The title of this post may seem a bit strange…I mean, good grief!  After everything I’ve written thus far as to the importance of sticking to the text, why would I even entertain the possibility that the text might be less than critical to the staging of Shakespeare?

This topic occurred to me as I began packing for our upcoming vacation to Hawaii (courtesy of my very kind mother-in-law - Everyone should be blessed with a mother-in-law like her!). I considered all of the physical necessities for myself, my husband, and my two young kids. I made my list and checked it several times. But then I thought about the most important item any bookworm must consider when preparing for long flights and time sitting around on a beach drinking pina coladas…What book(s) will I bring?!?

This is critical - this could make or break a great vacation!  So I decided on The Code of the Woosters, by P.G. Wodehouse, which I’m finishing up for teaching my British Literature class.  A hilarious read, it will keep me chuckling on the plane!  I also chose Master of Verona, which I have already read once, but want to read again as there is so much detail to the story, I want to really get my head around the plot and the characters.

However, because rehearsals for our Shrew production start when I get back from Hawaii, I know I also need to take my script and my Arden copy of the play so that I can be 110% ready to work with my cast next week.  I know I’ve said it before, but it’s really important for a director to choose a play that he/she likes…A LOT!  You will be reading, reading, and re-reading that script over and over again before opening night even gets close, so it really needs to be a play that you will enjoy that much!  Choosing Shrew was a good thing for me as I love reading it over and over - I notice new things with every read, just like I did with Much Ado last summer.

So, why is it important that a director be that familiar with the script?  Isn’t it good enough to know the plot, the characters, and the basic storyline?  Although I’ve never directed a non-Shakespearean play, I would suspect that regardless of the play you’re directing, the answer to that question is a resounding, “NO!”  First of all, when you’re dealing with Shakespeare, you have to start with the text…all of the clues to acting Shakespeare are in the words he wrote.  It’s really a miraculous thing - once you set kids to figuring out what all of the words mean - the classical allusions and the 16th-century hunting, clothing, and culinary terms, just to name a few - they start to figure out where their character is coming from and what he or she is feeling and thinking. Even starting with the meaning of a character’s name can be very helpful to the students. For last year’s production, I was able to find a list of what some of the Much Ado characters’ names mean. Two of the most telling were the meanings of Borachio and Claudio. Borachio, partying friend of Don John, means “drunkard,” and Claudio, whose personal hang-ups cause all sorts of misery for his bride-to-be, means “crippled.” In Shrew, Bianca means “white,” which is important to the story as it is Bianca who appears to be pure and perfect to all of her suitors - it is only later that we discover that she might not be the submissive little angel Lucentio thought he was getting!

Knowing your play…sticking to the best possible edition you can find (I HIGHLY recommend the Arden editions, as well as checking with a First Folio facsimile for punctuation and capitalization questions)…helping your cast learn what the words, phrases, and idioms mean…all of this will help you create an amazing production that your audience can understand. Remember that if your actors don’t know what they’re saying - if they’re only memorizing words and phrases that are meaningless to them - there is no way your audience will have a clue as to what’s going on.  That would be a shame not only for your audience, but also for your cast.  Help them stage a successful, fun Shakespearean play - help them understand the words - help them stick to the text!

Posted Mon, 19 May 2008 19:34:41 and filed under Editing, Actors, Staging Shakespeare, Language, The Taming of the Shrew, Comedy, Poetry. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.