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Shakespeare
as Performance
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Who's
your favorite signer? Imagine yourself read the musical notes.
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Who's
your favorite artist? Imagine yourself read the verbal description.
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Who's
your favorite dancer? Imagine yourself read the choreographic notes.
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Shakespeare
as silent reading alone is inadequate, inaccurate, and reductive.
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Shakespeare
should be studied as performance.
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Shakespearean
Theatre |
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"Right"
Shakespeare Performance
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When we
perform Shakespeare, do we have to adop a British accent, Elizabethan
costumes, and historical settings (streets, architecture, furniture)?
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The historical
Shakespeare is indeed very different from our historical imagination¡Xempty
stage, simple and symbolic settings, contemporary costumes (for Roman
and Italian, etc.), and contemporary language (for Romans, Italians,
French, etc.), no lighting, no close-ups, no background music.
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Is it funny
to dress Shakespearean characters in Japanese kimono or contemporary
hip-hop fashion? The historical Shakespeare features anachronism.
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The historical
Shakespeare is not a realistic and naturalistic theatre, but a theatre
built on conventions and willing suspension of the reality principle.
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It is not
necessary to reconstruct the "real" Shakespeare.
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Three
Examples of Romeo and Juliet Performance
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Zefferelli's
film Romeo and Juliet
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Ballet Romeo
and Juliet
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Taiwanese
opera Romeo and Juliet
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Which performance
is "correct," "true," "good" or "high"
Shakespeare? Be open-minded!
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By our
standards, Shakespeare not only borrows, adapts, steals and plagiarizes,
but also misquotes, confusing time and place and people and plot¡Xand
it's okay!
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Even though
Shakespeare uses other sources (history, Chaucer, Italian novella,
native romance, etc.), he is genuinely Shakespearean.
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What we
do to Shakespeare today is similar to what Shakespeare did to others.
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Shakespeare
is a mirror, reflecting your own image.
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Shakespeare
is a writing tablet, on which you mark and remark.
Download
Real Player
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Zefferelli's filmRomeo
and Julie
t
Ballet
Romeo and Juliet

Taiwanese
opera Romeo and Juliet |
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Intercultural
Shakespeare
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Shakespeare
has been translated into just about any language in the world, but
these are not necessarily intercultural.
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Interultural
Shakespeare: Not merely literal translation and petty localization,
but conscious give and take.
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Multicultural
performance is like a food court (in department store basement) with
Taiwanese oyster pancakes, Japanese sushi, Korean barbecue, Italian
pizza, French bakery, Hong Kong style mango ice, etc. It is a juxtaposition,
but there is no real interaction or interference. It emphasizes purity,
diversity, authenticity.
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Multicultural
performance uses culture as decorative, cute (Orientalism), carnival-like,
and harmless. It guatantees the eventual dominance of the mainstream.
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Fusion
puts all of the raw materials together and make one big stew. It obscures
boundary and emphasizes similarity, harmony and common humanity (fish
is just fish, Japanese or Italian), overlooking and deliberately erasing
difference.
Fusion is a utopian vision, hippie-culture, "We Are the World,"
etc. It is a neverland, only those on drugs can believe it.
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Intercultural
conscious¡XWhy is fish grilled by Americans and fried by Englishmen?
What will happen if you use soy sauce on pasta and tomato sauce on
pot-stickers?
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Interculturalism
is not necessarily about authenticity or harmony, not afraid of tension,
confrontation or conflict.
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Intercultural
performanc is by definition inquisitive, innovative, conscious.
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Multiculturalism

Fusion

Interculturalism |