This international conversation about Love’s Labour’s Lost, the sister convention of the larger one to be
held in Paris on 15 February, will host speakers from France, Norway, the UK
and me (the only speaker from the USA in Lyon). A vast array of approaches and
perspectives of the play will be covered. The topics range from very esoteric
philosophic takes on the comedy to performance-based approaches of exploration.
I have the honor of being the final presenter of the day.
My paper, An Unrehearsed Perspective on Love’s Labour’s Lost, focuses on the
role of Berowne. By examining parts of the cue script that the Berowne-actor
would receive, I demonstrate how Shakespeare wrote stage direction into his
texts as well as plot and situational information and suggestions for how his
actors may play their role(s). There is a great amount of information to
condense into a 20-minute presentation. My exploration is limited to the cues
that appear in the actor’s cue script, changes and shifts in the way Berowne
speaks (or in the way the text appears in cue script form) and the ways in
which they mirror and direct changes in the character. I explain the first two
basic rules of performing the Unrehearsed Cue Script Technique and demonstrate
how they can affect a reading of the script. To find out what those rules are
and to make an interesting discovery or two about the role of Berowne, you will
have to wait for La Société Française Shakespeare to publish my paper on its
official website.
On a personal note, I am looking forward to spending what
limited time I have in Lyon, France’s second city. Lyon has hundreds of years
of history to explore in a very small amount of time. In regard to history, I
will be turning an extended layover in Turkey into one day in Istanbul, a city
I have longed to visit. On this trip, I will be in the air for about as
much time as I will be free in Lyon and Istanbul, but I will make the most of
my time in these amazing cities.
Above all, I plan to take every advantage offered by La
Société Française Shakespeare and the connections I make in Lyon. Over the past
year, USP has put a great effort into expanding our presence online and
enhancing our local visibility in Pittsburgh. With the presentation of this
paper we will put our first footprint in European soil.
-Andy Kirtland
The Unrehearsed Shakespeare Project
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