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Post by kathryn on Oct 26, 2016 13:54:17 GMT
The Board needs refreshing and a vow to carefully interview,understand,propose and support a new AD .....the sheer volume of response across the media proves that Shakespeare's Globe is the world leader for the plays and the passion clear.The theatre world response is predictable and to some extend phoney. Oh wonderful Emma.....now move on and get it right for the next 10 years with innovation,ground breaking work and international visits ....we were there before and be there again.I wishEmma had carried on with a few balanced compromises but so be it.Lets Go and get job ad out. It's been funny to see some actors who were actually in Original Practice productions tweeting ardent support of the view that the Globe needs Emma Rice's innovations and that her leaving in April 2018 is terrible. I'm not sure if they realise that they're criticising the type of work they themselves were involved in.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 13:55:24 GMT
What I meant, as abby says above is we inherited in multiple forms and there is no 'one true' anything (in this case Shakespeare)
And I'm really struggling to understand the notion that re-interpretation is 'disrespectful' every single actor who speaks the words again is reinterpreting, so how can we possibly have theatre with no reinterpretation?
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4,038 posts
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Post by kathryn on Oct 26, 2016 14:02:22 GMT
It's impossible to produce a 'preserved in aspic' version of Shakespeare, anyway - we simply know too little about the original staging of the plays. The few hints we have - including the complaints about the noise from neighbours and the fact that some people would turn up just to watch the jig - indicate that they were far from being po-faced and 'serious', or treated with great reverance.
Part of the reason for the Globe was to discover through practice how the original space could have been used, to gain new insights into the work.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 14:04:26 GMT
You speak of Shakespeare if he were - to quote a line from Ragtime - an accoutrement of patriotism. What an awful fate for a working writer who happened to be the best there ever was at his job - creating theatre that touched people in his own time and ours because it was so true and so alive. You want to prop him up in Mme. Toussaud's. I would see him rather as a free flowing spirit constantly renewed by new minds and new insights. Respect, sure. Reverence, never.
Do you think hip-hop versions of Shakespeare are respecting him or our culture? Yes. Whether we like it or not, I'd say hip-hop (and the off shoots of it) has become part of the fabric and culture of the UK and therefore, incorporating that into Shakespeare does respect our culture. How does it not respect Shakespeare or our culture?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 14:10:50 GMT
Yes, I do. A culture is not static, it's constantly changing and absorbing. Like it or not, "alien" or not, Hip Hop is IN this culture and its use needs no justification.
If such forms are used to entice a different audience and encourage them to seek out the originals in our culture then I have no problem though I wouldn't attend.
But with Shakespeare there probably isn't an original - that's the point. As far as I understand, there was never a point at which Hamlet was finished and locked down - it changed from the first production to the second and carried on from then till now.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 14:19:57 GMT
Interesting points made above about what she'd actually proposed for next year, if that was a contributory factor and whether she'll be able to see it through now. Matthew Dunster is at pains to assure Twitter than the next season will go ahead as planned without being toned back for ANYONE. I do hope he's right.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 14:21:38 GMT
You speak of Shakespeare if he were - to quote a line from Ragtime - an accoutrement of patriotism. What an awful fate for a working writer who happened to be the best there ever was at his job - creating theatre that touched people in his own time and ours because it was so true and so alive. You want to prop him up in Mme. Toussaud's. I would see him rather as a free flowing spirit constantly renewed by new minds and new insights. Respect, sure. Reverence, never.
Do you think hip-hop versions of Shakespeare are respecting him or our culture? Why do you keep bringing up hip-hop as though the entirety of the hip-hop musical genre is inherently disrespectful?
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Post by Honoured Guest on Oct 26, 2016 14:22:51 GMT
Matthew Dunster is at pains to assure Twitter than the next season will go ahead as planned without being toned back for ANYONE. I do hope he's right. Yes, he's right. The Globe needs another popular year before the darkness sets in in April 2018.
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Xanderl
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Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Oct 26, 2016 14:24:15 GMT
Some interesting quotes from Sam Wanamaker in this 1973 article Mind you some people will probably object to an "alien" having anything to say about "our culture"
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Post by ldm2016 on Oct 26, 2016 14:30:45 GMT
Do you think hip-hop versions of Shakespeare are respecting him or our culture? Why do you keep bringing up hip-hop as though the entirety of the hip-hop musical genre is inherently disrespectful? I use it merely as an example.
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5,593 posts
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Post by lynette on Oct 26, 2016 14:57:30 GMT
This is really interesting Alexandra, so thanks for putting it here, I would never have come across it on Facebook. The thing that we all know about The Globe is that it pays its way, no subsidies and has had a brilliant fund raising scheme from the beginning. If this fragile situation has been damaged then I can see why they have decided Rice must go. But what a shame to spend all that money on lighting with no return. Was there a business plan? Another case of 'someone else's money' I expect. Shakespeare who was a canny business guy would be horrified. ( and I'd love a peak at the fund raising balance sheet)
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117 posts
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Post by ldm2016 on Oct 26, 2016 14:59:39 GMT
"complaints from customers about the lack of authenticity, have left many of my co-workers in tears and signed off work with stress-related depression"
What a load of nonsense and so typical of today...
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 15:04:47 GMT
"complaints from customers about the lack of authenticity, have left many of my co-workers in tears and signed off work with stress-related depression" What a load of nonsense and so typical of today... Wow. I sincerely hope your loved ones never have cause to seek help for mental health issues, because it's clear there'd be no sympathy coming from your direction. Whatever you think of Emma Rice's work or the sanctity of Shakespeare or whatever, people being in a place of severe work-induced stress is absolutely nothing to be dismissive and sneery about, and if it feels like it's a modern day thing that never happened in the past, then you are quite simply deluded. People may not have had the support or the help back in the olden days, and they may not have felt able to talk about it or had the terminology to talk about it, but people sure as hell suffered from work-induced stress and stress-related depression nonetheless. Don't you dare be so disgustingly dismissive of that.
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Post by claireyfairy1 on Oct 26, 2016 15:12:20 GMT
Someone called Kitkat McAthley who apparently works at the Globe just posted this on Facebook (there's a duplication glitch in it but I'm reproducing it here unedited): Was this posted publicly? Can you link to it? I'm concerned that this was a private locked post and is being spread around.
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Post by alexandra on Oct 26, 2016 15:50:14 GMT
It's being spread about there but I don't think it was created as a public post (it was a reply to an article which is being widely shared, so it's being seen by anyone who sees the article), so maybe fairer to delete it. I can't edit it so I've asked Lynette to.
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Post by Jan on Oct 26, 2016 17:29:27 GMT
It's being spread about there but I don't think it was created as a public post (it was a reply to an article which is being widely shared, so it's being seen by anyone who sees the article), so maybe fairer to delete it. I can't edit it so I've asked Lynette to. It's interesting. It raises several questions: Who sets budgets there ? Who monitors budgets there ? How much can you get for a bunch of lights on eBay ?
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Post by Someone in a tree on Oct 26, 2016 17:45:29 GMT
It's being spread about there but I don't think it was created as a public post (it was a reply to an article which is being widely shared, so it's being seen by anyone who sees the article), so maybe fairer to delete it. I can't edit it so I've asked Lynette to. It's interesting. It raises several questions: Who sets budgets there ? Who monitors budgets there ? How much can you get for a bunch of lights on eBay ? Why employ a trendy director who is going to use modern fancy methods that cost a lot of dough ? Either the board dont plan these things or the cost of lights and mics is an escape goat
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Xanderl
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Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Oct 26, 2016 17:51:05 GMT
Talking of facebook, I enjoyed this exchange on the RSC's page ...
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2016 17:52:17 GMT
"complaints from customers about the lack of authenticity, have left many of my co-workers in tears and signed off work with stress-related depression" What a load of nonsense and so typical of today... Wow. I sincerely hope your loved ones never have cause to seek help for mental health issues, because it's clear there'd be no sympathy coming from your direction. Whatever you think of Emma Rice's work or the sanctity of Shakespeare or whatever, people being in a place of severe work-induced stress is absolutely nothing to be dismissive and sneery about, and if it feels like it's a modern day thing that never happened in the past, then you are quite simply deluded. People may not have had the support or the help back in the olden days, and they may not have felt able to talk about it or had the terminology to talk about it, but people sure as hell suffered from work-induced stress and stress-related depression nonetheless. Don't you dare be so disgustingly dismissive of that. Everything Baemax said, with the addition of: Unless you have worked in a very busy (and the Globe gets very busy) time pressured customer service envirnoment, then kindly keep your views to yourself. When you deal with dozens of angry people taking things out personally on you that are actually beyond your control day in day out is enough to make anyone unwell. It's a hard enough job working with the public, but when that public are united in their dislike of the service you're helping to provide, the staff in question deserve the utmost sympathy and respect. I've tried to have an adult discussion with this poster but that last post is the final straw. (For the record I'm very much enjoying hearing from others who have differing views to my own and I think everyone else has been very respectful in their debates)
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Xanderl
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Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Oct 26, 2016 18:40:19 GMT
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 26, 2016 18:58:42 GMT
It is a very good read and articulates some doubts I've had about Emma Rice's appointment. There is a good example of her naïveté, perhaps, when talking to journalists, or is it just clumsy thinking? When she says 'No 14-year old from Nottingham is going to work out what that means' is she implying that a 14-year old from Guildford is?
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Post by schuttep on Oct 26, 2016 19:02:43 GMT
I was under the impression that the Globe's raison d'être was to investigate the ways that Shakespeare's plays could have/would have been produced in a theatre as near to his as was possible with the information we have. If that changes - and I'm not saying that it shouldn't - then what is the real point of having a theatre space as near to Shakespeare's vision as we can make it?
That's not to say (and I agree with the philosopher AC Grayling on this point) that the plays should be preserved in aspic as I believe that doesn't do justice to Shakespeare's genius. It's precisely because directors can breathe new life into Shakespeare that Shakespeare survives and is relevant for every generation.
The dichotomy is reconciling my first paragraph point with my second.
Emma Rice seems to have failed to do this. I''m not sure there's any shame in this either for her or the Board in appointing her. Mark Rylance (that well known advocate of Shakespeare not being the author of the plays) managed it, as did Dominic Dromgoole. But I can't see there's a magic formula to be able do so.
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Xanderl
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Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Oct 26, 2016 19:03:53 GMT
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Post by Jan on Oct 26, 2016 19:21:34 GMT
I've mentioned here before that Rice is actually quite a conservative middle-class director whose successes like Brief Encounter, Rebecca, The Red Shoes, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg etc. appeal to a similarly conservative middle-aged demographic. She rather neatly makes this point herself by saying she'd rather listen to the Archers than watch Shakespeare. The Archers ? Seriously ? Anyone here listen to the Archers ? Her cultural references are hardly likely to be familiar to 14 year old in Nottingham. She is no doubt a good director, but not really innovative and actually a bit old fashioned when it comes to Shakespeare, we've been seeing that approach from the likes of Cheek by Jowl and Filter for decades.
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Post by bordeaux on Oct 26, 2016 19:57:55 GMT
Thanks for that elucidation; it makes more sense now.
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Post by kathryn on Oct 27, 2016 8:47:21 GMT
we've been seeing that approach from the likes of Cheek by Jowl and Filter for decades. It's funny, a couple of years ago we saw the archive screening of Cheek By Jowl's As You Like It from the early 90s - the one with Adrian Lester - and it struck me then how much the Globe playing style must have been influenced by CbJ. Perhaps it's just because when you're a touring production you have to get the essence across through the words and the actors - you can't rely on elaborate sets and props and complicated effects. So maybe with that line of influence running through both styles they thought they'd be able to find a common ground?
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4,596 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on Oct 27, 2016 11:51:00 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2016 11:59:31 GMT
Look at all these boring people assuming the weirdly insubstantial statement of "artistic differences" was true and therefore Original Practice is confirmed to be definitely the best way and nothing else should ever be tried again, even though Rylance and Dromgoole were hardly slaves to the idea of OP and massive tradition themselves.
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2,706 posts
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Post by Cardinal Pirelli on Oct 27, 2016 12:44:04 GMT
He makes avery good case for why research based academics should never be allowed to run a theatre.
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1,119 posts
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Post by martin1965 on Oct 27, 2016 16:27:35 GMT
Talking of facebook, I enjoyed this exchange on the RSC's page ... Quite right too, its obviously nothing to do with RSC
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