tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829734.post1580619497728633647..comments2024-03-28T00:18:42.009-04:00Comments on The Wicked Stage: Bards on the BoardsRob Weinert-Kendthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04015688507553252146noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829734.post-66905806869586145792014-01-06T01:12:05.849-05:002014-01-06T01:12:05.849-05:00As far as I can tell, no one was around to record ...As far as I can tell, no one was around to record the original performances of these plays, or even take decent pictures, so anyone who believes that original practices or conditions are truly original are just kidding themselves. That said, I don't think many people *are*. "Inspired by original staging conditions" is a more accurate, although perhaps less marketable phrase. <br /><br />When you start looking at some of the more grandiose stage directions left in print playbooks, you can't help but notice that many so-called original practices or conditions companies tend to NOT perform the original conditions that would prove the most expensive. I am most familiar with the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA, which boasts the world's only re-creation of the Blackfriars Playhouse, and while their time honored slogan "We Do It With the Lights On" makes for a charming bumper sticker, it also cuts off possibilities in terms of early modern lighting effects. If that makes their performances any less entertaining, however, the casual play-goer is unlikely to notice. Tony Tambascohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11834541469560452051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829734.post-55142486969772851772013-12-27T14:16:27.714-05:002013-12-27T14:16:27.714-05:00Three things: 1) I and probably most people who r...Three things: 1) I and probably most people who reviewed the Shakespeare's Globe productions are fully aware that this is merely a concept and not empirically "authentic" in any absolute sense. To impute credulousness on the part of critics is unfair and inaccurate. 2) That having been said, this historical re-creation has been constructed in good faith with scrupulous attention paid to costumes, settings and documented theater practices of Shakespeare's time and so is not randomly pieced together or the work of Renaissance Faire amateurs. 3) It's pretty obvious that in terms of acting style, there's a fine balance between a kind of formality and something looser, more modern. If Rylance and the entire company were doing some stiff and rigorously choreographed version of "Elizabethan acting," with a gestural vocabulary and a ritualized speaking of the verse, well, it would probably be pretty boring. Instead, it's a mix. No one knows exactly how Elizabethans acted. But we do know a bit about the window dressing. So these excellent productions (and I'd love to see their American equivalents!) have period window dressing and something foxier in the acting. That's my take at least. No one has been "hoodwinked" by "original practices" fraudulence and the acting company has been justly lauded for doing an amazing job.David Cotehttp://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/twelfth-night-and-richard-iiinoreply@blogger.com