An Invitation to Embark on a Shakespearean Journey
The attendees of ASCTC get
pumped for their performance.
by Alexi Sargeant
Call me an apologist for Shakespeare. Reading and performing the works of the Bard has
been such an important part of my life that I am excited
unique from the characters and words of the great playwright.
There is nothing quite like creating, as a company, a new and
unique version of one of Shakespeare’s comedies, his
or romances. To set out with such a goal is
across time and space about all of the themes Shakespeare so loved
human struggle for transcendence. If you have not yet taken your
place in this conversation, dear reader, now is the time.
For the Fun of It
My first experience with performing Shakespeare came when I was
in elementary school, where I participated in a homeschool group’s
productions of As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much
Ado About Nothing, and The Taming of the Shrew. These were large
and elaborate productions that were acted by students but adultdirected.
Though this group first sparked my interest in the Bard,
it was in high school that my passion for Shakespeare truly ignited,
thanks
put on were entirely student-directed; the participants had
teachers or direc
I played Benedick in the ShakesPEER Group’s inaugural production,
Much Ado About Nothing, and went on
Othello, and The Merry Wives of Windsor before directing The Merchant
of Venice and Macbeth. None of these shows was exempt from casting
kerfuffles, onstage mishaps, or unfortunately timed blizzards, but every
play is, in my mind, a success s
teamwork and dedication.
Also during high school, I had the privilege of attending the
American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp (ASCTC) in Staun
Virginia, where I got
stage, just like the American Shakespeare Center’s resident troupe.
Watching and acting in shows on that stage was a revelation. The
ASC uses many of Shakespeare’s original staging practices, including
universal lighting, which allows the ac
with the audience. When audience members see ac
lines straight
on
engaged than passive. Learning from the ASC’s ac
and important part of the camp, but many lessons come from the
stage itself, and from watching one’s fellow campers light up with
the joy of Shakespeare.
What I learned at the Blackfriars has been of great value in my theatrical
endeavors in college. Here at Yale, I have watched the fun of Shakespeare
take over a whole campus. This spring is the semester of Shakespeare
www.cty.jhu.edu/imagine imagine 21
For The Deadly Seven, Alexi pulled
seven deadly sins from different
Shakespeare plays. Here, Sir
John Falstaff (played by Wilfredo
Ramos) sits in front of the “Wheel
of Sin.”
Alexi as Cassio and Meg Rumsey-Lasersohn
as Desdemona in the ShakesPEER Group’s
performance of Othello.
at Yale, a multivenue
celebration
of the university’s
Shakespearean
resources. I have
seen Yale’s copies of
the First Folio and
the Shakespeareinspired
paintings
of Edward Austen
Abbey. Best of
all, I have participated
in several
Shakespeare productions,
including
directing a show
called The Deadly
Seven, for which I
pulled scenes from
A compilation of many of the posters Alexi made for the seven different
ShakesPEER Group
Shakespeare plays
knight Sir John Falstaff gave voice
whole show, spinning the “Wheel of Sin”
would be performed. All in all, it was a great experience not only of using a wide
variety of Shakespearean scenes
but also of bringing some of Shakespeare’s greatest characters (the languorous
Cleopatra, the voluminous Falstaff, the envious Richard III, and the wrathful
Queen Margaret)
partly in his works’ intrinsic excitement and partly in what you make of it.
Words, Words, Words
One of the most common misconceptions about Shakespeare is that he
wrote in Old English. This is not true, because Old English is the language
of Beowulf—Shakespeare wrote in Early Modern English. But, if you look
at it another way, it is we who speak “Old English.” After all, the English we
speak has been kicking around for centuries, with its words’ meanings and
spellings slowly being locked down by dictionaries and textbooks.
When Shakespeare worked, his language was Young English: messy,
unstandardized, absorbing new words from many sources, bursting at the
seams with possibilities. Shakespeare was writing in a language that was just
coming in
shows in the plays, where Shakespeare coins new words by expanding
and combining existing roots: from the Arabic “assassin” comes Macbeth’s
“assassination;” from two English words comes As You Like It’s “lackluster;”
and from a root and a suffix comes Henry VI, Part 3’s “remorseless.”
In some ways, the fact that these coinages of Shakespeare have become so
widely used gives us an advantage over Shakespeare’s initial audience. We come
the Globe came in search of new words that the stage would introduce them
such as “orgulous” in Troilus and Cressida, they are fun
Shakespearean insults is always a popular acting game partly for the pleasure
of tasting juicy phrases such as “you froward and unable worms.” Sometimes,
merely pronouncing these evocative words is enough
“gallimaufry” sounds like a strange jumble, which is exactly what it means.
Shakespeare is always experimenting and playing around with language,
and is aware enough
constable from Much Ado About Nothing, famously mangles language with such
unintentional malapropisms as “vigitant” (meaning “vigilant”) and “dissembly”
(for “assembly”). In Love’s Labour’s Lost, two characters—the “fantastical
Spaniard” Don Adriano and the pedantic schoolmaster Holofernes—speak
in bombastic style because they are so in love with the sound of their own
voices. Upon first meeting, they exchange a flurry of highfalutin talk, prompting
the clownish Costard
“honorifcabilitudinitatibus.” Observing this, the page Moth quips, “They have
been at a great feast of language, and s
Shakespeare’s works themselves are “a great feast of language.” We,
22 imagine Mar/Apr 2012
Alexi plays the role
of Shakespeare on
the Blackfriars stage.
Resources
for exploring shakespeare
Shakespeare’s plays are in the public domain, so you can perform any
Shakespeare play absolutely for free. Full, searchable copies of the plays are available
online at opensourceshakespeare.com and playshakespeare.com.
To find the meanings of unusual Shakespearean vocabulary (“orgulous,” my
example from the article, actually means “proud”), I recommend the Folger Library’s
editions of Shakespeare for their excellent facing-page explana
www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=526 for more information.
The best companion
with its invaluable act-by-act synopses, character line counts, and contextual information
for every play.
For those who want
see the comprehensive, two-volume Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary
by Alexander Schmidt.
—Alexi Sargeant
Shakespeare’s heirs, have no need
because it has been lavishly laid out before us.
Make It Yours
Ben Jonson, Shakespeare’s fellow playwright and friendly
rival, wrote in the preface
Shakespeare’s death, that Shakespeare was “not of an age, but for
all time!” Jonson’s words have been borne out, as Shakespeare
has been produced for centuries, in myriad languages and every
performance space imaginable. Shakespeare’s characters sometimes
predict this, such as when, after the assassination scene
in Julius Caesar, Cassius says, “How many ages hence/ shall
this our lofty scene be acted over/ in states unborn and accents
yet unknown!” Yet just as Cassius has no way of knowing that
these prophesied reenactments will portray him as a villain,
Shakespeare certainly could not have predicted the wideranging
array of reinterpretations his work would undergo.
Sometimes, these re-settings fail. Michael Almereyda’s 2000 film
version of Hamlet, starring Ethan Hawke, tries
contemporary by setting it in modern-day New York, yet instantly
dates it by having Hamlet deliver his “
in a Blockbuster—remember those? On the other hand, Richard
Loncraine’s 1995 Richard III, starring Ian McKellan, created a 1930s
fascist version of Britain that illuminated the political dimension of
the play. Personally, I am ambivalent about re-setting Shakespeare.
I performed in a hilarious tropical Comedy of Errors and I directed
Macbeth as an Edgar Allan Poe-inspired Vic
I can also think of examples of re-setting becoming gimmicky or
overbearing. The worst is when a direc
vision on a play because he or she does not trust the text itself.
Whatever the setting, the characters and their language should
remain paramount. After all, Shakespeare’s scripts call for little in
the way of sets and special effects. Part of what makes his plays
perfect for amateur productions is the way they lend themselves
worry about an elaborate setting; just try
much as possible. Treat the text as the blueprint for a play that you
are constructing. Your materials can be the skills and experiences
of your cast and crew. Have jugglers juggle; have people who play
instruments perform a musical pre-show. Is someone in the cast
an origami expert? Have that person fold a gorgeous crown out of
nice paper, as it will be much better looking than a cheap plastic
crown and much less expensive than a metal one. Above all, use
the resources you have
the words of the Bard.
If you’ve felt the slightest tug of curiosity or thrill of theatrical
possibility while reading this article, I encourage you
explore that impulse: start speaking Shakespeare’s text, putting
his characters on their feet. If this article inspires you
some friends and read The Winter’s Tale out loud, I will consider
it a success. If it inspires you
on Twelfth Night, I will consider it a triumph.
There is no reason not
find a Shakespeare group in your school or community, go ahead
and start one. I guarantee you will not be disappointed
some time with the works and world of William Shakespeare. No
other literary adventure is as excitingly interactive, and no other
dramatic material is as endlessly rewarding.
Alexi Sargeant is a freshman at Yale
and a potential English and/or Theatre
Studies major. His hobbies include
graphic design and swing dancing, and
his favorite author is, unsurprisingly,
William Shakespeare.
www.cty.jhu.edu/imagine imagine 23
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