I've done this show several times, for competitions and for the general public. Very successful each time. We never changed the dialogue because the structure holds up so well.
Here's how I've broken it up in the past:
3 - Narrators/Lecturers: These folks take the "academic" language about Shakespeare's life, the history stuff, and the dramaturgy of the various plays. They interact with each other just as the three main characters in the play do. They don't act out the plays however, we leave that to:
12-24 "Zanni" (zah-nee): In the tradition of Commedia, this is the ensemble of players that take on the various roles in the plays themselves. They also serve as a type of "Greek Chorus" and take on some of the dialogue in which the characters argue about who plays what role etc. When the final "speed" version of "Hamlet" is performed, the audience loved seeing a large ensemble running around in organized chaos. I had my strongest performers play the key roles in the Hamlet section.
5-12 "Tech Crew" These are non-speaking (or minimally speaking) roles that handle set changes, props, etc. Great part for newer, inexperienced actors. They get to perform and have the fun and challenge of acting non-verbally. We had a lot of fun using these characters as the eye-rolling, judgmental "realists" who think that all of the actors and narrators were pretentious weirdos.
1 - "Stage Manager" he/she occasionally walks on stage with a clipboard and just scowls whenever the Zanni or narrators get out of hand. It makes for a wonderful "play-within-the-play" scenario.
Break a leg with it!!!
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Josh Ruben
Fine Arts Head, Northwest Whitfield
Chattanooga TN
Original Message:
Sent: 03-31-2016 17:42
From: Jacqueline Jecmen
Subject: Complete Wrks W. Shakepeare Abridged - LARGE CAST
I am interested in working on The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged with my two top theatre classes. Only problem - there are 39 students total. I do believe it's possible to have that many students in the show - it seems like you can split up the parts fairly easily for it, until you get to the Hamlet section. I get stuck there.
Does anyone have a cast list they are willing to share that shows how they split up the roles? I saw a thread similar to this on the discussion forum but it didn't answer how it was split up - it only mentioned how many roles each teacher were able to achieve.
Thanks for the help!
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Jacqueline Jecmen
Corona del Mar Middle and High School
Newport Beach CA
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