Tabling: Someone Between

In this special one-off episode Nicholas Koy Santillo sits down (north of the wall) with Chantria Tram and Paula Wing to talk about Someone Between, a one-woman show written and performed by Chantria.  In this episode we talk about the challenges of balancing being both an actor and the writer.  We talk about the eight years of development this show has been on, and how the story has changed and continues to refocus.  This is a great look into a prototypical Canadian story, and the work required to stage a one-hander!

Someone between will be performing at the Summerworks festival in Toronto, from August 1 - 12.  Learn more at https://www.chantriatram.com, or http://summerworks.ca/artists/someone-between/

https://www.chantriatram.com/projects

Tabling: The Sonnets with Devon Glover

Tabling was very honored and privileged this week to sit down with Devon Glover, aka The Sonnet Man! In addition to being a fantastic and innovative rap artist, Devon empowers and inspires young people everywhere he goes to take ownership over Shakespeare and embrace their own creativity. Among other things, we discussed his background, the Sonnets and how he developed his unique fusion of Shakespeare, Hip Hop & education. 

For more info on The Sonnet Man please visit his website: http://sonnetman.com/ or check him out on Social Media under the handle @thesonnetman or @thesonnetmannyc

Devon Glover from his Hamlet music video.

Tabling: The Tempest Act V

Chasen Schneider, Levi Morger, Mitchell Kawash and Ariana Karp conclude our discussion of Act V of The Tempest. 

• We determined that we enjoy Act V more than Act IV.
• Specificity of stage directions and the overlap between ritual, theatre and religion
• Prospero’s turn from revenge to forgiveness - when does it happen and how that affects the play?
• Parallels to Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus 
• Staging choices in the modern age 
• Physical vs. Metaphysical storm
• What happens with Antonio and Sebastian? Are they repentant? Is their silence acceptance or defiance?
• Is order restored at the end of the play?

William Hutt as Prospero in The Tempest.

Tabling: The Tempest Act IV

Will McKay, Chasen Schneider, Levi Morger, Mitchel Kawash & Ariana Karp puzzle through Act IV of The Tempest.

• The Ben Jonson Masque put into the play - difficult to incorporate the Iris/Ceres/Juno part in a way that moves the plot forward
• Iris/Ceres/Juno sequence as a marriage ceremony for Miranda and Ferdinand
• Why is Prospero so upset about remembering Caliban’s treachery?
• Difficulty of the specific stage directions in the act
• What is Prospero’s confrontation with mortality caused by? Caliban’s plot? The appearance of the spirits? His daughter getting married?  
• Achieving immortality through words
• Is Prospero concerned with legacy?
• Music as frightening and overwhelming as opposed to soothing and pleasant
• Shakespeare’s use of mixed metaphors “smelt music,” "rainy marching in the painful field" & “I see a voice”
• Is this Shakespeare’s only play that takes place entirely outside?
• Shakespeare and the relationships between punctuation, breathing, rhythm and meaning

Colin Morgan as Ariel in the Globe's 2013 production.

Tabling: The Tempest Act III

Join Mitchel Kawash, Will McKay, Jen Greenwald and Ariana Karp as we discuss Act III of The Tempest!

• The groups which were established in the first and second acts continue in the third act - Miranda and Ferdinand, Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo and the nobles with Ariel and Prospero flitting in and out of the scenes
• Miranda proposes the marriage - aligning her with other Shakespearean heroines like Rosalind and Juliet
• Miranda being directly disobedient for the first time in the scene
• Miranda’s innocence coming from ignorance as opposed to status and breeding
• The clowns scene - the high level of drunkeness! 
• Caliban and Ariel have the agendas in 3.2
• Is Ariel distinctive from the magic of the island? or Is Ariel the magic of the island?
• Is Ariel appearing as the Harpy Prospero’s ultimate plan for Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian?
• Is Prospero’s pursuit of power and revenge become on par with Antonio’s pursuit of political power
• Shakespeare and tapping in the gray area of humanity
• Supernatural as a manifestation of a concept

Julian Bleach as Ariel in Harpy form in the RSC's 2006 production directed by Rupert Goold. 

Tabling: The Tempest Act II

Mitchel Kawash, Will McKay, Zoë Goslin and Ariana Karp discuss Act II of The Tempest.

• Staging must be very, very precise in both of the scenes in this Act
• The scenes make more sense in the context of staging, meaning derived from the movement
• Antonio and Sebastian as one focal point and Alonso & Gonzalo as the other focal point
• Gonzalo’s Utopia speech lifted from Montaigne’s essays
• “Noble Savage” idea and its undercutting within the act
• Bringing back the ‘native’ creature from the isle for profit is an idea which occurs to four characters in the play
• Shakespeare’s prophetic vision of colonizer and colonized 
• The temptation of Sebastian to ambition and power by the political mastermind that is Antonio
• Antonio is a “modern” political creation
• Elasticity of interpreting The Tempest
• Why does Prospero put all the courtiers asleep and leave Sebastian and Antonio awake? Is it a test of their characters to see if they have changed? 
• Parallels of Prospero and Sycorax 

Simon Russell Beale as Ariel and Alec McCowen as Prospero in the RSC's 1993 production. 

Tabling: The Tempest Act I

Join Vanessa Vaché, Patrick Harvey, Ellyn Heald, Samantha Blinn, Levi Morger, Will McKay, Jen Greenwald and Ariana Karp as we discuss Act I of The Tempest.

• What is the storm in the first scene of the play? Why does Prospero sink the ship?
• Is Prospero’s ultimate goal to torment his enemies? What is his end-game?
• Prospero as stage-manager/puppet-master/director
• Where are Prospero’s powers from? A book? The earth? 
• Did Ariel cast a love spell over Ferdinand and Miranda?
• Miranda as front-footed. Bashfulness is something that is learned
• Who can see Ariel? Is Prospero the only one? Does Miranda know about the spirits?
• The idea that Ariel is the manifestation of a humanoid form of magic, Ariel can split and shape shift into any form.
• Challenges of staging the very lengthy second scene
• Ariel being compelled and confused by human behavior as a way to “other” Ariel 
• Does Prospero have some remorse and regret about neglecting his duties as Duke of Milan? 

Patrick Stewart as Prospero in the RSC's 2006 production of The Tempest, directed by Rupert Goold.

Tabling: The Tempest Introduction

Levi Morger, Jen Greenwald, Ellyn Heald, Patrick Harvey, Vanessa Vaché, Will McKay & Ariana Karp discuss our initial thoughts on William Shakespeare’s late and beautiful The Tempest.

• Shakespeare’s first play to follow the unities (of time, place and action) since The Comedy of Errors.
• One of Shakespeare’s only original story lines
• Political implications of the play-mastery and rule and power structures and dynamics
• Metaphysical, spiritual and existential implications of the play
• Revenge plot structure
• Play imbued with humanism and humanist education
• Connections to Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus: “I’ll burn my books” vs. Shakespeare’s “I’ll drown my books”
• Montaigne’s Of the Cannibals and Gonzalo’s utopia speech
• Accessing the idea of Shakespeare’s magic in our day and age
• The power of language as a colonial device
• Shakespeare’s prophecy of the impact of alcohol on the indigineous population 
• Many colonial themes before colonialism was a widespread phenomenon
• About escape (both physical and spiritual) and redemption
• Does the project succeed?
• The influence of Ben Jonson’s Masque and the anti-Masque
• Magic - Natural versus Demonic branches 
• Human-ness of the non-humans

Correction: Tony Sher just finished a run of King Lear not The Tempest - our friend Natalie was his Cordelia, not Miranda. Apologies! 

Helen Mirren as Prospera in Julie Taymor's movie The Tempest.

Tabling: The Tempest with the Upstart Crows of Santa Fe

This week, Tabling did a very special episode with the Upstart Crows of Santa Fe, a youth Shakespeare group in New Mexico that does uncut Shakespeare for kids aged 10-18, discussing their current production of The Tempest. Tabling producer and Shakespeare lead Ariana Karp (who is collaborating on the play with the actors) interviews the young actors and scholar Natalie Elliot about the complexities and challengesof the play.

The participants in this episode are Natalie Elliot, Jackson Budoff, Sterling White, Liam Mitchell, Isaac Marriner, Zoe Marriner, Olivia White, Anna Farkas, Joy Farkas, Caryl Farkas and Madeleine Philpot. 

Tabling with the Upstart Crows of Santa Fe.

Tabling: King Henry IV, Part I with the Upstart Crows of Santa Fe

This week, Tabling did a very special episode with the Upstart Crows of Santa Fe, a youth Shakespeare group in New Mexico that does uncut Shakespeare for kids aged 10-18 , discussing their recent production of King Henry IV, Part I. Tabling producer and Shakespeare lead Ariana Karp interviews the young actors and directors about their characters, 'linguistic footprints’, and the challenges and joys of the play.  

The participants in this episode are Jackson Budoff, Sterling White, Liam Mitchell, Isaac Marriner, Zoe Marriner, Olivia White, Anna Farkas, Joy Farkas, Caryl Farkas and Madeleine Philpot. 

The Upstart Crows of Santa Fe - King Henry IV Part I - August 2016. Photo by Lynn Roylance.

Tabling: King Henry IV Part I Act V

Samantha Blinn, Matt Ball, Chasen Schneider and Ariana Karp conclude our discussion of King Henry IV Part I with Act V:

• Action packed nature of the last act - four epic sword fights!
• Hotspur’s honor versus Falstaff’s honor
• Ethics of the body in the battlefield 
• The glorified idea of the person and the contrast of the dead body
• The political metaphors and artifice of King Henry and Worcester’s language contrasted to the more straight talk of Hal in the parley scene 
• The significance of a rebel lord, Lord Vernon, as the prophet of Henry V’s military glory
• The cleverness of battle tactics and the king’s disguise
• Douglas’s fury as a warrior 
• How our post modern perspectives on violence and warfare shape our understanding of the play
• Language as a rationalization and exploration of feeling and idea

Jeremy Irons as King Henry IV and Tom Hiddleston as Prince Hal in The Hollow Crown.

Tabling: King Henry IV Part I Act IV

Matt Ball, Patrick Harvey, Samantha Blinn, Chasen Schneider and Ariana Karp discuss Act IV of King Henry IV, Part I. Topics include:

• Mainly expository nature of Act IV 
• Themes of sickness and disease through the language of the rebellion
• Vernon’s rhapsodic reverie about Prince Hal
• The dark and cynical observations about the foots soldiers as “food for powder” aka cannon fodder
• Hotspur ultimately is the one person who makes the decision about exactly when the battle will be fought
• Hotspur’s explanation of the rebel’s grievances is the clearest in the play when he is explaining to the Earl of Blunt
• Last scene of Act IV as an oddity-the only time that we see anyone from the ecclesiastical orders in the play
• The repercussions of the battle of Shrewsbury as the beginning of Hal’s military education - looking at the parallels in the two battles in Henry V (Harfleur and Agincourt)
• Falstaff as a ‘wild child’

Joe Armstrong as Hotspur and Michelle Dockery as Lady Kate Percy in The Hollow Crown (King Henry IV Part I).

Tabling: King Henry IV Part I Act III

Matt Ball, Patrick Harvey, Samantha Blinn, Chasen Schneider and Ariana Karp work our way through the Third Act of King Henry IV Part I:

• Hotspur switching between verse and prose in Act III, scene i-what is the significance? Does Glendower’s presence throw him off?
• The fact that Glendower doesn’t snap at Hotspur demonstrates Hotspur's power as a rallying point for the rebellion
• Glendower as the Welsh Renaissance man, a fierce Druid with a penchant for poetry and music
• Shakespeare's satirical demonstration of the chivalric love between Lady Mortimer and Mortimer versus the more down-to-earth, playful relationship between Lady Percy and Hotspur
• Worcester as the most shrewd politician in the rebel camp 
• The directorial challenge of demonstrating the power and threat of the rebels while simultaneously showing the disorder and squabbling within the rebellion
• Shakespeare and the dangers of dividing a kingdom
• The majority of the scene between Henry IV and Hal as an explanation of the play Richard II “previously on…”
• Henry's mistake is that he equates celebrity that Richard II cultivated with the populism that Hal cultivates
• The final straw for Hal is when Henry IV predicts that Hal will join rebel forces as a traitor
• Hal going between disbelief at the power of rumor to anger and grief at the effect it has upon his father
• Hal’s vow and the disturbing violence of his promise, perhaps our first glimpse of the power of the future Henry V
• The second tavern scene has a much more melancholic tone than the first one, Falstaff is listless and bored until Hal comes back to the tavern
• The wonderful confusion and sassiness of Mistress Quickly and her perpetual defensiveness

Matthew MacFadyen as Prince Hal and Michael Gambon as Falstaff in National Theatre’s production in 2005.

Tabling: King Henry IV, Part I Act II

Zoë Goslin, Chasen Schneider, Will McKay and Ariana Karp work their way through Act II of King Henry IV, Part I:

• We puzzle through some of the more archaic working-class language of the carriers in Act II, Scene I
• The rapid shift in both tone and setting from the nobility in the throne room talking politics to the carriers (read: truck drivers) complaining about the flea-ridden inn and their underfed livestock
• The insight into how the underworld of the thieves interacts with the servant class 
• The Gadshill robbery, masculine pranksters and the continuing development of the relationship between Hal and Falstaff
• Orson Wells on Falstaff - “Innocence is what Falstaff is, he is a refugee from a sweeter England” and the echoes of Chaucer 
• Falstaff as both father and child
• The distinction of Falstaff being the Fool whom we laugh with and not the Clown, whom we laugh at
• How aware is Falstaff that Hal will ultimately reject him?
• Shakespeare’s use of simpler mono-syllabic (Anglo-Saxon) based words in highly charged emotional moments in his plays
• What should it ultimately cost Hal at the end of King Henry IV part II to reject the tavern world and the people who inhabit it? 
• The base metal AND the glittering reformation are both parts of Hal
• Lady Percy and Hotspur’s relationship, and the importance of Hotspur making the decision for Lady Percy to follow him in the scene
• The audience’s investment in Hotspur’s character deepens as we witness the love that Lady Percy shows to him.

Antony Sher as Falstaff

Tabling: King Henry IV Part I Act I

Will McKay, Zoë Goslin, Levi Morger and Ariana Karpdiscuss Act I of King Henry IV Part I. Among the topics discussed:

• All three worlds in the first act
• Henry IV’s reign characterized by civil war, his belief in the importance of a Crusade to the Holy Land
• Henry’s language characterized by metaphor and personification
• “Beastly shameless transformation” of the dead bodies by Welsh women
• Miscommunication and misinformation during the battle scenes
• Hal’s balance of thought and expectation, Hal as observer
• Falstaff’s aspirations for the glorification of thieves title - and his attempt to influence domestic policy
• What is Poin’s status?
• The title of “sweet” as a term of endearment and intimacy for the tavern folk
• Hotspur’s disdain for the court and politics
• The danger and daring of the conspiracy being initiated in the throne room

Roger Alum and Jamie Parker in the Globe's production of King Henry IV Part I. 

Tabling: King Henry IV Part I Introduction

Join Will McKay, Zoë Goslin, Levi Morger and Ariana Karp as we launch a new play and the second of our explorations on Shakespeare’s History plays, King Henry IV, Part I. Among our topics discussed are:

• The changing of the ‘star’ role over the last four centuries.
• The ‘proper’ education of a prince
• The dueling father figures
• King Henry IV as an encyclopedic view of early fifteenth century England.
• The king haunted by the past as the prince is haunted by the future 

Conceptual drawing of the world of King Henry IV, Part I. 

Tabling: Twelfth Night Act V

Join Nicholas Koy Santillo, Levi Morger, Will McKay, Isabel Karp, Samantha Blinn & Ariana Karp as we conclude our discussion of Twelfth Night with Act V. 

• Does Orsino revert to the ‘courtly love’ language once Cesario becomes Viola?
• Is Cesario’s power of truth lost when converted to Viola?
• Orsino becoming unhinged in the last scene and his jealousy of Olivia’s affection for Cesario
• Shakespeare and the challenges of the final scene
• Twelfth Night as unique in that no one character has all the information going into the final scene
• The possibility of the twins reunion as initially terrifying for Viola, who thinks Sebastian is a “spirit”
• Sensory overload from the beginning turning to the mind being overwhelmed
• Actors as society’s allowed fools

Ducdame Ensemble's production of Twelfth Night at Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return. Photo by Katrin Talbot.

Tabling: Twelfth Night Act IV

We took a bit of a hiatus — profuse apologies Tabling audience! We were busy doing this play for REAL! We will now be back to our regular release schedule! 

Join Levi Morger, Emily Ota, Will McKay, Isabel Karp, Samantha Blinn, Nicholas Koy Santillo, Rooney the cat and Ariana Karp as we discuss Act IV: The act of mistaken identities.

• How much does the audience suspend their disbelief and how is this amplified in the comedies?
• What has happened between Olivia and Sebastian between the first and third scenes of the act? How much sexy time happened?
• Similarity between Sebastian’s soliloquy “This is the air” vs Viola’s “I left no ring with her” — the straightforward nature of the language.  
• Sir Toby and the weight of Olivia’s decision to banish him
• The opacity of Feste’s language in the ‘Sir Topas’ scene 
• Comedy depends on perspective 

Mark Rylance as Olivia 

Tabling: Twelfth Night Act III

Zoë Goslin, Claire Curtis-Ward, Samantha Blinn, Will McKay and Ariana Karp move on to discuss Act III:

• Does Feste know that Viola is in disguise?
• How does Feste actually feel about Viola? 
• Meta-language about language
• Sir Andrew’s French phrase and his obsession with fanciful language 
• Olivia’s dirty mind and boldness in regard to Cesario
• Class and Entitlement in Twelfth Night 
• The complexity of male friendships
• Perceptions of Demonic possession in Elizabethan times

Judi Dench as Viola in 1969

Tabling: Twelfth Night Act II

Zoë Goslin, Samantha Blinn, Will McKay and Ariana Karp continue the text work and delve into different aspects of Act II:

• Dynamics of Sebastian and Antonio relationship 
• Mirroring Viola and Olivia’s relationship in Sebastian and Antonio
• The homoerotic implications of St. Sebastian
• The famous ring speech and the power of Judi Dench
• The caterwauling scene and Sir Toby swindling Sir Andrew
• Sir Andrew’s delight in fancy nonsense words 
• Level of melancholy within the kitchen scene?
• Feste and Malvolio’s relationship 
• The unconventional romance of the “Patience on a monument” scene
• Feste the all-knowing

Ben Kingsley as Feste