In this essay I will investigate how using Shakespeare with first person interpretation can encourage a younger audience to explore Shakespeare and his plays. I will also explore whether the use of verbatim theatre when performing for an interactive audience is the best method and if I want my audience members to be anonymous spectators.
When using a well-known historical figure for performance, such as William Shakespeare, complication surrounding the ethics and accuracy of the portrayal arise as nobody can truly replicate who Shakespeare was. There is also the ethical issue of reconstruction and reimagining of events that may have happened. There is also the question of how long after death before a person becomes public domain;
The term
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I will also look at lines in the plays and change them with verbatim from his other works, which may provide humour for audiences with an interest in Shakespeare. For instance, before Hamnet appears, Shakespeare may call out ‘Hamnet, Hamnet wherefore art thou Hamnet, whining school-boy, with his satchel, And shining morning face, creeping like snail’ taking lines from Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It.
If accurate accounts of Shakespeare’s words cannot be found I will need to have a focus on the life Shakespeare may have led which would steer away from verbatim theatre and become devised theatre. Devising is a mode of creating theatre through a series of experimentation and ideas performed in numerous ways until a text emerges, it “typically begins with little more than a rehearsal space and a group of eager, committed theatre practitioners” (Rogers, 2016). Frantic
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Frantic’s exercise will be invaluable in determining how Shakespeare will be around the various other characters in the performance.
An issue I may come across would be Shakespeare giving a guided tour of his birthplace because that probably did not happen in his time. Through this I will have to implore the characterisation of Shakespeare will be to a certain point of realism with allowances for inconsistencies such as this one. The complication of this will be the heart of the performance and perhaps can be explored through a different characterisation of Shakespeare according to the audience, with them choosing the personality of Shakespeare for each performance, adding a new level of immersion to the