Romeo and Juliet: Just as You Remembered It

Hi All,
This is my first post, so sorry if I don't get it all correct, but a friend just sent me this link to a very funny NPR/Morning Edition story about a new productions of R&J, based only on people's remembrances of the plot/words, etc.
Here's the link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121975740
Happy 2010 to all,
Grace

Why are the plays in 5 acts? asks Carrol Kindel

During a recent tour, I was asked why all Shakespeare's plays were divided into 5 acts. Not aware that they were, I said I would be happy to check into it and email back. My plan involved research, but luckily Bill Stewart was at the desk and volunteered to check his copy of Halliday's "Companion to Shakespeare" when he returned home. He did and here is my emailed explanation to the visitor, who very soon emailed back her thanks.

Greetings from the Folger,
I have found the answer to your question, Janet, from Thursday's tour at the Folger Shakespeare Library. My colleague, Bill, who was sitting at the desk when we finished our tour went home to his copy of Halliday's "Companion to Shakespeare". There he discovered that dividing plays into 5 acts was a classical convention derived from Seneca. It wasn't practiced consistently until after 1600 when Ben Jonson regularized it. The First Folio follows it in some of the plays, but not all of them with no real consistent pattern. For example, Romeo and Juliet does not follow the 5-act convention in the Folio. Plays were later divided in this way, sometimes following the French convention of using the entrances and exits of main characters as break-points. I hope this was helpful and that you and your husband enjoyed your visit to the Folger.

Docent Board of Directors By Steve Krawczel

Every year there is an election for your Docent Board of Directors. A question that some of you may have asked is what does the Board do. A quick summary of its responsibilities is as follows:

 Serves as the direct liaison to the Folger Education Department
 Submits the annual docent budget to the Education Department and approves/monitors budget expenditures
 Oversees docent participation in major activities like the Elementary School/High School Festivals, 12th Night Celebration and Shakespeare’s Birthday Bash
 Tracks docent membership, maintains the monthly schedule and collects hours worked
 Arranges for new docent training
 Reviews changes to docent policy

Just as importantly, the Board seeks to keep you informed and serves as a forum for your ideas and concerns. Your input is welcome! Please contact any Board member with your thoughts, ideas or questions at any time or feel free to attend the Board Meeting the first Tuesday of every month. A list of the board members is provided below:

Julian Ullman , Chair (julianmullman (at) hotmail.com)
Louise Wheatley, Vice Chair (lswdc (at) aol.com), Docent Dispatch December 2009 Page 7
Otice Sircy, Treasurer (ocsircy (at) verizon.net),
Mary Seidell, Secretary
Nancy Howard, (idodrma (at) hotmail.com),
Diane Shages (Diane.shages1 (at) verizon.net),
Helen Urquhart (h_urquhart (at) juno.com),
Steve Krawczel (rex2rex1 (at) cox.net)

Carpe Vitam from Larry Plotkin (with quill in hand and excuses to the Bard)

By Will, against my will seduced once more,
I read another bio of the Bard:
Soul of the Age* is full of Shakespeare lore,
Impeccably informed. I drop my guard.
The author weaves a web of well-wrought words.
I am enmeshed: so easily led to trust,
So weak my will, so generous the rewards.
What vows are proof against my lust?
If women were my sin, and not Will’s life,
By now I would a social outcast be,
Not fit for moral company, a caitiff
Wretch, condemned for incredulity.
But, Oh, forbidden pleasure never palls.
I wait for next week’s bio at the stalls.

*Soul of the Age, Jonathan Bate Random House, 2009

Education News from Dr Young, aka Bob

Summer was a busy time for the Education Division, but not as hectic as the fall. Work continued throughout the summer on the new toolkit for teachers, and the kit made its debut at a workshop in California right after Labor Day. The kit contains a copy of Shakespeare Set Free, a booklet on preparing for a Shakespeare festival ("Page to Stage"), a DVD of the 2008 production of Macbeth (with eight special features), and one of elementary school students preparing for a festival performance of Hamlet ("The Play’s the Thing"). Also, there are laminated cards for two-line scenes, a laminated guide on how to use the kit, with the answers to some frequently asked questions, and a flash drive containing handouts, scenes for performances, podcasts, and videos that teachers can use in their classrooms. Because the flash drive can be easily updated by uploading new teaching materials, the toolkit should be a source of the latest resources for teachers for years to come. Teachers have had many good things to say about the kit, and we’re getting inquiries about when it can be purchased in the Shop. Soon, we hope. [edit - 12/17/09 - the Toolkit is now available in the Folger Gift Shop!]

In addition to working on the toolkit, the Education staff prepared for the new season of Shakespeare Steps Out/ Shakespeare at School with a number of new schools being added to the roster of participating schools. A new group of High School Fellows started class in early September and the "Shakespeare for Seniors" program introduced at the end of the last school year has been expanded for this year. We are continuing our work at New Beginnings (formerly Oak Hill), part of the Division of Youth and Rehabilitative Services. Shakespeare is now part of the school’s curriculum, and students will be studying Othello.

We are following up on our very successful June conference for elementary school teachers (Teaching Shakespeare in the Elementary School) with the creation of new web pages designed to encourage and support elementary school teachers across the district and throughout the country as they introduce the Bard to young people. We were successful in our application for a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for another Teaching Shakespeare Institute next summer, so we look forward to having a full-house of teachers at the library for four weeks next summer (June 28-July 23, 2010).

This year we’ll be working with the docents to create a "permanent" exhibit for the Shakespeare Gallery to be on display at the end of the theater season until the end of summer, so that visitors to the library during the summer will have an opportunity to see material about Shakespeare along with the exhibit in the Great Hall. A group of docents have volunteered to help create the exhibit, and more information will be distributed as the plan takes shape.

Our new brochure listing all of the events and workshops scheduled to take place looks terrific. There is a great picture of our wonderful docents taking some senior citizens through their paces in a "Shakespeare for Seniors" workshop.

We’ve gotten off to a good start this school year. Thank you for all you are doing to help bring Shakespeare into the classroom for students and teachers, and for helping the general public gain new insights and understanding about the Bard and his work.

Inclement Weather Policy at the Folger

Hello, Docents!

In the wake of this weekend's "snowpocalypse," I'm re-sending our Inclement Weather Policy. Please make your safety a priority in the event of bad weather conditions!

This is a reminder that we follow the federal government's lead for inclement weather. If the federal government announces a liberal leave policy for its employees, it means that Folger staff, with the exception of essential personnel, may use hours of personal or annual leave if conditions are sufficiently hazardous to make traveling to the Folger unsafe. Liberal leave also covers the need for late arrival or early departure. In all cases, your supervisor must be notified by voicemail or e-mail if there is a change in your regular arrival or departure time.

Our standard inclement weather policy is below. Please listen to the news for any delays or closings, check www.opm.gov/status or call 202-606-1900, the federal government phone number to call for its operating status.

In the event of emergency conditions due to inclement weather, snow removal guidelines are in effect for Security and Facility Staff. These staff members are considered "essential" personnel and must make every effort to report to work and to be prepared to remain at work if needed. Your supervisors will inform you of specific schedules, work assignments and other work details as required.

If the Federal Government announces a policy of "Liberal Leave" as is often the case when inclement weather strikes, employees are expected to make a good faith effort to come in to work. All staff are expected to use good, sound judgment, keeping in mind the risks of travel during snow or ice conditions. With the new calendar year, everyone will again have 21 hours of excused (personal or Y) leave to use as needed. With approval from your supervisors, this leave may be used if you are a late arrival or an early dismissal. Supervisors are encouraged to consider individual circumstances when employees workday schedule is changed by the weather.

If the Federal Government announces "Code II or "Late Arrival," Folger employees are expected to make a good effort to arrive on time, but if conditions inhibit timely arrival, supervisors have discretionary authority to disregard late arrival if individual circumstances warrant.

If the Federal Government is closed for snow or ice conditions, the Folger will also be closed. If you have additional questions, please call the main line at 202-544-4600 before calling the guard line at 202-675-0309 to verify the status of the Folger.

What all this means is this. Do not attempt to come to the Folger if weather or driving conditions are unsafe. Some regions of the Metropolitan area are more prone to icy or snowy conditions than others, so use sound judgment. Follow the safe and prudent choice rather than a risky one. Make your commute to and from the Folger a safe one.

In-Service with Theater Director Timothy Douglas by Jennifer Newton

The Folger production of Much Ado About Nothing was rooted in the customs of Trinidad and played on a set that reproduces the alley at 13th and H Streets NE in Washington. Timothy Douglas, the production’s director, told us how this came about.

"I never bend Shakespeare to my concept," Douglas says. "If the concept doesn’t work, I have to adjust." But the vision of a Much Ado that takes place during the preparations for a big celebration like Carnivale—a concept that came to Douglas in a telephone conversation with Folger producing director Janet Griffin—just kept working for him. Attending a Caribbean festival in his hometown of Brooklyn focused Douglas’s attention on Trinidad; hanging out with Trinidadian musicians in Washington got him thinking about the African roots of their music and customs.

So, for his production, Leonato’s house becomes a present-day urban community center where local Trinidadians are making a float for the Carnivale parade. The masked ball and even the wedding in the play are only dress rehearsals for the big parade itself. The setting allows for new twists on a number of the characters—Dogberry, for example, is the self-appointed watchman of the neighborhood; Borachio is a woman in a rather dysfunctional relationship with Don John.

Douglas, who originally trained as an actor, auditions his casts by getting up and reading with them himself. For Much Ado, he has brought together actors he has worked with in the past as well as ones new to him and to the Folger. Washington audiences may recognize his Benedict, Howard Overshown, a D.C. native who started his career here before moving to New York. Craig Wallace and Doug Brown, also in the cast, are also familiar Washington faces.
Douglas did his early work as an actor at Tina Packer’s Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. Packer’s belief that American actors were physically and psychologically well suited to Elizabethan language freed Douglas from anxiety about classical work. He also was inspired by company co-founder Kristin Linklater’s vocal technique, which emphasizes the body’s need to communicate as well as its connection to the vocal apparatus. The work of these two women informs Douglas’s physical approach to Shakespeare to this day, as both actor and director.

Since 1995, Douglas has lived the life of an itinerant director, working at Yale Rep, Actors’ Theater of Louisville and American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, among many others. He notes that, though staying home in Brooklyn looks increasingly appealing, he is delighted to be back at the Folger, where a 1995 production of Richard III was in fact his professional directorial debut. He thanks Janet Griffin for inviting him back to Much Ado and a "directing reunion."

Et in Arcadia ego (ah, the memory liners on!) by Gina Guglielmo

Tom Stoppard used the irony in the above Latin epigram as a major motif of his play, Arcadia. The phrase, which is not attributable to any ancient author, means "Even in Arcadia, I exist" the "I" being "death" who dwells even in the most idyllic lives. The same phrase was used by Nietzsche; Evelyn Waugh used the motto for the heading of Book I of Brideshead Revisited; it was misquoted by William Faulkner, and was appropriated by Goethe in a memoir. W.H. Auden appropriated the saying for poem title; Walter Pater alludes to it in his essay on the philosopher, Winklemann; it even appeared recently as a line in a song by the band, Killing Joke. Painters too found the idea arresting. Poussin created two canvases depicting the idea, but Guercino’s picture is worth a whole library of words. (See accompanying image)

Tom Stoppard is undoubtedly the most ingenious of all modern playwrights, so when he chose to explore the idea of death hovering above the most vivacious and ephemeral of lifestyles, one could expect a hell of a ride. The play starts out in the early 19th C., the Romantic Period in England, at Sidley Park where a precocious child, Thomasina Coverly, Lady Thomasina actually, is approaching the discovery of a mathematical breakthrough while being tutored by an Oxfordian named Septimus Hodge. Septimus was at school with that bad George Gordon, Lord Byron, whom he brings to Sidley for a visit. Also sashaying around the drawing room are Lady Croom, the mistress of Sidley; a writer of most bathetic rhymes named Ezra Chater; Captain Brice, Lady Croom’s sea-captain brother; and a demented architect Richard Nokes who is systematically converting all Sidley Park’s classical and orderly gardens, designed by Capability Brown, into a Romantic wilderness. For his troubles he is excoriated by that harpy, Lady Groom, and rechristened Culpability Nokes. A fascinating character is the licentious Mrs. Chatter who has affairs with all the above men, but with Stoppardian deft humor, never appears in the play!

These goings on would seem enough for a night’s entertainment. But remember who is writing this Arcadia. The setting of Sidley Hall remains the same, but the audience is catapulted into the present where a novelist/garden book writer Hannah Jarvis is researching the pre-Nokian gardens. The descendants of the Coverlys are in residence: Chloe, Valentine and the mostly mute Gus. His counterpart in the other world is Tomasina’s brother, Augustus. Hannah’s peaceful diggings are interrupted when a scholarly critic, one Bernard Nightingale, comes to the stately house to do a bit of unearthing on his own. He believes that Byron killed Chater in a duel, and tries to unearth the evidence to stage a coup in the literary world. Valentine is a computer savant working on his own math breakthrough (using grouse and the old hunting logs of Sidley), and is connected to the past because he has found Tomasina’s workbooks. These modern folk are constantly one-upping each other with discoveries in one book or another, and eventually solve the mysteries shrouding Byron and the mysterious Hermit who lived a solitary life on the estate for twenty years and left rooms and rooms full of paper.

The intellectual and scientific dialogue bandied about by these characters both in the past and present is daunting and could be off-putting were it not for the skillful handling of plot, personalities and technical jargon in the recent production of Arcadia, directed by Aaron Posner at The Folger Theater. When one realizes that Stoppard takes us from the old world of Newtonian Predictability to the new realization of an increasingly chaotic universe, it’s amazing that the play truly comes off as a deeply human, humorous and poignant experience. Posner’s approach was everything: the cast was perfect in its fidelity to the text; these were living, breathing, flawed, loveable human beings who despite their brilliance beyond most normal people’s taught us this message: "It’s the wanting to know that makes us matter." In the program notes, Posner counsels us to ever be open to "wonder" as he leads us through this magical mystery tour.

Holly Twyford was marvelously wry as Hannah. The expressive face and body language were wonders to behold. Erin Weaver was a beguiling Tomasina and managed to portray both genius and girlish vulnerability. Her romantic waltz with Septimus at the conclusion, while contemporary characters strode in and out of the scene, introduced a note of sadness knowing as we did his and her fate. Suzanne O’Donnell as Lady Croom, was a protean force of nature, a comic whirlwind of a seductress whose life was idyllic and painless since her most serious thoughts were about the Ha-Ha in the park.

Equally strong and devastatingly attractive in their roles were the gentlemen of the ensemble. The comedic turns and bombast of Eric Hissom’s Nightingale were perfectly matched to Stoppard’s twisting and turning ideas. Cody Nickell made such an appealing Septimus that one fell in love with him along with Tomasina, not just for his beauty, but for his clever mind, his ability to laugh out loud at himself and his society, and his underlying vulnerability to the phantom that lurks in this earthly Paradise. Peter Stray deserved a medal for memorizing and clarifying all that mathematical jargon. It is not hyperbole to state that the entire cast of Arcadia lived their parts to the hilt. Finally I would be remiss not to conclude with my own Helen Hayes nomination for best costumes this season: there is just one adjective for Kate-Turner Walker’s designs: delicious!

The Ashbourne Portrait and the Earl of Oxford from Sarah Rosenbaum

Erin Blake, the Curator of Art, was asked what the Oxfordians see in the Ashbourne Portrait that supports their cause.

"They see in the design of the thumb ring a Boar’s Head, representing de Vere.

They identify the 3 animals in the Coat of Arms not as rams (the Hamersley Coat of Arms), but as griffins (the de Vere Coat of Arms). They also believe that the entire inscription of age and date was added later since Oxford was long dead by then.

Also the ears were covered up (by hair) to prevent the obvious recognition of de Vere’s ear."

Look what you just missed. Keep your eye on the film series schedule from Joe Adcock

Just presented in the films-for-docents series was ‘The Hobart Shakespeareans’, which is a documentary about extraordinary drama program at the Hobart Boulevard Elementary School in Los Angeles. Students, mostly children of Korean and Mexican immigrants, do a Shakespeare play each year (structure of movie resembles the ``Shakespeare Behind Bars'' format).The year this documentary was made, the play was ``Hamlet.'' This inner city public school program has become so celebrated that it attracted a visit by Royal Shakespeare Company troupers, including Ian McKellen and Michael York, who make cameo appearances in the movie. Running time is 55 minutes.

Get into your car and drive to an English Manor House (What we did on our summer vacation.) by Sarah Rosenbaum

Agecroft Hall was first built near Manchester, England in the 15th Century. Like so many country homes, it was added on to during the following centuries; but by the 1920's it was vacant, falling into ruin and threatened by a planned highway. An American bought it, had it dismantled and had the parts shipped to Richmond, Virginia. There it was reassembled (but only a quarter as big as it had been before) as a home for the purchaser and his wife and as a centerpiece for a large development of houses, built in an English style and with street names like Canterbury and Banbury. A tour includes rooms with large mullioned windows, big fireplaces, linenfold paneling and a lovely carved staircase. There are furnishings as well: paintings (one original to the house), rush lights, rushes on the floor and some early chests and chairs. There are even a few books including a Gerard’s Herbal, lying open on a table in full sun (ouch! Maybe it was a reproduction.)

Surrounding the house are gardens, added over the years by the purchaser’s widow. These include a knot garden, a herb garden and a Tradescant Garden containing only plants first identified by the English naturalist John Tradescant. On the other side of the house is a turf maze and a bowling green.

Docent Emeritus Marie Anne Schiffmann and I made a lovely day trip of it, having lunch and also visiting an antebellum mansion that was built by a member of Virginia’s famous Randolph family. I recommend the excursion to any of you.

Digital Docent Dispatch from Diane Shages and Caitlin

Well, Docents, the printed and emailed Docent Dispatch is the last as we have known it.

Now that Caitlin has set up this Docent Blog and has trained at least some of us in accessing it (and is willing to teach others), the Docent Board has decided it is time to GO GREEN! Many of us will miss opening our mailboxes to find the Dispatch and holding it in our hands. However, there are some positives to this: information will be more current than has often been the case in the past, and we don’t need to worry about losing track of the paper Dispatch because the contents will always be available on the Blog.

Further, JC will continue to send out the monthly Calendar with other tidbits of useful information. For the Docents who do not have computers, we hope this will keep you in the loop. Also, we will continue to call those Docents who are not on the computer with important information which might not make the Calendar.

The next training session will take place in January. Stay tuned for details.

August Film Inservice: Was Hamlet Criminally Responsible? by Sarah Rosenbaum

Hamlet killed Polonius. Was it murder, self defense, manslaughter or something else? But before there can be a trial to resolve this question, there must first be a preliminary trial to determine whether Hamlet is sane (the legal term is criminally responsible) and able to stand trial or mad (so unfit to be tried.) In this first trial, Hamlet’s Attorney attempts to prove him mad and the Prosecutor attempts to prove him sane.

This is the set up for a mock trial held in the Supreme Court building in 1994 with Justice Anthony Kennedy presiding. The whole thing was part of a fund raiser for the Shakespeare Theatre; the participants and attendees were mostly lawyers. Most of the audience were not identified, but the docents enjoyed a game of "Spot the Celebrity." Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a member of the jury. Hamlet was present at the defense table, dressed in the traditional Elizabethan black suit; he stood and sat as requested, but never spoke.

The two lead attorneys were Abbe Lowell and Theodore Olson. They stuck close to the facts as given in the source document; i.e. Hamlet. A side shot showed that at least one of them was using the Folger edition. The key issue was whether Hamlet was feigning madness: it was pointed out that he acted mad only in the presence of people that he didn’t trust. A psychiatrist was called for each side. The one for the defense diagnosed Bipolar Disorder. Key symptoms in this diagnosis were hearing voices (no one else hears the ghost speak), a feeling of grandiosity and special mission (but as the opposition pointed out, he was in fact the prince.), mood changes and finally a habit of word play, puns, etc. In the "to be or not to be" soliloquy, was he contemplating suicide or meditating on the human condition? The parallel was drawn between him and Ophelia; both had a father murdered by someone too highly placed to bring to justice. She clearly went mad.

Was his response madness or cunning cloaked in madness?

The jury verdict was that Hamlet was sane; they also recommended that the prosecutor consider prosecuting him for the destruction of Ophelia. The judge remanded him to pages of our Literary Canon.

Chest in Founders' Room

One of our curators recently spoke to a reader who was surprised to learn that the chest in the Founders’ Room once belonged to Francis Bacon...

Unfortunately this is not true.

The initials on the left panel look like FB, but they’re more likely TB (based on the style of T in the inscription along the top). And even if they were FB, there’s no evidence FB was Francis Bacon except that a previous owner wanted it to be Bacon.

Please take a chance to make sure this change (cleared up in 1991) has been made to the Docent Handbook at the desk!

Twelfth Night

You and a guest are invited to join the Docents for our annual

Twelfth Night Revels
High Tea

On Sunday, January 3, 2010
From 3:00-5:00 p.m.
In the Tea Room and Board Room of the Folger Shakespeare Library

Docents with Unbelievable Talent will perform for you.

RSVP to E.J. Truax at truax1934@verizon.net or 202-546-7638

by Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Please bring a savory, sweet, or wine

Shakespeare Quartos Archive Demo 12/16

Please mark your calendars, bring your lunch, and join us in the Board Room for one of two back-to-back introductions and demonstrations of the Shakespeare Quartos Archive.

Date: Wed. Dec. 16

Time: 11:30 - 12:30; repeated 12:30 - 1:30

Location: Folger Board Room

URL: http://www.quartos.org/

Background:

Funding for the one-year pilot project was provided by a JISC/NEH Transatlantic Digitization Collaboration Grant: http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/JISC.html.

Our aim was to both demonstrate how the quartos could be compared and analyzed if fully transcribed and presented in a single user interface, and to create a single online collection of page images for at least one copy from every pre-1642 edition of the plays.

The main site at http://www.quartos.org/ now includes 32 image sets and transcriptions of the 5 pre-1642 editions of Hamlet. The site includes copies owned by the Bodleian, British Library, Folger, Huntington, National Library of Scotland, and University of Edinburgh. Hamlet texts are presented in a prototype user interface designed by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. Transcription was overseen by staff at the Oxford Digital Library, with help from Folger and British Library staff and interns. We had help in evaluation and planning from many Folger staff, readers, teachers, and friends; and also from faculty and students at the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham.

The British Library’s companion site “Shakespeare in Quarto” was launched in 2004 with page images (but no transcriptions) for each pre-1642 quarto edition of Shakespeare’s plays owned by the British Library. As part of the SQA project, this site was updated so that it now includes at least one image set per edition of each of the 21 Shakespeare plays printed in quarto. Digital images for this portion of the project were provided by the Bodleian, Edinburgh, Folger, and National Library of Scotland. Here’s a link: http://special-1.bl.uk/treasures/SiqDiscovery/ui/search.aspx. And here’s a description of the new material added: http://www.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/partners.html.

Hope to see you on the 16th! In the meantime I’m happy to answer any questions or help you get started if you’d like to dive right in on your own.


best,

Jim Kuhn