Master of Letters/Master of Fine Arts in Shakespeare and Performancei n p a r t n e r s h i p w i t h a m e r i c a n s h a k e s p e a r e c e n t e r

WINTER 2012MLitt /MFA

A BI-ANNUAL PUBLICATION OF MARY BALDWIN COLLEGE’S

I was recently at work on an annual report,one necessary to the ongoing accreditation ofMBC’s Shakespeare and Performance pro-gram. Measureables. Metrics. Outcomes.Outputs. How many credits did we generate,how many diplomas issued? That sort ofthing. While the accreditation process is ofvital import to the maintenance of academicintegrity, it is nevertheless difficult to account— in the strictly mathematical sense of“account” — for our impact; how we, inlayman’s terms, would measure success. I doit like this:

• Dawn Tucker ’09: director of education andan actor at Southwest ShakespeareCompany in Mesa, AZ

• Brett Sullivan Santry ’11: head of fine artsat Stuart Hall School in Staunton, VA

• Cassie Ash ’08: pursuing her PhD in Englishat the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, England

• Jason Narvy ’05: assistant professor of theatre at Concordia University in Chicago

• Rick Blunt ’06: professional actor per-forming on stages throughout the UnitedStates as a member of AmericanShakespeare Center’s touring company

• Andrew Blasenak ’08 and Chelsea Phillips’09: pursuing PhDs at Ohio State University

• Justin Schneider ’10: pursuing his PhD atAmerican University after serving as artisticfellow at Shakespeare Theatre Company inWashington, DC

• Casey Caldwell ’11 and Christine Schmidle’10: served as interns during the past year atShakespeare’s Globe in London

• Katherine Mayberry ’07: executive directorfor Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company

The only thing wrong with this list is itsbrevity, since I could fill this entire issue ofFolio with a list of accomplished graduates

who have come through this program duringits 10 years. Our programmatic vision is notmerely to enfranchise each student’scuriosity, but also to prepare them as theymove on either into the workforce ortoward further study.

With a decade behind us, graduates ofour program now dot the globe — acting,educating, and enhancing the world ofShakespeare and Performance. That’s thebest validation of this program; the immeas-urable “measurable” that I would like toreport to the accreditation board. In fact,one of the great pleasures of the recentmonths was fielding a phone call from onealumna asking my opinion of a more recentgraduate she was thinking of hiring. As ournumbers grow, I have no doubt that thosephone calls will become a regular, pleasur-able feature of my job. Make my phone ring.

Shakespeare and Performance programdirector and professor Paul Menzer reflects ongraduates’ accomplishments.

FROM THE DIRECTOR

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Measuring the Immeasurable: A Decade of Shakespeare and Performance

Alumnae Offer Glimpse of Post-Grad Life

(continued on p 8)

Like us!We recently created a Shakespeare and Performance Facebook page to keep past, present, andprospective students connected to our program’s many activities. Visit the site today to networkand share opportunities and accomplishments.

www.facebook.com/mbcsap

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clockwise from top left: SAP alums Donnelson,Grumelot, Ayers, and Riffe.

By Linden Kueck

What alumnae like Carie Donnelsonappreciate about the Shakespeare andPerformance (SAP) program at MaryBaldwin College is the rich foundation itprovides for building a life in the theatreand beyond.

“Much of what I’ve been able to do in my life is a result of my broad knowl-edge of Shakespeare,” reflected Donnelson, associate education director at Theatre

1 0 t h A n n i v e r s a r y I s s u e

By Katy Mulvaney

During the opening keynote speech of the 2011Blackfriars Conference, Stephen Booth chal-lenged his audience to imagine Shakespeare asRichard III addressing his audiences as LadyAnne. Booth, professor emeritus of English liter-ature at University of California at Berkeley, pre-sented numerous examples in whichShakespeare seems to be crowing, “Was everaudience in this humor wooed? Was ever audi-ence in this humor won?”

As a specialist in Renaissance and earlymodern English literature, Booth relentlesslypointed out instances in which audiencesaccept a series of plots and characterizationsthat fly in the face of logic. Prospero is viewedas a kindly and generous man, despite his con-sistently cruel and frustrating behaviorthroughout the play. We do not feel cheatedthat Romeo and Juliet is not at all the play

promised by the Prologue. No one is expectedto question Hermione’s chastity when her preg-nancy dates almost precisely to Polixenes’arrival in Sicilia. And — in a speech Boothdescribed as one that “seems to be there justto see if the play can get away with it” — TheWinter’s Tale character Autolycus explains thatnothing was discovered on the ship becauseeverybody was seasick the entire time.

Booth also noted that many ofShakespeare’s plays do not succeed in this vein,such as Richard III’s attempt to pull off a feat ofpersuasion with Queen Elizabeth.

My own reaction to Booth’s examples wasa sheepishness that I had been manipulatedskillfully by a master who seems to beseducing my senses just to see if he can winme over. I was left with this burning question:What is it that makes me willingly set aside the nagging little details to let Shakespeare“mess” with me?

CONFERENCE KEYNOTE: ‘The Audience as Lady Anne’

Keynote speaker Dr. Stephen Booth talks withstudents during the Blackfriars Conference.

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By Jonathon Haas

Current students and more than a dozenalumni from Mary Baldwin College’sShakespeare and Performance (SAP) pro-gram contributed invaluably to the sixthbiennial Blackfriars Conference in October.In addition to serving in crucial volunteercapacities such as drivers, ushers, actors,hospitality assistants, and ursine enforcers,MLitt/MFA students and graduates alsoenhanced the conference’s scholarly discus-sion as presenters.

The main stage paper sessions featuredMary Baldwin alumni and an MFA candi-date alongside visiting scholars. In his paper,“Laughter in Space and Time,” CaseyCaldwell ’11 delivered a theoretical analysisof laughter in reconstructed early modernplayhouses. Jemma Alix Levy ’11 exploredthe performative possibilities of castingRosalind and Celia of As You Like It to beof approximately equal height — despite atradition that Rosalind must be taller — inher paper, “Competing Heights.” In“Exeunt in Place of Blackouts,” MFA candidate Katy Mulvaney shared some ofthe unique challenges in staging 21st-cen-tury plays in playhouses that are constructedto reflect the 16th century, such as London’sGlobe Theatre. Lauren Shell ’09 describedand demonstrated little-known earlymodern lighting effects in in “LightingEffects in the Early Modern PrivatePlayhouses.” The final session closed with a paper by Cass Morris ’10, “’Dearer than

a friend’: The Satire of RelationshipDynamics in The Two Gentlemen ofVerona,” in which she shared her analysis of the play’s controversial ending and itsrelationship to early modern rhetoric onmale friendship.

The MBC SAP program was also well-represented in this year’s expanded colloquysessions. The academic contributions of cur-rent students and alumni served as aresounding reminder of the program’s com-mitment to scholarship in early modernEnglish drama. Drawing on research and

theatrical experiences, alumni and studentspresented on a range of topics:

• Matthew Carter ’11, language and rhetoric• Linden Kueck ’12, performance choices

concerning women• Jeffrey Chips ’12 and Clara Giebel ’12,

audience studies• Johnny Adkins ’11, Katherine Crandol ’11,

Michael Hollinger ’11, and ShannonSchultz ’11, performance choices

• Sarah Keyes Chang ’11, Bonnie Morrison’11, David Ashton ’12, and Amy Bolis ’12,early modern history

MBC’s Shakespeare Scholars Shine at Blackfriars Conference

SAP students at the sixth biennial Blackfriars Conference watch a paper session from the balcony of theplayhouse. l to r: A.J. Sclafani, Rebecca Hodder, Julia Nelson, Jonathan Haas, and Brian Falbo.

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By Katy Mulvaney

The Blackfriars Conference delights infocusing on the intersection of scholarshipand theatrical performance, but rarely does anacademic keynote presentation bring actors tothe front lines. Scott Kaiser, OregonShakespeare Festival’s director of verse andtext, put actors Doreen Bechtol and DanKennedy through their paces, to show how hehelps actors demonstrate the rhetorical fig-ures in a text.

The first rhetorical strategy explored wasthat of a “speech measure” or “a unit ofsense that contains one inhalation, one opera-tive word, one focal point, one image, oneaction, and one moment of human behavior.”Kaiser suggested breaking speech measuresin a manner that illuminates the way charac-ters structure their arguments. These exam-ples worked particularly well with lists. Kaiseralso demonstrated the power of focusing onimages, operative words, focal point shifts,and subtext.

As Kaiser worked through his examples,Bechtol and Kennedy found a number of sur-prising readings of familiar lines, revealing thepower of rhetorical figures to awaken anactor’s imagination and the ability of actors toturn scholarly observations into powerful performative tools.

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By Casey Caldwell

George T. Wright is one of the scholars I have tothank for one of my “game-changing” experi-ences in working with verse. His Shakespeare’sMetrical Art, a finely balanced work of enrap-tured and challenging prose on the develop-ment of Shakespeare’s verse, opens with thisquote from William Carlos Williams: “WhenShakespeare and Marlowe and Ben Jonson sataround the Mermaid Tavern and talked like weare doing, iambic pentameter was wonderfullynew and timely.” That brief line condenses thekernel of passionate insight that drives Wright’sentire book, and I have repeated it often when

working with students and actors. During his conference address, Wright

focused on discussing — then performing — hisconcept of the ladder in Shakespeare’s play texts.To Wright, the ladder refers to rising and loweringone’s voice pitch as an actor moves through aShakespearean speech. Wright suggested actorstoday may have moved away from this techniquedue to its associations with an outdated actingstyle. Wright graced the audience by performing,from memory, several speeches where this kindof formal attention to pitch can help add a tonalbackbone. He also showed how cues internal tothe text can help indicate where the ladder tech-nique can be employed.

Throughout the keynote, Wright sharedseveral anecdotes from his capacious memoryabout great actors from the past. The keynoteended on a point most apt, when AmericanShakespeare Center actor James Keegan —whom Wright had just seen as Prospero —confessed that he shied away from using theladder for exactly the reasons Wright outlined.Wright demonstrated his preternatural ear bypointing out the exact line in a speech whereKeegan had enacted a shift in pitch during theprevious evening’s performance.

CONFERENCE KEYNOTE: ‘Climbing Shakespeare’sLadder and Other Sound Patterns’

CONFERENCE KEYNOTE:

‘Acting Shakespeare’sWordcraft’

By Clara Giebel

Speaking with utter authority and winsomedelight, Tiffany Stern presented the historicalcontext of London fairs and applied that knowl-edge to her audience’s understanding ofShakespeare’s plays. Stern demonstrated that,contrary to common belief, the fairs were nei-ther politically subversive nor challenging to thesocial hierarchy, but, rather, highly sanctioned —opened by the city of London and sponsored bythe nobility. Unlike the theatre, the fairs had theirown legal structure, and when crimes werecommitted at the fair, offenders were tried andpunished within the confines of the fair.

Theaters were like fairs in many respects.For example, in both locations one could pur-chase refreshment and printed texts, and aperson could make any number of financialtransactions alongside the entertainment.

Stern also focused on the various types ofentertainment common to fairs, such as well-educated monkeys, puppet shows, dancinghorses, and a vanishing banquet, all of whichShakespeare mentions in his plays. Puppets,for instance, performed with an “interpreter”who pointed to each of the puppets in turn andspoke for them. Knowing this gives a reader or

viewer context forHamlet’s lines, “Icould interpretbetween you andyour love, if I couldsee the puppetsdallying.”

The final pieceof Stern’s lecturefocused on puppettheatre and theways in which pup-pets adapted theatrical plots, jokes and charac-ters. Because the Master of the Revels licensednot puppet plays but puppeteers, plays that hadbeen banned from theaters could still be per-formed by puppets, and many plays performedin the theaters were also performed in puppetbooths. Printed advertisements boasted ofpuppet Tamburlaine or puppet Caesar. Otheradvertisements mention characters living a richafterlife in other puppet story lines, such asAndrew Aguecheek fighting in the Persian Wars.

Stern’s expert introduction to the intriguingsubject of mutual influence betweenShakespearean drama and London fairs openedthe way for other scholars to further explore the field.

CONFERENCE KEYNOTE: ‘Such Place, Such Men, Such Language and Such Ware’

Tiffany Stern

Scott Kaiser

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George T. Wright

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By Stephan Pietrowski

In his November 7 & 8 MFA directing produc-tion of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Dan Stottpresented a production in the style of a youngtouring company of early modern England. Thecompany of ten actors, through extensive dou-bling, performed over 40 characters’ roles; andusing quite an abbreviated script, the play tran-sitioned smoothly from scene to scene. Thedirector employed appropriate pop music selec-tions to echo elements of the play. The actors,instead of wearing ancient Roman garb, woremodern business clothing which worked wellwithin the context of the play. Audience mem-bers could appreciate the distinct difference

between the attire of Brutus and Portia in con-trast to the finer appearances of the clothingthat Caesar and Calpurnia wore in their respec-tive domestic scenes.

The company’s staging choices also ampli-fied the intensity of the plot to kill Caesar andthe tension in the aftermath of the murder.During the first few scenes, the doors to thebackstage area were open which added dimen-sion to Caesar’s parade. Opening up that areaalso encouraged viewers to make a connectionbetween the conversation of Brutus andCassius and the events that were occurring off-stage. The open doors and discovery spacealso contributed to an inventive choice formoving the accumulating dead bodies off of

the stage. Instead of having to drag the bodiesoff stage, each actor would mime the action ofhefting a dead body over his shoulder, toremove it, while each actor playing a dead bodywould stand and follow the exit of his mimedform, as if he were a ghost. This method gavethe deaths an eerie, haunting effect.

The actors fully embodied their charactersand kept the play’s intensity fueled throughoutthe production. The director’s notes in the program stated that the actors had little to no collaborative experience before the production began, and that they had been able to come together to make the play work.I think the cast’s work resulted in quite athrilling performance.

Julius Caesar Makes for a Simple, Haunting Performance

By Brian Falbo

Katy Mulvaney’s MFA production ofShakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I (nicknamed“Henry IV with Four”) provided a strong startfor the fall semester’s directing-focused MFAprojects. Undertaking a significant challenge,Mulvaney not only chose a well-known andbeloved play but also chose to reduce the 34-odd characters in its cast list down to justfour actors.

What resulted was a style of theatrereferred to by MFA student Jeff Chips as “x-treme casting,” in which the number of actorsrequired for scenes purposefully exceeds thenumber of cast actors. From the ashes of moretraditional casting, Mulvaney pulled off an ener-getic, creative, funny, and often surprising pro-duction that drew heavily on its actors’ abilitiesto completely change characters on a dime, onstage, while making the audience not onlybelieve them, but relish the transitions.

Clara Giebel’s violin playing provided awarm, welcoming accompaniment to the play,helping the four actors begin this experimentalshow on a friendly, familiar note. After a shortintroduction to the radical casting and stagingconventions, with costume-demonstrationsnarrated by stage manager Ana Feliciano Chico,actors Rin Barton, Bobby Byers, Maria Hart,and Amanda Noel Allen came out, gunsblazing. Mulvaney put all actors in black, withadded accents to distinguish characters. Forexample, Byers moved between a stuffed dou-blet and a cape to signify his presence aseither Falstaff or King Henry IV, while Allen uti-lized a blue vest, glasses, and a red cummer-bund to transition between Hal, Worcester, andLady Percy, respectively.

Of course, the character transitionsentailed more than costume changes: Allen’sbold physical, vocal, and psychological choicesmade the transition between Hal andWorcester immediately apparent. Barton’sHotspur was light on his feet, enthusiastic, andself-blindingly full of charismatic honor, whileher Poins exuded an accustomed malevolenceand relaxed but defensive posture. Byers’Falstaff sported a rotund personality to matchhis doublet, but when he entered as a carrier inthe stable scene, he was transformed to awiry, wry, and easily amused commoner. Theheaviest doubling fell on Hart’s slate of 11 char-

acters ranging from Mistress Quickly toGlendower, but her variety and energy as anactor easily differentiated her work.

Mulvaney’s doubling scheme wentbeyond mere functionality. Using a gender-blindness that only helped the production, herstrategic doubling revealed many poignant par-allels. For example, when Allen, playing LadyPercy, pleaded with Barton’s Hotspur to openhis mind to her, the contrast in the relationshipbetween Hal and Poins was palpable.

Mulvaney, her cast, and her crew deliv-ered to their audiences an engaging, daring,and entertaining performance.

R E V I E W S

Bobby Byers as Falstaff, foreground, is supported by cast members (l-r) Amanda Noel Allen, Rin Barton,and Maria Hart in Act Two, Scene Four of Henry IV, Part I.

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Henry IV, Part I: A Fun Night with a Fat Man and Friends

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By Katy Mulvaney

Last year, Jeff Chips presented several scenesat the Thesis Festival and a four-person readingof Lewis Theobald’s Double Falsehood as partof the research for his MLitt thesis on what hedubs “x-treme casting.” This year, he demon-strated his premise with a full production ofthe play. Joined by Liz Lodato, RachelRatkowski, and Ben Ratkowski, Chips set outto prove that one does not need props, cos-tumes, elaborate sets, or even enough actorsto fill each scene to create good theatre.

Playwright Theobald claimed that hebased his play on Shakespeare’s lost playCardenio; and while the play is written for atotal of 19 characters, Chips’ four actors han-dled all the roles. Dressed in jeans and plainwhite T-shirts, actors mimed most of their

props and used vocal variation and changes inphysicality to communicate the frequent in-scene transformations from one character toanother — often adding considerably to thecomedy quotient within the scenes.

As Chips said, the production was puttogether in four weeks with “a shoestringbudget and duct tape.” However, the “x-treme” cast format invited the audience’splayful participation in each actor’s clearlyactive imagination, resulting in engaged audi-ences during both performances. During thefirst performance, one audience member evenresponded aloud three times duringHenriquez’s soliloquy. (Okay, it was me!)

Perhaps the largest challenge for Chipswas portrayal of the play’s content. UnlikeShakespeare’s plays, the storylines of DoubleFalsehood were unfamiliar to anyone who did

not recall details of last year’s reading. Therape subplot was particularly disturbing as itseemed to pop out of nowhere in the midst ofa romantic comedy. However, this plot, like themore cheerful lovers’ main plot (featuringbetrayal, an extended sequence of insanity,and threats of suicide), was handled withgrace by the talented actors. Even if Violette(Lodato), in the final scene of the play, foundherself married to her rapist to preserve herhonor, the final image of the play was ofViolette holding a love token the man had oncegiven to her as a gentler suitor, then throwingit away from her as she looks at him, fearlessand judgmental.

Chips’ version of Double Falsehoodcharmed its audiences and presented amodern commentary on the moralityespoused by the play.

By Bobby Byers

As Mariah Carey poignantly sang, “to thefloor/everybody to the floor/to the floor/every-body to the floor.” Audience and cast membersalike were “floored” by radical subtractions andadditions to Shakespeare’s Hamlet in MFA can-didate Zach Brown’s directing project at theBlackfriars Playhouse.

Many a whisper escaped from the audi-ence in the closing moments of the perform-ance. Following a choreographed double fall byLaertes and Hamlet, and the normal violentends of the usual suspects, David Ashton’sHoratio — with a surprising flourish — downedthe remnants of Gertrude’s poisoned chalice,

ending the play with a slightly larger bodycount. In Brown’s splendid staging ofShakespeare’s magnum opus, Maxim Overtontook on the titular role, giving relish and humorto the famous madness of the Danish prince.

With the normal gallant stools struck forperformance, the stage took on an added bare-ness, with the odd banana thrown in to lendabsurdity to a few situations. The cast alsoincluded Jonathan Haas, Kim Maurice, ElizabethRentfro, Shannon Schultz, Riley Steiner, MelissaTolner, Michael Wagoner, and Jamie Weaver,with costumes by Monica Cross, music andviolin accompaniment by Clara Giebel, fight cho-reography by Benjamin Curns and the wonderfuldumb show choreographed by Doreen Bechtol.

R E V I E W S

Detail of the promotional poster for MFA candidate Zach Brown’s production of Hamlet

Less Was More in Chips’ Interpretation of Double Falsehood

A ‘Radical’ Adaptation of Hamlet

Alumna TeachesTransformativeVocal TechniqueBy Bobby Byers

After her sensational work directingDesdemona: A Play About a Handkerchiefin fall 2010, Mary Coy ‘06 returned forfour weeks in October2011 to teach an inten-sive course in Linklatervoice techniques.Students learned thebasic Linklater pro-gression — whichleads to “freeing thenatural voice,”according to techniquedeveloper KristinLinklater — and applied it toShakespearean sonnets and monologues.Coy is a designated instructor in this vocal method, which focuses on breathand the connection between the actors’bodies and the words they are saying.After only a month of work, each studentin the class demonstrated improved vocalawareness. Attention paid to lengtheningthe spine and letting go of neck andshoulder tension also led most students toliterally walk out of the class taller thanthey had arrived. The Shakespeare andPerformance program looks forward toworking more with Coy.

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By Julia Nelson

Dr. Ralph Alan Cohen introduced visitingscholar Jim Volz to his Shakespeare andPerformance students by saying that theannual Shakespeare Theatre Associationconference features a session simplycalled “Ask Jim.” Volz is the uber-consultant for theatre professionals, andhe requires little introduction. His exten-sive experience in theatre and educationand his willingness to share that experi-ence make him an invaluable resource.

Volz began with a quote fromGoethe: “He who seizes the rightmoment is the right man.” He said that“now” is our chance to seize themoment, to sort through our prioritiesand find out what really matters to us. He encouraged us to make opportuni-ties for ourselves, to gather as muchinformation as we can, to find people towork with, and to work with honestyand integrity.

Volz then described the componentsof a successful theatre company. First,one needs vision and leadership, whichusually means a board of trustees and aselect group of mentors. Companies alsoneed strong marketing because, in hiswords, “you need butts in seats.” Afundraising and development componentis also critical, for investment in the company and also in the community,and, of course, a person to keep track offinances. Volz recommended starting witha mission statement, and then jottingdown objectives, deadlines, and a basicfinancial plan.

He suggested two of his books asresources. How to Run a Theatre isbased on his experience working withShakespeare festivals, and on askingCEOs in both the corporate world andnot-for-profit theaters, “How do you do this?”

Volz also referenced Working inAmerican Theatre, a resource for makingthe best choices about who to work for to make a living in the theatre. Thebook also contains helpful sample docu-ments such as budget proposals from various companies.

In an unexpected gesture, Volz gifted the MLitt/MFA program withcopies of both books, and he handed hisbusiness card to every student in theaudience, encouraging us to email himwith questions at any time.

Students Get Chance to ‘Ask Jim’

By David Ashton

Dr. Jeremy Lopez, associate professor of Englishat University of Toronto and 2010–11 fellow atFolger Shakespeare Library, brought to MaryBaldwin College its first foray into performancecriticism. Lopez’s special topic colloquium,Performance Criticism: In and Out of Context,surveyed the critical discussions of Shakespeare’splays from the 16th century to the present. Thecourse involved anatomizing and analyzing formand ultimately trying to figure out what writingabout performance tells us about the relation-ship between the theatre and the world. Lopez isan experienced director, editor of theatre reviewsfor Shakespeare Bulletin, and author ofnumerous pieces on Shakespeare and perform-ance, including three books: TheatricalConvention and Audience Response in EarlyModern Drama; Shakespeare Handbooks:Richard II; and his work in non-Shakespeareandrama, Parables of the Canon.

A Scholarly Look into Performance Criticism

By David Ashton

Dr. Amanda French and Dr.Sarah Werner came to MBC infall 2011 to address scholarlypublication in the digital age, inthe aptly-named forum “ThouShouldst Print More.”

French, THATCamp coordi-nator at the Roy RosenzweigCenter for History and NewMedia at George MasonUniversity, opened the discussionwith observations about what she refers to asthe “scholarly communication crisis” — thefallback of a broken system of publicationwherein scholars donate their research tocompanies who then publish it and chargeoften exorbitant fees for access. Frenchemphasized that technology, namely theInternet, might provide the means to resolvingthis problem. For example, enterprises such asthe Open Access Movement or institutionalrepositories have taken to the Internet in anattempt to provide abundant, free, andinstantly available scholarly information.

Werner, undergraduate programdirector at Folger Shakespeare Library andassociate editor of Shakespeare Quarterly,added to the conversation by discussing howthe peer-review model operates online in

theory and in practice. Drawing on her own experience of editing ShakespeareQuarterly’s fall 2011 issue — a process thattook place online and was open to thepublic — Werner emphasized the onlinemethod’s benefits, such as immediate feed-back and the elimination of a hierarchalmethod. Unlike French, Werner questionedthe efficacy of online editing, citing problemsincluding the editor’s increased workloadand an unwillingness of many people tocomment.

The issues raised by French and Wernerpoint to the fact that the ultimate success ofonline or open access publication is as of yetuncertain. Their discussion made one thingclear, however: the world of scholarly publi-cation is on the brink of change.

‘Thou Shouldst Print More’: ScholarlyPublishing in the Digital Age

French Werner

International arts consultant Jim Volz shared hisexperience with SAP students.

6 Folio WINTER 2012

#10 … all your jokes need a footnote.

#9 … you tell everyone you are voting Cade/Dick 2012 and have the bumper sticker to prove it.

#8 … you have discussed the idea that if Ben Jonson is like the early modern Saturday Night Live, then Shakespeare must be the early modern Lost.

#7 … you have had long, intense, emotional arguments using only lines from a sonnet.

#6 … you literally leap out of your chair when Horatio manages to drink the poison.

#5 … the longest running argument between you and your roommate is about whether Caliban or Ariel should be viewed as the true “native” of the island.

#4 … you flummox several academics at the Blackfriars Conference by not only recognizing an obscure early modern play but replying immediately, “Oh yeah, I saw that last year!”

#3 … after hearing Tiffany Stern’s conference keynote, you decide to write a puppet play called “Darius, King of Persia, or The Noble Englishman with the ComicalHumors of Sir Andrew Aguecheek at the Siege of Babylon.”

#2 … your spelling svffers becavse yov reade to manie originale spellingge textes.

#1 … you worked on a YouTube video advertising a production of Henry VI in the style of a pro wrestling match promo (search Shakespeare at Winedale).

You know you're a Shakespeare geek when ... Compiled by Katy Mulvaney, Michael Wagoner, and Amanda Allen

By Charlene Smith

MBC guest professor Roslyn Knutsonspoke to Shakespeare and Performancestudents about her research into

Shakespeare’splayhouse world.According toKnutson, shebecame aShakespeare pro-fessor “acciden-tally,” startingout with minimaltraining in the-atre history.Knutson foundher naïveté on

the subject advantageous because shewasn’t aware that there were questions shewasn’t supposed to ask. She told studentsthat looking into issues everyone elsethinks are settled could “expose a seamthat opens up into a life of scholarship.”

Knutson’s current project is the LostPlays Database (www.lostplays.org), a

wiki-style compilation of informationabout plays “lost” from the early modernperiod. Knutson, with David McInnis,launched the project two years ago. Thepair started with more than 550 titles from Alfred Harbage’s The Annals ofEnglish Drama and they have continued toexpand the database. At this time, morethan 20 scholars have contributed to the site.

In order to compile information abouta missing play, Knutson and the other con-tributors consult Henslowe’s Diary, theStationer’s Register, narrative and dramaticsources, and other documents such as let-ters and court records. The governing prin-ciple of the Lost Plays Database is to givea play an entry until it is proven that theplay has been found.

Knutson offered students advice abouthow to approach a career in Shakespearestudies. One piece of wisdom she foundparticularly useful came from anotherscholar. When she was starting out, BillIngram advised her to, “Write the bookyou wish you could find.”

A Voice of Dissent in ShakespeareanScholarship

Knutson

MLitt graduate Danielle

M. Farrar ’08 is asecond-year graduateassistant working on herMaster of Arts in Englishliterature at University ofSouth Florida (USF) andwill start PhD course-work in fall 2012. Shealso teaches in USF’s

First-Year Composition program and atHillsborough Community College, where sheteaches writing and literature. Danielle is alsopart of a research team working on collabora-tive wiki-mediated, genre-based, pedagogicalpractices for the university.

Anna Northam ’08 isowner/operator ofSpeaking Confidently inDifficult Situations(www.speakingconfi-dentlyindifficultsitua-tions.com), a companybased in NorthwestEngland dedicated tohelping people communi-

cate more effectively and overcome the fear ofpublic speaking. She uses acting techniques tohelp others speak confidently in public situa-tions, from business interviews to weddingtoasts to customer service transactions.

Alum Notes

7FolioWINTER 2012

MARY BALDWIN COLLEGE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE CENTER

Master of Letters/Master of Fine Arts in

Shakespeareand Performance

PO Box 1500Staunton, Virginia 24402MLitt Admissions: 540-887-7019www.mbc.edu/shakespeare

The Byron Project: MFA Acting Production

March 18-20

7:30 p.m.Blackfriars PlayhouseTalented Master of Fine Arts candidatespresent a conflation of two GeorgeChapman plays: The Conspiracy ofCharles, Duke of Byron and The Tragedyof Charles, Duke of Byron

First-Year Performances

April 16 & 17

7:30 p.m.Blackfriars PlayhouseLove’s Labour’s LostFeaturing a different cast for each performance

MFA Directing Projects

April 25 & 26

Location TBATony Tombasco, The Ballad of Dido

May 4 & 5

Fletcher Collins Theatre, Deming Hall Linden Kueck, All’s Well That Ends Well S

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for a New Audience in Brooklyn, six yearsafter earning her Master of Letters degree.

Fellow alumna Heidi Grumelot ’07 isartistic director at Horse Trade TheaterGroup in New York City (NYC), where shehelps artists who are early in their careers(she recommends Clay McCloed Chapmanand Josh Conkel). She touts flexibility andexposure to all aspects of the creative worldas the program’s distinctive elements: “Youcan come in as a teacher, director, or actorand you can completely change careers.”Grumelot launched The Fire She Started, afestival that encourages African-Americanplaywrights to “write outside the boundariesof what’s considered a ‘black play,’” and sheproduces TOLD, a monthly storytellingshow in NYC’s East Village.

Kristine Ayers fell in love with per-forming and behind-the-scenes work while inthe MLitt/MFA program. The Big Applecalled to her as well after graduation in2008. Working in New York City as a stagemanager and occasionally directing for EBEEnsemble — a company that performsShakespeare alongside contemporary works

— Ayers fondly recalls her time as a student.“We would get together in the middle of thenight and just read Shakespeare out loud,”she said. “Those were some crazy nights.”

For Laurie Riffe ‘11, the programoffered a rare luxury: time. “Having thattime to focus on the genuine beauty ofShakespeare was profound,” she said. As

education director and artistic associate forGreenbrier Valley Theatre in Lewisburg,West Virginia, Riffe does it all: grant writing,teaching, directing, acting, coordinatinginterns, casting, and more. A lot happens onany given day, Riffe said, and she is mostproud of creating a teen conservatory thatprovides young students a place to “findtheir own voice.”

Donnelson’s volunteer work with

Rehabilitation through the Arts includesbringing Shakespeare to prison inmates, anoutreach experience that she treasures anddescribes as “great and complicated and fulfilling.” Her MLitt and MFA degrees notonly inform her understanding ofShakespearean language, but also help hercommunicate with the scholars that Theatrefor a New Audience brings in to trainteaching artists. “I was able to talk aboutthe text with [renowned Shakespeare specialist] James Shapiro in a way that Idon’t think I would have if it were not formy experience at MBC.”

Ultimately, all appreciated the workthey accomplished at MBC. As Donnelsonadvises, “Enjoy your time in Staunton. Itwas a perfect place to focus on somethingfor two and a half years. So enjoy that.”

What connects these women is theirappreciation for the experiences they hadduring their time in Staunton and theirexcitement about the work going on in theirrespective theatre communities. As Ayersputs it, the Shakespeare and Performanceprogram offered her a place where she wasaccepted “as a scholar and a student and atheatre person.”

Post-Grad Life, continued from p 1

“Shakespeare is a greatbackground for anyonedoing theatre.”

— Heidi Grumelot ‘07, artistic director at Horse Trade Theater Group

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