Any Shakespeare Nerds in the House?
Discussion of the art and craft of improvisation.
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- ClintHarris Offline
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- Joined: March 4th, 2012, 11:31 pm
- Location: Austin, TX
- Marc Majcher Offline
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- Joined: January 24th, 2006, 12:40 am
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The first acting class I ever took was "Playing Shakespeare" at The State Theatre in 2003! I'd just returned from London, celebrating my retirement by going to see Sean Bean performing as Macbeth at the West End's Albery Theatre. That class was so much fun (after I got past my initial terror of performing for members of the Austin Shakespeare company), I started a new career as an actor!
I don't harbor hopes of ever performing Shakespeare on stage. I'm not age-appropriate for my favorite roles: Beatrice, Queen Margaret in R-III, etc. But I've taken several classes on Shakespearian text analysis, monologues and scene work, because in class, you can play anyone! And I DID play Calpurnia at the Blue Theatre in 2010, in Jill Swanson's production of "Shakespeare's Husbands and Wives."
To be honest, at this point, it takes a really outstanding production of a Shakespearean play to get me into a local theater to see one. Hidden Room Theatre's recent "original practices" production "Rose Rage" (which condensed the Henry VI trilogy into two 2-hour plays) filled that bill to a T!
I don't harbor hopes of ever performing Shakespeare on stage. I'm not age-appropriate for my favorite roles: Beatrice, Queen Margaret in R-III, etc. But I've taken several classes on Shakespearian text analysis, monologues and scene work, because in class, you can play anyone! And I DID play Calpurnia at the Blue Theatre in 2010, in Jill Swanson's production of "Shakespeare's Husbands and Wives."
To be honest, at this point, it takes a really outstanding production of a Shakespearean play to get me into a local theater to see one. Hidden Room Theatre's recent "original practices" production "Rose Rage" (which condensed the Henry VI trilogy into two 2-hour plays) filled that bill to a T!
What is to give light must endure burning. - Viktor Frankl
- hujhax Offline
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- Location: Government Country, ON
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Also a Shakespeare fan & improvisor. (I was an English major, once upon a time.)

--
peter rogers @ netbook | http://hujhax.livejournal.com
Go back to any pilot you can think of and you'll find a bunch of nervous actors just trying not to get fired.
-- Jack Coleman, of Heroes

--
peter rogers @ netbook | http://hujhax.livejournal.com
Go back to any pilot you can think of and you'll find a bunch of nervous actors just trying not to get fired.
-- Jack Coleman, of Heroes
- Lindsey with an E Offline
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- Location: Austin, TX
- Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell Offline
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- Joined: March 17th, 2006, 5:50 pm
- Location: Austin, TX
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Shakespeare fun fact: the very first play i ever acted in was A Midsummer Night's Dream, featuring Joplin as Puck. i played Demetrius. the production also featured other Austin improv alums Ben Sterling (as Oberon) and Jon Benner (Snout).joplin wrote:Bigtime.
er...i mean...nope.
Sweetness Prevails.
-the Reverend
-the Reverend
Love Shakespeare. First theater I ever did was Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, which we performed at the Folgers Shakespeare Library in DC when I was in elementary school. I got big laughs as Brutus because I aimed too low when I stabbed Caesar. Then I went on to get really into Shakespeare in high school and college (everyone else in Hampshire's theater program was doing experimental black box theater and I was all about the bard. Even got my first paid acting gig in Merry Wives of Windsor.
Did you just ask so that you could hear everyone universally agree that they love William Shakespeare?
Snarky question aside, it holds a special place in my heart because the Hideout's second run of Improvised Shakespeare was the first show I was in at the Hideout. Man guys, memories . . .
Snarky question aside, it holds a special place in my heart because the Hideout's second run of Improvised Shakespeare was the first show I was in at the Hideout. Man guys, memories . . .
Fatigued, but classy.
- Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell Offline
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