Brette Burkett

from "Most Wonderful"

Even though the last third of the quarter is alotted for the production, we begin preliminary work on it at the onset of the quarter. Dr. Marx assigns everyone in the class a role. It still amazes me how perfectly most of the members of the class fit their roles.... The production does not suffer because of the casting. It inserts a certain element of funny strangeness and inadvertently reverses the reality of the original Shakespearean theater when all roles, female and male, were portrayed by males. Shakespeare wrote the character of the Duke Orsino to be a bit flowery. The Duke in this production is portrayed by a woman. Though very feminine, her athletic training, her stature, her haircut, her costume and her fine tuned acting make the Duke extremely credible.

The next fortuitous adventure for the class is to take a day trip to San Francisco to see the A.C.T. production of TWELFTH NIGHT. Especially for untrained actors, it is a great insight to see another actor's portrayal of the character one is to portray.... It is always helpful to attend a discussion with a director that knows Shakespeare. A chinese restaurant on Clement Street in San Francisco is a great place for students and professor to gather in a social setting, to become better acquainted, before the onset of intense rehearsals.

After everyone in the class presents their archive for the research papers they choose to write and while papers are being written, or at least thought about, rehearsals begin in earnest. The Agriculture Department at Cal Poly has new meaning for me now that we use one of their spaces for rehearsal. A John Deere tractor now fits nicely in my image of a countess's palace. Schedules are carefully made to fit everyone's needs, not an easy task. In my experience, at least four but usually six weeks are designated for rehearsal. Rehearsals take place at least four nights a week. The first third for blocking, the second third to learn lines while instilling blocking and the last third for fine tuning and last minute changes. Because of time restraints and schedule conflicts, our process is condensed and altered. Try to learn lines before blocking, block scenes without all the necessay actors present, attempt to develop character without being off book. The students come through amazingly well.

A location for the production is picked. The choice of the Madonna Inn Winecellar fits perfectly as the set for Illyria. A true exercise in concentration is exhibited by the actors as they recite iambic pentameter to oldies but goodies rock and roll sounds blaring from the juke-box of the adjoining gift shop. Warm-ups are learned and practised. By March 13^th the entire cast is ready to attempt their dress rehearsal in front of an audience. Opening night is filled with excitement and the 510 players are a smash hit.

We evidently cause quite a stir in the English department at Cal Poly. Other students are waiting anxiously for the class to be offered again so that they can participate in a full production of a Shakespeare play. There is no doubt that Shakespeare's plays are meant to be performed. Performance adds dimension to the reading and analyzing of the text; it proves to be an invaluable learning tool. Students in English 510 become more in tune with the text when they are intimately involved with producing the play. One change I would propose for the content of English 510, doing so without any knowledge of the necessary requirements for a course to be called a graduate level seminar, would be to choose only one play for the quarter and to study it in depth. The quarter is short and a theater production is a massive undertaking in addition to research and writing. Each student could still write a research paper. But the topics would all stem from the same play. Everyone's understanding of the text would multiply tenfold. Nuances and subtleties would be discovered. Backgrounds, traits and relationships could be researched and developed. My suggestion probably stems from my theater background. But it is not without academic validity. It is better to study one play in depth, especially given the time restraints, than merely touch the surface of three plays.

Archives, discussions, research and papers all are necessary to the studying of Shakespeare's plays. The experience of being a character in the production of a Shakespeare play allows expert understanding of a text written four hundred years ago. TWELFTH NIGHT is now permanently lodged with other treasures in both my brain and heart. I'll always smile a little smile whenever I see or hear the words "Here comes the Countess: now heaven walks on earth."