Comments for Blogging The Dane

Comment on Gertrude by Kari Ann

Kari Ann — Mon, 21 May 2007 16:33:38 +0000

I just want to say, thank you. I’m playing Gertrude this summer and so am researching the character. I agree with you and the the last paragraph is exactly how I have interpreted her. The thing about knowing the cup is poisoned though… that is amazing and may use it for production. Thank you again.

In Christ,
Kari Ann

Comment on new job, new blog by hung jury « Blogging The Dane

hung jury « Blogging The Dane — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 06:50:55 +0000

[...] is written by Josh Costello « new job, new blog [...]

Comment on defining and defending the Main Action by joshcostello

joshcostello — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 07:43:41 +0000

Hi, Phil — first off, thanks for commenting. I’m always happy to have these conversations.

I started writing a long response, then realized I was repeating what I wrote in the original post. If you go back and read it a little closer, I think you’ll see that I addressed a lot of this already — I specifically said the Main Action is a tool, and not something I’d want to beat the audience over the head with.

There are three additional points I’d like to make, though.

1. Any choice you make in staging a play precludes all the other choices you could have made instead — therefore, directing a play is inherently reductive.

2. I agree that complexity is more interesting than simplicity — vastly more interesting. But I don’t agree with your implication that complexity and confusion are the same thing. A dash of confusion to keep the audience guessing is great. A play that makes no sense just bores me. There’s a balance there, and I’m pretty sure you and I would differ on exactly how far to tilt the scale. Which is what keeps things fun.

3. It sounds like you think “art” and “a strong thesis statement” are two separate things and that they can’t or shouldn’t coexist. I disagree.

Again, thanks for your comment. It occurs to me now that maybe you and I are just interested in making different kinds of theatre, maybe for different kinds of audiences. Even so, I hope you can appreciate the idea that every production of a play does make some kind of statement, and that there’s a value in thinking about what kind of statement you’d like to make.

Comment on defining and defending the Main Action by Phil

Phil — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:57:14 +0000

I disagree with your thinking. Completely. Its reductive to me.
It seems to turn art into nothing more than a strong thesis statement.
Big deal.
I want to be creatively confused by art. Complexity is more interesting.

Comment on Peter Brook’s Hamlet with Adrian Lester by another video clip « Blogging The Dane

another video clip « Blogging The Dane — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 06:35:21 +0000

[...] I’ll freely admit I stole the idea for putting the skull on a stick from Peter Brook’s 2000 production with Adrian Lester. Using the shovel as the stick was my idea, though. [...]

Comment on video by dan

dan — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:47:40 +0000

For me the fascination with editing, the thing that makes me sit at the computer for 10 hours, is in the instantaneous creation of an illusion. Somehow all those disparate shots formed a single, linear event.

Of course, in the case of taping a show, the single linear event wasn’t an illusion.

Comment on Video: Act II, Scene 2 by This Dane is Blogged « Blogging The Dane

This Dane is Blogged « Blogging The Dane — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 03:31:31 +0000

[...] I’m loving my new job as Education Director of the Marin Shakespeare Company, but it’s quickly becoming clear that I’m not going to be able to continue regular posts about Hamlet. Which, considering the show closed a month and a half ago, is probably appropriate anyway. I’ll leave this blog up, and I’ll continue to post erratically — when I can’t sleep, or when something occurs to me, or when the official archive photos finally come in, or when I finish editing more of the video. But no more trying to post something every week. [...]

Comment on Video: Act II, Scene 2 by joshcostello

joshcostello — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:14:28 +0000

Found a new filter in Final Cut Pro that drastically improves the footage from the shitty camera. I’ve gone back and fixed this up but getting it from Final Cut down to a YouTube-size file is a bit of a hassle… if I get a chance, I’ll repost this clip sooner or later. And the next clip I post should look slightly better.

This is good because it allows me to use more footage from that camera, which mostly got closeups from the house right side.

Comment on What I Learned, Part One: Nuance in Outdoor Theatre by Jill

Jill — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 00:42:28 +0000

I relished that scene, and certainly in a different environment, there would have been opportunity for levels that we could not entertain on the platforms outdoors. It was something I also felt when I did Medea-this was on a large stage in a moderate sized house. I was asked to play this huge, huge stuff…but we had a short week of rehearsal in the black box theatre across the way-and I got the sense that the true dynamics of the piece could have been better played in the smaller space. But maybe that’s my ten years in sixty seat houses.

Comment on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by Video: Act II, Scene 2 « Blogging The Dane

Video: Act II, Scene 2 « Blogging The Dane — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 09:32:22 +0000

[...] My goal here was to set up a strong relationship between Hamlet and his old friends — see this post on my analysis of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and this post about directing this scene. [...]