They also want space to write their own notes in the text.”Ĭredit: U niversity of Birmingham. They want clear, but not patronising, help with meter and scansion. “What actors want and need, for example, is the simplest description of unfamiliar words not a full scholarly description. The project harnesses Professor Dobson’s long-standing research interest in the relationship between editing and performance – or ‘page and stage’ – and also sees him working with Shakespeare Institute colleague Dr Abigail Rokison-Woodall, a former actress and specialist in verse-speaking, who is a co-founder of the series and has edited the Performance Editions of Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “For me, the idea for the Arden Performance Editions came when I wrote my book ‘Shakespearean Verse Speaking’ – I wrote a lot about actors’ interactions with edited texts and thought that a different kind of edition might be useful in the rehearsal room,” said Dr Rokison-Woodall. There is also a list of key figures of classical Greek and Roman mythology who are mentioned in the play, as many young actors have not received a classical education. The academic-publishing partnership is commissioning more and Professor Dobson’s view is that all of Shakespeare’s 36 plays would benefit from a Performance Edition.Įach Edition annotates a range of areas including: variant text (where differences between early printed editions provide casts with legitimate choices between different versions of the same passage) punctuation lineation meter pronunciation stage directions rhetoric rhyme verse and prose. ”Five editions have been produced so far – Hamlet, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet – with Macbeth due out in early 2019. We tell them about variant texts, which allows them to make informed decisions about the lines they are speaking and creates greater opportunity for ensemble productions in which every participant finds their true dramatic voice. “Our editions arm actors to enter into discussions in the rehearsal room. So to find out what actors really needed we got hold of a particularly literate one in Simon Russell Beale, who has played just about every major Shakespearean role you would want to play, and asked his advice as well as enlisting him as a general editor. They provide only information that theatre practitioners need, such as glosses of unfamiliar vocabulary and notes on meter, together with plenty of blank space for annotations scribbled in rehearsal. Professor Dobson commented: “Some theatre companies try to use scholarly texts with massive footnotes, which are the last thing an actor needs. Professor Dobson, his colleague Dr Abigail Rokison-Woodall and actor Simon Russell Beale are general editors of Performance series. The ‘Arden Performance Editions of Shakespeare’ are designed to provide actors and directors with information that helps them to create vibrant and relevant interpretations of the playwright’s works.ĭirector of The Shakespeare Institute Professor Michael Dobson was instrumental in creating the Performance Editions, which use the authoritative texts of the plays prepared for the academic Arden series. In addition to theatrical workshops, experts at The Shakespeare Institute have worked closely with Bloomsbury Publishing to develop an innovative series of annotated texts of some of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. Our work with the RSC in pre-production creates striking academic insights about early theatrical process which can be useful to the directors of today.” New texts empower actors in rehearsal “Academics know about the early life of a play it’s the director’s job to make the play meaningful for contemporary audiences. “The sessions can have a surprising impact on the direction that a play’s staging takes for example, before working with Justin on The Taming of the Shrew, I would not have predicted that ballads would emerge as a significant element in his production. The workshops allow RSC directors to work with academics and make the distinction between the mythology that has grown up around Shakespeare’s plays and current historical understanding of where these plays have come from,” Dr Wiggins commented. His research interests cover the full body of dramatic works written in the British Isles between Reformation and Revolution, giving him a unique understanding of Shakespeare’s plays in their full professional and repertory context.“ Dr Wiggins has been a Fellow of The Shakespeare Institute since 1990.
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