Virtual theater series turns tables on traditional Shakespearean performances
The combined performances in Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare: At Home explore the dynamic force of narrative in relation to Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, histories and late plays. What follows is simple and idiosyncratic, absurd and strangely compelling and through a kind of lo-fi, home-made puppetry, the stories of the plays really do come to life in vivid miniature. Each play is intimately retold by one actor, sitting alone at a table alongside shelves lined with household objects and a collection of everyday products which become the play’s characters. A salt and pepper pot are used for the king and queen. A vase for the prince. A matchbox for the servant. A toilet roll tube for the Innkeeper. A water bottle for the messenger. The result is a kind of levelling of the plays—a gently comic re-casting of them via objects from the kitchen cabinet and grocery store shelves—as well as a celebration of their power as stories, and the act of storytelling and theatre itself. Watch Complete Works: Tabletop Shakespeare: At Home on YouTube.
UCLA writing programs professor, Tara Prescott-Johnson, is the winner of this year’s Table Top Shakespeare competition that was hosted alongside the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA’s online theater series, “Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare: At Home.” (Courtesy of Bills Costello)
"UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance is bringing Shakespeare back to the virtual campus.
From Sept. 17 to Nov. 15, CAP UCLA had been promoting Forced Entertainment’s online theater series, “Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare: At Home,” where the members performed abridged versions of four of Shakespeare’s 36 plays each week using household items as their cast. The theater company also partnered with CAP UCLA to stage a competition for students and community members where they submitted their own Table-Top-inspired interpretations of the Bard’s scenes. The winner will receive a 60-minute coaching session with Forced Entertainment and the chance for their interpretation to be professionally recorded.
CAP UCLA’s arts engagement coordinator, Ivy Hurwit, said the center wanted to show that theater is for everyone by opening the competition to the community.
“Asking people to engage with theater from their homes is something that we’re all still getting used to, but I think it feels good to engage with the arts in a way that actually involves our bodies,” Hurwit said. “Thinking about content, taking it on, and making it our own is a really innovative way to reach people and to develop community.”
Back in 2016, Forced Entertainment performed “Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare” over a six-day period in Royce Hall. Writing programs lecturer and winner of the recent Table Top Shakespeare competition, Tara Prescott-Johnson, said she was able to catch one of the nights." — Rio Deniger, Nov. 16, 2020
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
Watch Complete Works: Tabletop Shakespeare: At Home.
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