English 198

English 198: Shakespeare (and others) in Ashland, Oregon	From the road---Pictures and papers from the Ashland trip
One Week Intensive Course for Two Units
May 2-6, 2005

It’s a week-long trip to Ashland, Oregon, to see four plays in three days. One of the plays is Shakespeare’s Richard III and the others are contemporary plays. It’s a gift to your brain and your soul to see this many plays in a short time, especially plays that are regarded as superior and performed by a company that is world renowned. Here is a chance for you to …

· have the actors meet with us for a drama workshop, for a discussion of the plays, and for a backstage tour;

Yes, you’ll earn two units of college credit under English course #198. These are not transferable units. To earn these units, we have to meet for 36 hours of instruction.

To Ashland, Oregon, a place just across the border from California. That’s where the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has their home, a repertory company that has been producing world-class theater since 1935. Ashland is roughly 400 miles from Columbia College.

Leave on Monday, May 2^nd and return on Friday the 6^th. In addition, we will meet all day on Saturday, April 29^th for a class and again on Saturday night, May 7^th, at

Probably by eight-passenger vans that are owned by the college district. We will rent two of these vans. (The other alternative is to carpool.)

We will be renting a home in Ashland called the Ashland Commons. It is three blocks from the theaters. It will be a little tight but I think its tightness will be fun, too. The manager, Stuart, provides all of our linens and sheets, plus all pots and pans and dishes. I’ve chosen this place because it’s affordable (about $22/night per person); it’s close to the theaters; it doesn’t have weird rules like the Ashland Youth Hostel; and the guy is from Vermont, and I like everything associated with Vermont. A warning: You will be sharing rooms with others, perhaps many others, but Stuart has assured me that it can be done and done comfortably. So be flexible and positive and we’ll pretend we’re a huge Irish family.

· Five Extra Play Events: $30 (play workshop, prologue, discussion with actor, exploring the design of Richard III, and a backstage tour)

Note: I have designed this course with your meager pocketbooks in mind. In every way I’ve tried to find the cheapest solution, such as getting $40 tickets for $14.

Write a check to me (Jim Toner) for $250. Pay the business office for your two units and buy your two books from the bookstore. I will need your money soon—like the beginning of February.

Food, which you can do cheaply by cooking in the Commons. (Maybe we will want to organize something like a rotating group that cooks dinner.) And we will probably need to buy a couple of books—but they will be cheap paperbacks.

1. Napoli Millionaria! One of the great plays of the modern European stage.Eduardo De Filippo's classic Napoli Milionaria! (Naples Millionaires!) is as robustly Italian as OSF's 2002 hit Saturday, Sunday, Monday by the same playwright. In the chaotic days of World War II, Amalia Jovine sets up a small-time black market business to keep her family afloat. She prospers—maybe a bit too much. Her husband, Gennaro, is compelled to ask hard questions about morality, civility and the state of their society. With a masterful blend of humor and pathos, this ultimately redemptive story comes alive for American audiences in a beautiful new translation.

2. Room Service: A screwball homage to theatre, made famously funny by the Marx Brothers. In 1938, this classic American farce had 'em rolling in the aisles. Aspiring theatrical impresario Gordon Miller has what might be ''The Great American Play.'' He doesn't have the dough to produce it, and he's teetering on the brink of eviction from the White Way Hotel. Can he hoodwink the hotel management long enough to scrape together the money? And how many starving theatre artists can you jam into one room? This tribute to the high-wire enterprise of putting on a new play revels in eccentric characters and wicked one-liners worthy of Groucho himself.

3. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: In a basement recording studio, they sing, they swing—and they've got the blues. This is the award-winning play that captured the attention of the theatre world and launched August Wilson's remarkable career. It's a knock-down powerful story that, with humor, energy and raw truth, goes straight to the heart of the Black experience in America. It's 1927. It's Chicago, and blues legend "Ma" Rainey and her band are making a record. Their white producers love the money the music brings in, but they don't much care for the musicians who create it. Racial oppression, personal conflicts and a yearning to make a mark in the world collide in a drama as earthy as the music that inspired it.

4. Richard III: Meet the most charismatic villain ever to command a stage.
He's Shakespeare's Richard III—the man audiences have loved to hate for 400 years. Deformed in body and spirit, this engaging monster is obsessed with power. Driven by bloody ambition, cursed by nightmares and a chorus of queens, Richard grinds his adversaries beneath his lurching feet until he bestrides beleaguered England like a malevolent colossus. Does he fall? Of course, but not before he has taken us all on a wild and wickedly entertaining ride.

What other classes will we take in Ashland to enrich our experience of these plays?

1. Acting workshop: This is a two-hour workshop of theater exercises led by two company members. It is designed to explore themes, characters, and the language of the plays. For us the emphasis will be on Richard III.

2. Discussion with an actor: This is a one-hour conversation with a company member after we have seen a couple of plays.

3. Exploring the Design of Richard III: This is an interactive exploration of the process of turning a script into a production.

5. Backstage Tour: This is a tour (led by an actor) of the three theater spaces. The tour will explore the history, design, and technology of repertory theater.

I will devise a detailed syllabus in the next few weeks. For now I can tell you that most of your learning will come through the experience of attending these plays. In addition, the five other events I have planned—the workshop, the discussion with an actor, the backstage tour, the prologue, and the exploration of the design of Richard III—will teach us a lot about acting, about theaters, about Shakespeare.

· I will teach you about Elizabethan England, about Shakespeare himself, about the Globe Theater;

· I will teach you about the marvel of these words, these images, these rhythms;

· I will teach you about the play itself and what Shakespeare does within the confines of a play that elevates him above other playwrights;

I’m still in the planning stages regarding your obligations, but here’s a general overview of what you’ll likely need to do:

· Keep a detailed journal on topics I’ll lay out for you. This journal will contain your reactions to each of the plays, to Ashland itself, to the workshops and classes, and to a few other things.

· Write one formal paper, probably in the 7-10 page range. This paper will likely ask you to compare and analyze the plays, but I’ll get more specific later.

· One group presentation that you’ll deliver at our last meeting at my house.

Ashland is casual but you might want to bring a few nice things to wear to the plays. Otherwise, its weather is similar to Sonora, so dress lightly.

Ahh, no. This is a college class from the moment we leave the parking lot at Oak Pavilion to the moment we return to the same parking lot, so we have to abide by the college policy of no alcohol.

· In a few weeks I’ll have a webpage for this trip. You can reach that page by first going to gocolumbia.org/tonerj and then follow the links.