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Reader's Theatre for the SCA

by THL Brighid Ross

I. Justification of Style

Readers Theater is reading-aloud to communicate a story through oral interpretation rather than acting. (rather a long dull sentence, but accurate). Readers read from a “script” and reading parts are divided among the readers. No memorization, costumes, blocking, or special lighting is necessary.

I am introducing Reader’s Theater as a bardic activity because I feel that this style of performance will make available “period” literature and language to a wider audience within our society.

Our Society is made up of a populous with similar interests, but varied location. A traditional theatrical production is limited to those members of the society who live close enough to each other to meet to practice several times a week, for several weeks. This can be almost impossible to arrange. The style employed by Reader’s Theater will allow a much more “spread out” group to have the opportunity to work together on projects. Scripts can be handed out, and conversations relating to meaning, characterization, and timing can happen via mail, both electronic and traditional, phone conversations, and rehearsals at events. A well explained and thought out piece of Reader’s Theater can be performed after very few rehearsals.

Whereas a full length play, or even several scenes from a play, can take weeks of rehearsal to practice blocking (movement on stage), using props, getting used to costumes and creating scenery, using Reader’s Theater to perform the same scenes allows time to be spent on studying the language and the meaning and emotion of the work. Reader’s Theater style productions are “user friendly.” For a novice actor, memorizing any part can be intimidating, when you add in “period” language, iambic pentameter, and couplets, many new actors may just give up. Having the script available to refer to makes it more accessible for those interested in and new to acting. But the style remains challenging for even the experienced actor, it is often used as an exercise in working with establishing the tension or mood in a scene, using nothing more than voice inflexion and intention.

Reader’s Theater as a production can be as informal as sitting in a camp reading from a script, to a production with high quality production values, using light, and shadow, sound effects and limited props.

Documentation

Philip Henslowe (1550 –1616) has been called the “most important English theatre proprietor and manager of the Elizabethan Age.”(1) Henslowe's famous Diary is one of the most important sources for the English theatrical history of the time. It is actually a manuscript book of miscellaneous accounts and memoranda, playhouse receipts, payments to playwrights, loans or advances to players, payments for materials, costumes, and so on. (2)

There is an entry in Henslowe’s diary sandwiched between dated entries in May of 1602. The entry reads “Laid out for the company when they read the play of Jeffa for wine at the tavern. Delivered unto Thomas Downtown” (3) When I first read this entry, I was

positive that it showed that on that date, the company was paid in wine to read the play Jeffa in a tavern. I consider this entry the primary documentation I was looking for to prove that Reader’s Theater could be proved to be a period performance technique. The entry is listed in the index of Henslowe’s Diary under Plays Read in a Tavern. There is a second reference in the Diary to reading a ‘booke’ in a tavern …2s “ Lent at that time to the company for to spend at the reading of that book at the Sun in New Fish Street.5s” (4)

In an effort to further prove my theory, I read The Professions of Dramatist and Player in Shakespeare’s Time, 1590-1642 by Gerald Eades Bentley. Mr. Bentley discusses both entries in his chapters on “The Acting Company”. I discovered that Mr. Bentley has a different interpretation of the entries. In discussing the play “Jeffa” Mr. Bentley surmises “ The play had its reading before the company, for in the ledger is recorded an expenditure of two shillings ‘Laid out for the company when the read the play of Jeffa for wine at the tavern. Delivered into Thomas Downton’” (5) and again writing about the entry concerning the reading at the Sun he refers to it in the context of an author reading the “booke” or script to the company.

While Mr. Bentley and my inferences from the entries are very different, even if you choose to attribute the readings, by the authors and not the company, the fact that the “bookes” or scripts were read in public, either to the company and possibly within the earshot of all present, can be extrapolated into a public read “performance”.

To further prove my supposition, I began to look into an obscure reference I had seen on the Internet to a “Closet Drama”.

I began to find more references, mostly relating to out of period, but Renaissance Drama By Women; Texts and Documents edited by S.P. Ceresano and Marion Wynne-Davies establishes the Reader’s Theater technique as a having been employed during the 16^th Century. It sites Closet Drama being “read” late in the reign of Elizabeth I lasting well into the 17^th Century of Closet Drama.

Mary Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621) was a member of one of the most illustrious families of the English Renaissance (6) She was a poet, and author, who nurtured other distinguished and gifted writers of her time. Under the guidance of Mary Sidney, Wilton House became for twenty-five years (1586-1601) in the words of John Aurbry, “Like a College, there were so many Learned and ingenious persons (7)

Mary Sidney is known for writing during Elizabeth’s reign, a very broad translation of the full text of Robert Garnier’s Marc Antoine, and it is likely that she intended her work to be read aloud – not acted- by members of her household, family and friends.

In Renaissance Drama by Women edited by S.P. Cerasano and Marion Wynne-Davies The discuss the fact the “In addition, Antoine is a ‘closet drama’, that is a play meant for private performance to be read aloud in a noble household, rather than a popular drama to be performed on the public stage.”(8)I

In discussing The Tragedy of Miriam, written by Elizabeth Carey in1613

“As has already been noted, Mariam is a Senecan drama, although it was not intended for performance in the public theater and hence, like its classical source, it eschews on-stage violence. The play has more in common with the neo Senecan closet drama popular in Mary Sidney’s circle, which include hew own The Tragedy of Antonie (1592) Samuel Daniel’s Cleopatra (1594 and 1607) and Philontas (1605) and Fulke Grevill’s Mustapha (16109-10)” (9)

While the Closet Drama may have been intended for a private audience, the key is that it was intended for an audience, and to be “read” without the use of props or costumes. This relates historically then to the definition I first offered for Reader’s Theater. “Readers Theater is reading-aloud to communicate a story through oral interpretation rather than acting.”

I maintain that the primary documentation provided in the Henslowe Diary, along with the documentation of Closet Drama (which could stand alone as primary documentation) creates a base of proof to demonstrate that the Reader’s Theater Technique can be considered a form of period bardic performance.

1 Encyclopedia Britannica Online

2 ibid

3 Foakes, R.A., ed. Henslowe's Diary 2nd Edition pg?

4 Foakes, R.A., ed. Henslowe's Diary 2nd Edition pg?

5 Bentley, Gerald Eades, (1984) The Professions of Dramatist and Player in Shakespeare’s Time, 1590- 1642 pg.77

6 Cerasano, S.P., Wynn-Davies, Marion, (1997) Renaissance Drama By Women Texts and Documents pg.4

7 Ibid pg. 13

THE PLAY

First performed in 1606, Macbeth is the shortest and most concentrated of Shakespeare’s tragedies – at not much more than 2,100 lines just over half the length of Hamlet- but its brevity and familiarity does not mean that it is one of Shakespeare’s less difficult plays. On the contrary, Macbeth derives its dramatic power from it complex imagery and compression of language. Despite its brevity, the play has a relatively large number of scenes, twenty-eight, all told. These, for the most part, are not elaborately constructed, as those depicting the play-within-a play in Hamlet or the blinding of Gloucester in King Lear. The tragedy illustrates Shakespeare’s fascination with the criminal mind; or rather the mind that becomes criminal. (10)

There are references to the first Macbeth being written for James I of England; James I, a Scot who held the English crown from 1603 to 1625, took a special interest in demonology, on which he fancied himself and authority (he wrote a treatise on the subject). In the prophetic Show of Eight Kings (IV.i) the last to appear is King James (represented by Banquo, an ancestor of King James) with a prospective glass (mirror) in his hand, prophesizing the union of England and Scotland, then very much a topic under discussion. To insist-as some authorities do- that Macbeth was especially written for the King’s entertainment is perhaps to press a claim to far, but the Scottish setting and the use of witchcraft to enhance the theme do reflect a professional dramatist catering to topical concerns when those concerns coincide with his own artistic purposes. (11)

8 Cerasano, S.P., Wynn-Davies, Marion, (1997) Renaissance Drama By Women Texts and Documents pg. 15

9 Ibid. pgs. 46-47

10 Shoenbaum, Sam (1990) Shakespeare: His Life, His Language, His Theater pg. 177

11 Ibid. pg. 180

THE SCENE

The scene we are performing is a combination of Act 1 scene 7 and Act 2 scene 2. The language is from the First Folio published in 1623. The First Folio is a collection of thirty six of Shakespeare’s play editied by his fellow actors Henry Coddell and John Hemiges, (12) members of the Kings Men as a tribute to Shakespeare. The actors dictated many of the plays, since the player’s “parts” had long since disappeared.

There is period reference to performing scenes for fragments of plays. An item is noted in the Calendar of the Master of the Revels in 1550, “Parte of a play” written by Sir Thomas Cawarden. (13)

This scene is between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and occurs just prior to and just after the murder of Duncan.

We will be performing this piece with parts (also called sides or cue scripts). Martin White in “ Renaissance Dram In Action describes the actors sides:

“Actors did not receive a copy of the whole play as the do today, but only their own ‘parts’, a practice that originated in the medieval theatre and survived into the early years of the twentieth century. Written out by a scribe (possibly before the play as a whole had been completed and before the prompt copy had been copied out) the parts gave only the character’s own lines and his cues – though no more than the two or three final words of the preceding speech – with no indication of exactly where in the play the lines were located. Although a few medieval examples have survived, there is only one extant part for an Elizabethan or Jacobean professional actor. The part (which differs in a number of respects from the printer Quarto text) is made up of pieces of paper between 10-16 in. in length pasted together to make a long roll about 17ft long and 6 in. wide, and comprises about two thirds of the leading roll.” (14)

12 Brockett, Oscar G, and Franklin Hildy. History Of The Theatre. pg. 111

13 Streitberger, W.R. (1994) Court Revels, 1485-1559 pg. 287

14 White, Martin, Renaissance Dram in Action; An Introduction to Aspects of Theatre Practice and Performance 1988, pg. 39-40

PERFORMANCE SCENE

FROM THE FIRST FOLIO

ACT I

471: Scena Septima.
472: [ Ho-boyes. Torches.
Enter a Sewer, and diuers Seruants with Dishes and Seruice
ouer the Stage. Then enter Macbeth]
475:
Macb.
If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twer well,
476: It were done quickly: If th' Assassination
477: Could trammell vp the Consequence, and catch
478: With his surcease, Successe: that but this blow
479: Might be the be all, and the end all. Heere,
480: But heere, vpon this Banke and Schoole of time,
481: Wee'ld iumpe the life to come. But in these Cases,
482: We still haue iudgement heere, that we but teach
483: Bloody Instructions, which being taught, returne
484: To plague th' Inuenter, this euen-handed Iustice
485: Commends th' Ingredience of our poyson'd Challice
486: To our owne lips. Hee's heere in double trust;
487: First, as I am his Kinsman, and his Subiect,
488: Strong both against the Deed: Then, as his Host,
489: Who should against his Murtherer shut the doore,
490: Not beare the knife my selfe. Besides, this Duncane
491: Hath borne his Faculties so meeke; hath bin
492: So cleere in his great Office, that his Vertues
493: Will pleade like Angels, Trumpet-tongu'd against
494: The deepe damnation of his taking off:
495: And Pitty, like a naked New-borne-Babe,
496: Striding the blast, or Heauens Cherubin, hors'd
497: Vpon the sightlesse Curriors of the Ayre,
498: Shall blow the horrid deed in euery eye,
499: That teares shall drowne the winde. I haue no Spurre
500: To pricke the sides of my intent, but onely
501: Vaulting Ambition, which ore-leapes it selfe,
502: And falles on th' other. [ Enter Lady.]
503: How now? What Newes?
504:
La.
He has almost supt: why haue you left the chamber?
505:
Mac.
Hath he ask'd for me?
506:
La.
Know you not, he ha's?
507:
Mac.
We will proceed no further in this Businesse:
508: He hath Honour'd me of late, and I haue bought
509: Golden Opinions from all sorts of people,
510: Which would be worne now in their newest glosse,
511: Not cast aside so soone.
512:
La.
Was the hope drunke,
513: Wherein you drest your selfe? Hath it slept since?
514: And wakes it now to looke so greene, and pale,
515: At what it did so freely? From this time,
516: Such I account thy loue. Art thou affear'd
517: To be the same in thine owne Act, and Valour,
518: As thou art in desire? Would'st thou haue that
519: Which thou esteem'st the Ornament of Life,
520: And liue a Coward in thine owne Esteeme?
521: Letting I dare not, wait vpon I would,
522: Like the poore Cat i'th' Addage.
523:
Macb.
Prythee peace:
524: I dare do all that may become a man,
525: Who dares do more, is none.
526:
La.
What Beast was't then
527: That made you breake this enterprize to me?
528: When you durst do it, then you were a man:
529: And to be more then what you were, you would
530: Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place
531: Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
532: They haue made themselues, and that their fitnesse now
533: Do's vnmake you. I haue giuen Sucke, and know
534: How tender 'tis to loue the Babe that milkes me,
535: I would, while it was smyling in my Face,
536: Haue pluckt my Nipple from his Bonelesse Gummes,
537: And dasht the Braines out, had I so sworne
538: As you haue done to this.
539:
Macb.
If we should faile?
540:
Lady.
We faile?
541: But screw your courage to the sticking place,
542: And wee'le not fayle: when Duncan is asleepe,
543: (Whereto the rather shall his dayes hard Iourney
544: Soundly inuite him) his two Chamberlaines
545: Will I with Wine, and Wassell, so conuince,
546: That Memorie, the Warder of the Braine,
547: Shall be a Fume, and the Receit of Reason
548: A Lymbeck onely: when in Swinish sleepe,
549: Their drenched Natures lyes as in a Death,
550: What cannot you and I performe vpon
551: Th' vnguarded Duncan? What not put vpon
552: His spungie Officers? who shall beare the guilt
553: Of our great quell.
554:
Macb.
Bring forth Men-Children onely:
555: For thy vndaunted Mettle should compose
556: Nothing but Males. Will it not be receiu'd,
557: When we haue mark'd with blood those sleepie two
558: Of his owne Chamber, and vs'd their very Daggers,
559: That they haue don't?
560:
Lady.
Who dares receiue it other,
561: As we shall make our Griefes and Clamor rore,
562: Vpon his Death?
563:
Macb.
I am settled, and bend vp
564: Each corporall Agent to this terrible Feat.
565: Away, and mock the time with fairest show,
566: False Face must hide what the false Heart doth know.
567: [ Exeunt.]

Act II

646: Scena Secunda.
647: [ Enter Lady.]
648:
La.
That which hath made the[m] drunk, hath made me bold:
649: What hath quench'd them, hath giuen me fire.
650: Hearke, peace: it was the Owle that shriek'd,
651: The fatall Bell-man, which giues the stern'st good-night.
652: He is about it, the Doores are open:
653: And the surfeted Groomes doe mock their charge
654: With Snores. I haue drugg'd their Possets,
655: That Death and Nature doe contend about them,
656: Whether they liue, or dye.
657: [ Enter Macbeth.]
658:
Macb.
Who's there? what hoa?
659:
Lady.
Alack, I am afraid they haue awak'd,
660: And 'tis not done: th' attempt, and not the deed,
661: Confounds vs: hearke: I lay'd their Daggers ready,
662: He could not misse 'em. Had he not resembled
663: My Father as he slept, I had don't.
664: My Husband?
665:
Macb.
I haue done the deed:
666: Didst thou not heare a noyse?
667:
Lady.
I heard the Owle schreame, and the Crickets cry.
668: Did not you speake?
669:
Macb.
When?
670:
Lady.
Now.
671:
Macb.
As I descended?
672:
Lady.
I.
673:
Macb.
Hearke, who lyes i'th' second Chamber?
674:
Lady.
Donalbaine.
675:
Mac.
This is a sorry sight.
676:
Lady.
A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
677:
Macb.
There's one did laugh in's sleepe,
678: And one cry'd Murther, that they did wake each other:
679: I stood, and heard them: But they did say their Prayers,
680: And addrest them againe to sleepe.
681:
Lady.
There are two lodg'd together.
682:
Macb.
One cry'd God blesse vs, and Amen the other,
683: As they had seene me with these Hangmans hands:
684: Listning their feare, I could not say Amen,
685: When they did say God blesse vs.
686:
Lady.
Consider it not so deepely.
687:
Mac.
But wherefore could not I pronounce Amen?
688: I had most need of Blessing, and Amen stuck in my throat.
689:
Lady.
These deeds must not be thought
690: After these wayes: so, it will make vs mad.
691:
Macb.
Me thought I heard a voyce cry, Sleep no more:
692: Macbeth does murther Sleepe, the innocent Sleepe,
693: Sleepe that knits vp the rauel'd Sleeue of Care,
694: The death of each dayes Life, sore Labors Bath,
695: Balme of hurt Mindes, great Natures second Course,
696: Chiefe nourisher in Life's Feast.
697:
Lady.
What doe you meane?
698:
Macb.
Still it cry'd, Sleepe no more to all the House:
699: Glamis hath murther'd Sleepe, and therefore Cawdor
700: Shall sleepe no more: Macbeth shall sleepe no more.
701:
Lady.
Who was it, that thus cry'd? why worthy Thane,
702: You doe vnbend your Noble strength, to thinke
703: So braine-sickly of things: Goe get some Water,
704: And wash this filthie Witnesse from your Hand.
705: Why did you bring these Daggers from the place?
706: They must lye there: goe carry them, and smeare
707: The sleepie Groomes with blood.
708:
Macb.
Ile goe no more:
709: I am afraid, to thinke what I haue done:
710: Looke on't againe, I dare not.
711:
Lady.
Infirme of purpose:
712: Giue me the Daggers: the sleeping, and the dead,
713: Are but as Pictures: 'tis the Eye of Child-hood,
714: That feares a painted Deuill. If he doe bleed,
715: Ile guild the Faces of the Groomes withall,
716: For it must seeme their Guilt. [ Exit.]
717: [ Knocke within.]
718:
Macb.
Whence is that knocking?
719: How is't with me, when euery noyse appalls me?
720: What Hands are here? hah: they pluck out mine Eyes.
721: Will all great Neptunes Ocean wash this blood
722: Cleane from my Hand? no: this my Hand will rather
723: The multitudinous Seas incarnardine,
724: Making the Greene one, Red.
725: [ Enter Lady.]
726:
Lady.
My Hands are of your colour: but I shame
727: To weare a Heart so white. [ Knocke.]
728: I heare a knocking at the South entry:
729: Retyre we to our Chamber:
730: A little Water cleares vs of this deed.
731: How easie is it then? your Constancie
732: Hath left you vnattended. [ Knocke.]
733: Hearke, more knocking.
734: Get on your Night-Gowne, least occasion call vs,
735: And shew vs to be Watchers: be not lost
736: So poorely in your thoughts.

737:
Macb
To know my deed, [ Knocke.]
738: 'Twere best not know my selfe.
739: Wake Duncan with thy knocking:
740: I would thou could'st. [ Exeunt.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bentley, Gerald Eades. The Jacobian and Caroline Stage Vol 1. Oxford: Clarenden Press, 1941.

Bentley, Gerald Eades. The Jacobian and Caroline Stage Vol 2. Oxford: Clarenden Press, 1941

Bentley, Gerald Eades. The Proffessions of Dramatist and Playin in Shakespeare's Time, 11590-1642. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Brockett, Oscar G, and Franklin Hildy. History Of The Theatre. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003.

Cerasano, S.P.and Wynne-Davies, Marion, ed. Renaissance Drama by Women: Texts and Documents. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Foakes, R.A., ed. Henslowe's Diary 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Thompson, Peter. Shakespeare's Theatre. London: Routledge, 1983.

White, Martin. Renaissance Drama in Action. London: Routledge, 1998.

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