My hat, what a picnic!

The title for today's entry comes from THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW, the first book in the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. We read a chapter most nights at bedtime. Upon taking in the fullness of a bizarre scene, one of the characters, Digory (the nephew in the title), remarks "My hat, what a picnic." My children (and I) think it is a hilarious phrase. Luca, our youngest, improved on the phrase by coining "My hat, there's a picnic in it!". Gales of laughter. Not a quiet bedtime. Joy.

My days making theatre in rehearsals for THE TEMPEST have been nothing short of exquisite picnic. APT does things right. I have not met a single person here who does not take the greatest pride in doing the job well. As promised, I will continue to touch on each of the director's tasks. So, back to the preparation conversation...today: editing and critical thought.

I have grown mightily in the quality of my pre-rehearsal preparation over the last six years. I have also continued to hone my abilities in reading, teaching, interpreting, coaching, and acting from the folio edition (the 1623 first printed version of Shakespeare's plays), but nothing prepared me for the Lion of Preparation that is James Bohnen. In my last entry, I proudly mentioned my great liking of and insistence on using the Arden edition of Shakespeare's plays when doing preparatory reads. Yes, well, in addition to offering great thoughts from Mark Van Doren, Coleridge, Montaigne, and others into the tablework conversation, James assured me that the most recent Arden editors of THE TEMPEST, Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan, were good, very smart, indeed, but the generally recognized authority is Frank Kermode, who edited the Arden edition of THE TEMPEST prior to the current one. Of course, you all knew that, didn't you.

My copy should arrive tomorrow and will be tucked IN FRONT OF the Vaughans in my bag.

Then, I learned that the Penguin edition of THE TEMPEST (which I had always small-mindedly dismissed as lesser simply because it wasn't the Arden) was certainly not worth dismissing! Oh, not because of the editing of the play, necessarily, but because of the enormous worth of the introduction written by Anne Barton. Anne Barton who is a Fellow in English at Cambridge. Yes, Anne Barton who is married to John Barton...John Barton of RSC fame...John Barton who led the Playing Shakespeare series the RSC filmed back in the early 1980's. I wonder what dinner conversation is like at their house? Did I mention that this is the Penguin Classics edition from 1968? That's right, not the current edition, silly.

I ordered that one at the same time. Anne and Frank will keep each other company in my bag.

I'll be ordering the New Variorum edition of THE TEMPEST (I did know about this one! It's the edition that contains nearly three centuries worth of critical thought on each of Shakespeare's plays) when we get back home.

And so I am happily humbled by the reminder that--if I know where to look--I can stand on the shoulders of giants when I engage the making of a new production of a Shakespeare play. But where do I look? Needless to say, I'll be e-mailing James every time I begin work on a new play, in addition to going down blind alleys and making mistakes of my own. Wisdom comes from experience, after all. James is, as his wisdom suggests, 25 years older than me. Thank you James Bohnen for being a living example of discipline and relentless pursuit of all thoughts and things that might bear fruit down the road when you could easily rest on the fact that you're a smart and experienced dude. That's just plain righteous.

We e-mailed and spoke today about how he prepares for these first two weeks and, by implication, why he reads and reads and reads... He had this to say "...reconnecting to research done months before and only half remembered, is all so crucial to creating an energy in the room of constant probing and exploring and stimulation....if you get all that working reasonably well, then good actors will see into the play and individual scenes more deeply than I ever could....THAT is when the tiny miracles of insight happen and everyone benefits and feels great about themselves...which is our only REAL job as directors."

My hat, what a beautiful picnic, indeed.