Despite the relevance of Shakespeare’s work to modern life, what theater-maker hasn’t fantasized about getting a glimpse of what an original production of these plays sounded like? This year, The Classical Studio took a step towards expanding the “original practices” movement by learning O.P. (Original Pronunciation) in preparation for the Studio’s production of Hamlet this past spring. […]
Results of Hamlet in O.P Rehearsals of Hamlet in O.P. proved revelatory, and the students initiated a blog to track their discoveries. New wordplay emerged from a text with which the directors were thoroughly familiar. The personalities of the characters attained greater contours than they would have in either Standard American or in R.P. (Received […]
Close readers of the plays of Shakespeare will have noted that characters will often address others using either you or thou. The employment and differentiation of you and thou are still in use in French, Italian, and Spanish. The words in translation are also used in the speaking of German. Further, individuals will often alternate […]
Hendiadys is a figure of speech in which two words connected by a conjunction (usually ‘and’) are used to express a single notion that would normally be expressed by an adjective and a substantive, such as “gracious favor” in place of “grace and favor.” It stems from the Latin phrase “one thing by means of […]