Agenda June 12 Notes

1. Update on contract, interviews.

2. Full versions for distribution

3. Which of the pedagogical aims/problems Geoffrey and Stacey sketched on the Wiki do we want to take on?

4. Clips:

• What do we have? Can we use all three plays? Can we actually do much with differences between settings?

• What else do we want to achieve with the clips?

• Concrete suggestions

*5. Next steps

Meeting Notes

Administrative Issues

• Work out contract with Zack.
• Make sure everyone is set up to access the Wiki. Please contact Stefan Sinclair at mail@stefansinclair.name if having issues signing in
• Using the footage CD: Drag clips to desktop. Don't run off CD.
• Peter will write some sample website content which will be posted on the wiki. Feel free to edit or add comments.
• He will also e-mail Zack to request certain “side angles” if necessary.
• Interviews: Alon, Jason and Julian -when should they be done? Do we want to use the studio at Ryerson?

DVD Footage

(clips chosen during meeting are highlighted in red )

Day 1 (GM, Inn set-up; all angles in HD)

Leir (“Stage 1 Part 1”)

FV (“Stage 1 Part 2”)

Day 2 (GM [not AL!], University set-up):

Leir (“AL Club Oct 22_No Audience”) 2nd Choice

FBFB (“AL Club Oct 22_ Audience”)

Day 3 (West Hall, court set-up)

Assassination scene from Leir, different takes (“West Hall_No audience”)

Leir (“West Hall_Audience”) 1st Choice

Day 4 (Arts and Letters, University set-up)

FV (incomplete) (“AL Club_No Audience”)

FBFB (“AL Club_Audience”)

Peter: There is other footage from personal camcorders...do we want to look at it as well?

SQM Website

Revised Pedagogical Problems

1. We want to share with students the experience of staging the Queen's Men Plays, as well as the research that was gathered. How were the plays produced? What did this tell us about the QM and theatrical texts in general?
2. The website will demonstrate how TEXT relates to THEATRICAL ACTION.
3. How do setting, casting, costume, acting style, blocking, props etc. impact the meaning of QM plays. What does the text say about these elements? How might a director or actor interpret them? What is their thematic significance? Look at: Spectacle, conversions, testing, disguise, clowning, how characters interact. e.g Problem: Hal's conversion. How do you show an internal, psychological conversion visually?
4. What does the audience add to the mix? How do audience reactions shape plays?
5. What are the key characteristics of QM plays? How are they similar to Shakespeare? How are they different?

Pedagogical Solutions: Brainstorming

• Read text. Select what props, costumes etc. you would use. Watch video to see which ones where chosen. (Icons would represent props. Props highlighted or crossed out on answer page)

• Read scene, think about text, then watch scene (or have both text and scene on same screen?)

• Some like idea of muting out actor, being able to say actor's lines

• Have printable handouts for teachers and students that include exercises related to website content

• View three camera angles at once. Choose which one to focus on.

• I-SPY. Play a scene repeatedly. Make students look for certain things.

GENERAL TOPICS

Why Stage the QM? The goals of the project.

The History of the QM

Dramaturgy and The Rehearsal Process

Stage Business Staging problems, whose entering, whose exiting

• e.g. SICK CHAIR
• e.g. CROWN-problem of the transfer with crown in FV

Gender i.e. Men Playing Women

• e.g. Reagan, differing views of Cordella

Disguise and Character Doubling

Clowning

• Tarlton Clowning and stock characters e.g. FBFB -Myle's pretends to be Bacon, Henry “smelly breath” scene
• Discussion: what makes something funny? How much humor is in the text? How much depends upon the staging of the play?

The Audience

• Can't recreate Elizabethan audience
• Margaret's choice (whether or not to become a nun), nationalism, monarchistic aspects: modern temptation to play potentially serious scenes ironically

Props

• TABLE and Textual clue in Leir

Motifs

• Conversion scenes (Hal in FV, murderer in KL, Bacon in FBFB...)
• Divine right and intervention
• Testing Scenes (Love test in Leir, Lacy tests Margaret)
• Reconciliation

Other Scenes to look at:

• Coronation scene in FV versus coronation in Shakespeare's text...
• Conscription scene: Famous Victories, John Cobbler

-- StaceyWheal - 13 Jun 2007

-- HolgerSyme - 12 Jun 2007