I saw that in the Kazoo program, but I wouldn't get my hopes up about cancellation, which seems very likely to me. I wish I could be there if it does go on, but I can't. I'd like to hear her talk and share my own experience of the play with her. Meanwhile, if any of you haven't seen Yiimimangaliso (two <i's> after the Y if you're googling), you can get the DVD here: https://www.dvdempire.com/700039/mysteries-the-movie.html. Didn't know about that novel. Thanks. Alan B. On Sat, Mar 14, 2020 at 6:29 PM Michael Winkelman <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > My tuppence worth (2 footnotes really): > > 1) At the upcoming International Congress of Medieval Studies, hosted by > Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, > panel 315 includes a talk on Yimmimangaliso: the Chester Mystery Cycle in > Post-Apartheid South Africa by Carla Neuss. > (Here's hoping the conference isn't cancelled due to covid-19.) > > 2) The novel *To Calais, in Ordinary Time*, by James Meeks (2019) is set > in southwest England in 1348, when the plague (and rumours of plague) are > beginning to spread. There is an episode involving a performance of > dramatized scenes from *The Romance of the Rose*. It's an interesting > book, in my opinion: something of an alternative to the Canterbury Tales, > and there is a profusion of Middle English throughout. > > ~Michael Winkelman > > ------------------------------ > *From:* REED-L: Records of Early English Drama Discussion < > [log in to unmask]> on behalf of Alan Baragona < > [log in to unmask]> > *Sent:* Friday, March 13, 2020 7:20 PM > *To:* [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> > *Subject:* Re: [External] Modern play about medieval troupe performing > Noah > > Thanks, Michelle. This is very helpful. Of course, a play like this can > still be useful in teaching medieval drama by way of contrast--what's wrong > with it, what's modern in it, etc. Is it ever clear whether the Noah play > the medieval characters are performing is the Wakefield version, or is it > just a generic version of the Uxor? Contrasting the Wakefield Uxor as a > type of Eve who wants sit on the hill and spin to this modern > interpretation of her as a self-asserting individual would make for some > good discussion. > > Your insights about the problems with the flat staging of the medieval > scenes in contrast with the more dynamic modern ones reminds me of when > years ago Rick McDonald and a Theater Department colleague presented a > paper about team teaching Medieval Drama with an emphasis on performance, > then taking the class to London and seeing a production of* Everyman* > that was so flat, so staid, so academic, that it threatened to undo > everything they had taught in the semester. Luckily, Rick noticed an ad for > a production of the Chester mysteries in a warehouse turned theater, so > they took a chance and got tickets for their kids. It turned out to be > Yiimangaliso, and it saved the course. The following Spring, I was lucky > enough to be in London with cadets, and I saw that the production had moved > to the West End, so I got to see it for myself. First time I ever saw a > unanimous standing ovation in a London theater. When it came out on video, > I snapped it up and show it every time I teach the course. The students' > eyes get wide, and they see the potential for their own productions. > > Thank you again for all your good thoughts on this. > > Alan B. > > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 2:38 PM Michelle Markey Butler < > [log in to unmask]> wrote: > > My two cents on *The Amateurs: * > > > One-sentence Assessment > > Medieval drama experts are more likely to be disappointed than excited by > this production. > > > > Synopsis of *The Amateurs* > > After the death of one of their company, a group of actors hopes to > impress their patron so much with their new production that he will invite > them to stay on, safe from the plague behind his castle walls. > > The actors rehearse their play, revealing interpersonal conflicts and > everyday concerns. One discovers she is pregnant, and not by the man who > would probably assume he is the father. Another mourns her brother, the > actor who died of the plague. The one who makes their props and effects > knows everyone else thinks he is stupid. A stranger joins their company > with his own secrets to guard. Finally, as they practice, the actor > playing Noah’s wife wonders *why* she is refusing to get on the ark. > What is her objection? What does she want instead? > > At this point, the play pauses. One actor steps out of his ‘medieval’ > costume and addresses the audience as the playwright, Jordan Harrison. He > explains why the playwright became interested in this moment, in Noah’s > wife’s refusal, seeing in her a connection to himself, her moment of > asserting her individuality reminding him of a similar moment in his own > life. A second actor (the one playing Hollis, who plays Noah’s wife), > joins him, and they posit (by means of other actors coming onstage with > sandwich board images of famous paintings), the role of art in > demonstrating/provoking the emergence of the individual. Finally, saying > he is ‘bringing the fourth wall back down,’ the playwright-actor steps back > into his ‘medieval’ costume and the original storyline resumes. > > In this part, another actor dies of the plague and the others struggle to > continue their performance, still hoping for their patron to offer them > refuge. He declines, however, and they face returning to the > increasingly-deadly wider world. > > > > Assessment > > I am an Olney Theatre season ticket holder and have been since 2011. The > current artistic director, Jason Loewith, has done outstanding work > here—innovative, intriguing, wonderful shows—including commissioning and > producing new, groundbreaking plays. > > But sometimes when you swing for the fences, you hit a pop fly. > > I’ve been both dreading and looking forward to *The Amateurs* since the > 2019-2020 season was announced. From the title, you can guess why. On the > one hand: A contemporary play set in a medieval acting troop is not > something you see every day. Or ever. I really wanted it to be > marvelous. On the other, referring to a group of people who make their > living as *actors* as ‘amateurs’ made me worry about how the play would > approach medieval drama. > > As it turned out, that concern was warranted. > > The play is set during the Black Death but works from the assumption that > the surviving later texts can be unproblematically transposed backward in > time. The play has the actors use a wagon to transport their gear—fair > enough—but also as a performance venue, not seeming to understand that > pageant wagons were used in particular places—York, Chester—not by > itinerant players. When enacting a pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins, the > actors used masks—good!—but wore plain black robes, which was disappointing > since we know medieval production invested in impressive costumes. > > The costumes were heavily influenced by the widespread modern iconography > of ‘the medieval': most pieces of clothing had ragged, unhemmed edges. We > can talk elsewhere about what cultural work this symbolism is doing, since > it has nothing to do with reality. When a single shirt represents 80 hours > of labor, care is taken to preserve garments, including hemming raw edges > to prevent fraying. I don’t hold this against the production specifically, > since it’s an issue we see often, but it tells us the production employed > the shortcut of that modern iconography rather than researching medieval > clothing. > > More troubling is the play’s attitude towards its medieval subject > matter. Bluntly, the play seems to employ medieval content and characters > to hammer home a point (the playwright’s theory about the emergence of the > idea of the individual), not because there is interest in the time period > itself. Nor does the play appear to consider the dramatic work its > characters engage in to be theater in the same way *it* is theater. This > was most telling in the handling of audience address. When the medieval > play-scenes addressed the audience, the result was flat (the night I was > there, the audience laughed at the Seven Deadlies), in large part because > the staging was flat. The Seven Deadlies were positioned at the rear, as > if on a proscenium arch stage, and hardly moved as they spoke. The Noah > scenes occurred partly on the wagon and partly on the ground, but again, > with little movement apart from (usually unsuccessful) handling of stage > effects (the dove falls when it should hover, the cloth scroll of painted > animals doesn’t budge when they try to crank it). But when the actor > speaks as the playwright, he uses the entirety of the stage, coming close > to the audience, leaning towards them. The production’s thumb is on the > scales, using the same technique but with staging choices that make the > contemporary use seem engaging but the medieval’s simplistic. > > The play’s message—the emergence of the individual from a period of > darkness—is a retread of something we have all heard about the Middle Ages, > to our frustration. Also frustrating is that *The Amateurs* is not quite > certain this *is* its central theme. The play makes a parallel between > the Black Death and AIDS, which could be a rewarding and fascinating topic > to explore, but leaves that connection underdeveloped. The method by which *The > Amateurs* delivers its homily upon the emergence of the individual is > also worth considering. The middle section, in which the theory is > presented in the voice of the playwright, is long, resembling nothing so > much as a TED talk. This doesn’t appear to bother the *Washington Post* > reviewer, but all three members of my viewing party were independently > annoyed about being told what we were supposed to think rather than being > shown persuasive scenes leading us to that conclusion. > > *The Amateurs* isn’t a bad play, but it isn’t a good one either. There > is promise here, and hopefully Harrison will put the script through another > round of workshopping that will help that promise develop. If so, I hope > he decides to take the Middle Ages and medieval drama seriously for their > own sake, not just for the argument he wants to make from them. > > > Cheers, > > Michelle Butler > ____________________________________ > > Michelle Markey Butler > she/her/hers > michellemarkeybutler.com > facebook.com/michellemarkeybutler > > > On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 10:03 AM Alan Baragona <[log in to unmask]> > wrote: > > Thanks for Theresa’s discussion. I assume she’s on the listserv, because I > don’t have her personal e-mail address and wanted to send it The message to > her. > > I would love to hear your comments, especially on 1) whether its version > of the Noah play is close at all to the Towneley play and 2) what the > playwright’s stand-in opines about the connection between medieval plays > and the rise of individualism. > > Alan > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Mar 11, 2020, at 9:39 AM, Michelle Markey Butler <[log in to unmask]> > wrote: > > > I saw it on Friday. I can share observations, if you like. > > Btw Theresa Colletti participated in a panel discussion about making > theater on the road, organized by Olney Theatre in connection to the > production, and there's a video of the discussion on the theater's Facebook > page: https://www.facebook.com/142692869075359/videos/200051651238352/ > > Cheers, > Michelle Butler > ____________________________________ > > Michelle Markey Butler > she/her/hers > michellemarkeybutler.com > facebook.com/michellemarkeybutler > > > On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 8:05 AM Twycross, Meg <[log in to unmask]> > wrote: > > WOMAN playing Noah's wife? > > Meg > > Professor Emeritus of English Medieval Studies, > > Department of English and Creative Writing, > > Lancaster University, > > LANCASTER LA1 4YD > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* REED-L: Records of Early English Drama Discussion < > [log in to unmask]> on behalf of Alan Baragona < > [log in to unmask]> > *Sent:* 11 March 2020 02:51 > *To:* [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> > *Subject:* [External] Modern play about medieval troupe performing Noah > > > *This email originated outside the University. Check before clicking links > or attachments.* > Today’s print version of *The Washington Post* has a review of a play by > Jordan Harrison call *The Amateurs*, which premiered in 2018. It's about > a traveling troupe of medieval players who are performing a Noah play in a > time of plague, especially focusing on the woman who is playing Noah's > wife. Do any of you know of it? First I've heard of the play or of the > playwright. It sounds a bit reminiscent of the players in *The Seventh > Seal*, and I'm a little surprised the review doesn't mention it. In > earlier years, my wife and I would have jumped on I-81 and gone up to D.C. > to see it, but between the coronavirus and other things, there's no way we > can get there before it closes on April 5. But I just like knowing this > play exists, and I've preordered the volume of Harrison's plays that is > coming out in July and will include it. > > I don’t know that the Noah play being performed by the troupe is the > Wakefield Master’s *Noah* or, more likely given the opening as described > in the review, is loosely based on it, but if either is the case, it makes > a nice irony that the actor who plays the character who plays the wife is > named “Townley,” just one <e> off! > > For those of you who subscribe to the Post but may have missed the review, > here is the link. > > > https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/coronavirus-looms-over-this-play-set-during-a-plague-but-the-amateurs-speaks-to-timeless-concerns/2020/03/09/b06229a2-620f-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html > <https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fentertainment%2Ftheater_dance%2Fcoronavirus-looms-over-this-play-set-during-a-plague-but-the-amateurs-speaks-to-timeless-concerns%2F2020%2F03%2F09%2Fb06229a2-620f-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html&data=02%7C01%7Cm.twycross%40lancaster.ac.uk%7C1533b90b85774451fac808d7c567369a%7C9c9bcd11977a4e9ca9a0bc734090164a%7C1%7C1%7C637194919419841278&sdata=Wa6kyVg47IkAGswszgYvYZoz3CbI02W3dRDWKsWrE2g%3D&reserved=0> > Alan Baragona > >