Preface: "The 1995-96 NEH/Folger Institute on Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance" During the 1995-96 academic year a group of sixteen college teachers participated in the National Endowment for the Humanities Institute at the Folger Library on "Shakespeare Examined Through Performance." Directors of the institute were Alan Dessen (University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill) and Audrey Stanley (University of California, Santa Cruz). It was organized by Lena Orlin (Executive Director of the Folger Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library and now Executive Director of the Shakespeare Association of America). The institute met at the Folger Library one weekend each month for nine months. The program was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and by the Folger Institute. These rigorously scheduled weekends gave participants the opportunity to meet and work with a variety of distinguished visitors--teachers, scholars, actors, directors, and dramaturgs. The group also worked on individual and group projects and attended at least one performance each session. Records of this institute are now available from SHAKSPER. (Hardy Cook will issue instructions for retrieving them.) A public version of the records is available at the following website: http://www.tamut.edu/english/folgerhp/folgerhp.htm The website offers direct access all the information posted on SHAKSPER, and a few added extras. On behalf of the institute participants and leaders, I am pleased to invite you to visit the website or download our files from SHAKESPER. I am maintaining the website, so please address any comments or suggestions you have to me. Tom Gandy tom.gandy@tamut.edu. MEMBERS OF THE 1995-96 NEH/FOLGER INSTITUTE: "SHAKESPEARE EXAMINED THROUGH PERFORMANCE" Cezarija Abartis, Professor of English at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota Eric Alexander G. Binnie, Associate Professor of Drama at Hendrix College, Arkansas Sheila T. Cavanagh, Associate Professor of English at Emory University, Georgia Daniel L. Colvin, Professor of English at Western Illinois University Kurt Daw, Associate Professor of Theater and Assistant to the President at Kennesaw State University, Georgia Thomas J. Gandy, Professor of English at East Texas State University--Texarkana. (This institution became Texas A&M University--Texarkana in September, 1996) Miranda Johnson-Haddad, Assistant Professor of English at Howard University, Washington, D.C. Edward Isser, Assistant Professor of Theatre at College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts Robert Lane, Assistant Professor of English at North Carolina State University Julia Matthews, Assistant Professor of English at Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia. (Julia Matthews is now at Kennesaw State University, Georgia) Caroline McManus, Assistant Professor of English at California State University, Los Angeles Paul Nelsen, Professor of Theatre and Drama at Marlboro College, Vermont Edward L. Rocklin, Professor of English at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Ellen Summers, Associate Professor of English at Hiram College, Ohio William Taylor, Associate Professor of English at Seattle University, Washington Clare-Marie Wall, Associate Professor of English at California State University, Fresno ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction: "The 1995-96 NEH/Folger Institute on Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance" Shakespeare Examined Through Performance Preface "Shakespeare Examined Through Performance," a pedagogical institute directed by Professors Alan C. Dessen and Audrey Stanley and held at the Folger Shakespeare Library in 1995-96, was funded by the Education Division of the National Endowment for the Humanities. At this moment, it seems particularly important to acknowledge the support without which this remarkable program would not have been possible. The Folger Institute, the division of the Folger Library which sponsors advanced programs in the humanities, is in fact a collaborative venture between the Library and thirty-three colleges and universities. Each member institution provides financial support, in the form of an annual fee, and intellectual guidance, through its faculty representative to the Institute's governing board. These universities are largely located on the eastern seaboard (with a concentration in the mid-Atlantic area), giving the Folger Institute a strong regional base. Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities makes programs developed by the Folger Institute available to a larger, national audience of college and university professors. The Folger Institute has a strong history of sponsoring the Endowment's traditional six- and seven-week summer humanities institutes. When in 1991 the Folger approached the Endowment about organizing a program of comparable intensity but with a radically different, academic-year, schedule, it was N.E.H. officer Barbara Ashbrook who was sufficiently visionary to encourage us to break out of the box of the usual format. As always, she read the grant proposal carefully in draft, offered advice that immeasurably improved it, shepherded the completed proposal through the application process at the Endowment, and then monitored the unfolding project. But even these contributions to the program, vital as they are, must not overshadow the importance of that largeness of spirit with which--from the very first--she approached a program that didn't fit the usual mold. The result of the 1991 proposal was a 1992-93 institute on "Shakespeare and the Languages of Performance," directed by Professor Lois Potter. A group of seventeen college teachers of Shakespeare travelled to Washington for one intensive weekend each month during the nine-month academic year. The format was sufficiently successful and the outcome for pedagogical enterprise so distinguished that the innovative schedule was adopted again in 1995-96, with "Shakespeare Examined Through Performance." So many ingredients are necessary for a program like this to flourish. Directors Alan Dessen and Audrey Stanley were able to focus their vast learning and experience on the particular issues and challenges of this project, and to do so with an infectious zest, with conviction, and with a nurturing respect for each participant-teacher. The collective knowledge, commitment, resourcefulness, and generosity of the members made for a groupdynamic of unusual energy and accomplishment. The administration and staff of the Folger Library--especially the Reading Room staff, the Office of Special Events, the guard staff, and the housekeeping and custodial staffs--provided support of such skill and grace that it seemed invisible. But without funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities none of these talented individuals would have shared this occasion for advancing the state of teaching at the college and university level. The reach of these N.E.H. funds is incalculable. As was the case with "Shakespeare and the Languages of Performance," each teacher who took part in the institute on "Shakespeare Examined Through Performance" will practice new methods and share new understandings with a full complement of American undergraduates. Each will also spread the word with colleagues not only on the home campus but also at professional conventions. And, to further widen the circle, each has contributed to the manual which follows. The investment of the National Endowment for the Humanities is small for such a return, but it is an investment without which this form of national dialogue about college teaching cannot go forward. Lena Cowen Orlin The Folger Institute ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shakespeare Examined Through Performance Introduction If a good wine needs no bush and a good play needs no epilogue, then a good Seminar or Institute needs no introduction. However, some sense of how the pedagogical materials that follow were generated may add to their usefulness for a reader. Those familiar with National Endowment for the Humanities seminars as a genre usually think in terms of an intensive six-week session during the summer, but this particular Institute, co-directed by Audrey Stanley and myself, has met one weekend a month between September 1995 and May 1996 under the auspices of the Folger Institute's Center for Shakespeare Studies at the Folger Shakespeare Library. The sixteen participants (seven women, nine men) represent widely varied backgrounds and interests. Five are from Theatre Departments and eleven from English Departments (though several of the latter group have considerable experience with performance); three are from schools in California and three from schools in Georgia, with the rest from Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Vermont, and Washington. The wide geographical spread suggests one potential liability of the once-a-month scheduling, for our Friday-Saturday sessions were vulnerable to weather delays for travelers, jet lag, and academic compression (wherein one's teaching and other duties had somehow to be completed in a three-day week). Nonetheless, distinct advantages emerged from such scheduling. This group was not isolated long enough together to develop "cabin fever" or the normal internal frictions associated with extended contact; each weekend, moreover, was a special, distinct event--to be anticipated and then relished. Most important in pedagogical terms, teachers who encountered a new exercise or a fresh way of approaching a scene or problem could try out their discovery immediately (and could report back to the group at the next session). The focus of the weekends varied considerably. One through-line was a Friday evening Shakespeare production seen by the entire group with each participant then writing a brief response. Those responses were duplicated Saturday morning and were the basis for a discussion of the issues raised by that production (and these discussions could be the liveliest moments of the month). Also recurring were various forms of on-your-feet scene work, for under Audrey Stanley's direction individuals worked up soliloquies, paired off in scenes, and worked through various exercises and staging problems so as to experience directly the kinds of assignments that could be given to their students. Other sessions were devoted to the performance or pedagogical implications in various historical and textual matters and to the ways scenes from productions available on video-cassette could be used in the classroom. A major role was also played by visitors. During October and November personnel from Washington's The Shakespeare Theatre talked to the group: artistic director Michael Kahn; costume designer Marina Draghici; and actresses Helen Carey and Caitlin O'Connell. Lois Potter (U. of Delaware), who had directed a previous NEH Institute at the Folger with a similar focus, brought many rich materials, particularly her emphasis on writing about performance, to the December meeting (and also arranged a very successful play reading of Middleton's The Witch). In January Cary Mazer (U. of Pennsylvania) led several sessions on theatre history, with a special emphasis on notions of "character," and Michael Friedman (U. of Scranton) did some intensive work with scenes from All's Well (a play we were to see the next month), ending with some observations about how such performance-oriented teaching can be linked to scholarly research and publication. Members of the group themselves led the various sessions in February, with those presentations the basis of the material in this volume. March was the province of the five ACTER actors (Gareth Armstrong, Sarah Berger, Sam Dale, Joanna Foster, and Phillip Joseph) who shared their techniques for getting students on their feet and doing speeches, directed participants in their prepared scenes, and presented a five-actor Macbeth. The final visitor in April was Michael Warren (U. of California, Santa Cruz) who concentrated primarily upon the pedagogical value of working with plays with multiple texts but also dealt with the links between the academic and theatrical communities. Such a summary does not do justice to the varied events and interactions in which participants consistently found themselves teaching each other how to be better teachers (indeed, by the end of the academic year this "director" was learning more than he was imparting). A great deal of discussion was then devoted to what kind of legacy the group should leave. Various long term notions seemed attractive (in particular a web site so that the dialogue could continue), but two ideas emerged for the present: 1) a pedagogical "recipe-book" in which performance-linked exercises or assignments could be collected and classified; and 2) a collection of projects that could represent the many interests and skills of the group. The latter items vary widely, but our hope is that teachers looking for ways to tackle Measure for Measure or metre or Shakespeare's language (to cite only three of the topics) will find here both stimulation and practical tips. The true test of any pedagogical project is not the spirit of the group itself (which has been and remains very high) but the pay-off for students, colleagues, and others who will benefit from what we have learned and from the items in this collection. All of us have grown as teachers during these nine months. We hope that that gestation period will also produce something of value for a wider community. Alan Dessen May 17, 1996 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On the Performance Syndrome How can the work of the theater professional and the Shakespeare scholar interact meaningfully in the classroom for both literature and theater students and faculty? In co-teaching the NEH year-long Institute on "Shakespeare Examined Through Performance" with Shakespearean scholar Alan Dessen I set myself, as a theater professional, the task of putting 16 literature and theater colleagues through the essence of physical voice and movement work--basic for acting training but honed specifically to explore Shakespeare's language and theater. Using folio and quarto texts we closely examined the meaning, rhythm, and imagery of the language. The basic structure of this work formed a large part of the Summer preparation prior to the first gathering in September (see a copy on the pages following this statement). We took Macbeth as our text since we would be seeing this play twice during the year, and since it is a play often taught in universities and high schools. Not only was this prior work geared for us to hit the ground running, but to assimilate personal investigation of the text outside the harassment of the school year. A second acting/performance project for the second half of the year involved a scene for two participants and was freely chosen from the Shakespeare canon. These scenes were then available for the five British actors performing in ACTER's Macbeth to look at and comment on. Obviously a two to three year actor's training could not be given in what amounted to a few days of work, but sufficient material could be presented to give participants the means to explore the text as actors. Certain revelations of character and meaning and relationships emerge in rehearsal that are not always apparent in reading the page. For students this direct physical confrontation of the scene is often more meaningful than reading but has to be well prepared for. Literature students should not be involved in a false acting training, but the work studied at the Institute was to encourage faculty to set students well chosen scenes to act that reveal the essence or the controversies of the play under study, or to show video extracts of the plays with a performance sensibility . Other areas that we explored included the following: framing questions prior to the visit of theater professionals--directors, designers, actors; attending performances and going backstage: using the other arts--collages, music, etc. to explore the world of the plays: analyzing structure through charts: recreating offstage scenes that are described - such as the murder of Duncan: presenting alternative interpretations; using a summary of the spectrum of comedy (see following pages); and looking at ways Shakespeare scholars might contribute to a local Shakespeare production (see following pages). The amount of work was crammed but assimilable simply because it was spread out over nine months and work could continue between the weekend sessions. A wonderfully rich if nerve-wracking experience for me personally! Only time will reveal how profitable it will have been for others. A right conclusion would be to assess this Institute after a further year of teaching. Audrey Stanley 17 May 1996 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some Compiled Notes on Comedy Audrey Stanley Basis - incongruities of ordinary life ( seen with/without kindliness) Purpose - to arouse laughter/to correct Method and Style - 1. WIT (smile) verbal, critical, intellectual very rapid perception of relationships between unlike things aware of the follies of people separates self and sits in judgement on the rest uses words and ideas method = surprise a consciously entertaining person of ready speech & lively' intelligence - solemn at heart wit seeks to correct in satire, sarcasm irony Shaw: "Mankind is on the stage - the wit in front of the curtain" 2. HUMOR (chuckle) where sympathy is mixed with comedy (laugh) arises from unusual temperament abnormal (in humor not deformity) odd, bizarre (clown + reason) in sympathy with object of laughter (Shakespeare) includes all things - seeing life itself as a pageant of the incongruous we may condemn a character morally, intellectually and yet rejoice in him or her bound up with good nature and kindliness laughing at our own minor misfortunes to merriment chuckle at defects and shortcomings in all, including laughter bond of fellowship Meredith (1877): "On the idea of Comedy and uses of the comic spirit" whenever people "wax out of proportion, overblown, affected, pretentious, bombastical. hypocritical, pedantic, fantastically delicate" or are "self-deceived or hoodwinked, given to run riot in idolatries, planning short-sightedly, plotting dementedly; whenever they are at variance with their professions, and violate the unwritten but perceptible laws binding them in consideration one to another; whenever they offend sound reason, fair justice; are false in humility or mined with conceit individually or in the bulk; the Spirit overhead will look humanely malign and cast an oblique light on them, followed by volleys of silvery laughter. That is the Comic Spirit." John Gassner,Masters of the Drama : "Moliere never roared like Jonson /Johnson?; he simply laughed." 3. SATIRE seeks to amend with a sense of superiority and criticism by means of exaggeration (manners and morals) Ludovici - "Laughter is a barring of the teeth" 4. SARCASM (grimace) amend by inflicting pain (faults and foibles) by means of inversion Lampoon-bitter public attack 5. IRONY where audience knows facts but characters don't when more is meant than the surface meaning - but not everyone present will understand 6. FARCE (laugh) outrageous absurdity of situation or character ludicrous and absurd unreal 7. BURLESQUE caricaturing plays, books, statesmen, actors, and people whose style is familiar imitate or mimic the above in such a way as to make them laughable, ridiculous, grotesque, and generally absurd by exaggerating peculiarities by giving a ludicrous turn to what was meant seriously c.f. Parody, Travesty, Skit, Take-off 8. SLAPSTICK (Belly rough, knockabout farce laugh) c.f. Henri Bergson, Laughter, for discussion of comedy to be found in 1. situations, 2. words, 3. character p.s. Also add 4. visual Walpole: "Life is a comedy to the man who thinks and a tragedy to the man who feels." Ionesco: "There are no alternatives; if man is not tragic, he is ridiculous and painful, "comic" in fact, and by revealing his absurdity one can achieve a sort of tragedy. In fact I think that man must either be unhappy (metaphysically unhappy) or stupid." (= absurdist theatre) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAA 1995 Annual Conference Seminar - Living in the Gap Audrey Stanley - Notes from the Front Background One of the primary reasons for setting up the Shakespeare Santa Cruz Festival was to link imaginative (cutting-edge) Shakespeare scholarship with the putting on of his plays. C. L. "Joe" Barber, a former President of the SAA and Dean of Humanities and Arts at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) and author (amongst other books) of Shakespeare's Festive Comedies, died in 1980 and the organization by town and gown to produce the Shakespeare festival was in his honor. Our first home brewed season in 1952 took advantage of the presence of Michael Warren at USC who was working with Gary Taylor on The Division of the Kingdoms: Shakespeare's Two Versions of King Lear in which, as you know, the thesis was argued that the Quarto and Folio represented two separate versions of King Lear and that most edited texts conflated the two separate versions. As the director of King Lear and on the advice of Michael Warren I chose to direct the shorter Folio version, complete, and including all the stage directions. Michael evolved the role of Textual Consultant for the Festival, a scholarly task which is constant and ongoing, while I organized a scholarly conference involving the leading actors - Tony Church and Julian Curry of the Royal Shakespeare Company and various scholars, including Homer "Murph" Swander. As part of the scholarly interaction I had four scholarly "assistants" to the production. One was Beth Goldring, who was also contributing a chapter to The Division of the Kingdoms: and whose Ph.D. thesis was on King Lear (she knew both Q and F versions by heart). Officially she was the dramaturg and I took the necessary precaution of discussing the play with her before hand to discover that she and I had much the same vision of the play' - so she took on some of the functions of an assistant director since we only had three weeks of intermittent rehearsals (two weeks with Tony Church). Lilian Wilds, a most generous-hearted scholar, wanted to write an article on Tony Church's interpretation of Lear, and assisted in any way she could - partly serving as a sounding board for Church, who had acted Lear before but never using just the Folio text. Annette Drew-Bear came as a recent Ph.D. graduate in Literature who was going to her first appointment and had been told she would have to direct a Shakespeare play and sought to learn more about Shakespeare in performance. Both Wilds and Drew-Bear made a much needed contribution by checking the actors' accuracy in speaking the text. Lastly, a Ph.D. student in Literature, Briana Newton, who wanted to learn more about putting on a play, served as an assistant to the stage manager. The following year I persuaded Harry Berger (who argued against performance) to be the dramaturg for Macbeth. He provided the unraveling of all the possible connotations of meaning and direction of thought in Macbeth's soliloquies for Julian Curry, who returned to the festival to play that role in 1983. I will summarize the major interactions of scholarship and productions which we have tried at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, with their spheres of influence and inherent problems. 1. Textual Consultant - Michael Warren since 1982. Year round to the company. This stipulation is important as it enables scholarship to link with directors before casting and designing of the production - in the formative time of a director's creative ideas. Possible areas of influence: a) Text/script. Advising on which edition for the director and/or the company to use. Theatre companies generally use the cheapest or most easily available. The director, however, is likely to consult several editions, such as the Arden for the notes. Copies of Quarto and/or Folio text(s) made available to director. To actors? to dramaturgs? to voice coaches? b) Sending extracts from recent scholarly articles about the play to the incoming directors. c) Having a discussion with the director, if possible before casting and before designing. This can fruitfully be a one-on-one situation. At UCSC this has also taken place through the auspices of the faculty, staff and students Focused Research Activity (FRA) in Shakespeare and Early Drama by means of a reading of the F or Q text and a following larger discussion with director and the readers. d) Sitting in at the very first meetings of a production in which the meaning of the play is worked through by director, actors, and dramaturg, with reading and discussion and/or modern paraphrasing, and clarifying meanings and directions as appropriate. e) Initially all textual cuts were submitted by directors to the textual consultant with the major premise that the text should be performed as complete as possible. This activity has been dropped and its function taken up by some of the scholarly dramaturgs or consultants working with the individual play. f) Attending rehearsals and speaking to the director or better still sending her/him notes. Being available for actors to elucidate textual matters only if this is in complete agreement with the director. g) Supplying program notes on the Shakespeare plays for the season to elucidate the background, controversies, modern connections of the plays, and interactions of performing those particular plays together. h) Speaker about the plays to various organizations, including the venerable Friday Shakespeare Club, and to local teachers. 2. Dramaturg and Text Coach c.f. Ellen O'Brien for Hamlet, Henry V, Richard III ; Mary Kay Gamel for the Roman Season and Titus Andronicus, and also for Othello, Measure for Measure; George Amis for Much Ado About Nothing; Judy Dunbar for The Winter's Tale (she was also production assistant for Richard II); Margo Hendriks and Bruce Avery for A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew; and Bruce Avery with Sharon Bundy for All's Well That Ends Well. Since 1991 the Festival has a professionally trained dramaturg, Catherine Sheehy, who teaches dramaturgy at Yale and covers all three or four plays of the season. Published work has resulted from many of these associations - and perhaps more than I have researched. The title dramaturg needs clarification as to function. Some large professional theatre companies employ (in Europe) up to four serving the functions of literary editor, educational outreach, word meaning, clarifier of the script, assistant to the director and, by delegation, to the actors in helping to unravel difficulties of interpretation in rehearsals. This was where the festival (probably Ellen O'Brien) evolved the term Text Coach. This latter is the most delicate area of cooperation - and where purely Shakespeare scholarly dramaturgs can most easily step on the creative prerogative of the individual director, actors and even assistant directors. However, since professionally trained dramaturgs may lack the depth of research knowledge of the Shakespeare scholar for a particular play, there should be room for a scholar. Often the work of the Festival dramaturg starts with the arrival of the company but it should, if possible, begin prior to this. The work of the dramaturg or text coach covers similar areas (b - g) to that of the textual consultant except the responsibility is to the one play and not to all the plays in the festival. One additional area is a very sensitive issue - that of changing (modernizing) words (such as "shive" to "slice" in Titus Andronicus) and also that of cutting the text. 3. Scholarly Resource, Scholarly Guide, or Scholarly Advisor. This title enables scholars to be part of the input into the interpretation of a play without as much time obligation in the rehearsal period. (Literary Editor should be avoided since it immediately suggests cutting, rewriting and transposing of scenes or restructuring of the play). Norman 0. Brown was the scholarly guide for Waiting for Godot in 1990. He attended many of the discussions but none of the rehearsals. The titles above may help bring the presence of the scholar into the discussion and rehearsal space and allow for variance of interpretation to be discussed. But the shortness of rehearsal time and the possible interruption of the rehearsal flow often makes the written form of comment by advisor to the director advisable in the form of notes and questions, with brief extracts from pertinent articles and comments. 4. Voice Coaches/Consultants/Directors Professional voice training and experience with actors is a prerequisite. Here is an area where working closely with actors on the speaking of the verse form or the prose text can reveal new interpretative approaches to the acting of the role and ultimately to the meaning of the production. The danger lies in the perception by the director and/or actors that they are being given line-readings - particularly in relation to scansion of the lines. Here Touchstone's great phrase "what if..." comes in very usefully, or "how about trying out an emphasis on..." rather than the dramaturg/scholarly advisor/voice director speaking her or his perceived scansion of the line. Again the close liaison with the director is very important. But I defer to Ellen O'Brien's expertise in this area. Where does this leave the scholar with a distinctive interpretative approach? Marxist, feminist, political, psychological, anthropological, historical, etc.' Nowhere? Suggestion: If you are interested to see a production follow certain interpretative lines (and many directors will feel such an approach is too restrictive, but others might welcome a strong through-line approach) write to the prospective director of the play and offer your services freely with this approach enclosing a brief look at parts of the particular Shakespeare play in the light of this interpretation and a statement (which should be true) that you are writing further on this topic and should like to write up a production exploring such an interpretation. Other areas of influence: 1. Conferences to discuss the plays in performance. At UCSC we have found it useful to bring in outside scholars (specializing in that particular play) to give a perspective paper (if possible after seeing the production), and afterwards combine with the director and some actors to discuss aspects of the production. Timing is very important as ideas presented can influence the actors, and revivify a long-running production or deepen the interpretation before it has become too set. 2. Institutes or Research Groups. Perhaps one of the most long lasting in this country has been the Shakespeare Institute at Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Founded by the notable Stanford scholar Margery Bailey it has flourished under the direction of Homer Swander and others. In the past it has operated mainly as a host for serious Shakespearean study groups to visit the festival and listen to the directors and/or actors talk about the productions while interaction with the festival during planning and rehearsal has been minimal. But with the change to a year round season and the appointment of actor Barry Kraft as the dramaturg and with the institute a much more permanent structure with the College in Ashland this may have changed. Here at UCSC we have created the Focused Research Activity Group on Shakespeare and Early Drama which acts as a liaison between the festival and UCSC Shakespeare scholars. It can function as a scholarly lab for the festival directors - and has done so with readings, discussions, invited speakers, research topics by faculty, staff and graduate students under Michael Warren as its initial director 1986-93, Audrey Stanley 1993-94, and Mary Kay Gamel 1994-95. Shakespeare scholars who are interested to have some connection with their area professional theatre or Shakespeare festival might consider setting up a similar organization. 3. Teachers Groups. Many theatres or festivals have educational outreach programs which focus on college or high school students and teachers - again as a Shakespeare scholar you might be able to make contact with the theatre company via this association - and I am thinking of the very lively organization that has existed with the Mark Tapor Forum theatre in Los Angeles. Many such groups have school visits by actors from the company, or using younger actors or like Shakespeare Santa Cruz using the University theatre students create a traveling (shortened) version of one of the Shakespeare plays that will be performed later by the Festival. A. Shakespearean Lectures. Bringing in an expert on the play to speak to your college/university and invite the director to attend/participate. What could the SAA organization do?' 1. Make greater connections with theatre directors, designers, and actors particularly when they are about to produce a play. Their expenses would have to be paid. This has been done but has been dropped. The links could be both in a major conference session as well as in a relevant seminar which should precede the major session. There should be a careful liaison with the scholar leading the seminar who is working on the play and who could then have prior access (influence) to the director's ideas. 2. SAA Conference should attend a Shakespeare production and go into voluntary small group discussion sessions afterwards, putting the comments made into a computer. After omitting duplicate points, this compilation to be given to the director who should later have an answering session. There should be a prior meeting to discuss the list by the director and a scholar who will chair the session. 3. What other suggestions do the Seminar members have? Could the SAA set up an endowment fund to encourage greater interactions at the annual conference? What form might these take? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Partial Bibliography of Aspects of Theatre Audrey Stanley Some books on the craft of DIRECTING: Dean/Carra, The Fundamentals of Play Directing, Holt, Rinehard, and Winston, 1980. Francis Hodge, Play Directing - Analysis, Communication, and Style, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1982. Robert L. Benedetti, The Director At Work, Prentice Hall Inc., 1985. David Grote, Script Analysis - Reading and Understanding the Playscript for Production, Wadsworth Inc., 1985. Amy S. Green, The Revisionist Stage - American Directors Reinvent the Classics, Cambridge University Press, 1994. Books I have found useful in looking at the HISTORY, THEORY, and ART of theatre: The "Revels" History of Drama in English, Vol. III 1576-1613, Barroll, Legatt, Hosley, Kernan, Methuen & Co., 1975. Aristotle On Poetry and Style, trans G.M.A. Grube, Bobbs-Merrill, 1978. F.M. Cornford, The Origin of Attic Comedy, ed. and intro T.H. Gaster, Anchor, 1961. T.H. Gaster, Thespis, Anchor, 1961. Michel Saint-Denis, Theatre, the rediscovery of style, NY, Theatre Arts Books, 1963. Michel Saint-Denis, Training for the Theatre: premises and promises, NY, Theatre Arts Books, 1982. Peter Brook, The Empty Space, Penquin, 1968. The Shifting Point, Methuen, 1988. The Open Door: thoughts on acting, 1993, NY, Pantheon Bks, 1993. Konstantin Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares, trans Hapgood, NY, T.A.B. 1963. Building a Character, tr. Hapgood, NY, T.A.B. 1949. Creating a Role, tr. Hapgood, NY, T.A.B. 1961. Jerzy Grotowski, Towards a Poor Theatre, 1968. Zen and the Art of Archery. H.D.F. Kitto, Form and Meaning in Drama, UP, 1960. Antonin Artaud, The Theater and Its Double, tr. Richards, NY, Grove Press, 1958. Susanne Langer, Feeling and Form: A Theory of art., NY, Scribner, 1953. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Participants Cezarija Abartis, Professor of English at St.Cloud State University, Minnesota Eric Alexander G. Binnie, Associate Professor of Drama at Hendrix College, Arkansas Sheila T. Cavanagh, Associate Professor of English at Emory University, Georgia Daniel L. Colvin, Professor of English at Western Illinois University Kurt Daw, Associate Professor of Theater and Assistant to the President at Kennesaw State College, Georgia Thomas J. Gandy, Professor of English at East Texas State University, Texarkana (This institution will be Texas A&M University-Texarkana beginning in September, 1996.) Miranda Johnson-Haddad, Assistant Professor of English at Howard University, Washington, D.C. Edward Isser, Assistant Professor of Theatre at College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts Robert Lane, Assistant Professor of English at North Carolina State University Julia Matthews, Assistant Professor of English at Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia Caroline McManus, Assistant Professor of English at California State University, Los Angeles Paul Nelsen, Professor of Theatre and Drama at Marlboro College, Vermont Edward L. Rocklin, Professor Of English at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Ellen Summers, Professor of Theatre and Drama at Hiram College, Ohio William Taylor, Associate Professor of English at Seattle University, Washington Clare-Marie Wall, Associate Professor of English at California State University, Fresno