Who Is Silvia?

In a previous post (“Superlative Obscurity”) I mentioned Franz Schubert’s song, “Who Is Silvia?” taken directly from Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona text in Act IV, scene ii. Now, without any further ado, here is Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s rendition in English. (Watch at your own risk, there are no subtitles here.)

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Superlative Obscurity

Two Gents textShakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona is relatively unknown and undone in comparison to his other plays. This even though the play features several Shakespearean superlatives: smallest cast (13 named characters), first appearance of a girl disguised as a boy, most occurrences of forms of the word “love” (225, with Romeo and Juliet a distant second with 182), and the sole named animal (Crab, Launce’s dog). But the play is far from a favorite. It has been called “immature,” “trifling,” “improbable and unrealistic,” and “slipshod” by critics.
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Help for Confused Ears

Ever sat through a production feeling as though if you could just figure out what some particular word meant (forsworn? enfranchise? vouchsafe?) you could make sense of about 85% of the play? Or maybe you’ve felt like Dull the Constable in Love’s Labour’s Lost, who, in response to the comment that he has “spoken no word all this while,” replies, “Nor understood none neither.” Take heart—it’s not your hearing, and there’s Summer Shakespeare to the rescue with engaging and educational worksheets for this year’s production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. Learn about wordplay, punning, and word coinage; examine Shakespearean vocabulary; familiarize yourself with famous quotations; and search for Verona-esque words.
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Stage Directions

bear
During a rehearsal for Two Gentlemen of Verona, the actors became intrigued by the stage direction “exeunt” and its meaning. Research reveals that the word is a plural derived from the Latin of exire meaning “to go out” and is related to the more common singular word exit. The word is pronounced in three syllables: \EK-see-unt\. (Side note: “Exit” is part of Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction, “Exit pursued by a Beare.”) Here is a list of the sparse stage directions in Two Gentlemen of Verona:
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Casting Completed!

Casting is nearly complete for Summer Shakespeare’s 2009 production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. (We make the caveat of “nearly” because the part of Crab the dog is not yet finalized. More on canine negotiations in a future post.) See the Current Show page for full details. In case you ever wondered about how a play gets cast, here is a brief synopsis of Summer Shakespeare’s process:
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Memories of Summer Shakespeare

In Henry VI, Part I, Richard Plantagenet tells listeners, “I’ll note you in my book of memory.” Of course, he goes on to remark that he is doing so only to threaten and excoriate them later with the recollection. Summer Shakespeare makes no such threats, but with the tenth anniversary of our troupe upon us, we find a trip down memory lane only fitting. We’ve collaborated with those who have been with us from the beginning to come up with a list of some of Summer Shakespeare’s most memorable moments from each of the ten productions we’ve undertaken. How many of these do you remember?
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