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Finding King Lear
An on-site dramaturgical research project
Maegan Clearwood
Cater Society of Junior Fellows
Dramaturgy: What is it?
“Working in theatres and playwrights' organizations, in colleges and
universities, and on a project-by-project basis, dramaturgs contextualize
the world of a play; establish connections among the text, actors, and
audience; offer opportunities for playwrights; generate projects and
programs; and create conversations about plays in their communities.”
• Locate drafts and versions of text;
collate, cut, track, edit, rewrite,
construct, and arrange text
• Find songs, pictures, stories, videos
• Help the designers with research
• Help the director with casting
• Help the marketeers and developers
• Seek and present pathways into the
world of the play
• Gather and arrange images, sounds,
and ideas for rehearsal
• Explore and present: the world of the
play, the author of the play, the script’s
production history, the relevant criticism
• Create a lobby display
• Write program notes(s)
• Work with actors on meaning, line
memorization
• Look up definitions, pronunciations,
random facts
• Provide notes for the director during
rehearsals
• And the ultimate question....
Why This Play Now?
• Written around 1608
• Based on legend of
King Leir (800 BC),
numerous retellings
• Folio and Quarto texts
• Political and family
drama
• Our production:
– April 4, 5, 6, 7
– Director Jason Rubin,
TM as Lear – both
retiring
– Text and Performance
class with Dr. Moncrief
Why England?
Questions
The trip
• How would King Lear have
• Six days in London: Five
appeared onstage 400 years
plays; two days of
ago? What was the world of
research at the Globe
the play like?
Theatre library/archive;
• How have stage practices
exploring The Globe,
evolved since then?
museums
• What can we learn from
• Six days in Stratfordoriginal practice staging?
upon-Avon: Five days of
• What elements from both
research at Shakespeare
original practice and
Birthplace Trust; three
contemporary stagings can
RSC plays; touring
we learn from and use in our
Shakespeare’s Birthplace
own production?
The Globe
• The “third” Globe was built in 1997
• Based on excavations of The Rose
• Shakespeare’s Globe:
–
–
–
–
Twice as many spectators
Class seating, “groundlings”
London Bankside
Lord Chaimberlain’s Men/King’s Men
The Globe library/archive
• Two productions of King
Lear
• Fairly traditional, not
strictly “original practice”
Original Practice
• All-male cast
• Traditional
Jacobean
costumes
• Minimalistic set
• Audience-actor
participation
• Use of music
• Observations:
– Audience involvement
– Manipulation of
language
– Historically
illuminating
– Variety of choices
– Female characters….
Mark Rylance as Richard III…
…and Olivia in Twelfth Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ASipifu0w
Stratford-Upon-Avon
• William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616): Born, raised in
Stratford, married Anne Hathaway, three children
• Career as actor/playwright with Lord
Chaimberlains Men/The King’s Men in London
• Retirement to Stratford, 1613
Royal Shakespeare Company
• Built in 1932, renamed
in 1961
• Famous current/alum
actors: Kenneth
Branagh, Tim Curry,
Judi Dench, Dustin
Hoffman, Patrick
Stewart, David Tennant,
Laurence Olivier,
Vanessa Redgrave, Jude
Law, Gary Oldman
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
• Eleven King Lear productions,
nine since 1962, three since
2000
• Settings: Ruritanical Russia;
World War I; a plain white
box; Medieval fairy tale; Iron
Age England
Merry Wives
of Windsor
https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=nYJ1yOa4-jE
Conclusions
• Original practice theatre: so much more than
historical reenactment
• Culture of Shakespeare’s England, how
political, social atmosphere affected and was
effected by art
• Theatre: A communal experience, bridges
social, economic divisions
• Performance history, more than just library
drudgery
Thank you
CSJF!
• https://www.youtub
e.com/watch?v=3ygt
uybj4IM