evil Gaston encourages those torch and pitchfork wielding townspeople to “Screw your courage to the sticking place!” This is the same advice which Lady Macbeth offers her husband when he has second thoughts about their plot to kill King Duncan: “We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place, and we’ll not fail” (Macbeth, 1.7.60-62). There’s an entire song in the hippie musical Hair based on Hamlet’s “What a piece of work is man” monologue (Hamlet, 2.2). And people still walk down the aisle to Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” from his incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

All this is not, however, a new phenomenon. Practically since Shakespeare’s plays were first staged, it seems that people have had a fascination with turning Shakespeare into music and adding music to Shakespeare. Composer Benjamin Britten said, “I feel that everyone ought to set Shakespeare to music in order just to get to know the incredible beauty and intensity of these words." In 1960, Britten himself turned A Midsummer Night’s Dream into an opera, which still enjoys popularity today. A trailer for the English Touring Opera’s Spring 2010 production, featuring Thisbe’s “Asleep, my love?” speech (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, V.i.319) may be seen here.

When it comes to the whole Shakespeare/music trend, though, one of my personal favorites has to be Kenneth Branagh’s movie musical of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Yes, it’s cheesy, and sometimes borders on the bizarre, but it’s also a lot of fun. Set in a 1930’s-inspired Navarre, it features such hits of that decade as Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You,” Jerome Kern’s “The Way You Look Tonight,” and Irving Berlin’s “There’s No Business Like Showbusiness” (belted out by the always hilarious Nathan Lane as the clown Costard). Check out the film’s whacky rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek,” featuring Kenneth Branagh, Alessandro Nivola, Matthew Lillard, and Adrien Lester as the besotted Berowne, King Ferdinand, Longaville, and Dumaine, respectively, along with the objects of their affection.

Another 30’s-set, yet ever so slightly darker, Shakespeare is Ian McKellen’s Richard III, which plays out in an alternate universe Great Britain controlled by a fascist government. The movie opens cheerily enough, though, with Christopher Marlowe’s poem “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” set to a swinging big band melody. The romantic, youthful tone of the lyrics provides a stark contrast to the dark, bitter mood Richard soon provides. In addition to Ian McKellen skulking about, keep an eye out also for Maggie Smith, Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, and Robert Downey, Jr.

This is just a very (very, very) small sampling of some ways in which Shakespeare’s words have inspired a variety of musical outpourings. Some have been masterful…some not so much…and some have been just plain weird. But they have all entertained countless numbers of people – in addition to providing an entertaining diversion for me in the process of sorting through scholarly articles and primary sources. Shakespeare not only brought music to the stage in his day, but has since conquered Broadway and the pop charts, been turned into musical entertainment for the big screen and TV, inspired composers from Tchaikovsky to Stravinsky, and has spoken to almost every generation since his death through the musical medium. Pretty talented for a fellow who’s been dead for almost four hundred years…and who definitely never heard of Taylor Swift.

Natalie A.

A Festival of Theses!

On Monday, the 8th of November, I had the opportunity to attend the Fall Thesis Project Festival at Blackfriars Playhouse, where graduate students in Mary Baldwin College’s MLITT/MFA program in Shakespeare and Performance presented on their various research topics. A day-long “Thesis Festival” might not, at first, sound like a rollicking good time, but it proved to be a day full of very enjoyable and interesting presentations.

The subjects which were examined covered a broad range, providing a colorful bouquet of Shakespearean topics ready to be admired. There was everything from What to Expect When Staging the Expecting: Pregnancy in Early Modern Drama to Miranda as “Native”: An Exploration of Sexual Politics and Cultural Hegemony in Caribbean and African Postcolonial Adaptations of The Tempest to Rosalind and Cleopatra: The Androgyne in Performance, to name just a few. For a detailed account of each presentation, see the official ASC liveblogs of the event: Session 1, Session 2, and Session 3.

One which was particularly attention-grabbing to me was ‘SBlood, Zounds, and Marry: Oaths as Indicators of Character Change on the Early Modern Stage, presented by David C. Santangelo. While a word like “Zounds!” (a contraction of “God’s wounds”) may seem pretty tame to us today, four hundred years ago such an exclamation would have caused quite a stir in the playhouse. During his talk, Santangelo also examined the ways in which a character’s use of oaths within a play can reveal essential elements of his or her character. As an example he used Iago, whose oaths reveal in turn his crudeness and his cleverness throughout Othello. His exclamation, “By Janus” (1.2.33), for instance, is significant in that Janus is a two-faced god, just as Iago himself is a two-faced character.

Another entertaining presentation was Andrea Kelley’s If the Shrew Fits: Chronology, Misogyny, and Dichotomy in the Taming Plays. Kelley opened her talk with a hilarious YouTube video chronicling the transformation of various film Kates, including Elizabeth Taylor in a 1967 The Taming of the Shrew, Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You, and Shirley Henderson in a modern re-telling (see it here). She then discussed how different versions of this story are prevalent throughout history, but they don’t necessarily represent realistic marriages of their times, just as modern sitcoms don’t exactly portray accurate husband-wife relationships. Kelley used different texts on marriage from Shakespeare’s day through the middle of the 18th century to illustrate both the more romantic and the slightly harsher views on how to tame a shrew, so to speak. (One offered this endearing advice in oh-so witty rhyme form: “Rub a dub, kill her with a club.” Hmm.)

Of course, these are just two out of eleven; all of the theses were well-presented and engaging, whether they were on a topic I was interested in, only vaguely aware of, or knew absolutely nothing about. There was also X-Treme Casting, about the practice of using as few as five actors to put on a Shakespeare play, and Ford, and Jonson, and Middleton, Oh My!, which featured some hilarious performances by other students in the Mary Baldwin program as a geriatric John Ford and irascible Ben Jonson, among others, and which asked the question: Why do we study Shakespeare more than any of these other playwrights, anyway?

The high level of scholarship which is happening constantly in and around the American Shakespeare Center is something I was completely unaware of until I became an intern in the Education Department, and it is something which I believe the general public is largely unconscious of as well. I have found that, when I inform people that I am working as an intern at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, the typical response is, “Oh, you mean at Blackfriars?” The fact is that the Blackfriars Playhouse is a part of a larger, vital vehicle for sharing a love of Shakespeare and early modern theatre and for educating both scholars and the average citizen on this subject. This is something I am becoming more and more aware of as I work here. Unless a person is in-the-know in some way, they could see the Blackfriars Playhouse as simply a theatre. Of course, it is a theatre – and a great one! – but it is also a venue for the sharing of some amazing research, all of which is open and available to a curious public. One would absolutely not have to know a thing about Shakespeare and performance to have a great time at an event like the Fall Thesis Festival. There’s almost always some neat education event happening at Blackfriars. So don’t be intimidated – go check it out!

Natalie A.

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes…”

All this cool weather and the newly emerged, resplendent autumn colors have been putting me in the Halloween spirit lately. And it has also got me thinking: What about Shakespeare and Halloween? What connections are there between the two, and what was this holiday like in Elizabethan England? I was inspired to do a little research and come up with a few notes on witches, warlocks, and William Shakespeare.

First, a (very) brief history lesson: Halloween has its origins in the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain, a time when the ancient Celts believed the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead blurred, and the dead returned to earth. Later, when Christianity spread to the British Isles, the Catholic Church overlaid many of their holidays onto pagan holidays in order to lessen the gap between religions. One of these holidays was All Saints’ Day, also known as All-Hallows, on November 1st. Thus, October 31st became known as All-Hallows' Eve, which was, in turn, eventually shortened to Halloween. And there you have it. For a more detailed (and humorous) account of this whole, tedious process, visit this blog of another local Staunton historian.

The modern Halloween which we are familiar with, however, did not actually come into existence until the nineteenth century. During Shakespeare’s day, one may see the roots of our contemporary celebrations, yet, at this time, All-Hallows' Eve was still a highly religious-centric holiday. This was a world where ghouls and goblins weren’t the stuff of campfire ghost stories but were, instead, very real and ever-present in daily life. Men and women lived in fear of getting on these malevolent spirits’ bad sides, and they turned to a combination of the Church and old superstitions to protect themselves. Rather than going trick-or-treating, an Elizabethan child might have gone “a-souling,” or traveled door to door asking for “soul cakes” in return for prayers for souls of the dead. Shakespeare even references this practice in The Two Gentlemen of Verona when Speed, page to Valentine, tells his lord that a sure sign of love is that Valentine speaks whiningly, or “puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas” (II.i.25-26). To avoid being recognized by any ghosts who might be out and about, these Elizabethans would have worn masks – a predecessor of today’s costumes. The original jack-o-lanterns were actually turnips (pumpkins being native to the Americas), which were carved and placed in front of the home to ward off evil spirits.

Shakespeare would have been familiar with these traditions, and instances of the supernatural abound in his writing. The most famous probably occur in Macbeth, which was, many believe, written to cater to the interests of England’s reigning monarch, James I (previously James VI of Scotland). James had a particular fascination with witchcraft, even publishing his own book on the subject, the Daemonologie. Witchraft, of course, plays an integral role in the story of Macbeth in the form of the three Weird Sisters. The witches in this play are undeniably present, visible and powerful; they begin the play and set the plot in motion. Yet the whole play is awash in eerie, paranormal vibes. Lady Macbeth summons spirits to possess her, ghosts seat themselves at banquet tables, and ethereal daggers hover in midair. The veil between earth and the realm of the fantastic seems practically non-existent.

Some other particularly famous ghost cameos in Shakespeare include the appearance of the ghost of Hamlet’s father in Hamlet. Like the witches of Macbeth, this ghost “bodes some strange eruption to our state” (I.i.69), in that its appearance sets about a chain of events which alters fate of the kingdom. The ghost of the ex-king, however, is much more economical and somber of speech than the gleefully wicked Weird Sisters. He is a spirit come from the fires of hell, and he manifests in setting which feels far more ordered and Christian than the wild and gothic moors of Scotland. In addition, a multitude of ghosts are present in Richard III. The spirits of his past victims appear in a grisly parade before Richard on the eve of the Battle of Bosworth Field, reminding him of all his evil deeds. This ghostly army promises to fight on the site of Henry, Earl of Richmond (soon to be King Henry VII): “Be cheerful, Richmond, for the wronged souls of butchered princes fight in thy behalf,” intones the ghost of young Prince Edward (V.iii.121-122). Little Edward and his younger brother Richard, the Duke of York, are still said to haunt the Tower of London, scene of their supposed murder by their uncle Richard III. And then, of course, there’s the ghost of Caesar, who shows up to haunt Brutus in Julius Caesar and whose appearance most likely gave birth to the exclamation, “Great Caesar’s ghost!”

These are just a couple of examples; Shakespeare’s plays are packed full of magic, witches and wizards, mischief-making spirits, ghosts, and “murder most foul.” This All-Hallows' Eve, why not get in touch with Shakespeare’s spooky side? On closer inspection, he might be the perfect representative of the Halloween spirit.

Natalie A.

Also, if you want to forgo a more modern Halloween of Twilight costumes and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in favor of something more Shakespearean, here’s a nifty recipe for soul cakes from HistoricalFoods.

“And since I am dead, I can take off my head
To recite Shakespearean quotations!”

-Jack, the Pumpkin King
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

Adventures in Cacozelia

My work at the ASC continues, and I have moved on in my research to rhetoric – a term at once so broad and yet so focused that figuring out how to approach it has been a daunting task. This little word comes with a legion of ludicrously technical terms, all Greek or Latin in origin, with names like “synathroesmus” (a conglomeration of many words and expressions either with similar meaning or not) or “prozeugma” (a series of clauses in which the verb employed in the first is implied in the others). Some of these tongue-twisting terms (alliteration!) are familiar to us – words like sarcasm, intimation, and irony – but some seem like alien words sent from another planet (simile!). Plus, there are about a million of them, all, clearly, impossible to memorize (hyperbole!). But, after all, nothing ventured, nothing gained (apothegm!); I knew that I’d have to start somewhere. This was a tiny word of epic proportions (oxymoron!).

Still, rather than slog my way through this swamp of advanced concepts (metaphor!), I decided that I preferred the more loose definition of rhetoric simply as the effective and elegant use of language. While Shakespeare’s writing is indeed full of anthimerias (the substitution of one part of speech for another) and onomatopoeias (the use of words to imitate natural sounds), it is his skill in crafting masterful phrases with the English language which sticks most with modern audiences (emphasis!). That is to say (exepegisis!), many of the rhetorical devices which he employs are intuitive. An audience member does not need to be aware of the word “malapropism” to understand that Dogberry, the bumbling constable in Much Ado about Nothing, is a master of them. They simply see the humor in his confusion of “salvation” and “damnation” (III.iii.2), or laugh when he takes it as a compliment to be called “tedious” by the venerable Leonato, and to proclaim, “But truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could find in my heart to bestow it all of your worship” (III.v.16-17).

By the same token, a person certainly needn’t be familiar with “asteismus” to enjoy Beatrice and Benedick’s competition utilizing this concept in the following exchange, each twisting the other’s words and throwing them back at them (Much Ado about Nothing, I..i..126-137):

BEATRICE I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.

BENEDICK God keep your ladyship still in that mind, so some gentleman or other shall scape a predestinate scratched face.

BEATRICE Scratching could not make it worse, and ‘twere such a face as yours were.

BENEDICK Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.

BEATRICE A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.

BENEDICK I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer.

Without knowing precisely what name to give the rhetorical content, one may still marvel (thaumasmus!) at Shakespeare’s wit in constructing such passages. In my opinion, it is possible to loathe the very idea of English grammar and its study (apodioxis!) and still to get great enjoyment from the way in which Shakespeare plays with words. Thus, while exploring the more intricate points of rhetoric may be fun and interesting, as I’ve discovered, there’s no need to worry about confusing one’s brachylogia and bdelygmia, or prodiorthosis and prosapodosis, to truly love Shakespeare.

Natalie A.

PS. If anyone wishes to become an expert on Classical or Renaissance rhetoric (or just memorize one or two especially crazy terms to impress people with at parties – parenthesis!), I recommend this extensive dictionary of rhetorical terms, the Silva Rhetoricae: http://rhetoric.byu.edu/.

Thoughts of a new intern...

Greetings! My name is Natalie Anderson, and I am the newest intern in the Education Department here at the American Shakespeare Center. Let’s see…I am a native of Brownsburg, VA (a teeny tiny village about half an hour south of Staunton), and I graduated from Guilford College in Greensboro, NC in May 2009, where I majored in History and minored in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, as well as Anthropology and German Language. I have been obsessed with medieval history and culture since I was in seventh grade (read: geek), and studying the Renaissance has certainly long held allure for me as well. Since graduating, my travels have taken me to some interesting places. I worked as an archaeologist for almost a year at Montpelier, the home of James Madison, and I spent this past summer studying Medieval Latin at the University of Toronto. But, that whole time, I was constantly searching all over the US for some sort of internship where I could indulge my love of all things medieval and Renaissance. Unfortunately, these proved highly elusive. I’d almost given up when it suddenly occurred to me: there is the perfect resource practically in my own backyard. So, here I am, back in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley researching Renaissance theatre – life is pretty good right now.

My internship here in Staunton involves working on a project entitled “Rehearsal Tools of the ASC.” This basically means that I have a list of terms – rhetoric, stage directions, costumes, props, fight choreography, etc. – which I spend my time investigating. My job is to find out as much as I can about what these terms meant in the realm of early modern theatre, and how acting companies of the time dealt with each item. What were their rehearsal schedules like? What did their costumes look like? How did they choreograph fights and dances? The second part of this project entails comparing the original practices to how things are done at the ASC and in Blackfriars today. So far, it’s been a blast. Each simple word, I’m discovering, is like the tiniest of windows which opens up into this immense, fascinating world of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Sometimes, of course, the torrent of information opening such a window can unleash is overwhelming. Yet sorting everything out, while challenging, is also exciting. I’ve started with dance and fight choreography, and I often find myself lost in fencing manuals or reading about the types and style of dance popular in the Elizabethan court. I recently spent a day at Mary Baldwin’s Grafton Library, tracking down primary sources and taking advantage of their incredible selection of Shakespeare-related works. Honestly, while it isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, I truly enjoy historical research – losing myself in a different time, bringing words back to life across centuries, the thrill of the hunt – and I’m looking forward to everything that is to come.

In addition, last Thursday I spoke with Colleen Kelly, the ASC’s Director of Training, who provided me with some fascinating insights into Shakespearean theatre and the plethora of ways in which production companies interpret these complex conditions for modern audiences. This made me think: the acts of dancing and fighting, particularly, are signposts of their times. Thus, the way in actors present these elements in the theatre help to set the tone of a play in a major way. After all, a duel with rapier and dagger present a very different image from, say, a shootout or a street-fight with switchblades. Yet Shakespeare’s plays leave themselves open for any of these interpretations. These are the sort of things one gets to mull over as an intern at the ASC. Already I’ve have numerous “Aha!” moments – those electrifying times when, all of a sudden, my brain connects two dots it has never thought to connect before, and I learn something totally new.

The final goal is for my research to appear on the ASC website, in order that it might help students, educators, or simply anybody who is interested in the various topics. Hopefully the end result will be well-made and useful, but, for me, the most fun will be in the creation.

Natalie A.

PEG Lecture 9/17/10

Today’s class, held in the Masonic building rather than the Blackfriars Playhouse, got the students up on their feet, which I think they enjoyed once they got over their nervousness. Dr. Ralph talked a bit about Taming of the Shrew to start off. Fortunately, all of the kids had seen our production. I didn’t realize that Taming has remained one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays and is today one of his biggest moneymakers. In the current production, Kate and Petruchio are very much in love, and he’s teaching her that, if she makes believe that things are a certain way (eg. the sun is the moon), she can win and have fun with it. The more interesting productions show the two of them in love, says Ralph.
The students broke into groups of two, each group having a few lines from Kate’s final monologue. Then one partner would perform it as a powerless woman and the other would perform it as powerful. I found the powerful portrayals generally more interesting. Many of the powerless ones were quiet and had no sarcasm. Kate would often look over at Petruchio (played by the silent Maxim) to check in with him, make sure he approved of what she said. Ralph said to pretend that if she got it wrong, he would beat the hell out of her afterwards. That definitely helped them seem powerless! Less hyperbolically, she looked to him for protection.
The powerful ones relied a lot on inflection and focus. One of her biggest sources of power was interaction not just with Bianca and the widow, but with women in the audience. She could use her blocking for power: sometimes she would stay still, sometimes she would draw near the audience, and sometimes she would stand behind her husband and look down at him when she was being sarcastic. And when she was out of his sight, he had no power. By the end, her power reached the level of pulling his hair while talking about being weaker and then putting her hand under his foot to push his chair over. I think everyone preferred a non-sexist interpretation of the text.
We ran out of time before we could do a similar exercise with a scene from Othello, the one where Emilia and Desdemona discuss the double standard for fidelity. I hope the other groups get to perform those scenes next week. It should be fascinating.

PEG Lecture 9/10/10

Today Dr. Ralph and his three assistants examined power in four scenes from II Henry IV. He also told them a little about the play, it’s plot, and Sir John Falstaff. Shakespeare originally called him Oldcastle, but the Oldcastle family demanded that he change it to Falstaff. Censoring art is a great example of power. Here are the four scenes:

Falstaff before the Chief Justice: Gower enters with a message for the justice, and Falstaff keeps trying to involve himself, asking questions. The justice ignores him completely. Ralph pointed out it’s much like high school, when the unpopular kid asks the popular group what’s up and the popular group drifts away without responding. I remember some experiences like that in high school, but it more reminded me of how people in power don’t have to respond to phone calls or letters. Ever tried to talk to a celebrity, or the head of a large company, or a prospective employer? They have the power, and they don’t have to reply when you contact them. Falstaff does keep some measure of power by repeatedly inviting Gower to dinner when the justice is trying to leave, annoying them and making it clear he knows how the justice is taking his power.

Falstaff in conscription mode: Ralph showed how relevant the scene was by telling us about when he was a young man and could have been drafted for Vietnam. I wouldn’t know about drafts—being blind has its perks! Of the six soldiers Falstaff can draft four of, two of them have their own power: money. They bribe Falstaff through Bardolph to pick poor soldiers less fit for the job than them. One tries to gain power through sympathy, but it’s the two pound bribe that carries the weight. There’s never truly an even playing field, explained Ralph.

Falstaff vs. Colaville of the Dale: Ralph had always envisioned this as a comic scene featuring a fight in which the cowardly Falstaff gains the upper hand over the bold rebel. His brilliant assistant, Brent, convinced him that it should be a serious scene. Colaville yields to Falstaff because he has heard so much of Falstaff’s (completely undeserved) valorous reputation. Although they both have swords, a base level of military power, the man with the power of reputation wins over the one with more military power. When Prince John enters, Falstaff tries to increase his power by making a big deal of his prisoner. John has no respect for him and uses his higher power to nullify Falstaff’s, sentencing Colaville to execution. Falstaff does pull out the power of the poet, saying that if John does not acknowledge he captured a noted rebel then he will have a ballad written in which he exceeds John. That was my favorite part. I have made use of that writer’s power before, mainly when I wrote an Aristophanic comedy about my college! Most people find subtle ballads and songs preferable.

We only looked briefly at the banishment of Falstaff. Now Hal is in absolute power and strips Falstaff of his. Powers higher still, however, Hal’s obligation to the kingdom and the law, force him to do so. Ralph notes that after Hal leaves, Falstaff acknowledges a debt for the first time in his life.

The day ended with Sarah assigning groups of students scenes to study from Love’s Labours Lost. I wonder if they’ll be performing those at the end? That play has some hilarious power scenes. Now I’m remembering the great production I saw this summer in the first session of YCTC.

PEG Class 9/3/2010

After Sarah’s introduction to the history and importance of Blackfriars, she introduced Dr. Ralph as the main lecturer. This year the PEG class studies power in Shakespeare. Ralph talked first about money as power, discussing how Blackfriars cost more than the Globe and how the people in gallant stools and lords chairs had more power, even pushing a nearby actor out of the way if he obscured their view. He then got Sarah, Jeff, and Maxim to perform several scenes, while he explored the power dynamics in each.

• Othello tells Desdemona to go to bed. First they performed it out of context, and it looked like they wanted to sleep together—the power of the conjugal debt. Also, Othello has power because he’s the husband giving the wife an order in public. Then they performed two versions of it in the context of Othello having recently struck her and being full of menace. Now power came from fear. After each time, Ralph asked the students what the power was to get them thinking, as opposed to just telling them, a good choice.
• Brabantio begs the duke to punish the man who stole his daughter. As a friend of the duke, Brabantio has some power. The duke has the most, and even though he shares it with senators he promises to soak the man with everything in the book. Brabantio fingers Othello, and the senators and then the duke “basically say, ‘bye-bye,’” as Ralph puts it, showing their power over Brabantio. The reason: Othello has the most power because they need him to save the city from the Turks. Despite what he says, Dr. Ralph’s not a bad actor.
• The scene from II Henry IV with Falstaff’s mistress, Nell Quickly, and the beadle. On the surface, the beadle has the power because he represents the law. By the end, however, the whore leads him offstage. She feels power because of her pregnancy and because she knows Falstaff, a big buddy of the new-crowned king. She also uses the power of language, very important to Shakespeare, as she insults the beadle. To show the power of insults, everyone got to insult Jeff as a nuthook and a pasty-face. The students sure enjoyed that.

Then, unfortunately, we ran out of time, demonstrating the Power of the Clock. It seemed to me that after each scene they had a good idea of the power dynamics. I wonder what they’ll do next week?

David

Final Reflection

So, it's my last day here at the ASC, which of course makes me think about the things I've learned during this experience. Obviously there are the tangible things--a long list of primary documents, folders and copies and handouts I've made that will soon be used or recycled, the general fluff left behind from anyone who works in an office.

And, there's the things that I've learned--for one, I have a whole host of new information, facts, and skills at my call. I spent a large amount of my energy last semester designing and thinking about my senior thesis project this spring, and now I have even more ideas and information to tangle with.

But more than that, this experience has allowed me to experience Shakespeare in a way I never have before. As a college, and a few years ago high school, student I primarily experienced Shakespeare as just that--a student. I was handed a text, told to read a certain amount by a certain day, and then come into class to talk about it. I had a teacher standing at the front of the room suggesting ideas and themes to think about. Now, there was nothing wrong with this experience. Nothing at all. My Shakespeare professor at St. Lawrence was wonderful, and my high and middle school teachers some of the best. But I was still a student. Shakespeare was still a task for me, a question to answer, an act to read, a paper to write, a guilt during friday morning class because I was sleepy, hungover, and thinking about the delicious breakfast I could wolf down in just twenty minutes....fifteen minutes....ten minutes.

Aside from being a student, I've interacted with Shakespeare before as an actor. Lucentio tenth grade. Peter Quince twelfth. Viola sophomore year. And these experiences were some of the most rewarding. Discovering a text as a character, peeling through the layers of history to find something whole and human and lovely inside of it, something that could then be brought alive. Of course, being young and knowing less than I do now, I don't think I ever exactly realized what I was doing onstage. Yes, I said the lines because they were in my script. I moved around because my director told me to. But I slipped into the perpetual deep trench of the unknowing actor, in which I pronounced my lines with the the general tone and air of what they meant, but without understanding the language itself. Watch any high school theater production, you will understand this phenomenon. It's almost a dumbshow in this respect, in that they could be saying anything at all with no changes in their performance. The acting is guided by tone and movement rather than language. It's a mark of a professional show and actor that their performance of Shakespeare is guided by the words and the text.

As such, for the first time really ever this summer I was allowed to interact with Shakespeare as I wanted. Sure, I was being told to find articles and primary source documents, but I found joy their pursuit. I clicked on links because I wanted to and pored over documents because I was genuinely interested in what I could learn from them. I hunted through articles and blogs, chatrooms and videos, all for the sake of learning. For the first time, I was able to interact with Shakespeare on my own terms. I didn't have a teacher giving me a text and a deadline, or a director shouting blocking cues. I went through the texts myself, and let them speak to me as they would. I got to learn Shakespeare, on my own and in my own way.

Think about the first time you ever read Shakespeare. Ever looked at or spoke the words, the first time you've interacted with the text. Mine was 8th grade, Mr. Davolio's classroom (see? I can even remember details) reading A Midsummer's Nights Dream. I remember where I was sitting, what the room felt like, the color and the weight of the book in my hands. And I remember thinking "Oh. This is pretty cool". My point is whatever professor or actor you talk to, whatever blogs you follow, whatever nerdy friends you have that you talk about Shakespeare with--they all remember that moment. They can all recall when they first interacted with a given text. Taming of the Shrew tenth grade. Hamlet twelfth. Much Ado sophomore year of college. Titus junior year. These plays are not historical documents, they are living pieces of work. They have history of their own, but they also create a history, a close, personalized, unique history, in the hands of their viewer, their reader, their player and their student. That's the real beauty of Shakespeare, of any play or piece of text--they reflect universal truths and genuine human emotions, but they're also all your own. It is for everyone, and also for you. I'm so grateful to the ASC that I was able to have this experience and learn everything I did. It opened my eyes to a whole new world of thinking about Shakespeare, and I'm sure I'll be back for more.

Carla Ricci

Near the End...

Today is my second to last day in Staunton, meaning yes, in two short days I will be driving back to cold cruel Massachusetts, with no promises of Shakespearean matinees or historical research to cheer me up. However, in the spirit of making everything of the time I have left down here, this morning we went down to the playhouse to see the dress rehearsal of As You Like It, and my heavens what a show. It's a wonderful play to start, with enough cross-dressing, plot twists, lovers, tyrants, and fools to go around. But in particular, this cast really made it sing (quite literally. there's a lot of singing). Each character was given nuance (as much nuance as you can have for a Shakespeare comedy) and dimension, coming alive with subtle jokes and jabs purely for the entertainment of the audience. Being able to compare this rehearsal to the Ren Run just a few weeks ago was especially interesting. Certain characters went through drastic changes--Jaques for instance, who initially was melancholy almost to the point of parody. The Ren Run was certainly more over the top, and it was clear that the actors were really toying with their characters and seeing how far they could push them before it became downright ridiculous. The rehearsal today was a little more subdued--it felt less frantic, for one, but also more polished and sophisticated. The actors seemed more comfortable in their roles, and the choices they made contributed to the harmony of the play and the audience overall. It was a lovely performance, one in which the actors really invited us as audience members to share in the characters' experiences onstage. On a separate note, it's great to see these guys performing their touring shows--they come to my school on tour every fall, and it was during one of these performances that I was introduced to the ASC and everything it has to offer.

As far as back in the office, it's really astounding the number of sources that Elena and I have managed to put together in our joint time here. So often we hear scholars lamenting on how little we know about Shakespeare's life--and yet all it takes is a little bit of digging to really discover a wealth of information. Not just Shakespeare, but his plays and sonnets, his contemporaries, his players, his time and his (probable) lifestyle. It's wonderful to look through, wonderful to read the theories, contend with the skeptics, and attempt to recover for myself an idea of who this man was in his own time before he became the revered Shakespeare that we hear so much about today.

In addition to my dutiful scholarly research, I've also discovered a number of popular Shakespeare sources online. Bardfilm, a blog I recently discovered is worth a look for any fan of Shakespeare or film. He reviews (obviously) film adaptations of Shakespeare from around the world, but also takes an interesting look at festival performances and includes obscure Shakespeare references in popular films (Beauty and the Beast, who would have known?) In addition, Shakespeare Geek (the name says it all) is simply a wonderful resource for anyone who likes thinking or talking about Shakespeare. So, anyone who is cool. He brings up good discussion topics concerning Shakespeare and the modern world, and the way he and his plays are perceived, thought about, talked about, and performed today. After spending a ponderous few hours (oops) clicking through his posts, I also chanced upon this little gem at a softer world, an online comic.



Love it.

Carla Ricci

A Lovely Day in Staunton Rids One of Friggatriskaidekaphobia

*Friggatriskaidekaphobia: fear of Friday the 13th. Cool word, yes?

Hello, I’m Natalie. I’m a junior English and Writing & Rhetoric major at James Madison University and education and marketing intern at the American Shakespeare Center (ASC). This is my fifth week working in our office, the Masonic building in the heart of Staunton’s historic “red brick” district. My internship grants me access to the most intriguing parts of Staunton and the ASC. I help to record the ASC’s Youth Company Theatre Camp (YCTC), get to know the city by talking to residents and community organizations, explore the arts culture, and hunt for places of interest to young people.

        In previous weeks, I've been working with other interns to document YCTC lectures and performance master classes for ASC’s archives. The YCTC campers were passionate, lively, and engaging. They were serious about their work during workshops for fight choreography, clowning, Elizabethan dancing, and fearless as young performance artists. One day in particular stands out, the music performance master class I videotaped in Stuart Hall. The campers were aggressively attentive during a lesson on Elizabethan music rules and jumped headfirst into composing a traditional song. Chris instructed them to choose each note of the melody. After he confirmed whether the song fit within Elizabethan guidelines, they created a contemporary version. Modern adaptations of Elizabethan songs are key to the authenticity of Blackfriars Playhouse. Shakespeare himself had music of his time performed in between acts of his plays, he explained. In less than an hour, the campers had a fully developed song with parts for violin, flute, recorder and drum, a few verses, a chorus, and harmony.

        I was surprised by the joyful reactions elicited by each new suggestion. YCTC’s positive environment easily facilitated natural collaboration amongst the campers. Their quick improvisation indicated the presence of talent, confidence, and feelings of belonging within the YCTC atmosphere. I saw no traces of opposition, nor inadequacy if one did not play an instrument or “couldn’t sing well.” The campers delighted in songwriting and performed the result with camaraderie I pleasured to witness.

Another project I’m working on is a short video illuminating Staunton’s hippest facets, an insider’s guide to Staunton for college students in the Shenandoah area and beyond. Staunton’s downtown is the epitome of charm and eccentricity, the perfect place to lose oneself in exploration. I challenge anyone to spend a few minutes on the street without wandering into a kooky antiques store, thrift shop, art gallery, restaurant venue, or café. I happened upon pretty Japanese screens and vintage record players in Worthington’s Hardware, and watched glassblowing at Sunspots Studios. Marvin, the owner of Frontier Antiques, played piano as I perused funky rugs and found a cool edition of Camus’ The Rebel in stacks of old, peculiar books. As I dissect my pile of pamphlets, I learn of more Staunton has to offer; a 1950’s drive-in called Wright’s Dairy Rite, inexpensive movies at the beautifully restored 1930’s Dixie Theatre, and live music outdoors almost every weeknight of the Summer.

Staunton’s arts culture is thriving, intimate, and welcoming. Art here has a powerful pull; an aesthetic person of any degree cannot help but orbit the storefronts on Beverley Street. Besides its visual appeal as a classic Victorian Main Street, Beverley Street’s windows exhibited a wide range of art—everything from traditional painting to sculpture and experimental photography. The most recent installations were in place as the “Filling the Half-Empty Glass storefront art initiative” by the Staunton Downtown Development Association (SDDA) and volunteers. My favorite was “Shakespeare’s Othello,” a sculpture by Trenley Anderson in an empty space across the street. Even Beverley Street windows that are not galleries or part of the initiative invite passers by to Staunton’s art scene. Large, red paper lips in one window urge blingo players to support the Staunton Augusta Art center, a colorful array of fake heads accost those who pass Staunton’s School of Cosmetology, a photo shop down the street showcases a local photographer’s work exploring grief, and Camera II’s window encourages everyone to blow up personal photos, “Decorate your home with your own art.

Today I will finish storyboarding the video and check out some of the performances, restaurants, cafés, galleries, and stores on my list of prospective youth magnets. It’s not too hot—perfect for meandering and hopefully chancing upon more to share.

The Ultimate Hump Day

Hey all! My name is Carla Ricci, and I'm an education intern here at the American Shakespeare Center. Although I hail from Wakefield, MA, I spend most of my time at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, where I'll be a senior this year. Yesterday was Wednesday, so besides being an ordinary hump day, it also marked the middle of my three weeks down here in Staunton.

Even though its only been a week and a half, I've still learned so much down here. My main project, which I started with Elena and have been working on continuously is finding primary source documents about Shakespeare, his lifestyle and time, his companies, and his theaters. Now, the word research alone is enough to make most people squirm, and combined with the phrase “old english documents”, it can be downright terrifying. However, after just a few hours of research, I found myself being fascinated with the things I was finding. Original text documents, written about Shakespeare or with his signature, as well as reviews of his plays from the period, and accounts from theater-goers and visitors in the time. I even discovered the original text of the play Arcadia, which my school is putting on this fall. Every day in front of the computer, I discover a new piece of information that makes me think about Shakespeare in a whole new way.

In addition to learning about Shakespeare, I've had the wonderful opportunity this week to teach a little bit about Shakespeare. Yesterday and Monday I had the chance to drive down to Natural Bridge Hotel with Christina to present to the Road Scholars. Road Scholar is a program for older adults in which they set up educational vacations around the country. This particular group was down in Natural Bridge all week, taking a variety of classes on everything from Buddhism to Natural Bridge geology to original Shakespearean staging conditions. The workshop was a blast--and even though we did it three different times, each one was different and unique. What we really covered in the class was the way that Shakespeare's language influenced his performance. For example, we did an iambic pentameter exercise in which folks in the audience were each given a syllable of a line of text. They stood or sat depending if their syllable was stressed or unstressed in the line. This way, we got a clear visualization of a line of iambic pentameter, and also realized the inner meaning of the line based on the stressed words. We also got to play around with Shakespearean staging--explaining and demonstrating the benefits of having a thrust stage, universal lighting, and audience interaction. What I loved most of these workshops was that I could really tell these people were interested, and that we were surprising them with information they never knew before. In particular, during questions at the end, a mini-discussion started debating the merits of film versions of Shakespeare with lots of special effects versus the more traditional text-based performances. The Road Scholars were a fantastic audience, and it was great to have the experience of being able to show them all something new.

Carla Ricci

Magic is an As You Like It Ren Run

Today is my last day at ASC, and I would like to begin this post by saying what a privilege it has been to work here over the last several weeks. I have learned far more from my experiences here than I ever would have expected, and I consider myself lucky to have had this opportunity. Moving on, it’s time for some Shakespeare.

Yesterday at ASC, I went to see the Renaissance Run of the 2010/2011 Restless Ecstasy touring troupe’s production of As You Like It. The Renaissance Run, or Ren Run as it is generally referred to, is essentially the first rehearsal for a play at ASC. First, the actors come together and, having already memorized their lines, create a playable version of the show without the oversight of the director, in less than ten hours. The actors then perform their version for the director and a small audience, and this performance constitutes the Ren Run. The Ren Run has an exciting quality to it in that it is not perfectly polished theatre; the actors can, and do, call for lines with a request of “prithee,” and it seems that anything can happen. In my case, an actor gave me a line to contribute, but realized once I had spoken that it was the wrong line and quickly corrected it.

I was particularly excited to be seeing As You Like It, because the theatre department at my college produced the show this past spring, and I was eager to have a point of comparison. The ability with which the actors handled the text struck me the most; even if using an accent, every actor spoke with a confidence that indicated how well they understood their lines. By contrast, the actors in my school’s production did not always grasp the meaning of what they said, even if they said it perfectly. Since the director chose to place the Forest of Arden in a slum outside of Mexico City, some of their lines were in Spanish, which may have contributed to their confusion. The dialogue seemed so rich when performed by the trained actors at ASC.

Other aspects that intrigued me included the music and the choreography. Given the short period of time in which the actors rehearsed the play, these two elements greatly impressed me. The wrestling match between Orlando and Charles in the first few scenes of the play came off well considering that the actors had only the one rehearsal to stage it, on top of staging the rest of the play. Though the fight lacked a gripping quality at the time, it looked like a great starting point, and I’m sure that with more rehearsal and a little direction, it will have the audience on the edge of their seats.

More than the choreography, I found the music very enthralling. The amount and quality of the songs bespoke of the talent of the actors. In addition to blocking and working the entire play during their one rehearsal, the actors also compiled the music. For someone who is not musically talented, this feat seems unmanageable, but the actors pulled it off as if they had rehearsed their songs for weeks. If there were any slip-ups, I never noticed. This combined with the actors’ comfort with their blocking and the verse made for a delightful experience.

Even though the actors didn’t get every line, I found the Ren Run to be a truly enjoyable piece of theatre. The actors never allowed a dull moment; they kept the audience engaged and entertained throughout. Bearing in mind what I saw at the Ren Run, it strikes me that great theatre does not require any airs and graces, but can be created with the simplest methods. As long as the actors clearly have a good time performing, the audience will have a great time watching them. I would have paid to see yesterday’s performance; I had that great a time. How fortunate, then, that ASC offers an entire season based on the same idea as the Ren Run, where actors own the process and produce plays in a similarly short period of time. I will definitely be coming back for more.

Elizabeth Reams

A Look into the World of Costumes

Today at the American Shakespeare Center, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jenny McNee, one of the resident costume designers, to discuss the realm of her expertise. Well, I sat, and Jenny worked. While she sewed, Jenny gave me some great insight into how costume design has evolved at ASC. According to Jenny, the process changes from season to season. Costuming generally begins with a discussion with the director, to determine the time period, if there is one, and the world of the play. In the past, Jenny would have begun by sketching different ideas for costumes. Now, however, Jenny begins the process by thinking about necessity: what is needed for the show and how much time there is to put it together. The designers pull many costumes from stock; that is to say, they take them from costumes that ASC already has from previous shows. Often, costumes from different past shows will work together for the present show, in a way that might not have been expected (for instance, they may have similar colors or textures).

When creating the various costumes needed for a show, Jenny considers several important factors. Time plays a major role in this part of the process, because Jenny and the other designers sometimes have only a week to compile all of the costumes for a show. For this reason, costumes are recycled over many seasons, though the designers do sometimes make entirely new costumes – for example, all of the coats being used in the current production of Othello are hand-made, an amazing feat to accomplish in such a short time span. Costumers in my school’s Theatre Department generally have between two and three weeks to realize their designs, so to me one week seems unrealistic, but Jenny and fellow designers make great costumes nevertheless. Other factors that might affect the costume choices include: whether an actor needs to change costumes quickly backstage; whether a costume is an “overdress” or an “underdress”; whether a certain type of fabric needs to be used; whether a costume needs a zipper, boning, or lacing; and whether the costume needs seams in a particular place. Truly, the costume designers have a lot to keep in mind.

Another concern for the costume designers is the period of the show. Not all shows at ASC are staged in the early modern period, so the costume designers must discuss with the director the desired period for a show, and then go on from there. With specific periods, the designers can research the typical dress of that time and use that research to shape their ideas. The easiest period to work with is of course the Elizabethan, because Jenny and the other designers have so many resources to pull from. In some cases, though, the director does not have a set period in mind, and in these instances sketching is the most useful tool. Jenny refers to these shows as “mash-ups,” where textile and color connect the costumes, and they evoke a mood or a place, rather than a certain period of time.

The final stages of the process consist first of going through the pulled costumes with the director to decide which work, and which do not. At times, the designers almost turn to “mind-reading,” as Jenny puts it, to discover exactly what the direct wants, so that they can then fix or create anything the director finds to be missing from the costumes. The designers take an inventory of what each actor needs for his or her character, so that they’re sure to have all the necessary items. At this time, the designers take note of what items need to be bought in order to complete their inventory. In the last week of rehearsals, the designers can see the costumes on the actors, and can decide what works and what needs to be added or changed. The costume designers, according to Jenny, continue to design the little pieces, primarily accessories, up to a show’s preview, and often add items based on what they see at the dress rehearsal. The process feels long and arduous, even if it only lasts just over a week, but based on what appears onstage, it’s one that is extremely worthwhile. I admire Jenny and the other designers for their hard work, which, as I saw this morning, is no exaggeration. My own experience with costuming is limited, but I know enough to understand that creating costumes for an ensemble of actors in one week is a great accomplishment. With this in mind, Jenny and the other designers’ work is even more impressive to me.

Elizabeth Reams

The More You Read...

It is hard to believe that my second week interning here at the American Shakespeare Center is almost over. The time seems to just be flying by. Last weekend I was able to go to the Blackfriars theatre and see both The Taming of the Shrew and Othello. Both of the shows were wonderful. It is one thing to learn about Shakespeare's original practices in a classroom but you don't really understand them until you are given the chance to experience them first hand. Shakespeare was also meant to be seen and heard. I can read Othello a million times but it wont make me cry like I did seeing it performed. I am very excited to take the things I'm experiencing to my theatre back home.

My week in the office has been spent doing study guide research for As You Like It and bibliographies. I have been gathering and compiling sources for both the tour of the Blackfriars and some of the program information. At first I though the job would be just like being back in school but the source materials I have been exposed to have opened the world of Shakespeare to me even further. In my final semester of school I will have to write a thesis on Shakespeare and I was struggling with topic ideas. I now have a ton of ideas for my topic. It's going to be hard to pick just one.

I am also excited for the opportunity to read a number of dramaturgy thesis projects. Having designed my own dramaturgy major I know these text will be invaluable in helping me better understand of what dramaturgy is and what my personal style and approach to it should be.
Elena Henriksen

New Experiences

Hello there! My name is Elena Henriksen and I am the newest education intern here at the American Shakespeare Center. I am from and attend college in Iowa. Currenly I am one year away from graduating with a double major in Psycholgoy and Dramaturgy and a double minor in Shakespearian Studies and Humanities.

My first week here at the ASC is quickly coming to an end. Most of the week has been spent on a number of small projects in the office. There were however two highlights this week. I was first given the opportunity to watch co-founder Ralph Cohen teach a lesson on iambic pentameter at YCTC. His enthusiasm for shakespeare was contagious and something you rarely encounter. As i watched the group of teens absorbing his every word, I found myself remembering the first time my college professors had done that for me. It is a wonderful thing that the ASC is providing this opportunity for younger ages. I would have loved the opportunity to see Shakespeare this way before college.

The second highligh of the week was attending the first run of Macbeth. In this first run the actors come together to perform the show with very little rehearsal before hand. I was blown away . The actors were memorized and able to communicate and negotiate with one another not by words but by simply acting together on stage. Seeing a show like this really makes it clear that all the rehearsal time given to shows now is not necessary. I am now extremely excited to see the fianl product and get my next week at the ASC underway.

Elena Henriksen

Bringing Shakespeare to a New Audience

This week, in my quest to learn all that there is to know about the American Shakespeare Center, I assisted Sarah Enloe, Director of Education at ASC, in a workshop at Clymore Elementary School, teaching basic stage combat to a group of around forty children up to ten years old. The point of this workshop was to educate and excite the children about Shakespeare, showing them that there’s more to his plays than just his recognized verse: there’s action, intrigue, and even death! Though perhaps the kids were mostly excited about the presence of a broadsword, even if they were only allowed to hold it briefly under Sarah’s careful supervision; stage swords aren’t sharp, but they can still hurt.

However, the structure of the workshop ensured that the students got a chance to both practice their newly acquired combat skills, using imaginary swords, and learn a bit about Shakespeare, through the scene in Macbeth when Macbeth fights and kills Young Siward. With Sarah’s guidance, the children explored how the text of the play can give information about the characters, even foretelling what will happen to them later in the story. In the example from Macbeth, Sarah explained how he reveals in the passage that he cannot be killed by just any man, saying, “What’s he/That was not born of a woman? Such a one/Am I to fear, or none” (Act 5.7). His statement foreshadows his own death, since he is killed in the end of the play by Macduff, who was technically not born of a woman because he was born by C-section. With all of this information in mind, the children were able to act out Macbeth and Siward’s fight, combining their new combative techniques with the story of the scene.

As with my experience last week, this week’s adventure provided me with a wonderful opportunity to see younger peoples become enlivened by Shakespeare. Sword or not, the children delighted in their chance to practice an important aspect of the Shakespearean stage, hopefully going forth with the desire to delve even further into the world of Shakespeare. I like to think that a passion was kindled in those young minds, and that in the years to come they will find even more to enjoy in Shakespeare’s work than they did in that hour of swordplay. If there is one thing that I learned from my time with the children, it’s that Shakespeare can hold just as much interest for an eight-year-old as for an eighty-year-old, further proof that his plays can reach out to any age.

Elizabeth Reams

Introduction and Interest in Shakespeare Among Young Actors

This blog is meant to chronicle the experiences of the American Shakespeare Center's Department of Education interns. As an intern for ASC's Department of Education, it will be my task to explore the different facets of ASC, and to learn how everything here comes together. My name is Elizabeth Reams, and over the next several weeks I will be doing just that, starting with the events of my very first day at ASC.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of observing rehearsals for both ASC’s production of John O’Keefe’s Wild Oats and the Young Company Theatre Camp’s production of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. Although the two acting companies differed in their level of experience, it struck me that there was no difference in the level of engagement in the text. YCTC actors performed with as much enthusiasm as ASC’s resident company, and if any of the students were not quite as comfortable with the text as the more experienced actors, I never noticed. Both the professional and the student actors brought to their performances a high level of energy, drawing me as an audience member into their world and making me as excited about the play as they were.

I was particularly pleased to see the YCTC actors so involved in Shakespearean performance. To see such young actors be so eager about performing Shakespeare proved to me that Shakespeare’s plays are both accessible and enjoyable for audiences and actors of many different age groups. It is a testament to the enduring quality of his plays that there are groups of young actors still keen to perform them. From what I observed of the YCTC actors’ performances, I am sure that with further study they will grasp the text with as much ease as their professional counterparts. Their level of passion, however, is hardly wanting, and it was a treat to see them perform.

Elizabeth Reams