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Friday, September 25, 2020
'Macbeth' as fast-moving radio drama from PG County Shakespeare in the Parks
DC Metro Theater Arts: How, exactly, does one make theater in the middle of a pandemic? People are sitting on the couch streaming The Umbrella Academy. Broadway is closed until January 3, 2021. Much of local theater is now online for the duration.
I love the idea of making radio shows of classic theatre! The Scottish (Radio) Play sounds like it would be a blast to listen to. I think it could even have been developed into a short radio series like “The Shadow” if they tried serializing it with other Shakespeare plays.
I also think it’s fabulous Jose the world is cyclical and we are seeing new vaudeville (like TikTok and YouTube) and radio plays being a viable art form.
The art of the radio drama lives on! In a world where people are getting tired of constantly staring at a screen, I think it’s a great time for the seemingly lost art of radio shows to make its re-entrance center stage. I love how people are continually looking into the past for inspiration and adding their modern twists, especially in a time where many old or familiar things and events are being cancelled or taken away. Being a foley artist in today’s day and age means having access to more types and methods of making sound than ever before, and is an amazing way to keep technicians in business since many of them are typically not involved in Zoom play readings. It’s so fun and fascinating to see the many ways that people are creating theatre safely on a multitude of platforms and venues. It’s even more interesting to note what productions people are putting on; many of the ones I have seen advertised are for new work, but now is also a great time for some classics such as Macbeth to be shared.
Macbeth is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays and to see it get new life in this format is so exciting. Shakespeare, having been around for a while and being so overproduced, there is some burn out from all the ways you can “re-invent” his play. With adaptations spanning from Romeo & Juliet with gnomes to The Tempest but in space, it feels like every permutation has been covered. However, I think 1860s New York feels like a new take on Macbeth. With its supernatural element, it seems to be one of his plays that most resist modernization. However, this middle ground of historical fiction feels great and ingenious. I am slightly concerned by how much it has been cut down. The article claims the edit was educational purposes, and I’m not sure what that means. As someone who enjoys podcast and watching long-form unedited D&D campaigns, I don’t think Macbeth needed to be cut down that much, but honestly it’s been a while since I read it so maybe that’s not much editing. Overall, looking forward to listening to this and hopefully more Shakespeare and classic plays can become podcasts or radio plays.
A new modernization of Shakespeare is something that can almost always entice a new audience. Even as various translations and adaptations exist to modernize his works, many people can still find Shakespeare unapproachable and hard to relate to (for example, the movie adaptation of Othello, "O", was well-intentioned but just wasn't quite right). With theatres shuttered, though, a time has arisen that is ripe not only for a new retelling of an old story, but a new format through which to tell it. Not only is it exciting to hear about the existence of a radio drama in 2020, but it is intriguing to read about the methods used to carry it out. The zoom rehearsals are almost a given, but the "blanket forts" used as sound booths is a clever way to record audio both safely and professionally. I do plan on listening to this play and seeing how the approach worked out.
As a kid I loved radio dramas. I wasn’t allowed to watch much TV so I would spend evenings listening to records, tapes or live broadcasts of radio dramas (when they were on). This is interesting, although I was not pleased to hear that they cut some dialogue and scenes because of time constraints. Also, it’s interesting that the company chose the Scottish play. There is still a lot of superstition around performing the play or mentioning it in the theatre, so I’m curious as to why they chose this work. I would have preferred them to do some comedy, especially as a way to brighten and lift the spirits of listeners. In my life, I have also worked on several radio dramas. I love the challenges that they create both for the actors as well as for the crew. Even with the edits due to time, I’m sure this would be a great thing to just sit and listen to, especially on a cold night by a fire. Spooky!
I am surprised every single time when I face an another Macbeth. I think it would be one of the most frequently addressed & adapted & performed plays in the world, and how people are still pulling different innovative ideas out of it is fascinating. As the exact procedure of this radio drama was not fully explained in the article, I still have some curiosities… I wonder if the actors are going to memorize the lines or have the scripts right in front of themselves. Plus, quite honestly, I don’t know if radio drama could achieve being a theater. I do think that focusing on audial traits could help some of the audience engage more in the context, but I am afraid that this would turn out to be just an audio book of a very high quality… not necessarily the theatre. I think there is a reason why people watch the movies instead of just listening to them. I also wonder how they are going to deal with the “scene changes”… in the actual theater, we know that we are going to another scene without a huge break of the concentration by that short blackout. I wonder how they are going to deal with this in such format.
At first glance, Macbeth as a radio drama is a great idea. After all, Shakespeare’s plays were originally meant to be heard more than they were meant to be seen. Shakespeare thought of himself as a poet, and anyone going to the theatre back then would say they were going to “hear” a play. So I think this medium gives an exciting opportunity to really delve into Shakespeare’s work. Of course, it’s probably harder to communicate the language in this way when you can’t fall back on physical gestures to help out the audience, so I’m curious whether this makes the play harder to follow. I love the idea of the sound design being the primary vehicle of story, which I’m sure provides lots of interesting opportunities. Following all the different characters is probably somewhat difficult, but I love the idea of Macduff being cast as a woman. It seems to add a level of nuance to the character: a woman overthrowing a power-hungry man.
7 comments:
I love the idea of making radio shows of classic theatre! The Scottish (Radio) Play sounds like it would be a blast to listen to. I think it could even have been developed into a short radio series like “The Shadow” if they tried serializing it with other Shakespeare plays.
I also think it’s fabulous Jose the world is cyclical and we are seeing new vaudeville (like TikTok and YouTube) and radio plays being a viable art form.
The art of the radio drama lives on! In a world where people are getting tired of constantly staring at a screen, I think it’s a great time for the seemingly lost art of radio shows to make its re-entrance center stage. I love how people are continually looking into the past for inspiration and adding their modern twists, especially in a time where many old or familiar things and events are being cancelled or taken away. Being a foley artist in today’s day and age means having access to more types and methods of making sound than ever before, and is an amazing way to keep technicians in business since many of them are typically not involved in Zoom play readings. It’s so fun and fascinating to see the many ways that people are creating theatre safely on a multitude of platforms and venues. It’s even more interesting to note what productions people are putting on; many of the ones I have seen advertised are for new work, but now is also a great time for some classics such as Macbeth to be shared.
Macbeth is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays and to see it get new life in this format is so exciting. Shakespeare, having been around for a while and being so overproduced, there is some burn out from all the ways you can “re-invent” his play. With adaptations spanning from Romeo & Juliet with gnomes to The Tempest but in space, it feels like every permutation has been covered. However, I think 1860s New York feels like a new take on Macbeth. With its supernatural element, it seems to be one of his plays that most resist modernization. However, this middle ground of historical fiction feels great and ingenious. I am slightly concerned by how much it has been cut down. The article claims the edit was educational purposes, and I’m not sure what that means. As someone who enjoys podcast and watching long-form unedited D&D campaigns, I don’t think Macbeth needed to be cut down that much, but honestly it’s been a while since I read it so maybe that’s not much editing. Overall, looking forward to listening to this and hopefully more Shakespeare and classic plays can become podcasts or radio plays.
A new modernization of Shakespeare is something that can almost always entice a new audience. Even as various translations and adaptations exist to modernize his works, many people can still find Shakespeare unapproachable and hard to relate to (for example, the movie adaptation of Othello, "O", was well-intentioned but just wasn't quite right). With theatres shuttered, though, a time has arisen that is ripe not only for a new retelling of an old story, but a new format through which to tell it. Not only is it exciting to hear about the existence of a radio drama in 2020, but it is intriguing to read about the methods used to carry it out. The zoom rehearsals are almost a given, but the "blanket forts" used as sound booths is a clever way to record audio both safely and professionally. I do plan on listening to this play and seeing how the approach worked out.
As a kid I loved radio dramas. I wasn’t allowed to watch much TV so I would spend evenings listening to records, tapes or live broadcasts of radio dramas (when they were on). This is interesting, although I was not pleased to hear that they cut some dialogue and scenes because of time constraints. Also, it’s interesting that the company chose the Scottish play. There is still a lot of superstition around performing the play or mentioning it in the theatre, so I’m curious as to why they chose this work. I would have preferred them to do some comedy, especially as a way to brighten and lift the spirits of listeners. In my life, I have also worked on several radio dramas. I love the challenges that they create both for the actors as well as for the crew. Even with the edits due to time, I’m sure this would be a great thing to just sit and listen to, especially on a cold night by a fire. Spooky!
I am surprised every single time when I face an another Macbeth. I think it would be one of the most frequently addressed & adapted & performed plays in the world, and how people are still pulling different innovative ideas out of it is fascinating. As the exact procedure of this radio drama was not fully explained in the article, I still have some curiosities… I wonder if the actors are going to memorize the lines or have the scripts right in front of themselves. Plus, quite honestly, I don’t know if radio drama could achieve being a theater. I do think that focusing on audial traits could help some of the audience engage more in the context, but I am afraid that this would turn out to be just an audio book of a very high quality… not necessarily the theatre. I think there is a reason why people watch the movies instead of just listening to them. I also wonder how they are going to deal with the “scene changes”… in the actual theater, we know that we are going to another scene without a huge break of the concentration by that short blackout. I wonder how they are going to deal with this in such format.
At first glance, Macbeth as a radio drama is a great idea. After all, Shakespeare’s plays were originally meant to be heard more than they were meant to be seen. Shakespeare thought of himself as a poet, and anyone going to the theatre back then would say they were going to “hear” a play. So I think this medium gives an exciting opportunity to really delve into Shakespeare’s work. Of course, it’s probably harder to communicate the language in this way when you can’t fall back on physical gestures to help out the audience, so I’m curious whether this makes the play harder to follow. I love the idea of the sound design being the primary vehicle of story, which I’m sure provides lots of interesting opportunities. Following all the different characters is probably somewhat difficult, but I love the idea of Macduff being cast as a woman. It seems to add a level of nuance to the character: a woman overthrowing a power-hungry man.
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