I think you should all know that I’m becoming very excited by this script. I really really really want to do it in late October. Something about a war hero with a temper being unsuitable to run a country appeals to me.
Although political allegory would not be on the table if we were to go through with this. I’m a huge subscriber to John Russell Brown’s “just do the show, let the audience construct their own meaning” school. This play has been known to irritate both the Fascists and the resistance, so it’s got to be worth doing, right?
Brecht cared enough to re-write it.
I, too, have always had a warm, fuzzy feeling for John Russell Brown’s approach. In these times of diminished expectations, the audience might experience it as a revelation. Let each of them design whatever conceptual scheme they choose. We focus on a vivid mode of playing.
Obviously I have not spent as much time with the play as Dale has, doing only one read through. I was not that impresseed. Maybe I need to go back and take a closer look.
The Newnan Arts Commission is actually interested in our project, just because Ginny mentioned that we were considering it. I’ve told her what we’d be up to so that no one thinks it’s going to be family-friendly “Shakespeare in the Park” stuff.
So, friends, time to think hard about this. I would really like to do this piece and am willing to put in the time on it if you guys are. We need about ten or twelve men total, I think, to carry it off effectively. So far, we don’t quite have that.
Why ten? That’s going to involve pleading and cajoling or pulling men of goodwill along who lack chops. Couldn’t the few and committed do it? I suppose we could audition and say cast size TBA. That way we gain folks with chops and commitment, then we create a game plan. I dunno. I don’t want to plead and cajole and then hope they show up for rehearsal. I’m a grouch.
I like the idea of having enough hands not only for the major roles + crowd scenes, but also for drumming on stuff for accompaniment. If five major characters plus a “mob” are on stage and we need a lot of noise for the scene change, that becomes a practical matter.
I’m also thinking about asking NCTC if they’d like to feature us for a weekend of indoor performances. It would be one more venue.
I think we could get enough men to do this. Not all of them would have chops, as you say, but if we got six of us who knew what we are doing, the others could be trainable enow for our purpose. We can start by surveying the usual suspects to see if they’re interested.
Just looking at II.1, for example, there are the two tribunes, Menenius, the three ladies, and then the army comes in with Cominius, Lartius, and Coriolanus. That’s nine major characters, plus the speakers of the lower sort.
I’m definitely in. Barb is in, too (if we’re allowing females, that is). Peyton would be willing to stage manage. (She’s done it before). We might ask Dean Jackson and Matthew Bailey if they’d like to do it. Is Craig in on this, too?
I’d like to try this with all men. It’s such a butch play that I want to see it all oiled up in leather pants.
What if Barb were to agree to a sex change operation?
So I guess Matthew’s out, then.
Oh wait.
I’ll ask Craig when he comes down this weekend.
I understand the all-male impulse. But I also think you could accomplish the same thing without all men, if that makes any sense. It’s “male” not in a biological sense but in a socio-cultural sense. More later.
I think you should all know that I’m becoming very excited by this script. I really really really want to do it in late October. Something about a war hero with a temper being unsuitable to run a country appeals to me.
Although political allegory would not be on the table if we were to go through with this. I’m a huge subscriber to John Russell Brown’s “just do the show, let the audience construct their own meaning” school. This play has been known to irritate both the Fascists and the resistance, so it’s got to be worth doing, right?
Brecht cared enough to re-write it.
I, too, have always had a warm, fuzzy feeling for John Russell Brown’s approach. In these times of diminished expectations, the audience might experience it as a revelation. Let each of them design whatever conceptual scheme they choose. We focus on a vivid mode of playing.
Obviously I have not spent as much time with the play as Dale has, doing only one read through. I was not that impresseed. Maybe I need to go back and take a closer look.
The Newnan Arts Commission is actually interested in our project, just because Ginny mentioned that we were considering it. I’ve told her what we’d be up to so that no one thinks it’s going to be family-friendly “Shakespeare in the Park” stuff.
So, friends, time to think hard about this. I would really like to do this piece and am willing to put in the time on it if you guys are. We need about ten or twelve men total, I think, to carry it off effectively. So far, we don’t quite have that.
Why ten? That’s going to involve pleading and cajoling or pulling men of goodwill along who lack chops. Couldn’t the few and committed do it? I suppose we could audition and say cast size TBA. That way we gain folks with chops and commitment, then we create a game plan. I dunno. I don’t want to plead and cajole and then hope they show up for rehearsal. I’m a grouch.
I like the idea of having enough hands not only for the major roles + crowd scenes, but also for drumming on stuff for accompaniment. If five major characters plus a “mob” are on stage and we need a lot of noise for the scene change, that becomes a practical matter.
I’m also thinking about asking NCTC if they’d like to feature us for a weekend of indoor performances. It would be one more venue.
I think we could get enough men to do this. Not all of them would have chops, as you say, but if we got six of us who knew what we are doing, the others could be trainable enow for our purpose. We can start by surveying the usual suspects to see if they’re interested.
Just looking at II.1, for example, there are the two tribunes, Menenius, the three ladies, and then the army comes in with Cominius, Lartius, and Coriolanus. That’s nine major characters, plus the speakers of the lower sort.
I’m definitely in. Barb is in, too (if we’re allowing females, that is). Peyton would be willing to stage manage. (She’s done it before). We might ask Dean Jackson and Matthew Bailey if they’d like to do it. Is Craig in on this, too?
I’d like to try this with all men. It’s such a butch play that I want to see it all oiled up in leather pants.
What if Barb were to agree to a sex change operation?
So I guess Matthew’s out, then.
Oh wait.
I’ll ask Craig when he comes down this weekend.
I understand the all-male impulse. But I also think you could accomplish the same thing without all men, if that makes any sense. It’s “male” not in a biological sense but in a socio-cultural sense. More later.