Ghostly Fragments: Essays on Shakespeare and Performance

333 Pages·2021·12.813 MB·English

by  Barbara C. Hodgdon, Richard Abel, Peter Holland

Ghostly Fragments

Ghostly Fragments
Essays on Shakespeare and Performance
Barbara C. Hodgdon
Edited by
Richard Abel and Peter Holland
University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor
Copyright 2021 by Richard Abel and Peter Holland
All rights reserved
For questions or permissions, please contact um.press.
[email protected]
Published in the United States of America by
the University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid- free paper
First published February 2021
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the
British Library.
ISBN 978- 0- 472- 13229- 4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978- 0- 472- 12836- 5 (ebook)
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction by Peter Holland 1
I. TeachIng ShakeSpeare 7
Introduction by Miriam Gilbert 7
Bernie on Hamlet 10
Making Changes/Making Sense 13
The Last Shakespeare Picture Show or Going to the Barricades 24
II. analyzIng STage performanceS 39
Introduction by W. B. Worthen 39
Rehearsal Process as Critical Practice:
John Barton’s 1978 Love’s Labour’s Lost 42
Making It New: Katie Mitchell Refashions Shakespeare- History 70
Re- Incarnations 89
I Sing the Body Artifactual: Prologue, Meditations, and Jig 108
Un- Marking, Re- Marking, and Difference 117
III. edITIng ShakeSpeare TexTS 129
Introduction by Margaret Jane Kidnie 129
Dream Talk 132
Who Is Performing “in” These Text(s)?; Or, Shrew- Ing Around 146
New Collaborations with Old Plays:
The (Textual) Politics of Performance Commentary 158
vi conTenTS
IV. analyzIng ShakeSpeare fIlmS 173
Introduction by Richard Abel 173
Kozintsev’s King Lear: Filming a Tragic Poem 176
Replicating Richard: Body Doubles, Body Politics 186
William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet:
Everything’s Nice in America? 210
The Shakespearean Phonograph 226
V. “ShoppIng” In The ShakeSpeare archIVeS 239
Introduction by Pascale Aebischer 239
Bride- ing the Shrew: Costumes That Matter 242
(You)Tube Travel:
The 9:59 to Dover Beach, Stopping at Fair Verona and Elsinore 261
Spectral Traces in the Archive 278
Paper Worlds: A Story of Things Left Behind 289
Published Writings by Barbara C. Hodgdon 307
Contributors 311
Index 313
Digital materials related to this title can be found on the Fulcrum platform
via the following citable URL https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11631033
Illustrations
Fig. 1. Barbara Hodgdon, 1986 8
Fig. 2. Barbara Hodgdon, 1988 14
Fig. 3. The Princess and her Embassage (2.1) 45
Fig. 4. Letter scene (4.1) 47
Fig. 5. The Locals (5.1) 50
Fig. 6. Rosaline and Berowne (5.2) 54
Fig. 7. Worthies’ show (5.2) 55
Fig. 8. Sir Nathaniel descending with the horse (5.2) 59
Fig. 9. The Suitors (5.2) 62
Fig. 10. The final songs (5.2) 65
Fig. 11. Dulle Griet by Pieter Bruegel the Elder 79
Fig. 12. Queen Margaret, Henry VI, soldier, and Edward,
Prince of Wales prepare for battle 82
Fig. 13. Edward IV attempts to rape Lady Elizabeth Grey 84
Fig. 14. Poster for Barbara’s 1984 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
student production, Drake University 135
Fig. 15. Al Pacino as Richard III, tent soliloquy, in Looking
for Richard, 1996 193
Fig. 16. Al Pacino rehearsing Richard III’s tent soliloquy, in
Looking for Richard, 1996 193
Fig. 17. Ian McKellen as Richard III, tent soliloquy, in
Richard Loncraine’s Richard III, 1995 200
Fig. 18. Dominic West as Richmond at the close of
Richard Loncraine’s Richard III, 1995 203
Fig. 19. Ian McKellen as Richard III falling to his death in Richard
Loncraine’s Richard III, 1995 203
Fig. 20. Wedding costume for Katherina displayed on mannequin,
worn by Alexandra Gilbreath in Greg Doran’s RSC The Taming
of the Shrew production, 2003 243
Fig. 21. Ada Rehan as Katherina in Augustin Daly’s The Taming
of the Shrew, 1887 249
Fig. 22. Peggy Ashcroft as Katherina and Peter O’Toole as Petruccio
in John Barton’s The Taming of the Shrew production,
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, 1960 251
viii IlluSTraTIonS
Fig. 23. Alexandra Gilbreath as Katherina in the final moments
of Greg Doran’s RSC The Taming of the Shrew production, 2003 254
Fig. 24. Lantern owned by Henry Irving 290
Fig. 25. Ralph Koltai’s set model for Howard Davies’s RSC
Troilus and Cressida production, 1985 293
Fig. 26. One of Peggy Ashcroft’s gowns for Glen Byam Shaw’s
Cleopatra production, 1953 295
Fig. 27. Satin cloak from Peter Brook’s RSC A Midsummer Night’s
Dream production, 1970 299
Fig. 28. Snug’s mask made by the RSC’s Properties Workshop under
William Lockwood for Peter Brook’s RSC A Midsummer
Night’s Dream production, 1970 300
Fig. 29. Mallet made by the RSC’s Properties Workshop under
William Lockwood for Snug the Joiner (Barry Stanton)
in Peter Brook’s RSC A Midsummer Night’s Dream
production, 1970 301
Acknowledgments
This collection of Barbara Hodgdon’s writings obviously is a labor of love,
but we are very grateful that so many others eased its path to publication.
LeAnn Fields, acquisitions editor at the University of Michigan Press,
encouraged our proposed book from the beginning. Despite working half-
time as she moved toward retirement, LeAnn strongly supported the pro-
posal, argued persuasively for its acceptance by the press’s editorial board,
and kept us apprised of what we needed to submit and when to do so for
final approval. Editorial associate Anna Pohlod efficiently handled prepara-
tion issues and questions as we readied the manuscript for submission; man-
aging editor Marcia LaBrenz took care of last-m inute details and expertly
directed all stages of production; and Heidi Dailey designed a lovely front
cover framing our chosen image. Anne Taylor performed as an unusually
thorough, careful, and caring copyeditor. We could not be more pleased that
this collection is part of the press’s highly regarded Theater and Performance
series— and Barbara would be surprised and pleased as well.
We are so grateful to the three anonymous reviewers of our proposal,
all of whom enthusiastically agreed that Barbara’s influential work deserved
such a collection. They especially praised our decision to organize the book
into five sections representing the wide range of her writing and to include
unpublished pieces and less accessible essays.
We also thank the colleagues, given their expertise and personal experi-
ence with Barbara, who were excited to write short introductions to four of
those sections. Besides those colleagues— Miriam Gilbert, W. B. Worthen,
Margaret Jane Kidnie, and Pascale Aebischer— others such as Carol Rutter,
Amy Rodgers, Skip Shand, and Robert Shaughnessy offered valued support.
Permission to reproduce illustrations came from the Shakespeare Birth-
place Trust, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Harvard University’s