The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged
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Category: Producing Theater
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URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3698
Printed Date: 11/26/24 at 5:42pm
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Topic: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged
Posted By: TheActingTechie
Subject: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged
Date Posted: 12/30/08 at 9:44pm
Early next year I will be co-directing/co-starring in a production of "The Cmplt Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)"
It is a daunting task, to say the least, and I was wondering if anyone here had ever done the show, and if so, what advice you might be able to give me. What problems did you have and how did you avoid them? Et cetera, et cetera?
Thanks!
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Replies:
Posted By: smileon3
Date Posted: 1/19/09 at 12:58pm
A local high school did this as part of an evening of one-acts last year. I was there to see a friend in one of the shows, and had to sit through this one to get to hers. I would advise you to suggest putting a warning for parents on your advertising posters that they may have to explain a few things after the show.... I was embarrassed for anyone that had their kids there with them.
There were parts of the show that were funny, I will admit, though as a whole I did not enjoy it.
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Posted By: Kathy S
Date Posted: 1/19/09 at 3:04pm
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I have seen two very different interpretations of this show and enjoyed both very much. One was done by a community theatre with the three actors that the script is written for, and the other was done with a multitude of players by a high school. Actually, although it was clearly not what the writers had in mind for the show, I preferred it to the other one. The director of the HS version was a first year teacher with tons of energy and great instincts -- I will say that it did probably raise some eyebrows in the little town but sometimes that's not all bad, either.
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Posted By: TheActingTechie
Date Posted: 2/22/09 at 7:20pm
Smileon--
What exactly do you mean? There is nothing particularly offensive in the show? There are a handful of suggestive jokes in the show, but nothing that a high school student wouldn't understand. It's very much just PG-13.
Are you sure you are thinking of The Cmplt Wrks? It is a full length show, not a one act...
Anyway the show is now over, and I just thought I would give a quick update if anyone else who is thinking about doing this show comes across the thread.
When you have a show that is this simple, in that there are only three actors, technical aspects are some of the most important to focus on. Obviously costumes are very important, but we also ended up realizing how important props were. We ended up finding, purchasing or creating everything we needed, but we were still working on props until the final day.
When we originally designed our set, our only entrances were the stage left and right wings, but a few weeks into rehearsal we realized that we needed doors in the middle of the set as well, so we reworked it to fit those in.
The biggest thing that was worrying us, or at least me, in the last few weeks was getting people into the theatre. We put out a press release, emailed some other local high school teachers and made a facebook event, and just kind of crossed our fingers and hoped. We did two shows and were expecting maybe 50 to 60 people per night, so we were absolutely shocked when 250 people showed up on opening night. They were an absolutely fantastic audience.
The most exciting part was seeing how many of those people who came opening night came back again the next night with all their friends and families.
I think that the biggest thing we learnt from that was that, although I think we had a very solid production, the show itself will just sell itself. It is such a funny and well written show, that it's hard for audiences not to love it.
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Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 2/23/09 at 11:42am
congrats on your success!
feels great, doesn't it?!
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Posted By: smileon3
Date Posted: 2/23/09 at 10:25pm
Originally posted by TheActingTechie
Smileon--
What exactly do you mean? There is nothing particularly offensive in the show? There are a handful of suggestive jokes in the show, but nothing that a high school student wouldn't understand. It's very much just PG-13.
Are you sure you are thinking of The Cmplt Wrks? It is a full length show, not a one act...
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From what I know of the guy that directed the thing I saw I wouldn't be at all surprised if he created his own one-act show from the full show.
And even PG-13 shows should have a warning. The actors were high school students, but there were many young children in the audience (siblings, etc.) Repeated references to "bi-sexual animalistic orgies" is not something I would consider okay for young children (we're talking 6-9 yr olds) to be exposed to without their parents having been warned. There were other things too that I can't quite remember. But again, it very well could have been the way it was directed.
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Posted By: TheActingTechie
Date Posted: 2/24/09 at 9:54pm
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Well it isn't a repeated reference, they only say bisexual animalistic orgies once, but I guess I do see your point. Maybe I just see enough other local high school shows with things of this level of in/appropriateness, that I don't see how this one especially needs it.
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Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 2/26/09 at 1:20pm
Originally posted by smileon3
[QUOTE=TheActingTechie] Repeated references to "bi-sexual animalistic orgies" is not something I would consider okay for young children (we're talking 6-9 yr olds) to be exposed to without their parents having been warned. |
warn their parents?
if they have six year old children who understand (or even pick up on) "bisexual animalistic orgies," I think the parenting skills are more to be discussed than the phrase, which nobody who understood it would take seriously anyway.
I don't think that hearing it once in a play once, a six-year old could even REPEAT the words.
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