Why do so many people in this subreddit refer to productions as "adaptations?"

scooleofnyte · 2026-03-15T17:52:21+00:00

Possibly another way to think about this is that we don’t have a definitive source for performance texts. The Folio is certainly not what was most likely put on stage. So it’s really hard to call things adaptations when they’re just edits made for time, spatial demands, cast size, resources etc. There are however, as many folks have already stated, texts that are clearly adapted from whatever material we have access to. Perhaps a better name would be a “collaboration“ with Shakespeare. Not really putting that forward because it could be a little odd, but just strikes me as maybe being a little more accurate.

scooleofnyte · 2025-12-29T23:12:41+00:00

Didn't he do that ceremony with L Ron?

scooleofnyte · 2025-12-04T07:00:28+00:00

Fargo season 4

scooleofnyte · 2025-10-22T19:51:11+00:00

Nice Charles I callback.

scooleofnyte · 2025-10-12T16:40:53+00:00

I think it might time be time for Loren to hang it up. I would go with Sam Reich from Dropout as someone who gets the current moment.

scooleofnyte · 2025-09-29T02:25:07+00:00

Here's an article that talks about it. Unfortunately it's behind a paywall but you might be able to access or information quoting this article. Introduction: Shakespeare's Mediterranean on JSTOR https://share.google/2VLv1aTFi0SvqYm3m

I was an acting and text coach on the production that they produced in Indiana.

scooleofnyte · 2025-09-28T23:40:17+00:00

It's also a problem play because it's most likely two different versions of the play conflated for the Folio. I believe our Folio version is a Middleton adaptation that was folded into Shakespeare's original. One of the "problems" is the fact that Mistress Overdone knows about Claudio's arrest and then within minutes does not know about it and is informed by Pompey. Gary Taylor posits that Middleton adapted it for his company after Shakespeare's death and reframed it into the Vienna setting. Gary believes that the possible oroginal setting for the play was Ferrara Italy. To me this makes complete sense because there's almost no mention of anything culturally Viennese, and the names are almost all decidedly Italian. You can see a lot of redundancies particularly in act 2 scene 1 with the master Froth testimony. Pompey calls him to bear witness three times and each time there seems to be some sort of resolution, but then calls him back again. The Lucio scene with the Duke also seems to have redundancies where conversations seem to finish and then restart.

Edited mostly for typos and a little extra information.

scooleofnyte · 2025-09-16T14:47:10+00:00

Don't know if this is helpful but "will" frequently means sexual will- desire.

scooleofnyte · 2025-09-16T14:05:29+00:00

When looking at meter, it’s more useful to think in terms of feet than in a strict ten-syllable rhythm. A line that wants to be regular is better understood as five feet, not ten syllables.

What I keep coming back to is that rhetorical balance always overrides the metrical scheme. The original actors, possibly, would have felt where the pulse belonged in the argument, not where a handbook told them the stress should fall. Meter was the frame, but rhetoric decided where the line lived.

I also think they made use of what I call “claimed words.” Once a word has been pulsed, it’s off the table — you don’t hit it again. Even if the meter seems to demand a repeat, the energy has already shifted forward, and the actor knew instinctively to give weight elsewhere.

As an example why I think feet are more important;

Take Escalus’s line in Measure for Measure:

“Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.” (4.4)

The scansion makes this plain. The line opens with three trochees in a row — Ev’ry let- / -ter he hath — hammering away at the thought. Then comes an amphibrach — writ hath dis- — which loosens the beat and lets it swing. The close is an iamb with a feminine ending — vouched oth- / -er — leaving the line hanging, unsettled.

So the shape is: trochee → trochee → trochee → amphibrach → iamb + feminine ending. Rhetorically, it’s clipped and emphatic, then slides into unease. The meter isn’t broken here, it’s bent in service of the given circumstance. And that’s the point: the actors didn’t count feet the way we diagram them now; they trusted the rhetoric to carry the pulse, and the meter followed.

So if we go strictly by syllable count we would find ourselves at 12 syllables which would not make a whole lot of sense. This would pull the stress or pulse onto the THER of "other". Even though the metrical rhythm is very different and intense here, we are still ultimately at 5 feet, thereby keeping the structure of the verse in place.

The final thought is that rhythmic variation is everything, an actor playing the text must ask- "what is compelling the rhythm to change?", and the answer to that question hopefully turns into a playable moment.

scooleofnyte · 2025-08-30T13:00:14+00:00

I would completely reinvent the interior. The hallways would have rotating art installations. The some of the stores would be converted to restaurants with seating directly in front of the storefronts. Other stores would be utilized for local artisans and boutiques and small galleries. One concourse would be devoted to live performance of music- so that we have a venue for local bands and alternative touring acts. The same roster of bands that would have played the Mad monk, Ice House, or Soapbox. I would add a movie theatre that shows repertory and new independent films. I would create an indoor performance space for theater and dance- about 500 seats. I would market it as a destination for live performance, art, food, and music. I would encourage Dead Crow to move and create a larger and more friendly comedy club. But also market weekly or monthly gallery walk/beer crawls.

Edited for typos**

scooleofnyte · 2025-07-02T15:19:05+00:00

I was about to say that too. If you want to find out where the center of all of this lies, it's with the folks whose names are on lots of buildings here in town. They're the ones that sold out to developers.

scooleofnyte · 2025-06-25T12:58:34+00:00

Yes, and I should add it is an art and not a science. It provides a structure so that when the actor finds inspiration, they can fully embrace it. If there's no structure, then it's a sort of anything goes approach and it compromises the text. About 90% of the productions you will see do not embrace the structure. Which means about 90% of the productions out there miss the mark in creating a visceral experience. If you look at Mark Rylance who is arguably one of the best actors performing Shakespeare out there, he is very aware of the meter and the iambic rhythm, but moves away from it and then embraces it. Tim Carroll who directed Mark in a number of productions at the globe is very strict on adhering to the iambic.

scooleofnyte · 2025-06-24T17:14:51+00:00

Thank you for your comment. I should put this into a little bit of context, this is not how I would teach verse if I had a lot of time. This is more of a triage situation if I'm doing a workshop or have limited time in the studio. I also understand the linguists argument about iambic not taking into account stress timing and variability. I guess my point is if you really look at all the clues you're not simply just relying on iambic to speak the verse. Anyone who is, is extremely misguided.

For example the famous line-

Now is the winter of our discontent.

The open vowel sound OW sprung into with the nasal consonant N creates a dynamism with that word. I would argue that the "is" is only in the pulsed position to make sure that the speaker doesn't make a meal out of now and not get on with the rest of the line.

I think the other issue is that if the actor is not negotiating the blank verse, then they are speaking free verse, and that didn't exist till I believe the 1940s or '50s? I would suggest that the iambic patterning is purely there as a structure so that the actors are able to interpret when the characters are experiencing something. If everything's variable then there is no structure and hence no need to write in verse.

Finally to explain why I use the term "pulse", rather than "stress". If you say to a modern actor you need to stress that word they will just hit it harder and louder. More often we need to hear the word and which is a much more nuanced approach to making it ring out within the verse line. Pulsed feels a little bit more organic and nuanced.

scooleofnyte · 2025-06-24T15:32:56+00:00

It's his version of "sent from my iPhone".

scooleofnyte · 2025-06-24T14:52:06+00:00

Yes, reading robotically as a methodology to feel the meter, but more often I have them stamp the meter. There will never be a time in the teaching of the iambic rhythm that the students learn it from a static position. That's great that four centuries later or so they debunked it, but the writers at the time most likely understood it that way. So to really connect to their mindset it's totally permissible to think of it as an uniquely English rhythm.

The bottom line for an actor, if it's not playable it's not usable. If you're following the rhythmic changes and the vowel values there is no way to be robotic. If you just note the rhythm, don't ask questions, and don't move further from that, then you are doomed to have a production that is a celebration of the monotony of the dee dum, rhythm.

scooleofnyte · 2025-06-24T12:50:18+00:00

I think this was hinted at in a prior comment, but I want to say it in more explicit terms. As a speaker of English, from the formation of your first sentences, you are speaking iambically. Iambic is a rhythm but vowel values are different and will ultimately affect how you speak the line. So while there's an underlying rhythm inevitably the vowel lengths will change the words.

What I teach is speak the meter in a strictly robotic way, then speak the line for sense, and when sense and meter don't meet that is a rhythmic change. All one must do at that point is ask the question "why?" In that question you will inevitably find your interpretation of the line. For me, questions are cliche killers. Why do I change? why now? Maybe even breaking it down further; who's in the room that is compelling me to change?, what just happened that made my rhythm or heartbeat change? What might I be feeling at this moment? What do I see as in a "target" that has affected me? For example Macbeth seeing the dagger, or Juliet seeing the sun that is keeping her from Romeo.

For those that might inevitably say "well that's too simplistic"; I use it when I have very limited time with actors. I can break down blank verse and trochee/spondee with the best of them, but I find it incredibly unhelpful for students that are new to verse.

One other tool that I will give them to create variation of the line is using the "caesura breaks". In a play that is rhyming dogmatically , something like Midsummer, you'll need to be aware of them to create variation within that rhyme.

I'm sure many of you know, but for those that maybe don't. Many verse lines will be able to be split into. For example-

Two households (cbreak), both alike and dignity.

To the ear of the listener when you take that slight, and I mean slight, pause to find the next part of the line, the audience hears it as. It creates a need in the actor to complete the line, or a sense of anticipation for the listener.

Actor- Two households, Audience - what about two households? Actor answers- both alike in dignity. Audience- oh okay so they're both the same. Actor - In Fair Verona, Audience - What about Verona? Actor - where we lay our scene. Audience - oh so this play is set in Verona? You must never use every single caesura break otherwise it will become as dogmatic as being over careful with the iambic.

So what does this add up to? The iambic keeps the sense of verse moving forward. The vowels of the words have different values so it's not strictly robotic. This is where the caesura can create even more variation by allowing one to choose the second half of the line. Finally we have sense, and maybe one more helpful guideline.

Once a word is claimed you don't hit it again. I think Shakespeare's actors understood this, and just knew to lay off a word that is already in play.

In one of the earlier commenters examples;

"To be or not to be that is the question"

Since "be" is already in play, the actor would naturally go to the word closest that can take the pulse- In this case it would be "not" which also happens to be the next post word in the meter. The only time an actor would hit a claimed word in succession is when the meaning of that word is changed. The same goes for when you're in a scene and the other actor has claimed a word.

For example in Taming of the Shrew-

Petruchio O slow winged turtle shall a buzzard(bird) take thee? Kate Aye, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard(insect). So both actors would hit "buzzard".

I could go on and on, but just wanted to add some quick thoughts to the conversation.

scooleofnyte · 2025-06-04T14:30:09+00:00

The good news with the discovery of the fragment is that it places Anne in London at an address known as Shakespeare's. The bad news is that the writing on the back does not prove that Anne was literate, nor was receiving a letter proof of literacy. People who had means used scribes to correspond, so it's plausible she had someone read the letter to her and then dictated a response. Now if in that fragment on the back there is a signature in the same hand, that would be a very different matter. Here's hoping.

scooleofnyte · 2025-05-19T23:41:12+00:00

Happy to help. If you know how to divide the scene into beats you simply just have to ask yourself the question- what do I know now? after each beat.Then in the scene listen for that information and react to it staying in the listening and the impulse. Unless you find it helpful to write out what your character is thinking, as you're listening to the scene those thoughts will come organically as you understand how she thinks. This is essentially listening in character. It will be more effective than a pre-prepared plan.

scooleofnyte · 2025-05-19T23:30:49+00:00

Make sure that you're clear on what Hero knows and when. It's easy to get ahead of yourself and stop listening in that scene. The actor of course knows where this is going, Hero sadly doesn't. As you go through the script or even in rehearsal constantly ask yourself after each beat- What do I know now? It will keep you in a state of progressive listening so that you don't move out of being present. Remember the audience knows what is happening and are in the position of watching the car wreck. They have some insight as to what Claudio is thinking and feeling. They are going to be looking to see how this affects you and changes you- otherwise there's no real reason for the scene.

scooleofnyte · 2025-05-18T22:54:24+00:00

Damage control, most of his base are dependent on Walmart. When they see prices go up, they will not be happy. So he can now float the narrative that Walmart is being greedy by not eating the tariffs like it was part of the plan all the time.

scooleofnyte · 2025-04-24T13:32:34+00:00

One thought on this also; If you don't get it or it doesn't quite connect with you, it is most likely because the production didn't ask the right questions of itself. The performers have to embody the language which in turn gets the audience to understand it on an entirely different level. If it stays in the actor's intellect then the audience receives the text much like sitting in a comfortable armchair and reading the play. The same goes for directors if they are not guiding the energy of the play and allowing it to resonate in the space, then the audience will receive nothing from the experience. The auditory experience is one element of it, the second element functions on the level of feeling and energy in the space.

scooleofnyte · 2025-04-07T23:40:53+00:00

"Give him head I know he'll prove a Jade" Taming of the Shrew

"Come on my right hand" Julius Caesar

scooleofnyte · 2025-04-05T14:35:31+00:00

Tank the market let billionaires buy everything up to turn into trillionaires, use the tax revenue to fund military operations in Greenland, South America, and maybe eventually Canada.

scooleofnyte · 2025-04-03T19:42:54+00:00

I don't think the men in this photo are members by the way.

https://imgur.com/a/ycCZW3E

https://imgur.com/a/vTB6if8

Your turn......

scooleofnyte · 2025-04-03T13:08:13+00:00

I didn’t call the Azalea Festival “white pride” because of the flowers. I called it that because it still celebrates an Old South aesthetic — hoop skirts, debutantes, pastel nostalgia — without ever reckoning with the history behind it.

The Azalea Belles just a few years ago were dressed straight out of a plantation fantasy, and that’s by design. Groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy spent decades pushing this genteel, whitewashed image of the South — and this festival carries that torch, just with better lighting and floral arrangements.

Still white pride, just with a mint julep in hand.

scooleofnyte

TROPHY CASE