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Studio 360: An old article from the Seattle Stranger keeps making the rounds on Facebook among theater people: “Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves.” Thing #1: “Enough with the goddamned Shakespeare already.”
3 comments:
Thomas Ford
said...
The title of the article made me think I would disagree with much of what it had to say, but the second paragraph turned that thought around. It seemed like it was going to be about playwrights who the author thinks is better than Shakespeare or that we should stop producing so much Shakespeare, but it was really saying that we shouldn't let the bard prevent us from putting on other works from that time period. This summer I'm working for a company that's known for Shakespeare in the Park, which is presenting two Shakespeare plays in Central Park that are free for the public. I'm really excited to work on that, because I actually have only seen one Shakespeare play performed before and I'm looking forward to seeing more. Of course, after reading the article I'm intrigued to look up some of these other playwrights, because a lot of what they did seems really cool and interesting. Shakespeare is great and all, but as the article says it is a bit of a problem the way he can sometimes block out other playwrights from that time period.
Like Thomas, I was skeptical about the article title, because I'm a big fan of Shakespeare, but I agree that other playwrights of the time should get more playing time. This would be a cool Foundations III or special topics class, "Not Shakespeare: an exploration of other Renaissance playwrights" or something like that. I guess I'll have to add a lot of these (especially Moliere, whom I love) to my summertime reading list (aka my only reading list...).
This article is very interesting as a brief theatrical history lesson, but it is also very pertinent to examining some crucial points that could save much of theatre today. Shakespeare is imfamous for his many brilliant plays and the article's author does not deny that but rather fights that there are many play writes who achieved great success in their writing but never quite gained the audiences. Ibsen, Moliere, Marlowe, etc. are all incredible playwrites with plays that could reinvent theatre. This reinvention for many small playhouses could be exactly what they need to stay alive. Audience's want to be surprised, as the article states, so surprise them with a timeless peice they have never heard. There is no doubt that Shakespeare's plays should stay in performance but it would be a distaste and a shame to skip out on the rest of these incredible timeless peices.
3 comments:
The title of the article made me think I would disagree with much of what it had to say, but the second paragraph turned that thought around. It seemed like it was going to be about playwrights who the author thinks is better than Shakespeare or that we should stop producing so much Shakespeare, but it was really saying that we shouldn't let the bard prevent us from putting on other works from that time period. This summer I'm working for a company that's known for Shakespeare in the Park, which is presenting two Shakespeare plays in Central Park that are free for the public. I'm really excited to work on that, because I actually have only seen one Shakespeare play performed before and I'm looking forward to seeing more. Of course, after reading the article I'm intrigued to look up some of these other playwrights, because a lot of what they did seems really cool and interesting. Shakespeare is great and all, but as the article says it is a bit of a problem the way he can sometimes block out other playwrights from that time period.
Like Thomas, I was skeptical about the article title, because I'm a big fan of Shakespeare, but I agree that other playwrights of the time should get more playing time. This would be a cool Foundations III or special topics class, "Not Shakespeare: an exploration of other Renaissance playwrights" or something like that. I guess I'll have to add a lot of these (especially Moliere, whom I love) to my summertime reading list (aka my only reading list...).
This article is very interesting as a brief theatrical history lesson, but it is also very pertinent to examining some crucial points that could save much of theatre today. Shakespeare is imfamous for his many brilliant plays and the article's author does not deny that but rather fights that there are many play writes who achieved great success in their writing but never quite gained the audiences. Ibsen, Moliere, Marlowe, etc. are all incredible playwrites with plays that could reinvent theatre. This reinvention for many small playhouses could be exactly what they need to stay alive. Audience's want to be surprised, as the article states, so surprise them with a timeless peice they have never heard. There is no doubt that Shakespeare's plays should stay in performance but it would be a distaste and a shame to skip out on the rest of these incredible timeless peices.
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