Transcript Shakespearean Theatre on Stage

Shakespearean Theater on
Alice Black, ConnorScreens
Emmert, and Kyle Laurita-Bonometti
English, Colby College, Waterville, ME
Shakespeare Uncovered
What?
Shakespeare Uncovered is a television documentary series about the
performance and production history of Shakespeare’s plays. Each
episode of the two seasons features a different play with the aim of
providing viewers an insight into the historical and present-day
significance of each of the plays.
Who?
Each episode has a well-known actor with a personal connection as
host. Each host has a personal connections to the play he or she
presents. Some of the hosts
include Ethan Hawke on
Macbeth, David Tennant on
Hamlet, Kim Cattrall on
Antony and Cleopatra,
David Harewood on Othello,
and Morgan Freeman on
The Taming of the Shrew.
The hosts consult other
actors, theatre directors, and also Shakespearean scholars and
historians. In the episode on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for example,
host Hugh Bonneville talks to a fairy expert from the University of
Oxford.
Including interviews with such a broad range of guests, Shakespeare
Uncovered is able to offer education and entertainment to a wide
audience. Whether you’re new to Shakespeare’s plays or an expert,
Shakespeare Uncovered provides excellent presentation of each play by
covering plot summary, explaining the plays’ historical and contemporary
significance for performers and directors, and delivering some
fascinating trivia facts.
Where?
Shakespeare Uncovered was first broadcast on BBC Four in June 2012
then shown in the United
States on PBS in January
2013. The second season
began airing on PBS in
January 2015. Each season
has six episodes. While the
first season is available on
DVD, the second can be
viewed online on the PBS Shakespeare Uncovered web page. The show
is available on different screen mediums making it accessible option for
the twenty-first century viewer who wants to learn about Shakespearean
theatre.
Alice Black
Bibliography
Shakespeare Uncovered, Series One. Prod. Bill O’Donnell. Blakeway Productions, 2012. DVD.
Shakespeare Uncovered, Series Two. Accessed on “PBS Shakespeare Uncovered Web Page.” Accessed April 5 2015. Web.
Osborne, Laurie E. "Serial Shakespeare: Intermedial Performance and the Outrageous Fortunes of Slings & Arrows." N.p., n.d.
Web. 20 Apr. 2015
"Spotlight." Slings & Arrows. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
About Our Project
In exploring how Shakespearean theater is depicted on screens other than film screen, we have research two TV shows concerned with theatre on
screen. One is a documentary series that follows the history behind the performance of Shakespeare’s most famous plays and the other a fictional
series about the actors and crew a Canadian theater company. Both provide insight into the world of Shakespeare’s theatre, but on screens. How
does the screen format work with the theatrical subject?
Slings & Arrows, Season
One:
Hamlet
Slings and Arrows is a Canadian Television series which is set
at the fictional New Burbage Festival. The show follows a
group of actors that puts on Shakespearian plays, and there
are often parallels between the characters themselves and
their Shakespearian roles.
Season 1 is heavily focused on the New Burbage production
of Hamlet. The three main characters are Geoffrey Tennant,
Oliver Wells, and Ellen Fanshaw (pictured on right). Geoffrey
is a former actor who previously suffered a mental breakdown
during his performance as Hamlet. Like Hamlet, his loss of
mental stability leads to the loss of his lover, Ellen Fanshaw.
Upon Geoffrey’s return to New Burbage, he is constantly
struggling with his sanity. He has conversations with the
ghost of his dead friend Oliver, and similar to Hamlet, he must
decide if he is insane, or if he can trust his haunting
encounters with the dead.
Geoffrey Tennant
(Hamlet/Macbeth)
Geoffrey Tennant
(Hamlet/Macbeth)
Slings & Arrows,
Season Two:
Macbeth
Season 2 concludes the Hamlet arc and dives
into Macbeth. At the beginning of Season 2
Geoffrey is confronted by Moira (pictured to left),
who, like the witches of Macbeth, precipitates
the story by prophesying that Geoffrey will take
on the cursed play and suceed in bringing a play
to life so evil that it bested even the genius of
Oliver Wells.
Oliver Wells is a struggling director at the beginning of
Season 1. His attempt to direct New Burbage’s Midsummer
Night’s Dream fails miserably on opening night. Following a
drunken phone call with his long lost friend Geoffrey, Oliver
stumbles into the street and is killed by a truck. However, like
Hamlet’s father, Oliver’s ghost stays behind and haunts
Geoffrey. While King Hamlet’s ghost seeks revenge in the
play, Oliver is seeking the return of greatness to the New
Burbage Festival, and he knows that Geoffrey can rekindle
New Burbage’s former prowess.
Ellen Fanshaw is an actress who used to be in love with
Geoffrey, but stayed at New Burbage after his breakdown.
Ellen has portrayed both Ophelia and Gertrude in New
Burbage productions of Hamlet, and she has similarities to
both of her characters. Similar to Ophelia, Geoffrey’s mental
breakdown causes her to become suicidal, and she jumps
into a river in an attempt to kill herself. However, right before
Geoffrey’s final performance, he discovered that Ellen had
slept with Oliver. Like Gertrude, Ellen’s lust is what drives
Geoffrey mad.
Connor Emmert
Ellen Fanshaw
(Ophelia/Gertrude/La
dy Macbeth)
Oliver Wells
(Ghost of King Hamlet/Ghost of Banquo)
Moira
(Witches of Darkness)
In Season 2 Oliver’s ghost returns to plague
Geoffrey and, like Macbeth, steadily drives him
toward the brink of madness. Like the ghost of
Banquo, Oliver appears only to Geoffrey,
confronting him for “ruining his play” and as a
result we get scenes of Geoffrey speaking to
‘empty’ chairs.
In Episode 1 of Season 2, Ellen, who wants
desperately to play Lady Macbeth, compels
Geoffrey to stay with the New Burbage Festival
and take on Macbeth (scene pictured above).
Throughout the season she both reproaches
Geoffrey for not being able to put on face in
public and distresses for his well being as he
sinks lower and lower into the depths of his own
mind.
Kyle Laurita-Bonometti