Week 1 – Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” – Hermione’s arrest and defense at trial – The Rehearsal Room [Video, Audio, and Transcript versions]

What happened in Week 1?

🏁 In our first week, highlights include:

• the play as a tragic comedy and its significance in Shakespeare’s career
• Leontes sudden and irrational jealousy towards his wife, Hermione.
• the importance of pacing and punctuation in the text.

Watch the Week 1 Session!

Full transcript included at the bottom of this post.

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And there’s the audio version too – you still get everything from listening!

Total Running Time: 2:00:38

• Stream by clicking here.
• Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as/save link as”.

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Short on time?

Check out this ​​50-second clip​​ where Geoffrey, Gideon and Chris discuss Leontes’ deep frustration with the situation!

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Thank you to our current patrons at the Co-Star level or higher: Ivar, Jaelyn, Joan, Michele, Jim, Magdalen, Claudia, Clif and Jeff!

THE SCENE

Our group will be working on Act 2, Scene 1 and Act 3, Scene 2 from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale:

• Leontes has Hermione arrested for adultery and treason
• Hermione tries to defend herself in open court

Scenes from the Folger Shakespeare Library here and here.

The Winter’s Tale Team – we have artists in LA, San Diego, Philly, and New York!

• DIRECTOR: Geoffrey Wade
• DRAMATURG: Gideon Rappaport
• LEONTES: Christopher Guilmet
• HERMIONE: Shannone Lee Clair
• ANTIGONUS: J. Paul Nicholas

Read more about the artists here.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

One of our dramaturgs, Dr. Gideon Rappaport, has written three books on Shakespeare:

• Appreciating Shakespeare
• William Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Edited and Annotated
• Shakespeare’s Rhetorical Figures: An Outline

And there’s more!

Catch up on our other workshops featuring lots of Shakespeare scenes, from Hamlet, King Lear, Troilus and Cressida, Midsummer, As You Like It, and our Twelfth Night repertory extravaganza – all on the podcast and YouTube.  If you’ve missed any presentations thus far, click here to find them all.