Living-Room Shakespeare: Installment 1: Teh Scottish Play
[Belated cross-posting from email announcement.]
Macbeth: the play whose players dare not speak its name. What does an ordinary, honorable fellow do when faced with a prophecy of kingship, a quick path to the same with the little hitch of cold-blooded murder, and a very hot wife goading him to kill? Why, soliloquize, of course; and kick off one of Shakespeare's shorter and better-known plays, a terse, dark, bloody gem of a tragedy. With witches and everything!
This Saturday (February 2cd), at 1pm, House of Three Cups will be holding a very informal house reading of Teh Scottish Play. Clothing is optional, some semblance of food and booze will be provided (but feel very free to bring contributions), and the general goal is (angsty gorey Scottish) FUN!
People are claiming parts in advance, so if you know the play and want dibs, please let me know. Unclaimed parts will be handed to the nearest person who stands still long enough during the reading, and those with small parts are very much free to claim multiples.
Current claims:
- Macbeth
- Lady Macbeth
- Duncan
- probably Banquo
- Hecate
- all Witches (and possibly overbid on those; we'll see who shows)
- the Porter
- the Captain
- Macduff's son
We are notably missing a Macduff and a Malcolm (our Porter has expressed an interest in the former, though, so if he's willing to be schizophrenic for a scene or somesuch, he could do dear 'Duff), and also a few larger generic lord sort of parts, and a few smaller parts of varying degrees of interest.
House Rules
- I am taking as our house canon, at least for the moment, the 1864 Globe edition, as it is readily available (and excellently searchable) at Open Source Shakespeare, for those without Bard-decked bookshelves. I will have it up on my computer, which does indeed have a working printer, during the reading. Otherwise (aside from the one person who I said I'd lend my copy to; you know who you are), please provide your own Shakespeare. (It by no means has to be that particular edition, and I don't intend to get into comma quibbles or other Shakespearian fandom wank; I'd just like to point people somewhere for a baseline.)
- Any degree of dress or undress is up to you. Ho3C is, as always, clothing-optional.
- If you have a flashlight(s) handy about your place of residence, please to be bringing. Also, food and booze contributions are very welcome, as otherwise it will be limited to mulled mead and chips.
- This is a very informal reading, so feel free to have fun with interpretation and be both unintimidated and uninhibited. As a correlary, and a variant on a standard amateur-arts-gathering rule, please do not offer criticism unless it is specifically requested by the criticizee. Applause, however, is always welcome. :)
- There will be at least one copy with notes available, and feel free to ask "what the heck did that mean?" Shakespeare gets better the more you understand him!
- Memorization not necessary. Brandish those scripts in manly readiness!
- Standing up not necessary. Fourth walls are for pussies. Iambic pentameter is a rule of thumb, not of any other body part. Thunderous sound effects will be provided.
Contact me for directions, parking info, claims, or questions.
(And for those of you wondering about the 'installment 1' bit...next up, Twelfth Night! Date not yet set. Then the Tempest; then another tragedy, which will probably be either Hamlet or the requested repeat of the Scottish Play.)
Macbeth: the play whose players dare not speak its name. What does an ordinary, honorable fellow do when faced with a prophecy of kingship, a quick path to the same with the little hitch of cold-blooded murder, and a very hot wife goading him to kill? Why, soliloquize, of course; and kick off one of Shakespeare's shorter and better-known plays, a terse, dark, bloody gem of a tragedy. With witches and everything!
This Saturday (February 2cd), at 1pm, House of Three Cups will be holding a very informal house reading of Teh Scottish Play. Clothing is optional, some semblance of food and booze will be provided (but feel very free to bring contributions), and the general goal is (angsty gorey Scottish) FUN!
People are claiming parts in advance, so if you know the play and want dibs, please let me know. Unclaimed parts will be handed to the nearest person who stands still long enough during the reading, and those with small parts are very much free to claim multiples.
Current claims:
- Macbeth
- Lady Macbeth
- Duncan
- probably Banquo
- Hecate
- all Witches (and possibly overbid on those; we'll see who shows)
- the Porter
- the Captain
- Macduff's son
We are notably missing a Macduff and a Malcolm (our Porter has expressed an interest in the former, though, so if he's willing to be schizophrenic for a scene or somesuch, he could do dear 'Duff), and also a few larger generic lord sort of parts, and a few smaller parts of varying degrees of interest.
House Rules
- I am taking as our house canon, at least for the moment, the 1864 Globe edition, as it is readily available (and excellently searchable) at Open Source Shakespeare, for those without Bard-decked bookshelves. I will have it up on my computer, which does indeed have a working printer, during the reading. Otherwise (aside from the one person who I said I'd lend my copy to; you know who you are), please provide your own Shakespeare. (It by no means has to be that particular edition, and I don't intend to get into comma quibbles or other Shakespearian fandom wank; I'd just like to point people somewhere for a baseline.)
- Any degree of dress or undress is up to you. Ho3C is, as always, clothing-optional.
- If you have a flashlight(s) handy about your place of residence, please to be bringing. Also, food and booze contributions are very welcome, as otherwise it will be limited to mulled mead and chips.
- This is a very informal reading, so feel free to have fun with interpretation and be both unintimidated and uninhibited. As a correlary, and a variant on a standard amateur-arts-gathering rule, please do not offer criticism unless it is specifically requested by the criticizee. Applause, however, is always welcome. :)
- There will be at least one copy with notes available, and feel free to ask "what the heck did that mean?" Shakespeare gets better the more you understand him!
- Memorization not necessary. Brandish those scripts in manly readiness!
- Standing up not necessary. Fourth walls are for pussies. Iambic pentameter is a rule of thumb, not of any other body part. Thunderous sound effects will be provided.
Contact me for directions, parking info, claims, or questions.
(And for those of you wondering about the 'installment 1' bit...next up, Twelfth Night! Date not yet set. Then the Tempest; then another tragedy, which will probably be either Hamlet or the requested repeat of the Scottish Play.)