Rick and I got back to campus last night after a seeing a wonderful variety of plays at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival!
I found myself reflecting on how wonderful it is to see both familiar and unfamiliar plays produced in interesting and unexpected combinations. One example: this season included productions of both Titus Andronicus (which I have rarely seen) and Merry Wives of Windsor (which I have frequently seen.) But it wasn’t until seeing the two just days apart that I had an “aha!” moment, realizing how often the word “revenge” appears in the text of Merry Wives and how that comedy can be seen as a parody of revenge tragedies like Titus. (OK, maybe everybody else saw that a long time ago, but it was a new and engaging thought for me.)
Similarly, I saw a very familiar play made unfamiliar by cross-gender casting 
– the marvelous Seana McKenna playing Richard III — alongside an unfamiliar-to-me play about a drag queen (Hosanna, featuring the equally marvelous Gareth Potter.) Both actors raised complex questions about gender as performance, and because I saw the two plays during the same week the issues of identity, sincerity, and “nature” in both plays were sharpened and focused for me.
I suppose the point is simply that being exposed to new work, and being exposed to familiar work newly interpreted, are both extraordinarily valuable experiences, and perhaps especially valuable in conjunction. This is an important educational idea, I think, with implications for both curriculum and pedagogy.
But now, it’s time to start getting ready for the new school year, which will start before we know it. I look forward to sharing the excitement of the first days of 2011-12 with you.
