Show Notes
Who can explain the alchemical transformation that is rehearsal? Actors begin with words on a page and emerge with a fully formed theater production. In her documentary, Acting, director Sophie Fiennes captures the magic of actors connecting with their text and characters during a workshop with the world-renowned Cheek by Jowl theater company.
Eight actors haunt the halls of Twyford Abbey, a crumbling derelict mansion on the outskirts of London as they explore scenes and monologues from Macbeth. Cheek by Jowl founders and co-artistic directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod lead the cast through their unique rehearsal process, uncovering surprising truths not just about Macbeth but about the craft of acting itself.
Since 1981, Cheek by Jowl has staged critically acclaimed productions in over 50 countries and multiple languages, with a special emphasis on Shakespeare. Donnellan has directed and Ormerod has designed over 45 productions with Cheek by Jowl.
In this episode, Fiennes, Donnellan, and Ormerod share about their collaborative journey, the keys to unlocking a scene, and why “life isn’t realistic.”
More from Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited
Long before his iconic portrayal of Logan Roy in Succession, Brian Cox trod the boards as a Shakespearean actor.
How do you write a “complete” life of Shakespeare when very little complete information about his life exists? Four centuries after Shakespeare’s death, the legends that have grown up around him have taken on a cultural significance of their own. As Inaugural Folger Chair in Shakespeare Studies Paul Menzer puts it, “the verifiable facts of his life would fit on the back of a postcard. But the stories that we have told about them would fill a dozen phone books.”
In 1597, the first published edition of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet rolled off the printing press. Only a year later, the Spanish colony of Santa Fe was established. While you might not immediately think Shakespeare had much to do with the Latinx experience, Shakespeare’s career and the Spanish conquest of the Americas fit into a similar timeline.
If you were Hamlet’s lawyer, would you advise he plead not guilty by reason of insanity? Would you consider his accidental slaying of Polonius to be murder or manslaughter? These are the kinds of questions that University of Michigan Law professor Len Niehoff asks his students to consider.
Near the end of The Tempest, Prospero vows to retire from practicing the “rough magic” he has mastered, to break his magical staff and drown his spellbooks. After 14 seasons as Artistic Director of Canada's Stratford Festival, Antoni Cimolino has chosen to direct The Tempest as part of his final season before he, too, enters retirement.