A Shakespeare Performance Resource with Audio
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
FAQs
TOPIC
Membership
- I'm going away. May I suspend my subscription until I get back?
- May I share my subscription?
Acting Shakespeare
- Don't you need a posh accent for Shakespeare?
- What skillset do I need?
Editorial Aim & Policy
- What's your basic aim?
- What's your basic editorial policy?
Our basic aim is improve the general standard of Shakespeare performance by empowering students and actors. We harness the digital age to aggregate all the best advice on how to perform Shakespeare and distil it via a pleasing and intuitive graphical representation that is quick and easy to grasp. To this we add audio. We hope a curious teenager will find Versebuster as rewarding as a seasoned Shakespearean.
Our basic editorial policy is to present the evidence and let people decide for themselves. Our product range invites easy comparison between original text and a modern one. Tampering with original texts is kept to a minimum and any changes are invariably because something is unactable in its original state, 'which' for 'wh?ch' being a famous First Folio example. Such changes are well-signposted and, in any case, reversible in our downoadable Word doc. scripts.
Versebuster has opinions itself and, for better or worse, we share these with the Shakespeare community. We recognise a certain humility is always in order because nobody have a monoploy on Shakespeare perception and wisdom. We ourselves learn new things every day and keep an open mind where this is no obvious right and wrong. Constructive feedback and hearty debate is strongly encouraged.
Presentation - ePlays
- Can ePlay layout be smaller?
Presentation - audio
- Why don't you use video for your audio speeches?
Technical
- Cras dictum. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Aenean lacinia mauris vel est. Suspendisse eu nisl. Nullam ut libero. Integer dignissim consequat lectus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos.
Why don't you use video for your audio speeches?
EXPENSE
Expense is one issue. A video needs much more production-time and manpower - lighting, wardrobe, make-up, props, etc. We operate on a tiny budget. On the other hand, even if we had the money, when it comes to an oral tradition audio serves the purpose better than video. Or perhaps we should say an aural tradition, as Elizabethans went to 'hear a play' not see one.
PREJUDICE & PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS
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In addition, seeing faces is a distraction. It's bad enough we have prejudices about voices, let alone our prejudices about how people look. This natural bias that we all have against or in favour of a face is a distraction. Worse, inexperienced actors may feel they have to ape the look, expressions and gestures. It also puts a preconceived notion into the head about how a character should look. This can cause creative blocks since obviously we could only produce one look per speech.
THE ISSUE OF SCALE
The issue of scale also weighs. As every professional knows, performances have to be scaled to fit the medium and space. Expansive gestures, bold facial expressions and big vocal projection that might be desirable, even necessary, for cavernous theatres and open-air theatre might look or sound ridiculous in intimate spaces. Again this would present a production headache in video that is easier to resolve in audio.
BLOCKING
The one obvious disadvantage of audio is, of course, one cannot illustrate blocking. 'Blocking' is a theatre term for an actor's moves and stage business. Shakespeare does indeed choreograph and this is discussed in ourBlog)
THE FUTURE
In future we may look at animation to illustrate certain visual points.
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