Tag Archives: The Paper Stage

The Humming Beefeater

08 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by in Stories, Theatre

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

We’ve finished reading Sheridan’s The Critic with Il Palcoscenico di Carta, the other day. It’s been a good reading, with several new faces, a lot of enthusiasm and quite a few good laughs.

Also, among the new faces, we’ve had a… rather peculiar character.

Let me begin with the beginning – the very first reading, indeed. We were happily Sheridaning away, when I heard a strange squeaking sound coming from my right… I couldn’t tell what produced it, and was rather busy with the reading anyway.  The bookshop people carting books around on something with squeaky wheels, I decided – and wouldn’t have given it a second thought – except it happened again. And again. And again.  And not only there was nary a cart in sight – squeaky or otherwise – but the more it happened, the more it sounded like… mewling. Continue reading →

Il Palscoscenico di Carta is back!

05 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by in Theatre, Things

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Interesting week, this… Which is why I haven’t posted on Thursday, by the way. Things have happened – mostly good, but time-consuming, and I never know when all the time goes.

DSCN1109BWOne of the things, though, is this: we have found a home for Il Palcoscenico di Carta. At long last. One wouldn’t believe how difficult it was, but really, we’ve tried all sort of places: from cafés to small museums, from bookshops to military clubs – with everything in between… some were so blatantly unenthusiastic that we walked away, some loved the idea but had no room, some were willing but not right now, some asked an extortionate fee… Continue reading →

Deadly Sins and Stolen Cups

12 Thursday Nov 2015

Posted by in Stories, Theatre

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Faust123One thing that we noticed while reading Faustus with the Paper Stage, was that perhaps a three-part reading doesn’t suit every play – and this is true of the 1616 B Text of Faustus.

Faustus, with its mix of great power, fear and comedy, is a very Elizabethan kind of thing. When you split it in three, you have a strong beginning, in which a disillusioned  scholar sells his soul to the devil, a potent ending in which said scholar pays the price for his arrogance, and in between… In between one is left with a string of comic scenes that, without the bitter irony of the premise and the fearful shadow of the ending, are at risk of falling more than a little flat. Continue reading →

The Actor’s Dilemma

01 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by in Theatre

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

ActorOne of the actors taking part in the Palcoscenico di Carta/Paper Stage project made a very interesting observation.

It all began with a night-time message after the first of three meetings, in which he had read Faust(us) himself.

“This is a little awkward,” he wrote. “I’d like to be told I was good, but I don’t think I was… There’s no time, no room to work on the character – and I see that the PS calls for a reading, rather than a deeper identification… This is how it is, but still I feel inadequate. My fault, for never knowing how to keep to the golden mean.” Continue reading →

Il Palcoscenico di Carta Grows Up

10 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by in Theatre

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , ,

LocandinaFaustusPiccolaSo, il Palcoscenico di Carta/the Paper Stage is back.

For three weeks, starting next Tuesday, we’ll gather in “our” dear bookshop-cum-art gallery to read an Italian translation of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. We’re in a flurry, right now, handing out parts and trying to get the local press to mind us at least a little.

I won’t read any part, this time: my job is introducing the play – and it won’t be the easiest of tasks. You know, there was little reason to do this back in May, when we read Romeo and Juliet. We all know R&J, don’t we. We all know who Shakespeare was, we all know the story, we all know what to expect. Why, we’ve all seen a movie adaptation or three – and very likely also the play itself, once or twice. Continue reading →

I’m back!

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by in Things

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

no-internet-connectionI hadn’t disappeared… Or yes, well – I had, but it wasn’t my idea. A thunderstorm wreaked havoc with communications around here, and I was stranded and net-less for three days.

It happens now and then – and will go on happening, because I live in a tiny riverside village in the middle of nowhere, not too far from rural Mantua. The place is pretty to the point of idyll, but show me an Arcadia with good Internet connection… This to explain that it could happen again – it will happen again: I’ll go missing, and you’ll know why.

Anyway, while I was stranded, things kept happening. One is that this post appeared on the Paper Stage Blog, about Il Palcoscenico di Carta. I really love this project to bits, and can’t wait for September to begin again. And meanwhile there are developments… I’ll let you know.

Il Palcoscenico di Carta

05 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by in Theatre, Things

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Pollock's 4ScribblingsDo you remember the Paper Stage – Canterbury’s public play-reading group? I told you about it some time ago.

What perhaps I didn’t tell you is that, after that post, Dr. Newman of the Paper Stage wrote to me asking: why not? Why not do it, why not set up an Italian chapter of the Paper Stage in my hometown?

And indeed… why not? Continue reading →

The Shape of Things to Come

17 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by in Theatre

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

head_wip_bw.jpg3Nina is the director in one of the companies I write for – not the one with the Centipede. She called me the other day, and summoned me, because we had things to discuss. Several things.

So I reported to a sort of green-room meeting, and found Nina positively sizzling with ideas – hers and mine.

First of all, could I please prepare an abridged version of my Sonnets play for a staged reading, a sort of hors-d’oeuvre before they stage the whole thing in earnest next year?

And (before I could catch my breath) speaking of Shakespeare, why don’t I open their cycle of Shakespearean readings with… well, not exactly a conference, but a conversation about Shakespeare and Marlowe, with two to four voices to read pieces of my choice, and myself as a narrator?

Oh, and about an Italian Paper Stage – what a marvelous idea! And yes, we are most definitely doing it. Could I please manage the blogging side? And prepare something-something for their website too?

“Only if you feel like it, of course..”

As if I would turn down any of it. As if she thought I would…

It’s quite some work – with a strictish deadline, because roles and readings will have to be handed out before the company disbands for vacations at the beginning of august, and the rest must be ready for the press-conference in which the company will present the season, at the beginning of September. So last night I sat up until four to work on what Nina and I have named the Small Sonnets, to begin with, and I expect a repeat tonight, and then there will be the matter of choosing the readings, and the blog, oh the blog – and let’s not forget two conferences, and the summer course I’m teaching in August…

This is going to be a busy summer.

 

 

The Paper Stage

21 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by in Theatre

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

1952.PlayReadingI guess much depends on exactly which sort of magic you seek when it comes to theatre – because there are so many.

But if you love the words, and all the imagining the words can spark off, then a play-reading group might be your thing. It might be mine: much as I have been increasingly busying myself with such production aspects as stage direction and lighting, I’m a playwright first. And, words being my stuff, I would love to be part of a project like The Paper Stage: people gathering at the Gulbenkian Cafè, in Canterbury, to read Elizabethan plays aloud.

No experience needed, and, from what I gather, no rehearsals: one just lets the group know, turns up, and… reads. And the play takes on a life of its own, judging by last month’s Romeo and Juliet.  Oh, to be in England, now that such a brilliant idea is here…

As researcher and blogger Eoin Price says in his asidenotes, this means a chance to hear – if not to see – performed plays that are seldom staged, and to explore the varied richness of Elizabethan theatre in much more depth than it is usual.

Wish I could be in Canterbury next Monday, for the second Paper Stage event, a reading of Marlowe’s Jew of Malta. And because obviously I can’t, I’m already wondering: can I think up a Paper Stage-like group around here?

Related articles