Renaissance Slot: Dr. Faustus

Cross posted from Rogue Shakespeare's blog.

Monday, January 13th was the first day of our rehearsal process for our Renaissance show, Dr. Faustus. In an effort to mine what we can learn from early modern theatrical practices, we have a shortened rehearsal period, work from cue scripts, and have no director. I’m playing Dr. Faustus, which means I’ve had a daunting amount of lines to learn in preparation.

On our first day of rehearsal I felt the pressure and realized that I needed to be very careful about how I tax myself over the next two weeks. My cue script, which is double-spaced, is forty pages long. Jessica Schiermeister, our dramaturg, mentioned that the next largest cue script is Mephistophilis (Dane Leasure) at sixteen pages. It’s the kind of information that you don’t really want to know. Faustus is an incredibly daunting role.

But as I’m writing this blog post on Wednesday morning, that stress has dissipated. I feel great. Rather than being scary, the process for this production quickly became exciting. Every time I walk into our rehearsal space a new prop, costume, or puppet has seemingly appeared overnight. It’s so exciting to watch the creativity, ingenuity, and daring that the Rogues are putting into this production. And that, it turns out, is actually what the Renaissance production is about.

Dr. Faustus seemed to some of us a strange choice for this slot, given the time constraints. I specifically cautioned against it because of it not being an ensemble show in terms of line spread (ha ha joke’s on me). Other company members (and faculty) were nervous about the stage directions and the amount of spectacle the play requires. It turns out we were all wrong: Dr. Faustus is the perfect show for this company to do in the Renaissance slot. I think we perhaps we wrongly assume that the learning experience of a Renaissance-slot production comes from the shortened rehearsal period and the lack of a director. But I’ve discovered that those are actually least interesting parts of this experience. This slot is instead about having to come up with all the solutions ourselves. It’s about wondering whether we can pull something off and then just deciding to do it. We have attacked the challenges with gusto and are having a ball exploring new ideas for staging in the Blackfriars playhouse. In our reach-for-the-moon, color-outside-the-lines attitude, we have, I think, truly found the spirit of an early modern playing company. Our company’s greatest strength is our big ideas, and Dr. Faustus as a Renaissance-style production is perfectly suited to highlighting that strength.

The theatre-makers of the early modern stage were technically proficient and explorative. They made theatre in a time where audiences demanded an incredible rate of new plays. It seems only natural to assume that this inventiveness would have been applied to theatrical technology and staging. Indeed, I think scholars and practitioners are mischaracterizing the early modern theatre whenever it is described as minimalistic. I have no doubt that were Shakespeare’s company to be magiced to modern day London, and given the choice to perform in the Olivier or the Cottesloe, they would want the drum revolve.

Dr. Faustus is working out as a Renaissance production because of the way the play allows the work to be divided up among the company. Though I have the lion’s share of lines, but because of everyone else’s support and hard work, I don’t have to worry about anything else. It’s actually a great relief to realize that even with a forty-page cue script, a production does not rely on you. I have kind friends who have mentioned that they would love to see me play Faustus. But I’ve got to say, don’t come to this play for me. Come for the other eleven members of the company and our three “hired men” (MLitters Scott Campbell, Emma Patrick, and Ian Charles). Those fourteen people are making some incredible theatre, and I just get to enjoy the ride.

- See more at: http://actorscholar.com/content/renaissance-slot-dr-faustus#sthash.cKOKBK1N.dpuf