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\title{{\em The Winter's Tale\/}---A Spectator's Opinion}
\author{George A. Madrid \\ \\ 21.60---Introduction to Music}
\date{October 31, 1988---Halloween}


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\maketitle

{\em The Winter's Tale\/} is one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays.  It
is a story of jealousy and paranoia, politics and sex.  It is also the
fall Shakespeare major.  It was performed on October 20--24, 27-29, 1988
in the Kresge Little Theater by the Shakespeare Ensemble at MIT, under
the direction of Alan Brody, the new Director of Drama at MIT.  I
ushered the show on October 28, 1988 and watched the performance the
same night.

\paragraph{The Story}
In {\em The Winter's Tale\/}, Shakespeare tells a story of two friends who
are not only friends, but kings.  He tells of the unfounded jealousy
which Leontes, the king of Sicilia feels of his friend, Polixenes, the
king of Bohemia.  The king publicly accuses his wife, Hermione, of
adultery with Polixenes, plots to kill Polixenes. He sends what he
believes to be his wife's bastard child into abandonment in the desert.
Hermione is tried at an unfair court at which the king stands in
judgment.   

The oracle of Apollo at Delphi finally clears Hermione of all charges,
but she and her son are so upset by the whole situation that they both
die.  The king goes into deep mourning and is haunted by the prediction
of the oracle---that he shall have no heir until his missing daughter is
found.  

Now the action moves to Bohemia, where the daughter has been abandoned.
Florizel, the king's son, has fallen in love with her and wants to marry
her even though she is not of his class.  (At this point, no one knows
she is the daughter of the king of Sicilia.)  Polixenes, by disguising
himself, learns of his son's plans and forbids the marriage.  Perdita,
the lost daughter, and Florizel flee to Sicilia.

Upon arriving in Sicilia, everything comes out.  It is discovered that
Perdita is really the daughter of Hermione and Leontes.  Polixenes
forgives Leontes for his mistake.  Florizel marries Perdita.  They learn
that Hermione was only faking her death and that she is alive and
forgives Leontes.  Everyone is happy and the show is over.


\paragraph{The Script}
One of the strong points of this play was, of course, the script.
However, unlike other strong playwrights, the works of Shakespeare works
are often hard to produce well.  This is due to some peculiarities in his
writing, many of which were present in this play as well.

There is a distinct lack of stage directions in Shakespeare's writings.
This includes blocking, set and prop descriptions, and musical
references.  This leaves all of these decisions to the director.  Some
of the director's choices in this production were quite interesting.

Another ``weakness'' in Shakespeare's writing is his vast exposition of
plot by the characters.  There are times when great quantities of plot
are not acted.  The events are simply described by various lesser
characters.  In this way, Shakespeare will often cover vast amounts of
play time in a short span of real time.  In {\em The Winter's Tale\/},
this detracts from the quality of the script.  He makes the mistake of
doing this approaching the climax of the play, in the scene where the
true identity of Perdita is revealed, and all the characters reconcile
their differences.  This is the point toward which Shakespeare has 
been working during the whole of Act III;  however, by having his
minor characters tell the story, he is denying great dramatic
opportunities.  One almost thinks that he was just trying to finish the
play quickly. 

\paragraph{The Direction}
The play was directed by Alan Brody.  Brody is a newcomer to the MIT
drama community.  This was his debut at this school, and it was a fine
start to his career with us.  

\subparagraph{Scenes within scenes}
Many of the directions which Brody took were rather
innovative---attempts to counteract some of the weaknesses of this
script.  An example: during many of the long character expositions in
{\em The Winter's Tale\/}, Brody chose to make the actors ``perform,'' in
a sort of mini-scene, the actions which were being described.  This made
the long speeches by minor characters less boring, as well as giving the
audience something more interesting to look at than a small group of
people ``gossiping'' among themselves.

Within this technique, Brody also experimented a little.  Often, when a
character was quoted, instead of the story-teller saying the line, the
character, himself, would speak in the ``mini-scene.''  This has
great potential, however, it didn't work in this production.  It was
frequently distracting due to the small period of silence in between the
words ``he said'' and the quote itself.  This can be attributed to one
of two things---either a lack of rehearsal, or a lack of demand for
timing on the part of the director.

\subparagraph{Rewriting Shakespeare}
Brody rewrote the play slightly.  Actually he just moved a couple of
things around and made some cuts from the original script.  The cuts
were justified.  Performance in Shakespeare's time was more of a
``recital.''  Hamlet, for example, would be performed in just under
two-and-a-half hours.  Because drama today involves more ``acting-out,''
a modern performance of a Shakespeare play can run up to twice as long.
Unnecessary scenes are often shortened in contemporary productions of
Shakespeare.

However, the rearranging of the scenes was a bad choice.  The movement
of Act I, Scene III to the very start of the play was rather insulting.
In his attempt to make the ``title phrase'' quite clear, Brody seemed to
underestimate the intelligence of the audience.  Oh well, it's his first
production at MIT.  He can be forgiven\ldots this time.

\subparagraph{Voices in His Head}
The king of Sicilia, Leontes, is the central character of the first act.
His monologues consist of a great deal of thought and ``self-argument.''
Brody rendered much of this thought through a mysterious chorus standing
behind Leontes.  This added a great deal of energy and excitement to the
king's rantings about his wife and Polixenes.  It was a nice format for
these arguments and worked very well.

\paragraph{The Acting}
Good acting and casting is essential for any worthwhile production.
The Ensemble production of {\em The Winter's Tale\/} had both of these
ingredients.  The lead role, Leontes, king of Sicilia, was played
wonderfully by Sasha Zubatov '88.  He was strong all the way through.
His portrayal of the skeptical paranoia of the king was masterful.  The
character changes which occurred in the play were gradual---moment by
moment rather than scene by scene as many less experienced actors are
inclined to do.  

Another strong performance came from sturdy performance came from David
Poeppel '89, as the king of Bohemia, Polixenes.  He worked well with
Sasha, keeping in the moment and not reciting his lines.  His
expression, even when his faces was partially covered were still quite
obvious and readable by the audience.

Lindasusan Ulrich '91, also gave a good rendition of her character,
Paulina, wife of Antigonus and ``conscience'' to Leontes.  Although at
times she can be inconsistent, overall she was quite good---especially
in the scene where she presents the baby to the king.


\paragraph{The Sets}
The sets were designed by William Fregosi and constructed by the cast
under the supervision of Edward S. Darna and Mr. Fregosi.  Darna and
Fregosi are professional theater-men, employed by MIT to aid the drama
program with the technical aspects of production.  Both men have a great
deal of theater experience before coming to the Institute, having
worked with famous actors and directors.

Overall, the set was quite simple.  It faced the task of having to
present scenes in two countries and several different rooms by
presenting none of them.  It was minimal and served for all settings.
This is quite typical of Shakespearean plays as this is the format of
the theater of his time.

The quick movement of furniture on and off the set lent to the momentum
of the play, although it did occasionally distract from the dialogue due
to the noise it made.  Sometimes it even added to the plot, giving a
character a reason to enter or leave.  The first exit of Autolycus, the
rogue, played by Joseph Vanderway '89, was one good example.

One aspect of the set which certainly could have been done without, was
the projection of Apollo during the courtroom and final scenes.  This is
probably more of a directorial misjudgment, though, than an error in
set design.  

\paragraph{The Lighting}
The Lighting was designed by Randy Hertzman, and the lights were hung by
John Buck '89, and Mr. Hertzman.  Hertzman is a former member of the
Shakespeare Ensemble at MIT who chose to remain here working with the
drama program rather than to pursue degree-related employment
immediately after graduating.

The lighting was fine.  There were no areas on stage that were
inadequately lit.  Several times, however, actors cast shadows on each
other.  This is partly the fault of the light designer who should always
be prepared for actors walking next to each other, but mostly the fault
of the director for not accurately describing his blocking to the
designer.  Once again, lack of communication causes problems in the
theater.  

There is one element of the lighting that was bad judgment on the
designer's part.  It was too warm.  The color on stage comes mostly from
four or five side-lights with lavender gels.  This creates a medium-warm
atmosphere on stage.  A colder color, or cool accents, should have been
used---this was a {\em winter's\/} tale.

\paragraph{The Music}
Music didn't play a very large part of this production.  The evening
began with a song for the queen.  Unfortunately, I couldn't understand
the words to the song as I was performing my duties as an usher for
these first few moments. 

None of the music used with in the play was written by Shakespeare,
himself.  The melodies used in this production were composed and
directed by Julio Freidmann.  There was no assistant stage-manager in
charge of sound. 

Autolycus, the rogue, was continually humming to himself.  The tunes
were generally nonsense rhymes, perhaps to suggest the illiteracy and
lower class of the man.  His music comes as a sharp contrast to that of
the party scene.  The latter is more coordinated, indicating the higher
class of the participants.  

\paragraph{The Costumes}
Costuming was, as always, superb.  Although the drama program does
employ a professional costumer, Mrs. Jeannette DeJong, she was not
involved in the design of the costumes for this production.  Design was
done by Leslie Cocuzzo-Held.  

The period of {\em The Winter's Tale} is not clear, and so a statement
about the accuracy of the costumes is not warranted; however, one can
say that the era was consistent throughout the play.  Strangely enough,
the most striking costumes were on the men, and not on the women, the
royal robes being the best example.

Another aspect of costuming is makeup.  The two must work together
perfectly, not only to make the actors look natural under the bright
stage lights, but sometimes for special effects.  Hermione as a statue
was the mingling of costume and makeup at its height.  The color of her
skin---white---the color of the costume---white---worked together to
even leave the audience guessing as to the veracity of the statue.

\paragraph{The Conclusion}
As a whole, {\em The Winter's Tale\/} was a good first production for Alan
Brody.  He worked well through the difficulties of Shakespeare, and
although making a couple of wrong moves, he produced a fine, strong
piece.  He should stop to consider his new audience.  They are {\em not}
the typical college crowd.

All of the many aspects of theater were of superior quality in this
production, but this is what one had come to expect from the Shakespeare
Ensemble at MIT.  Their program of apprenticeship creates fine actors,
who know and can work all of the many facets of drama---not just acting.
The fruits of this program were seen in {\em The Winter's Tale\/}.''




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