Online readthrough Sunday 10th May - As you like it, William Shakespeare

[wildeabandon]

This weekend we'll be reading As You Like It by William Shakespeare. (We'll continue with Good Omens on Saturday 16th) The script is available from Project Gutenberg, and there's a list of characters here.

Poll #23989

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 18

View Respondents

Would you like to join in reading As You Like It?

View Answers

Yes, please cast me!
11 (61.1%)

Not this time, but have fun.
7 (38.9%)

Let me know about any part preferences in the comments.

Comments

[minihedgehog]

I have a class that conflicts with this Sunday afternoon (one off, not regular), I shall miss seeing everyone! I'll be back next Saturday 😄

[highlyeccentric]

I would love Rosalind, but I imagine so does everyone! Otherwise I am fond of clown roles, and Overeducated Pontificating Buffoons (and stern mamas, but I don't think there are any in this play).

... I don't think I've actually read/seen As You Like It since eighth grade, what I now recognise to be a Formative Experience for me, aka, an amateur production at the Glouster Shakespeare Festival. First live Shakespeare, first non-Tamora Pierce encounter with a trope that is still a Key Theme, shall we say... (*glares at her current conference paper draft*) I've almost been afraid to revisit for fear of spoiling it (whereas Twelfth Night I see wherever, whenever I can).

Ed: for Garth Nix reasons I would especially love Touchstone, I forgot this was the play that name comes from.

[naath]

yay. Nice play. I do not want to star, I don't know it well enough to know who's who, but I like doing bawdy jokes in iambic pentameter...

[bunnypip]

I had a similarly formative experience with it at a similar age when we studied it in Year 9 (age 13-14). It instilled a sense of festive space and experimental queer identity that (25 years later!) came out in my PhD thesis. I'm very fond of it (and I taught it last week so it's been in my head a bit).

[bunnypip]

Happy to do any part that doesn't require me to badly discern on the fly which stage directions are narrative ;-)

Seriously - would love Jacques (even though it means doing _that_ speech) but am happy to do any part (I'm not good at clowning though)

[highlyeccentric]

Twelfth Night has been my recurring feature, and what ended up in my PhD was the 'grisandolus' episode of the Prose Merlin (which... if you've ever heard of the Old French Romance Silence, which you might if you worked on cross-dressing in EM lit, well, Grisandolus is the same plot but less good).

[bunnypip]

Roman de Silence - yes.

Midsummer Night's Dream has been the recurring Shakespeare comedy that I have written about most, but AYLI was the one that started it.

[the_elyan]

I'd love to play Jaques, but then I imagine so would everyone else. Otherwise maybe Silvius or Duke Senior, but really whatever you think would suit.

[the_elyan]

Incidentally, does anyone know if textual variation is a big problem with AYLI? I have a Complete Oxford Shakespeare, and would use that to save me printing another copy, but if it's likely to cause any issues, with use the version from Gutenberg.

[the_alchemist]

Like everyone else, I want to be Rosalind or Jaques. Third choice probably Touchstone. Sorry! I will try to work out if I have other preferences.

[tenebrousphantom]

I realise I haven't yet commented; apart from, as always, preferring no women, cast me as you will.

[themidnightgirl]

I'd like Celia or Phoebe, if possible!

[ofunaq]

I’d happily play anyone, though preferably not Rosalind or Jaques. Or also happy to be a bystander if you’re oversubscribed.