Beginning in December 2016 we will experiment further with Original Practices (the conditions under which it is thought Shakespeare and other Renaissance actors and producers operated under).

In October 2015 we successfully produced an Original Practices production of The Taming of the Shrew. It is thought that sometimes a director would work with actors and then there were times when actors directed themselves. The conditions under which we worked for The Taming of the Shrew used a director. The actors and director had fifteen days to rehearse the play, using simple costumes and props, and universal lighting. Our focus was entirely on the language and the story being told.

The other method we think was part of the theatrical process during Shakespeare’s time was actors directing themselves in a much shorter time period to put on the play. We are calling this latter method The Actors Season. Our inaugural production will be The Comedy of Errors, and will run from November 30 through December 4, 2016. Actors will get 40 hours of rehearsal time before performing the play for the public.

For both Original Practices and The Actors Season, actors must come to the first rehearsal “off book” (all lines perfectly memorized). Under the conditions of The Actors Season, actors are responsible not only for blocking the show and working scenes on their own, but also for choosing costumes, arranging music, finding or creating props, choreographing fights and dances, and seeing to any other details of performance that could arise, all in a fraction of the rehearsal time granted to them in other productions.

Original Staging Practices

When Shakespeare was producing his plays there were some basic ideas he used that we think were part of Elizabethan staging techniques. We know this through testimonials from audiences of the time, how the theatres were built, and the actual directions within the plays themselves.

The actors could see the audience because a number of the productions were performed outside in daylight. It is also another dynamic way to experience Shakespeare’s plays directly.

We know that the plays were performed on a large wooden platform with only a few key set pieces to represent major areas (a bed, a tomb). There is a freedom in this, as the audience has to listen to the language and imagine the scenes being enacted.

Shakespeare’s company was comprised of all men and boys, because women were legally prevented from being on stage. We do not believe that Shakespeare preferred casting men over women. Think of the incredible female characters he wrote. If he were alive today we think he would have liked Meryl Streep to play Lady Macbeth! Women are allowed onstage now and we embrace all of Shakespeare’s exploration of gender in a variety of ways

The costumes in original practices helped the audiences, as they do now, to “read” the characters positions in society and who they were. They are used to show rich and poor, royalty or peasantry and myriad other character clues. Costumes in Shakespeare’s time were not used to show what a particular historical period was like. They performed Caesar for example in primarily Elizabethan clothing and not ancient Roman. For them, as for us, the play always spoke to the present. That’s why we use costumes that speak to our audiences in the most familiar language possible while staying consistent with the words in the play.

The music for Shakespeare’s plays was provided by musicians who played above the stage. Music was played before during and after the production. We know there were a variety of instruments –string, wind and percussion. Some of the music survives but not much and we have the lyrics of songs within the plays. We choose the music and the instruments based on what the actors can play and what we think suits the message of the play. Our composers and sound designers are guided by the text as the director envisions it.

Based on notes from ASC writing on Original Practices and

Original Staging/Practices: Thesis by Angel VanBennekom