Tuesday, September 17, 2024
From Salt-N-Pepa to Romeo and Juliet: how rap sparked Sam White’s passion for Shakespeare
Theatre | The Guardian: When she was preparing to stage Romeo and Juliet at Canada’s Stratford festival, director Sam White took a research trip to fair Verona. “And I was sort of not impressed,” she says with a laugh, remembering her visit to the Casa di Giulietta with its 20th-century balcony, which has become a popular attraction for romantic tourists. “I thought, the balcony at the Festival theatre is much better than this tiny thing!”
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I truly enjoyed reading through this and learning a bit about Sam White and her unique approach and many accomplishments. I love the connections between Shakespeare and rap music, opera, and even standup comedy. The idea of getting through 10 jokes in a minute in standup and having them all land and bring the audience in is definitely analogous to the experience of performing Shakespeare, which I have heard called “aerobic acting.” Like rap music, Shakespeare has a cadence and rhythm and lyricism to it, and it explores themes that audiences can find relatable. It’s very cool that White has managed to put on a production with such masterful pacing without making major cuts. I also liked learning about Shakespeare in Detroit and their site specific performances, as well as their school initiative to get kids interested in technical theatre and the intersections between STEM and the performance arts.
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