Why We Can't Do Plays Like Shakespeare Anymore: The London History Show
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Sources and further reading:
Bowsher, J. & Miller, P. 2009. The Rose and the Globe- playhouses of Shakespeare’s Bankside, Southwark.
Cerasano, S. P. 1989. Raising a Playhouse from the Dust. www.jstor.org/stable/2870613
Kohler, R. C. 1989. Excavating Henslowe's Rose. www.jstor.org/stable/2870612
Mortimer, I. 2013. The Time Traveller’s Guide To Elizabethan England.
Tucker, P. 1990. Teaching and Acting Shakespeare from Cue Scripts. www.jstor.org/stable/44657118
Tucker, P. 2001. Secrets Of Acting Shakespeare: The Original Approach.
00:00 Intro
01:46 Things Are Different For The Audience
09:46 Things Are Different For The Actors
Anyone who'd pay 5 pounds to stand during an entire Shakespeare play is a true legend. I couldn't do it
The plays were shorter back then, plus there were food vendors
I paid $20 in 2006 to see Romeo and Juliet! To stand! Lol
I paid £5 and did the standing, I must be a true legend then ;) or just a Londoner who enjoys Shakespeare a lot :D .. It's easier than it sounds, the play and the atmosphere is so enjoyable that you can miraculously stand for 3 1/2 hours.. standing is probably the better 'seat' too as you are in the middle of the action, plays at the globe are a lot more interactive than other productions and probably come closer to how shakespeare plays would have been performed than in any other modern performance. I'm sure I must have tried to sit down somewhere during the 15mins interval though ;)
@@MattDW45 people come down to the pit from the seats because they're not having as much fun. We all used to stand for three or four hours without the toilet at football matches.
@@anz10 while it's not a legendary skill and most people could likely do it, not everyone can. You're completely right about most people, though. . I used to be on my feet for 8 hours a day working retail, so i could definitely do it back then. But now ive been in 6 car accidents. 5 out of which i wasn't at fault for including a bus smashing into my car. I can't stand for more than 20 or so minutes or my nerve damage acts up there intense shooting pain, shaking and increased likelihood of my legs just giving out. It's really disappointing. I miss mosh pits and 7:29 concerts and a thing i wanted to do if i visited london was to watch the play in the pit
Also: AFAIK, one of the advantages Shakespeare had was he had his own company of players, and he wrote for those men. When you read Shakespeare, you're not necessarily reading King John, Hamlet, Richard iii, etc - you're reading the personalities of Richard Burbage, William Kempe and Thomas Pope. Shakespeare wrote parts based on his actors, which I'm certain made learning parts that much easier.
Oh nice! Any sources? I'd love to read/watch more about this
@@MarkBonneaux I'm sure it's not a source at ALL, but the film Shakespeare in Love shows a bit of this and it's good fun 🙂
@@MarkBonneauxThe ultimate source for all things Elizabethan theater related in Andrew Gurr. I recommend The Shakespearean Stage (1992) and The Shakespeare Company (2004). Shakespeare would occasionally write the name of the actor into his script instead of the name of the character he was portraying. When this script was passed on to the printer for publication, the typesetter would just follow his copy and these errors would be preserved. Also, we know when certain actors entered and left the company, and the changes in the writing style that resulted. William Kempe was a known for his physical humor. Shakespeare's clowns and fools up until Kempe left the company in 1599 were buffoons. Kempe was replaced with Robert Armin, who was more of a witty comic. Shakespeare's clowns after that time were more dispensers of clever wisdom. Lastly, the female characters were played by boy actors. At least one could speak Welsh, as an instruction in Henry IV Part One says "The lady speaks in Welsh". In the early days of Shakespeare's company, these boys played girls or young women, mostly in brief roles. As these actors got older and became more capable, so did the complexity and age of Shakespeare's heroines. This wasn't something that was exclusive to Shakespeare and his company. Most of the poets of the era wrote plays specifically for one company or another, often under contract.
Reminds me of how sports teams will often build their strategies around the strengths of individual players. To misuse an aphorism: "You go to war with the army that you have."
@@tbotalpha8133 Great point! The Argentine national team has been built to support Messi for many years, and the Spanish team's style changed and they focused on midfield players like Iniesta and Fabregas after David Villa and Fernando Torres stopped factoring in the national side. Just like Shakespeare! 😅 I love it!
Many years ago I decided to form a theatre group of young actors. I wanted to show how vibrant Shakespeare is. We performed in parks, school gymnasiums etc and charged little. We encouraged our audiences to engage, we addressed them directly as if the play was a conversation. We were successful for years. The plays don't need lights or the 4th wall. Curtains lights and elaborate sets destroy the need for Shakespeare's picture painting language and their immediacy in provoking thought. Teachers in high schools would tell us the kids would hate the language and get bored. They didn't they were rollicking loud audiences who often told us that this was the first time they had understood. Unfortunately I became ill and had to stop. A big professional theatre company jumped in and began touring schools but it fizzled. Theatre is full of ego maniacs who can't stand bare theatre, it doesn't clean their pants to see audiences mad about the play, not it's actors etc. Edit: I wrote 'cream' their pants. Auto correct changed it.
creaming their pants sounds exactly the kind of thing that would happen in a shakespare play
Ive seen an OU video about Shakespeare played not in RP with its stilted way of speaking but using what the linguist David Crystal calls OP. This has been developed by looking at the rhymes, puns etc that just dont work with modern pronunciations. When they performed for London school kids they found that they understood the plays better because of the pronunciation.
@@helenamcginty4920OP is OP. It’s incredibly dirty I’m amazed they performed that in schools. It does sound great though. I’m always on the lookout for someone performing OP.
I remember getting the Shakespeare unit in 10th grade English when everyone got assigned parts and, when allowed, everyone got really REALLY into it. We were having arguments mid play, divorces, extra affairs. We loved Shakespeare.
@jaidenirving4738 Shakespeare is bloody wonderful. Performing for year 10 kids was the most fun experience of my life. Lots of participation, it was partipation art.
There was a company in Portland Oregon who tried to do this in a park. They performed Romeo and Juliet with lots of pauses for bus traffic. After a while it turned into a comedy. At one point, the stage manager called for the performers to do the scene as zombies. Was fun chaos.
In my city, we have a now defunct outdoor theatre that was on the flight path of the local airport and they did musicals. Behind the proscenium arch they had a green-yellow-red traffic-light arrangement that told the actors when to stop because a plane was about to fly over. One day they were giving _Kismet_ and the pilot had the bad manners to fly through the most famous song in the musical, "Stranger in Paradise". So the singer was obliged to stop and pose like a statue _just_ after singing the lyric "I hang suspended...." Which brought the house down. The plane was across and out of earshot within 15 seconds, but they had to wait a couple of minutes for the audience to stop laughing.
This feels incredibly in the spirit of the bard
They still do it! It's called the original practice Shakespeare festival and we saw three performances this summer. It's a hoot. They perform in the evening, and there is intermission and bathrooms (it's held at local parks). But there is a book holder (called a referee, complete with whistle and striped shirt), no memorization, cue sheets only, and the barest of sets. Definitely worth a visit!
To be fair, I'm pretty sure Romeo and Juliet was intended to be comedic. It's a very comedy of errors style tragedy.
@@carameldare:I am unclear on why you included the phrase "To be fair..."
Something about you in your fabulous period attire in a cozy, timeless room drinking a can of Monster Energy is just absolutely, wonderfully anachronistic.
I was thinking the exact same, it's such a funny contrast
Fabulous isn't it? :)
Not just any can of Monster, it's Lewis Hamilton-flavoured
Period hair and hat, with Steampunk tinted glasses would work even better.
I wonder how many anachrons a can of Monster Energy would have cost in 1599... Or a Nutrimatic cup of boiled leaf water.
The fact that Shakespeare still packs 'em in the aisles after 400+ years of changing theatrical traditions is a testament to just how great he actually is. No doubt people will still be going to his plays when the actors are holograms or androids. "Not for an age but for all time"---indeed prophetic.
Not to mention his impact on the English language. There's a KZheadr, Atun-Shei, who compared Shakespeare to Michael Bay. He was the guy who made the blockbusters for the masses. There were probably people back then who would quote the plays with their buddies at the pub. Also the way English was pronounced was different and really enhanced the word play.
@@SEAZNDragon "Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough" - Rome and room sounds alike. As a non-native speaker it is interesting to notice quite how often Shakespeare is quoted today, both in the UK and the USA. BBC had a radio series called "Murder most foul", "What's in a name?" has been used as a title for a chapter about programming, "there is the rub" and so on. One of Shakespeares sonets is quoted in "Colossus" (the novel). Nothing similar happens in Danish. We have but one quote from Shakespeare (guess what) and - perhaps - one from an old Danish poem ("De higer og søger, i gamle bøger"). Sometimes I think you do not notice.
I disagree. I'd bet most of the audience goes to see Shakespeare productions just to be seen (and subsequently crow about) going to see a Shakespearean production.
Yeah, but he's been deified. I doubt some of his rivals were so much worse that their plays don't deserve to be produced nowadays. Where is the Royal Ben Jonson Theatre? Going to a Shakespeare performance is almost like going to Easter church service, something you do because it's supposed to be good for you.
They are good but also overrated. Like most people might not understand them - if you perform them in the original English. People go becausr they have heard he is deep and profound, because of the reputation instilled in us. So they go there but for the wrong reasons
It's not exactly the same, but I once did a show called "Secret Shakespeare" in which none of the actors met each other until the performance. It was wonderful! We got about a month to rehearse in our own homes and one rehearsal with the director. We were asked to come in disguise with the audience and stand up at our first line of the show. We did have a book holder, but they were in the front seat of the audience, not a corner of the stage. It felt spontaneous and exciting and the troupe instantly became friends. We did it as a fundraiser for the theater program in a local school. 10/10 would recommend! If you are part of a theater troupe or otherwise know someone who runs a troupe please suggest to them that they run a Secret Shakespeare. It's a great time, a great fundraiser and a great challenge.
Sorry, I don't believe you as It just would not work.
@@lordeden2732 Ya, that's the funny part. We messed up a lot! Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned that it was one night only.
It had the vibe of improv comedy where whenever we messed up we had to try to keep a straight face and roll with it while the audience laughed. I don't recommend doing this with Shakespeare's tragedies, only his comedies
My husband has a PhD in linguistics and loves languages. He actually helped to translate, or as others have said “restore” Hamlet to the original Klingon. BTW-he also spoke to our son in Klingon for the first coulpe of years. No, my son is not messed up. He’s actually an opera singer and manager of a local theater!
You’re the Klingon family! As an aspiring linguist, I’m star struck.
I love they way your son is not messed up and yet he went into theatre!! :D ;)
Well of course he isn't, he could learn other languages, mostly the one native to your home place, from aaaaaallll the other people he would interact with, that's just like second generation of immigrants in any country, especially if their parents don't speak local language. I was a similar case, I live in Poland, but my mother only spoke English to me until I was 10 or so, because she was super into linguistics and an English major [and now is an English teacher], so she wanted me to be a native English speaker - and I am, although as I kid in kindergarten, I got super offended when I learned that no, not every child speaks English at home, it's just me XD I'm curious though what were the rules for your family, if I may ask. Did you use only Klingon all the time with him? Only at home? Or some other way? And does he still understand Klingon now?
Right? I’m not sure being in the opera world counts as “not messed up”. 😂@@Elfsinger
Klingon opera
"Well, it's not very dramatic now, Terry" literally made me snort in my office. I'm going to have trouble explaining this to my colleagues.
Search for Jack Benny in the 1942 "To Be or Not to Be."
Did you snort white powdery substance ❄️?
“… … line” 😂😂
15:32
Well, you know... it really _was_ a more civilized time, wasn't it.
Gathered from a quick internet search: For example, in 1629 French actresses appeared at Blackfriars in London; there seems to be no record of them being prosecuted, but the audience simply booed, hissed, and pelted them off the stage. Elizabethan theatre patrons’ refusal to countenance women on stage was considered a point of national pride by writers like Thomas Nashe. If a woman were ever prosecuted for acting a role in a play in England, it would probably be before a Consistory court or some similar church court, on a charge of “immodesty” or “lewdness,” rather than for violating some specific Parliamentary prohibition on actresses. The Puritans closed down the theatres completely during the Civil War and Interregnum, so actors and actresses were both illegal. Only at the Restoration did Charles II make it clear that actresses on stage would be met with royal favor from now on (he probably got used to them in France, where women were never kept off the stage). source: Daniel Baker, M.A. in European History, George Mason University
That's really interesting. I never knew that not all of the puritans decided to ruin (bless, of course. Of COURSE I mean bless. 🙄) America with their presence.
Ya, actors being respectable is actually a fairly recent thing. In ancient Rome they were considered infamia similar to prostitutes or gladiators (that doesn't mean they weren't often popular, too, but not respectable). The idea is that by entertaining people with acting for money, you're selling your body in just a different way. I guess England kept that line of thinking longer than most countries. Of coursw this predisposition leads to there's the slippery slope thinking that if women are allowed on stage at all, then lewd performances are just around the corner.
This was fun! And educative.
@@admthrawnuru IIRC, in Procopius' Secret History, he explains the Empress's background was as an actress and then describes what she performed. In modern terminology, she was a porn star.
@@pabloapostar7275 yes, but he was a dick, so it hard to tell how much he was telling the truth
Over here in the US I once got to see a local production where the actors only had their cue scripts. Since it was a comedy - Two Gentlemen of Verona - the book holder was dressed as a (US) football referee, and blew his whistle/threw down a yellow flag whenever someone flubbed a line. And since it was one of those "on the green" productions there was more of a faire crowd, with a good bit of chatter going on during the performance. It was a lot of fun!
Aw man, sounds like quite the thing to behold. 🤣
Professional opera singer here… First of all great video as usual. Love your energy and all. Just wanted to add that many of the practices you mentioned do still continue in one way or another. I work at a repertory theatre in Germany and we do a different show every night pulling something out of the back of our minds after months sometimes. Therefore we do have someone to cue us if someone forgets their lines. And while actors and singers tend to use full scripts or vocal scores containing all the parts, the orchestras play from from cue sheets and so does the chorus sometimes. It’s amazing how much has changed and just as amazing how much hasn’t. Keep up the good work!
Yeah, instrumental parts do tend to be just your own part, the length of each bit you aren’t playing, and _maybe_ some cues if the person who wrote/typeset the individual parts though they’d be helpful. Mostly if you aren’t playing right then, you just count and/or learn the cues to listen for during rehearsals.
I went in to this thinking “Hah, I’m sure we could still put on plays like Shakespearean ones; it can’t be *that* different”. WELL. I was wrong! Thank you so much for this video, it was fascinating and insightful. Brilliant video.
I think with a few modernizations it'd be possible- new play each week instead of every day, able to have some minimal stage decoration/furniture, lighting for scene changes, intermission. I'd go, especially if it was cheaper than the movies
@Pai Sho Cajun - Mark Bonneaux we do still have theatres and plays "in the round". One of the local high schools had a class that did an "in the round" adaptation of one of the Twilight movies back when they were still popular. No, it wasn't exactly as portrayed here (it was inside, in a large classroom or the school's multi-purpose room or gym or something), but it was definitely performed with the stage in the middle of a donut-type shape. From memory, there were some other differences, such as using a tv/projector system to aid with setting the scene, but yeah... was an interesting experience
It sounds very like modern "reportoirey" theatre (hope I got that right) where actors will do a different play every week. It's supposed to be an exhilarating but also miserable and exhausting experience.
@@jmackmcneill i can believe that. Even my idea above feels very much like a "do it for the love of theater" kind of job to have where even a week to week show change is going to be a heavy grind after probably a not too long period of time
I love it when someone points out how much of the stage direction is in the text. Often it's a lot subtler than the examples you gave, too.
I do a lot of student theatre on props and set and it’s so useful when he just describes what props there are
There is no more realistic line in any work of fiction than: "Pass me the screwdriver... No, not that one, the phillips!"
I imagine it's also helpful for the audience, who are more listening than seeing the show, to have the characters' body-language and actions described in speech.
Sometimes it's so fucking subtle that it's hard to find productions that do it. In the lore dump in the Tempest it's blatently fucking obvious that Miranda is supposed to be fucking about and not paying attention, because Prospero keeps pausing and asking her if she's paying attention (and she innocently says he is). Yet all I can find are productions where they have her sitting in rapt attention. Why would he be asking if she's paying attention if she hasn't taken her eyes off him the entire scene?!
"Enter mariners, wet."
Back in the 2000's a theatre in Toronto did one of the comedies this way with only the que scripts. It was hysterically funny, and much more polished the second night. My favorite line was "Methinks I shouldnst be alone" and someone came flying onto the stage😂😂
That sounds amazing! 😂
As a blind person, I figured out a long time ago that one does not need to see the play. I would love to visit the Globe! I'm not an expert on the Bard's work, but the rythm of language makes up for all of that. I've never known what the Globe looked like; thank you so much for your description!
My ex-girlfriend and I visited the Globe Theater in 1999 during a London vacation. She was a theater major that (at the time) worked for a theatrical supply company, so our vacation involved a lot of theater. Our tour guide explained that the new Globe was built exactly as the original Globe was built, with 2 exceptions. First, the theater had sprinklers because of the London fire code. Second were lights "because no theater could survive without putting on plays at night. We didn't see a play at the Globe, but we did see performances by two RSC-initialized Shakespeare companies. They were the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Reduced Shakespeare Company. The Reduced Shakespeare Company put on the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged. It really was very, very funny. Some years later, the play was brought to NYC, and I purchased tickets to see it with my (new) girlfriend, sister, and mother. To say they were not enthusiastic when they heard the title would be an understatement. But they did really enjoy it.
That script is a riot, but I wish that I could have bought a ticket to see backstage! The artistry of the folks who help those actors is a thing to behold.
That is an absolutely brilliant play. Especially for the "lucky" person who plays Ophelia.
One high school in my district just put on a performance of that, it's incredibly funny. I don't know what you mean though as it is 100% accurate with no misrepresentations at all.
When you say abridged here, do you mean with jokes inserted over top like anime fan dubs, or abridged as in shortened?
@@pepperypeppers2755 Well, considering they perform the Complete works of Shakespeare in less than 2 hours, they either had to shorten them or talk very very very fast. As I recall, they perform every play besides Hamlet in the first act. They put on all the historical plays as a football game with (for example) Henry IV passing the ball to Richard III and so forth. There was an announcer to keep it all straight. Hamlet is put on for the entire second act. It's been 20 years since I saw it, and would love to see it again.
They do sell beer at baseball games. Baseball is very much a social occasion as well, with the stadiums being equal part sporting venue and museum, and things like the unique design of each field and stadium, view of the city from your seat, and the friends you run into are seen as essential parts of the experience. FYI, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals will be playing a two-game series a month from today at London Stadium. Would recommend.
Really? Do we have an Link to this game of rounders played by strongmen in the Americas? I might be tempted, especially if sugary salty cheesy things are for sale. And they charge but three pennies for the audiencing.
@@acchaladka The London Series is a thing they've done a few times now, as well as in some other countries. To my American eyes (who grew up as a fan of the team in the biggest stadium with among the cheapest tickets), the price is too high. But if I was in London I'd probably go anyway.
@@SamAronow I grew up with the bleacher bums at Shea Stadium in the 80s. I feel your comment.
Btw looking forward to your next video on!! PS its always a little strange when you see a youtuber you watch on another channel that you Also watch.
@@acchaladka Heh, what's served is probably limited by local laws and tradition. Still, if they managed to import some U.S. delicacies (sure, let's call them "delicacies") go for it.
The bookholder is a role that survives in opera today, called a "prompter." Years ago I heard a recording of the world première of Olivier Messiaen's opera "Saint Fraçois d'Assise," and it was recorded such that the prompter could be heard giving out lines fairly constantly -- it was, after all, a new work, and very long and musically difficult at that.
I learned in middle school (and someone is free to add on or correct me) that when people were cast as trees or background inanimate objects, it wasn't because they REALLY couldn't set up a standee, it was so they could assist the actors with lines. You know the whole show and you're just dressed as a tree and silent until someone forgets their lines 🫠
On a less high-brow note, a local theater was putting on the musical Scrooge, and my family got involved. The actor playing the Ghost of Christmas Present had to drop out very last minute, and didn't have an understudy. We found someone to take his place, taught him the song and a few key lines. But for the rest, he and Ebenezer acted out of the apron of the stage... with my mother behind the closed curtains feeding him his lines. These days, we'd probably just give him an ear bud.
The rehearsal process described here really sounds like what it is like to be in a Church/Cathedral choir. I remember one moment where we'd rehearsed a piece once before mass- and it wasn't until the actual mass that I really felt the meaning of 'we sat down and wept bitter tears' ring through the building. Strangely, it made it more meaningful that I never sang it again.
Standing in the donut hole at the Globe for _Taming of the Shrew_ (performed by an all-female cast) was the absolute highlight of my first trip to London. Having this additional context is making me appreciate it all the more in retrospect. Also, seeing the bits from _Star Trek VI_ and _Portal 2_ made my morning.
That’s sounds like a good bit of dark irony to see “Taming of the Shrew” with an all-female cast of all Shakespeare’s plays
@@historiansayori2089 It was an incredible experience. The way the actor who played Petruchio delivered the final line... completely changed the tone of the ending. I was legitimately crying.
We do something vaguely like that sometimes at my live action roleplaying game. None or very little rehersal, putting on a play within the game, narrator reading parts off sheets with no prior knowledge of the story of the play. And an audience likely to engage and heckle. Lots of fun.
I have thought, as son of a professor of this kind of stuff, that fantasy role play and LARP types of things today is a bit closer to the form and style of drama of yesterday.
The Popup Globe in Australia/New Zealand had a bunch of shows in a replica globe theatre. We indeed stood up the whole time, were encouraged to participate in the performance, and some of us were given cue cards to yell lines at the actors. It really felt like an historical production. I wish they'd survived the pandemic, they were brilliant 😊
Wasn't the Pop Up Globe fantastic. Wish it would return to Auckland.
I remember being sent to Auckland for two nights for a conference. Walking from the hotel to the conference centre I passed the Pop-up Globe. Got super excited and vowed to see whatever was playing that night. It was Othello. 10/10 highlight of that trip
I am an American and can confirm that there are people who walk up and down the stairs at not just baseball but most sporting events selling beer, food and souvenirs, for those who don't want to get up to go to the concession stands.
It turns out that the English cannot be trusted to drink in the stands at sporting events. Seriously. Even at Premier League games with beer sold on the concourse, it is not permitted to carry/consume drinks in view of the pitch.
So for a college Shakespeare class we had to do a play in around two hours, since they would have to finish before it gets dark and no intermission. We had to do everything super fast.Going so quickly really changed how it felt.
Cue scripts-called “sides”-are still used today in modern plays and musicals. I don’t like using them because they are TERRIBLE for learning lines. If you’re on stage relying on your fellow actor for cues and they forget/paraphrase the cue, you’re more than likely screwed.
Sides are also used daily in TV and film, although they’re probably different from the ones used in plays and musicals. Each day, crew members and cast are handed a packet of small (maybe 4” x 6”) pages, with the front being a miniature version of the day’s call sheet and the remaining pages being only the parts of the script we’re shooting that day. What are the play/musical sides like if, unlike TV and film, you’re performing the whole production at once?
@@TheUnmade pretty similar to what you’re describing, actually-it’s a booklet containing only my lines for the whole show, as well as the cues from any other actors in the scenes I’m in. If I have only a small part, the sides can literally be maybe ten pages, ha! Same with the vocal parts for shows; rarely does every actor get a full copy of everything along with the piano reduction accompaniment (very annoying for singers to not see full scores!). With so much being digital these days, I see sides less and less… but 20 years ago, all the big theatre rights companies-MTI, Dramatists Play Service, etc-we’d pay for the rights and the rental of music and sides, and we had to return those sides in pristine condition or get charged for damage. Many of us old-timer actors know what those little black books looked like, and we guarded them with our lives lest they get lost or damaged… they were pricey!
@@rowdybliss That’s fascinating that you have to pay for sides, but I suppose it makes a certain kind of sense given the medium. Given that rental process, is there any thought of “These sides were used by [insert famous actor here]”? I’d imagine that could be fun. Our sides on set are just printed the night before and get thrown out or litter our cars/bags/lives, haha! The only time I’ve had to specifically take care of sides in a specific manner is if you’re working on something like a Marvel show, where they want you to turn in your sides for destruction at the end of the day for story security.
When I was a very young child, I was one of the two titular stars of a play called *Astronauts Visit Mother Goose Land,* performed by my preschool. This was a big event, and my preschool teacher arranged to have us perform on the stage at a local public school, and invited all the parents. Because experience had taught her that lowering the house lights scared preschool kids, she kept the house lights on for the entire performance, with the predictable result that the parents chatted loudly throughout the entire play, and the child actors could hardly be heard at all.
That sounds like a not good experience.
@@yellowstarproductions6743 Not for me -- I was one of the stars of a cool play, and I knew all my. lines. I didn't know the audience couldn't hear me, and I wasn't fazed when I found out, because for me, the experience was more like private imaginary play with my age-mates than "being on stage." My brother, two years older than me, was in the audience, and he also enjoyed the play, being fascinated by our rocket-shaped spaceship, though it was a stationary set piece that never moved (the play opened with the astronauts already having landed). After the show, he wanted to go up on stage and see the inside of the rocket, hoping to see a control panel, but of course, it was nothing but plain cardboard with a light wooden frame, painted only on the outside. My mom was a bit irritated that she hadn't been able to hear, but my dad, observing our fascination with the rocketship set piece, soon afterward constructed a plain cardboard replica of it in our basement, and my brother and I flew everywhere in it.
Back in June, my renaissance fair troupe (I’m in Arkansas in the US, so in the south) was invited to come be part of an open air showing of Shakespeare’s work (it was a cast of 3 and they did an abridged show in the way of a Shakespeare comedy). It was amazing- there wasn’t curtains or lights, the line between audience and the show was permeable and the interaction really changed everything about how I view Shakespeare. It was my first time getting to see the work performed how it was meant to be performed and it was brilliant.
I've actually had the pleasure to act in an original practices Shakespeare play before (Pericles). We all got our scripts a week in advance with only our dialogue and the three cue lines before each of our lines along with very limited stage direction. Then we all got together the morning of the play, rehearsed it a couple of times, and then put it on. Due to the theater we were in our audience could see us just fine, but we didn't have any lights to dim. The audience still didn't talk during the play though, I guess they were all just used to not talking while people were on stage. It was, on the one hand, some of the most fun I've ever had doing a Shakespeare play. On the other hand though I think I would die if I had to memorize another play at the same time, I legitimately have no idea how people ever could have done that.
Original Practice Shakespeare in Portland, Oregon, USA does this very style and has for about a decade... mostly. They perform at night in parks with artificial lights, but they get cue scripts, only rehearse battles and songs, and they do about 20 different shows a summer, only performing on weekends. If you're in the Pacific Northwest in the summer, I encourage to to check them out
In France, around 2005 they did a representation of "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" by Moliere (17th century) with original pronounciation 1nd ancient instruments, trying to recreate costumes and playing/dancing style, all of that WITH CANDLELIGHT ONLY. And it is beyond brilliant
I feel like the “having to keep an entire library of plays in your head” thing could potentially be mitigated the way AKB48 mitigates the issue of “we perform at our theatre literally every night” by having a rotating group (so like, group A on Monday, group B on Tuesday, etc), but I also can’t imagine there were enough people to pull that off in the late 1500’s….
There was a theater company in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, where they had a large open air theatre. The show started on the main stage, and then I heard a narrator begin telling a story from somewhere I couldn't see. I ended up staring off into the scenery of the farmland in the distance while I listened (it was a horseshoe shaped building for the seating). After 20 minutes I realized that the narrator was an actor delivering a soliloquy, and all the other people talking were actually performing just around the corner where they were just out of my normal field of view. I had been listening intently and enjoying it, but a bit confused about why it was a play if it was just a long story. Anyway, I was still enjoying it, and going from listening to watching the actors was honestly a bit jarring. I had created an image of what these people looked like, where they were, and what they were doing, and the illusion was broken once I saw them. They had song breaks and dances to break up scenes, and the show ended with a dance number. Watching this now, I realize how much they must have been influenced by the history of theater. They marketed themselves as such. It was a neat experience. Lots of mosquitoes, though.
A few things I was thinking off as you went: - the style of rehearsal makes me think of how a “live” weekly show would run (think Saturday Night Live skits and such) where practice it super short because you’re literally putting on a new show all the time. - In modern time, and more cheaply, I could see that kind of play be produced “virtually”. For example there is a VR world that has started producing music shows Live (not recorded) with virtual live audience where everyone hear both the show and the audience. An alternative would be to create sort of a Live radio show because of the way the script is written you don’t even have to see the actors to know what they are doing, so long as each voice is distinct enough for you to know who’s talking. Kind of like Old Time Radio shows where they did the show live in front of audiences. It was super interesting to learn all the differences between the modern theater and the theater of old. It sound like theater used to be a hoot! Edit: I could see a Twitch or KZhead Live channel where actors give a live performance. It be really cool to watch.
Great comment, I think the comparison to improv TV is accurate. Makes me wonder why theaters didn't try this kind of thing during the pandemic - have Stratford Ontario call up a few old famous Shakespeare vets and ask everyone to horse around with a table reading they like, in a virtual space, subtitles available, while chatting and charging tens of thousands of viewers globally a penny or two for an hour. An hour of Dames Dench, Mirren, or Sir Patrick and Ian around a virtual table with a great director and lesser-knowns - let's do that a few times a month and make it free for non-G7 countries. Charge three pennies to sit in on the post-show discussion. Etc.
@@acchaladka I'd love to sit on such a show! Sound awesome!
Interesting if play with done in VR the actress would have the option of Reading lines off the screen
There was. Well, not a theatre as such. They're called The Show must go Online and they did all the Shakespeare plays plus a few others during lockdown via zoom conference. They're probably still on here somewhere.
Have you heard the term Zoomcast? It was a thing that got popular during the pandemic, shows put on over Zoom or similar. Starkid's Nightmare Time series is an example - originally livestreamed, later uploaded to KZhead. I think the only segments not done live were the songs because they did a lot of editing with those. Nick Lang was the narrator, obviously a little different from Shakespeare's actors setting the scene in-character, but still.
fascinating to learn that bookholders go that far back- when i was involved in plays in elementary school, we were all constantly forgetting our lines (because we were kids) and they had a lady sitting on the edge of the stage who would say something to hint at what the line was (if i'm not mistaken, i think she was also a narrator that framed the beginning and ending of the plays, so i guess that makes a bit more sense). good to know they didn't just do that because we were a bunch of little dumbasses
I didn’t do it myself, but I worked with a pro Shakespeare company in MD that had some shows that way. You’d get cast, you’d have a month to memorize your lines and cues, and you show up two days before the show. One rehearsal for entrances and exits and one dress rehearsal and you go up the next night.
I adore your passion and enthusiasm. It is so infectious . I am drawn to people so obviously shining their star. Thank you for that really wonderfully creative contribution to waking up. :)
The algorithm smiled on me today. And I’m already hooked too 😅
Audience - audio - listen to a play. Love this. Thank you
I got to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe back in the mid 2000's and it was great! We did the bottom row seats so we had a pretty decent view of the stage. Like you said modern audiences just interact with plays differently, but it was cool to see it in a more historically accurate theater
The Ben Crystal versions of Shakespeare's plays in the Original Pronunciation are absolutely incredible! The rhymes make so much sense and the flow is amazing. Would recommend to people if they can find a performance ❤
No matter the topic, you present it SO amazingly. I never cared about Shakespear before!
On a tour of the Sadler's Wells, before it was rebuilt, I learned that in the inter-war years the price of the cheapest seats was pegged at 3 times the cost of a packet of cigarettes to ensure the theatre was accessible to all. This rule was still in place at the time of the tour (late 80s or very early 90s). I don't know if this still stands, but I imagine tobacco tax rises will have blunted its effect.
Love these longer videos. When my partner and I visit London again, we will have to book one of your tours. Also love the Monster Energy Drink cameo. Queer Solidarity
I am amazed, admittedly I had an inkling but no complete knowledge of the inner workings of a performance of that kind. I mean, "Shakespeare in Love" might be a nice approach to enlighten us on some parts of it, but it is Hollywood or what we might call it, so not every historical aspect will be in the spotlight and accuracy by historical sciences standards is not to be expected. By the way and just as a sidenote, beautiful new haircut. Keep up the magnificent work. I will be coming back for more.
I am so impressed by your ability to talk about history in such an entertaining, engageging, clever, and exciting way! I love it! And I'm learning so much! You are amazing!
The grassroots Shakespeare company in Provo Utah does the original rehearsal style. When I had the chance to go they also encouraged audience participation. It was a lot of fun.
In Staunton (pronounced Stan-tin) Virginia, USA performs in a recreation of the Blackfriars, and every year they do a multi-week festival where they rehearse the way they were done originally, and have the line person off to the side. It was always one of my favorite times to go. I also often bought cheap student rush tickets and would get to sit on stage or in the balcony.
I really love your longform videos, please make as many as you can and want to as often as possible
They do sell drinks, peanuts, popcorn, cotton candy, hot dogs, and sometimes beer (sometimes you have to go get it depending on state alcohol laws) by vendors or hawkers in the stands at the baseball games.
Thank you for reminding me I need to rewatch that all male Twelfth Night. Every time I'm in London I try and get into a Globe performance (not many so far). The atmosphere in there is always so joyful and excited
That was so fascinating!! I never thought about half the effects you mention. Also sick undercut 👌👌
Mild tangent but when I went to a concert it was in a baseball stadium, and there were plenty of concessions. Alcohol wasnt carted around you had to go to a stall but you didnt have to drink it somewhere specific. But there was this delightfully cherry man who very much made me want to buy a lemonade. He was walking up and down the stairs of the bleachers during some of the opening sets before Incubus headlined proper screaming "LEMONADE, LEMONADE! JUST LIKE GRANDMA MADE!" I have to this day never heard a more compelling pitch. Shame I was broke at the time. 9:10 Oh neat thats Arthur Darvill!
This is truly truly top quality. I can't even imagine how much time and thought must have gone into producing just this video, let alone the years and years of working and learning that you had to put into even getting to that point. Thank you so much for sharing all of that with us; it's so immensely interesting.
Thank you! This was really fun to hear about!
The audience / audio has blown my mind like a great twist
Absolutely brilliant content. So much I didn’t know. Thank you for a million miles.
Wow, Iknew precisely none of that. I was once told by an English Lit teacher that with Shalespeare, most of the props were in the words.
Whilst searching for something anything to watch I honestly said Yippee you! I have only seen your shorts and, so am thrilled to watch. ❤
Wonderfully researched and presented! ❤
I don't know if they're still doing it, but there is/was a theater company in Portland Oregon that did actually do Shakespeare plays in the original style. It was outside, in a park, very informal, and they didn't make any money outside of concessions. Also, the problems brought up in this video were on full display here, especially the audience being too polite (I went to go see McBeth, and they did start yelling at the end). I really enjoyed it and would go again. Also, someone flew a drone over the performance and the book reader had a fun time playing around with it.
As is often said, context is everything. You have done an outstanding job of giving the plays the setting of their era....and frankly conveyed more information than my English professor managed in a semester. Indeed, I believe this to be one of your best videos yet.
Excellent presentation, J. I have learned so much here. Thank you.
This was so interesting! Thank you!
Jenny, this was a fantastic video. I somewhat specialise in Shakespeare’s London tours, so I regularly talk about all this stuff, but you articulated it all so well! So much nuanced detail! Well done!
Thank you for this incredibly informative piece. I'm intending to travel to London next year, and watching your channel has been SO informative. Also... you had me at Lewis Hamilton flavoured Monster!!
Loving this channel glad I found it recently. Great to see compelling content about British history.
Thanks for this, JD; I thoroughly enjoyed it and even learned some things. Well done.
I absolutely adore you and your videos! I have learned so much.
A beautiful summing up of the whole thing. Well presented. There have been quite a few efforts to try and reform a more organic style of theatre with varying results. When I started there were still companies doing weekly rep - a season of plays that rehearsed tuesday to Saturday during the day and dress rehearsed Mondays to open that evening. Quite exciting.
Enlightening! I have followed you a lot on Shorts, but tonight I have learned so much. Thank you! I am looking for your other content.
This is some of your best work! Excellent on account of your enthusiasm
I was very disappointed there was no jig to go with the music as the patron list streamed 😂 Very informative as always
You're so right, I should have absolutely done a jig! Kicking myself now
I'm American but I have adored Shakespeare since I was a child. I read everything he wrote by the time I was 12 , I didn't understand it all but I kept reading it until I did. I was a teenager during the 1980's so being a fan of Shakespeare was a bit odd to other people but I was a football player and a pretty big guy so people just thought I was quirky and left me to my reading.
Fantastic!! I love your enthusiasm and humour throughout 👏👏❤️
I’m just getting to know this channel. You are a real artist in how you do these videos. I like the way you think about the subject, the clarity of the writing, and your enjoyable & easy presentation style.
The intermission thing could be easily gotten around. I saw a 3-4 hour comedic Cantonese opera in Kowloon. It had like 20 acts but only a minute intermission between each act. Way too brief for the mostly elderly Chinese audience's (and mine) bladders to handle. But each of us would just shuffle out during the intermission, take a bathroom break, snack, or dinner near-by, and then return during one of the following intermissions. I missed a scene or two but big whoop. I got back by the finale.
I love these longer form videos, always a nice treat when you put them out. always at the right time. When my check comes in, I'll be tipping you!
This was brilliant! I was totally engrossed with this! And swooshed by really quickly, thanks bunches 😘
I've only caught your shorts up until now. loved this longer form content❤
I once went to a performance by P. D. Q. Bach. These were a sort of burlesque on standard classical music concerts. In this case, the show started with a "stage manager" in a plaid jacket (à la Spike Jones) coming out to announce that the musicians are late and that we, the audience, would have to just sit there and wait (in contrast to the more usual obsequious apologies I would expect). This one was at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, which also has box seats that command a better view of the audience than of the stage. So the "stage manager" called up to the people in the box closest to the stage, "Can you see all right up there?" Evidently, someone answered "no," because the stage manager replied to that, "Tough shit, you should have gotten better seats!"
Just one word. Fabulous ❤. Both the concept of the Theatre of those times and the way Jo made it come alive in this video. She really is the most underrated KZhead personality ever. Wish there could be at least a million more subscribers to this channel🙏❤️😊
Definitely agree
That was a wonderfully educational view into 16th century theatre going. I admire the thought and effort you put into these videos. Also impressed by your boundless enthusiasm and stylish dress sense.
What an informative video. Thank you!
Knickers weren’t invented yet. So what did ladies throw at the heartthrob on stage? Coins? Rocks? The Tudor equivalent of Monster drinks?
Dead cats, very in vouge
I'm a huge Shakespeare nerd and I had a lot of fun listening you describe this! I forget how much of this is not common knowledge. My friend was listening over my shoulder and I had to pause several times to explain my own experiences and add onto your history lesson. She was in awe. You did such a great job of explaining this history and we can see how passionate you are as you talk about it.
Fascinating. Thank you for the informative and entertaining look into the theatre's past.
This is so great. Fantastic work, and fascinating 🌹🌹🌹
There is the improvised shakespeare company. Which while far from faithful - being entirely improv. I think captures some of the same energy, as the performers literally don't know where the script is going until they do the performance.
I feel like if you wanted to do it today, it might end up working more economically viable to have normal shows most of the week, but there's a day of the week when you get the ̶So̶u̶p̶ 'Play of the Day'.
Wow! What a joy. I thought I knew about a lot of this, but this video taught me SO MUCH! Truly a treat
This was great. Love your videos and shorts. ❤❤❤
If plays were only $5, I'd see way more plays Edit: yes, at baseball games, beer is sold at a stand and snacks are or at least were sold like in cartoons. Idk how much it's changed since 2005 but i can't imagine that much. The only difference is that they don't announce what they're selling. That's an old timey thing, i think.
Lmao when you said “like a baseball game” I was so confused and impressed that you were using that as a reference point cause I didn’t think baseball was popular in the UK and then you said you based it on the Simpsons 🤣🤣
Thank you so much! This was wonderful!
This is very interesting!! Keep up the great job with these video🙌🙌😀😀😀
How do you know someone is a total theatre-nerd? Just listen to them discuss theatre and you can hear it in their voice.
If they're performing daily, and each play is only performed 12 times, and Shakespeare wrote less than 40 plays over more than 20 years... They must have been performing plays by a bunch of other people as well, right?
Yes, there were many, many plays, many of which we don’t have. (And many of which were rubbish.)
Love this video! I thought I knew a decent amount about what theatre was like back then, but so much of this was brand new to me! So fascinating!
I never knew any of this! Thank you, great video.
Please increase the volume next time.