Reading Performances of Spanish Golden Age Theatre
- 9/18/2013 | 4:15 PM – 6:00 PM
- Location: Visual Arts Center, Beam Classroom
- Event Type: Lecture
- Sponsor: Romance Languages
- Contact: Kate Flaherty
- - Open to the Public -
"Reading" Performances of Spanish Golden Age Theatre (and Shakespeare)
Performance is the "translation" of the work of a playwright to the stage, wherein the text is only one component. The input of director, designers (set, costume, sound, lighting) also creates that performance. The paper will attempt to describe that process of translation, in its many aspects, which may include adaptation of the "original" text according to the needs of performance and the concept of the director. In reading stage performance, I attempt to answer the question posed by Peter Brook, "Why this play now?" so as to understand what the director had in mind (not what one might presume that he or she could or should have had in mind). Examples will be taken from modern productions of Spanish Golden Age theatre by the Compania Nacional de Teatro Clasico; or from productions in English of those plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company; or from La Comedie-Francaise; and even from some productions of Shakespeare -- to illustrate the process of mounting a classical play for a modern audience.
Sponsored by the Departments of Romance Languages, English, and Theater and Dance, with additional funding provided by the Blythe Bickel Edwards Lectureship Fund.