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PlayShakespeare.com: The Ultimate Free Shakespeare Resource
PlayShakespeare.com: The Ultimate Free Shakespeare Resource
PlayShakespeare.com: The Ultimate Free Shakespeare Resource
  Wednesday, 12 November 2008
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Hi,

I have started a free community based Shakespeare reading group that meets at the Plymouth District Library. The library has kindly agreed to provide us meeting rooms for free. Our first meeting is on Sunday, November 23 at 1:00 p.m. and we will be reading the Scottish Play!

I have also been working with Cynthia Burnstein, the Shakespeare Seminar teacher at the Plymouth-Canton school district to encourage student and teacher participation.

This is a totally free and not for profit community based activity. It arises from my love of Shakespeare and is partly inspired by a late beloved professor of the classics, Dr. Gareth Morgan’s Sunday Shakespeare group that met every Sunday afternoon at the University of Texas at Austin, where I obtained my Ph.D.

Please inform any friends, acquaintances or relatives in the area about the group!

You can also visit or refer people to the reading group's blog for more information:

http://shakespearegroup.wordpress.com

Thanks,

Prashant Andrade
734-416-9834
15 years ago
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#2580
Plymouth, Massachusetts?
15 years ago
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#2581
Plymouth, Michigan..
15 years ago
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#2582
Ah. Sorry.
14 years ago
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#2583
EDIT: I see your OP was from well over a year ago, so by now I'm sure you've found your rhythm. Would love to hear about it! I'm going to leave this post up anyway in case it helps someone else start their own. :)

Hi! I run a similar group for Austin Shakespeare called Shakespeare Aloud. I'd be glad to help if you have any questions, since I'm about 2 years farther down the path. Not the expert on all things reading group, but we have quite a few plays under our belt now. We read about an act a week, because we also have lively discussions in and around the reading.

One thing is we stress non-performance, which means that the halting speaker who has a lot to offer in the discussion isn't chased off. (And we have one fellow who is REALLY halting, but no one blinks an eye.) A diverse group is important-- we have a psychologist, an avid gardener, an ethno-musicologist, a lawyer, etc.-- as each person will have a little bit of background in whatever you're reading. ("Well, I know those plants he's talking about only grow in sand, so I think the line means..." or "That's an obscure part of British law, today they use it as...";)

Another is that while we stop after each scene to talk, I also encourage them to vocalize during the reading. A well-placed, "Well, sure HE'D say that!" or other comment from someone not reading might disrupt the flow a tiny bit but also might help others to understand the scene better while it's still being read. This text is important to all of us but we don't treat it with sacred silent reverence, we get rollickin' and have fun with it, which not only helps understanding but creates a great atmosphere during the scene. And lastly, it helps people pipe up in the between-scene discussions because they've already been talking, they don't have to jump that barrier between respectful silence and lively conversation.

And if you, or someone in the group, is familiar with scansion, I find there are many insights I can give the group by showing them how the scene is structured-- "but look, it's all short lines here, this indicates a lot of pauses and tension, so the tone of this scene is..."

Hope this unsolicited advice was in any way useful, I'd love to hear about your experiences!
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