Dutch Courtesan Rehearsal Workshop & Public Reading
When and Where
Description
This workshop invites scholars and actors to test out a variety of approaches to The Dutch Courtesan in a collaborative rehearsal process. During the day, actors from the upcoming PLS/CDTPS production of John Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan will work with scholars and dramaturges in an informal rehearsal, discussing the play’s themes and context and testing out ideas and suggestions on our feet. In the evening, we will present a free, open staged reading of a (very) abridged version of the play, and a discussion with the audience of its action and themes, and their relevance to Toronto now.
The urban landscape of The Dutch Courtesan presents London as a city that prides itself on being multicultural and cosmopolitan while also feeling deeply anxious about the place of ‘strangers’ within its urban landscape. The main plot deals with the treatment of a foreign sex worker whose otherness is partly established through her accent; the sub-plot follows two members of a distrusted religious minority as they are tricked and abused, presumably for the audience’s entertainment. The play’s concerns with otherness, gender, sex, religion, and foreignness are all tied to the context of the early 17th century, but are also powerfully resonant in 21st century Toronto. By putting scholars and actors in conversation, this workshop aims to explore both the play’s original context and its modern resonances, as well as to discover ways in which actorly and scholarly ways of knowing and articulating knowledge can extend and enrich each other.
Please contact Erin Julian if you have any questions.
Visit the Poculi Ludique Societas website for more information.