Hi, Deb Streusand here. This morning I'll be liveblogging Plenary Session VI from 9 am to 10:15 am.
"Some by Stenography Drew the Plot": An Experiment
William Proctor Williams, University of Akron
Williams begins by having A.J. Sclafani, Brian Falbo, Kim Maurice, and Michael Wagoner read two passages from Thomas Heywood's If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody. This play was performed before August 1605, probably by Queen Anne's Men. It was thereafter published in 5 editions in 8 years. Heywood's later prologue, in the Eighth Quarto, recounts the play's popularity and how some recorded it in by stenography, so that he now wishes to put it forth in correct form himself. The Eighth Quarto can therefore serve as a control text for comparison to the earlier Quartos, which reflect stenographic recording of performance. The actors read the corrected version of the same scenes they read earlier. Williams asks us to imagine that people are recording the two versions of the scene right now, to be published later.
[Edit: Apparently I misheard what Williams said about people recording the scene as it was performed during his presentation. In fact, two students from the Mary Baldwin MLitt/MFA program did record the scene at his request, and later in the day, Williams provided a handout with the original text, the transcription, and a collation of the differences.]
Did Hamlet Mean Country Matters?
Zachary Lesser, University of Pennsylvania
Lesser recounts several editors' glosses on Hamlet's joke about "country matters." He asks whether, when Early Modern audiences heard these words, they actually perceived the pun we now hear in it. No major editor noted an obscene pun at this exact point in the text until Malone in 1790; previous editors had glossed the statement as a reference to the idea of country folk as crudely sexual. The exchange was cut from productions in the 18th and 19th century, but primarily because of the later punning on "nothing." The Restoration Smock Alley Promptbook cut "nothing," but not "country matters." In the First Quarto, Hamlet says "contrary" rather than "country matters." Lesser argues that scholars have wrenched their arguments to include the pun, but this distortion falsifies the history of the text and the experience of this moment. Looking at the texts in order of probable composition, Lesser argues that the Folio text expands this moment to clarify it, with Hamlet explaining the innocence of his question--"I mean, my head upon your lap." In the First Quarto, Hamlet says "my head in your lap," instead heightening the suggestion by specifying the body part. If there had been a sexual pun in "country matters," such a process of clarification would not have been necessary. There is no indication of Shakespeare's audience understanding those words to imply such a pun, and we should, therefore, "forget what our glosses have been assuring us."
Speaking the Speeches: Speech Order and the Early Modern Performances of Hamlet
Matthew Vadnais, Ohio State University
Vadnais describes the division among scholars about whether the longer texts of Hamlet could have been staged at full length. He draws attention to the question of whether the Second Quarto and Folio text would have been too hard to play at full length, particularly because of the use of cue scripts and the necessary speed of performance. He demonstrates that many lines end in the same or almost the same cues. He proposes, however, that like their First Quarto counterpart, the other texts were created to make performance easy. A.J. Sclafani, Brian Falbo, and Michael Wagoner perform the Second Quarto version of the conversation between Hamlet, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern about Gertrude using cue scripts without actual cues, demonstrating that the speech order that gave clues to when the actors should speak. Another way of making things easier is to create two-player scenes or scenes with only two speakers. Vadnais uses the metaphor of a "speech stem" for situations in which several characters respond to a primary character, who knows that every speech will contain his next cue. Shakespeare's plays provided the company with assistance in knowing when to speak. All three texts of Hamlet equally anticipate how they would have been performed on the Early Modern stage.
"Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign..."
Lezlie Cross, University of Washington
Cross describes her conversations with Howie Seago, a deaf Shakespearean actor. She wants to reframe the term "Original Practices" to refer to a new practice, that is, Seago's translation of Shakespeare's plays into movements, a kinetic language. She cites Artaud referring to a language of movement that transcends the speech on stage. When playing the ghost in 2010 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seago could obscure his statements to his son even from the audience, so that they heard was what Hamlet chose to share. Seago's script notes where he will voice the lines, as in "I am thy father's spirit," using his own "imperfect" voice to show the ghost's difficulty in being present in this world. The audience saw Hamlet take possession of the knowledge and of his revenge. Seago transformed "list, list, o list" into signs meaning "look at me, look at me, look at me." Both Shakespeare's language and Seago's sign language have similar metaphorical underpinnings, in opposition to common language. For "the serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown," Seago transformed his sign language into a kinetic signification of the image. His method begins with a "translated" English text and finds ways to communicate the ideas through signs, making modifications according to factors such as the length of time that it takes to sign a line. "Seago's work in translating Shakespeare's text goes beyond mere translation," transforming the text from one medium to another. Cross refers to this phenomenon as "kinetic textuality," a term typically applied to digital artistic creations. Seago's translations are still more kinetic, being no longer simply textual, but having instead become "meaning in motion."
Jonson's Breaches and the Typography of Action
Claire Bourne, University of Pennsylvania
Bourne argues that theatrical innovation prompted a textual innovation that allowed printed plays to develop into their own dramatic experience. Textual evidence suggests that these texts attempted to use punctuation in a way that allowed the reader to experience the dramatic in the printed text. Jonson described such punctuation, as used in his humor plays, as "breaches," that is, markers of gaps in the dialogue. Bourne proposes that Jonson's breaches not only allowed replication of the action, but made it possible to read the printed text in a way that makes dramatic sense on the page. In order to put the different theatrical and textual signs into the same visual field for her audience, Bourne has Wagoner, Sclafani, Maurice, and Falbo perform a portion from Cynthia's Revels that is especially characterized by experimentation with punctuation, with dashes signaling non-verbal interruptions. They next perform a scene from Every Man Out of His Humour that uses dashes to signify self-interruptions, in this case by puffing on a pipe. The breaches signal moments that are vital to personation. Jonson's Folio collection of his plays retains these experiments in using typography to convey non-verbal elements of the scene. Maurice and Sclafani perform a scene from Epicoene, or the Silent Woman, in which a character replies to conversation in non-verbal signs because of another character's requirement that he do so, performing marginal text that states that the breaches refer to signs that responded to the dialogue. Bourne suggests that the breaches did not replace the action of performance, but preserved it for the page. The punctuation grew to symbolize all kinds of action, functioning as a recognizable invitation to notice non-verbal elements of the play.
Keeping Shakespeare Real by Using iPhones: or, Original Practices Shakespeare (There's an app for that)
Joseph F. Stephenson, Amy Simpson Grubbs, and Adam Hester, Abilene Christian University
Stephenson states that they will discuss the 2010 Abilene Shakespeare Festival's production of Othello, which was not actually intended to be Original Practices, but grew into some original practices as it formed. Hester, as director, wanted to find a way to engage with Bard-shy audience members, and decided to use technology to reach "beyond the proscenium," by creating a blog that they updated throughout the show, including scene synopses, definitions, or comments about the action on stage. Audience members were able to post and read comments themselves, and the blog was flooded with them. Performers were also able to receive audience's responses, and were heard walking offstage saying "what does the blog say?" By creating this intimacy, they argue that they were able to approach the closeness to the audience that is crucial to original practice, as well as a sense of play, and lighting (that of mobile devices) that made the audience visible. Stephenson quotes two piece of evidence about early modern performance and discusses their ambiguities and the complicated audience responses. He then cites some quotes from audience members responding to their production, including discussion of the play's ambiguities. The blog also provides a permanent archive of audience responses, which would be useful for future research into audience response to Othello.
Question Time:
A questioner asks Cross about how American Sign Language deals with puns such as "country matters." She talks about how Seago would probably try various movements to see how they landed with the audience.
Another questioner suggests that Cross do some work with Tommaso Salvini, who spoke only Italian but performed with an English-speaking company. Cross replies that she has not yet worked on Salvini, but she is working on Helena Madjeska, a 19th-century Polish actress who worked with American actors, including Edwin Booth, speaking Polish in response to their English on stage.
Another questioner asks about when "cunt" appears in the OED in the form we know it. Lesser cites a 13th century reference. The questioner asks if there is a possibility that this meaning of the word was active in the scene. Lesser says that what interests him is our absolute assurance that that meaning is in play at the moment he discusses.
Another questioner comments about Vadnais' presentation, talking about cultural cues and discussing scribal adjustments to a text and to cues specifically.
Another questioner asks Cross about the difference between ASL and the sign language used in Britain, and what impact that would have on kinetic representation. Cross clarifies that Seago does not really use ASL, but mostly discovers movements that work to communicate, creating a new language for each production, which is very much keyed into the character that he is creating.
Another questioner asks Stephenson and Hester about how they dealt with the possibility of distraction from the technology. Hester describes the placement of technology users behind those who were watching without using technology. A different questioner wonders about what might have been lost with the technology users during the show. Hester describes the audience eagerness to see the next blog, and actors walking back to check the blog, which he did not always find useful. Stephenson argues that visual focus on the technology actually brought back the Early Modern tradition of "hearing" a play.
Another questioner asks Stephenson and Hester about the possibility of acquiring greater connection to young students through the use of technology. Hester describes the demographics of technology use, stating that the blog users were mostly under 30. He discusses how the technological elements gained greater acceptance from all age groups over the course of the run.
Kate O'Connell of Mary Baldwin College moderates this session.
No comments:
Post a Comment