The Trouble With Tribble

1. Carolyn R. Alvarez-Walter Jared Fair The Trouble With Tribble

2. Enskillment of Boy Actors

3. Terms To Know • Shepherding – A boy actor is led on stage and directed by a more experienced actor playing a parental/guardian role. • Attentional Devices – Addressing the character by name to alert the actor to his upcoming cues • Echoing Devices – Having the actor repeat or echo his cue, a technique that would reinforce the absolutely crucial memory for the cue itself. • Scaffolding – The material, linguistic, and/or environmental support provided by adults to help children reach a new stage of development. • Restricted – Refers to roles that are cued by a relatively small number of adult actors. • Enskillment – The way in which someone is gradually inducted into a highly skilled work environment.

4. That’s What She Said… “In the more specific case of novice actors, a “scaffolded scene” will provide a structure that constrains and thus prompts the novice actor’s activity. A restricted role, then, can be seen as a type of scaffolding, especially when the cues are repeated.” (Tribble, 8)

5. Does It Work? 1 Tamburlaine -Zenocrate, Zabina, Ebea, Anippe Edward II -King (Edward III), Queen, Mortimer King John -Hubert, Arthur

6. That’s NOT What She Said… • Tamburlaine and Zenocrate • T leads Z on stage and cues up the speeches • Break down? • At the end of 3.3 in 1Tamburlaine, 4 boy actors are left alone on stage for 40 lines. A minimum of 2 minutes. While Tribble argues for Marlowe’s written in memorization devices there is no help for “acting”.

7. That’s NOT What She Said… • Edward II – A grand shepherding technique where the young prince is always brought on stage and cued by his mother • What about when Edward III becomes King? • There is minimal time for enskillment and scaffolding as the first time Edward III appears is scene 11 and he is King by scene 21 and he is on stage for only 265 lines between that time. • He has to carry the crown • He has to carry the scene • Tribble even admits to the brakedown of the scaffolding, but can we trust when someone is not holding his hand that the boy actor can survive?

8. Shakespeare To The Rescue! The play King John lends itself to Tribble’s argument of echoing devices. Most notably in the scenes between Hubert and Arthur. This exchange gives the boy apprentice and the master actor a chance for shepherding, scaffolding and echoing.

9. Shakespeare To The Rescue? • Tribble briefly mentions King John in the beginning of her article. The play requires a small boy to act the role of Arthur. Not going into depth allows Tribble to ignore the overwhelming weight of the role on the boy actor where he in fact has the majority of lines and lengthy speeches as well as the dramatic death scene where he “kills himself.”

10. So What? • We learned these past 4 weeks to question everything. Is Tribble right? Does the enskillment of a boy actor actually exist in the text? • Will it, over the course of the play, give him what he needs to then command the stage at particularly crucial moments? Consider the staging presented, did it work? • According to Tribble, it works. However, it sounds like little more than an adult talking to a child.

11. Conclusion: Never trust ANDY GURR!