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Shakespeare: From Page to Stage; Screenplay to Screen Chapter FiveBevington, Welsh and Greenwood Free Powerpoint Templates

CHOICE Choice is a crucial term for theatre and film artists a. A script or screenplay is only a blueprint for a production b. Many commentators feel that Shakespeare anticipated certain cinematic techniques...quick cuts...interior monologues, etc.

The Verbal and the Visual The stage is basically a verbal medium while film is visual. Onstage, the script happens now and is fresh each time the script is performed WHEREAS in a screenplay, there is a fixed time both in the making and of the finished product. Onstage, the number of performers is limited and in a film that number is unlimited. In a play the audience is integral to the occasion as a group while the film audience is comprised of individuals. (See text p. 49)

Clearly, film directors and stage directors work in very different media and Shakespeare’s directors must take these differences into account when bringing his works to life

Viewers should not judge the success of a film on its fidelity to the play. For example, the opening shots of the countryside in Tuscany in Branagh’s MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING are good examples of photographic images substituting for verbal ones.

Because film is more realistic, the poetic description of Ophelia’s drowning in HAMLET seems inappropriate for film.

Stage ArtistsatWorkThe Actors Actors were performing before playwrights, directors and designers...Strictly speaking, an actor is one who performs or impersonates. The first actors evolved from priests or shamans... According to Aristotle’s POETICS, Humans are the most imitative of living creatures.

According to JAQUES: “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts.” AS YOU LIKE IT II.7 (138-141)

Approaches to Acting Traditionally actors approach their craft in two broad categories External (vocal and physical) Internal (psychological) Best of all for our purposes are INTEGRATED actors accomplished at both approaches

Actors approach the text from four directions… • Script or the words on the page • The Contextof the words • Subtext is what the words imply • Intention is the reason a character must say those lines

THE DIRECTOR Historically, DIRECTORS are among the last artists to enter the theatre. Today they are a potent force in the shaping of the production. Still, theatre directors do not necessarily enjoy the absolute power of film directors.

Directors wear many hats but have four primary tasks… Devise the directorial approach and develop a CONCEPT Coordinating the artist’s contributions Creating an aesthetic experience Helping the actors

FOUR CATEGORIESOF CONCEPTS FOR SHAKESPEARE Historically - Zeffirelli'sROMEO AND JULIET (1968)

Modern dress John Gielgud’s HAMLET with Richard Burton (1963)

Alternate historical period Kenneth Branagh’s MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1993)

Universal timeless Julie Taymor’s TITUS (1999)

The designers Theatre is a “Seeing Place” implying that the visual dimension is an important part of the audience’s experience.

Designer’s challenge… • be consistent with directorial concept • support the work of the actors • help establish the degree of reality or theatricality • provide audience with relevant information

Designer’s tools… • Research • Plans, models, drawings • Renderings, sketches, swatches • Color and texture

FILM ARTISTS AT WORK Process of film-making is more complex Preproduction and story boards Shooting Post-production: Editing

Director’s responsibility in film is for emphasis, quality and impact. Olivier’s HAMLET (1948)

Approaches to Shakespeare on film. THEATRICAL MODE – Olivier’s HENRY V

Realistic Mode

Filmic Mode Orson Welle’sOTHELLO (1961)

THE SCREENWRITER Some adaptations are conservative as in the works of Kenneth Branagh and Lawrence Olivier.

Or radical like Peter Greenaway Greenaway’s PROSPERO’S BOOKS (1991)

The Actors Films tend to create popular stars and celebrities… 1929

1935

The Film Director The film director is in charge, not Shakespeare. Thus the variety of adaptations from Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books and Orson Welle’s Falstaff (Chimes at Midnight).

The cinematographer He holds the camera or supervises those who do, the chief artist in charge of both the camera and the lighting. Some great collaborations in film history including Akira Kurosawa and AsakazuNakai -or- Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist Cinematic conventions require a variety of shots Close-up Language may be deleted in favor of facial expression Characters are more significant up close Attention can be shifted from main characters Can turn soliloquy into voice-over Long shots (deep focus) covers big actions and landscapes Medium shots

Film DesignArt directors shoot on location or build sets COMPOSERS can enhance mood or build suspense Lighting designers make a film feel coherent visually Special effects allow countless possibilities

COSTUMERS work is more lavish and detailed than onstage.

Editing is painstaking and time-consuming. Editors work closely with directors. WAR HORSE was the first movie that Spielberg and his editor “cut” digitally.

Close-up: SILENT SHAKESPEARE The first talkie of a Shakespeare was 1929’s TAMING OF THE SHREW with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford The first film of a Shakespeare film was Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s 80-second film of the death of KING JOHN Earliest silent films were shorts since the materials were expensive and the medium was new

In 1900, Sara Bernhardt was filmed playing HAMLET. This and earlier films were single camera films.

From 1908-1912, Vitagraph produced a series of 15-minute one-reel silent films including ROMEO AND JULIET, JULIUS CAESAR and KING LEAR. In 1916 Theda Bara did an American ROMEO AND JULIET.

First feature-length Shakespeare film was HAMLET (1913) which ran for 59 minutes and starred Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson

A five-reel RICHARD III starring Frederick B. Wardewas made in 1912A 1922 German OTHELLO was shot by DimitiriBuchowetzki

PETER BROOK, The Conjurer See text, pages 66-67 Arguably the most significant stage director of latter 20th century. By 1950s Brook had established himself on the English stage.

When Peter Hall transformed the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre to the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s, Brooks was hired as an associate director.

Brook’s 1970 production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM is one of the seminal works of the 20th century stage. It changed the way Shakespeare was done.

Throughout his lifetime, Brook has sought to find an immediate theatre…an approach he discusses at some length in his book THE EMPTY SPACE.

For Brooks, Shakespeare’s plays are a synthesis… 1. A HOLY THEATRE that celebrates ritual and ceremony King Lear, 1971 2. A ROUGH THEATRE that is close to the people in dealing with men’s actions.

A word about genres Genre is a literary term that describes the classification of a work into a distinctive type based upon the treatment of its matter, its tone, structure or perspective Aristotle was the first to describe tragedy. Roman ideas of tragedy and comedy affected Elizabethan writers like Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson. Shakespeare’s works can similarly be described in terms of genre

Hamlet (II.2) POLONIUSThe best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and theliberty, these are the only men.

CAUSALITY Shakespeare’s plays are founded in CAUSALITY…the recognition that actions lead to other actions…serious, comic or historical. A  B  C etc.

Organization by type Shakespeare’s plays are usually described in these genres Tragedy (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear)

Comedy (The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

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