Uh-oh, it's past midnight in New York, but I'll slip this one under Alice's
door...
Thinking back to what Jayne and Kathy wrote about all the things that can happen in a pub
(such as wrestling), and Bob's images of people suddenly grabbing tablecloths, and
what Maggie says about things bursting out of frameworks -- what a chain of thoughts and
ideas! -- it occurs to me that something really wild and uproarious like the AYL
wrestling scene (1.2 middle) would be wonderful to hurl ourselves into -- tables and
benches being shoved back, everyone whipping into an improvised scene full of characters.
Doc opened our eyes in '84 to all the possibilities for ritual and performance
surrounding that spectacle.
Also occurs to me that in such a setting some of the other kinds of writing we've
talked about (Borges, Eliot, the sonnets) could be spoken, leapt into after a scene, by
someone who just looked up from her/his mug of small beer up on the balcony. Someone who
sensed it was the right moment for those words. And then someone else could pick up the
second paragraph....
Mary mentioned the original RSC Nicholas Nickleby recently (look for it on Netflix etc.,
if you've never watched it -- amazing and beautiful) -- the company members were all
onstage the whole time, playing a role, then watching, listening, then breaking into
Dickens' narrative without missing a beat, from way up on a balcony, or while putting
away a table, and this would flow from player to player, sometimes by phrases, sometimes
by sentences or longer sections. It had many of the elements Gail described in the Cheek
by Jowl performance, that same delight in returning to the most pared-down, truthful
storytelling possible, the joy in playing.
Finally, another great thing about the everyone-onstage, improvised-costumes approach is
that none of us have to miss anyone else's scenes. We're all (everyone there for
the reunion performance) in the same space together the whole time.
cs
Clayton Stromberger
Outreach Coordinator
UT Shakespeare at Winedale
College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin
www.shakespeare-winedale.org
cell: 512-228-1055/ office: 512-471-4726