Roland Weidle: On the Origin of the Project

In his recently published autobiography, The Fry Chronicles, British comedian, actor, writer, screen writer, playwright and TV show host Stephen Fry writes about his student years in Cambridge. When he describes how he became involved in the theatre scene (and how he eventually met "Dr House" Hugh Laurie and twice Academy Award winner Emma Thompson), Fry explains why such student activities are so important.
First, he says that the most important aspect of theatre clubs and societies at universities like Cambridge is that they are extracurricular, i.e. the students do not get credit points for their work. If a student takes part in something that he or she doesn's really have to do, one can be pretty sure that this person is motivated and, therefore, willing to invest the necessary amount of time and energy that is required of him or her. Second, Fry commends these activities for the fact that you learn on the job. "All you need is enthusiasm, passion, tirelesness and the will, the hunger and the need to do it." Fry even goes so far as to say that these exracurricular activities are the sites where real university education takes place. From the viewpoint of a university teacher this is of course pushing the argument a bit far. Nevertheless, Fry has a point: the knowledge and experience obtained outside lecture halls and seminar rooms are of a different kind and often also of a more practical and useful nature than knowing the difference between the rhetorical figures of metonymy and synecdoche or the textual history of the second quarto edition of Hamlet.

FORTUITOUS CIRCUMSTANCES

For a good idea to become reality several factors must come together: someone who actually has the idea and triggers the project, an institution or environment that provides the necessary technical and logistic infrastructure to put the idea into practice, and, lastly, easy access to a pool of talented, highly motivated and skilled people. All three came together in the winter term 2010/11 when a) a student mentioned to members of the English department that she would be interested in staging one of Shakespeare's late plays, when b) the English department approached the university's drama group, the EDNAs, and when c) the department offered two master seminars in the summer term 2011 and winter term 2011/12 to prepare and accompany the production on various levels.
Once the contact was established between the students, the EDNAs and the English department the idea gathered momentum. As it turned out, The Tempest proved to be the play that met with the greatest approval. The next idea was to make this a student project on a broader scale. Students should not only perform, direct and stage The Tempest, but they should also be involved in the cutting of the text and the dramaturgical process.

PORTFOLIO AND CUT VERSIONS

We decided to offer a seminar on The Tempest ("From the Page to the Stage") in the summer term 2011. The object of this seminar was to investigate the historical, cultural and literary background of the play, always, however, with a view to its performative context and the fact that it is a play that was written to be performed on a stage. Students had the option either to contribute to a portfolio or to take part in producing a cut version of the play. The final portfolio includes sections on the "Main Characters and their Relations", "Shakespeare's Language and How to Speak it", "Colonialism at the Time of Shakespeare", "The Masque: Cultural Significance and Historical Background", "Sources, Influences and Adaptations" of the play and the staging and adaptation history. The main idea behind the portfolio was to provide the actors with relevant information on the characters and some of the main themes.
The cut versions, on the other hand, (nine versions were eventually handed in by teams of one to three students) were mainly intended for the director and dramatic advisor of the EDNAs to offer them different perspectives on the play and to supply them with a variety of options for the cuts they were intending to make. Where some of the version focused, for example, on the figure of Caliban as the noble savage, others emphasised the importance of Prospero's imagic or the role of Ariel. At the end of the term and before the beginning of the rehearsals, the cut versions and copies of the portfolio were handed to the creative team of the EDNAs.

A SECOND SEMINAR AND A PAPER

A second seminar was offered in the winter term 2011/12 on Shakespeare's romances (Pericles, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest). Its aim was, among others, to place The Tempest in a wider literary and historical perspective and to focus on the generic features and conventions of Shakespeare's late plays. At the same time, the seminar also focused on practical matters. To start with, the students attended the EDNAs' rehearsals, for which sheets with different tasks were handed out beforehand. On the basis of these task sheets, the students were asked to focus on specific aspects such as staging, realised cuts, characterisation etc. In the following seminar session, the results were presented and discussed with members of the drama group. A second and more tangible result is the newspaper you are holding in your hands. At the beginning of this winter term a number of editorial meetings were held to brainstorm and discuss subjects for possible articles. Not only students from the seminar on the romances were addressed and pooled, but also those who were generally interested in taking part, regardless of the subjects they study. A deadline for the articles was set which (almost) every writer met and a small editorial team spent the weeks before Christmas proofreading, correcting and creating a layout.

GERMAN SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY, SCHAUSPIELHAUS BOCHUM AND MAX STAFFORD-CLARK

Three more partners must be mentioned who made this joint venture possible. The German Shakespeare Society (Deutsche Shakespeare Gesellschaft), founded in 1864 and one of the oldest literary societies in the world, regularly hold their annual conference in Bochum and has agreed to include our student production of The Tempest as part of their spring conference "Faith and Doubt in Shakespeare" from 20 to 22 April 2012 in Bochum. The EDNAs' production will in fact be playing on the opening day as a late night performance in the "Theater Unten" at the Schauspielhaus Bochum. Its new artistic director Anselm Weber and his team have supported our production from its inception by providing, amongst numerous other things, the theatre, technical equipment and staff to run the show. Last but not least, the English Seminar was able to invite Max Stafford-Clark, artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre in London from 1979 to 1993, to give an acting workshop exclusively for the actors of our production, which took place on 9 and 10 December at the Ruhr University.
At another point in his autobiography, Stephen Fry describes the pleasure he drew from his involvement in the theatrical activities at Cambridge: "The beauty of our way was that everyone was learning as they went along. [...] My God, [...] it is exciting." There is nothing to add to Mr Fry's statement.