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If you loved director Rebecca Taichman’s ravishing Twelfth Night and her exquisite Sleeping
Beauty Wakes, you’ll adore her astonishing artistry in The Winter’s Tale. Tragic, romantic, hilarious,
and uplifting, this genre-bending masterpiece is one of Shakespeare’s most elegant and haunting
plays. This beautiful, music-filled, and magical classic celebrates redemption, reconciliation, and the
mending of broken hearts. Princes and princesses, disguised identities, jealous kings, oracles,
pickpockets, and one ravenous bear—if you haven’t seen The Winter’s Tale before, don’t miss this
opportunity!
“DELISH AND DAZZLING: …SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDY TRUE TO
TEXT BUT MADE GORGEOUSLY FRESH BY A BRILLIANT YOUNG
DIRECTOR, REBECCA TAICHMAN.”
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
(On Taichman’s 2009 production of Twelfth Night at McCarter)
Winter’s Tale Plot Synopsis
Leontes, King of Sicilia, and Polixenes, King of Bohemia, are close friends, but Leontes cannot
convince Polixenes to extend his nine-month visit to the Sicilian court. But Leontes’ pregnant queen,
Hermione, does persuade Polixenes to stay. Seeing them together, Leontes is consumed by a
sudden and powerful wave of jealousy. Leontes orders one of his lords, Camillo, to poison the
visiting king. Instead, Camillo and Polixenes flee Sicilia together, which Leontes interprets as proof
of his adulterous suspicions. Hermione is left alone to face the king’s wrath.
In prison, Hermione gives birth to a girl. Paulina, a loyal noblewoman, presents the newborn to the
king, hoping to soften him, but Leontes commands Paulina’s husband, Antigonus, to abandon the
child in the wild. Meanwhile, Mamillius, Leontes and Hermione’s older child, falls very ill.
Hermione stands trial before her husband. Although she denies his accusations, and is backed up
by Apollo’s oracle, Leontes presses forward to condemn her. Thennews is brought to the courtroom:
Mamillius has died. Hearing this, Hermione collapses and is removed from the chamber. Leontes is
overcome with remorse as suddenly and powerfully as he was with jealousy, but he is too late.
Paulina returns to announce that Hermione is dead.
Antigonus leaves the child on the Bohemian shore along with gold and an explanation of her
misfortune, naming her Perdita. A passing shepherd finds the child. He takes her in as his own,
keeping her origin a secret.
Sixteen years pass. Prince Florizel of Bohemia has fallen deeply in love with the shepherd’s
daughter, Perdita, and she with him, but Polixenes seeks to force them apart because of her
supposed low birth. Florizel chooses Perdita over his father and his claim to the throne, and the two
flee for Sicilia. King Polixenes pursues the young lovers, and the shepherd pursues the king, bearing
the truth of Perdita’s birth, accidently aided by the thief and rogue Autolycus.
In Sicilia, Leontes’ grief is as fresh as it was the day he lost his family. Perdita reminds him of
Hermione, and he agrees to help the young lovers. When Polixenes and the shepherd arrive in
Sicilia, her true parentage is revealed, the kings are reconciled, and all rejoice. The family visits the
statue of Hermione recently finished in Paulina’s home, and unexpected miracles reveal themselves.
Interview with Rebecca Taichman
Thoughts on The Winter’s Tale:
One of Shakespeare’s late romances, The Winter’s Tale is a study in tonal collision—sliding from
tragedy to comedy and back again. We careen through the dangerous, moneyed Sicilian court, into
the comic Bohemian countryside, and back again. The play contains multiple and ever-shifting webs
of meaning. As a director, the visual and theatrical challenges are...well...absurdly difficult and
wonderfully exciting. You’ve got that famous stage direction: “Exit, pursued by a bear.” You’ve got a
statue that needs to come to life. You’ve got two tonally opposite worlds that somehow need to make
illogical logic together.
Doubling actors and cutting the play:
Our production is organized around a central theme in the
play: transformation. The Winter’s Tale investigates how the
human spirit can be transformed by jealousy, by love, by
forgiveness. Our story is told by a company of nine actors in
which everyone in Sicilia plays everyone in Bohemia.
Hopefully at the heart of the endeavor you will feel a
celebration of the actors’ capacity to contain multitudes—as
Shakespeare was celebrating our capacity for contradiction,
transformation, multiplicity, so too does this production. With
the spirit of economy in cast size, we also attempted to cut the
text to a more muscular form. Many characters in the original
are no longer in this version. Hopefully the essential spirit
remains.
working on classics, opera, musicals and new plays in
tandem. It’s a wonderful collision of styles, and ultimately they
all inform each other.
Music in Winter’s Tale:
Paulina, in the final scene of Winter’s Tale, says "Music, awake her, strike!" It comes at the climax of
the play and suggests to me that for Shakespeare, music was inextricably linked to the world of the
play.
Nico Muhly, who is our composer, is a once in a generation musical genius. He has scored films:
The Reader, Margaret, written operas: Dark Sisters, Two Boys (on its way to the Met next year),
performed with the likes of Arcade Fire, Philip Glass, Bjork, on and on. His music spans a vast
spectrum and is uniquely suited to this play with tonal juxtaposition at its center. He has taught me
every step of the way, and staging to his music is this director's dream come true.
CAST & Creative
Sean Arbuckle (Polixenes)
Broadway: The Importance of
Being Earnest. National tour:
Copenhagen. 11 seasons with
the Stratford Festival of
Canada, where roles included
Orsino in Twelfth Night; The
Pirate King in Pirates of
Penzance; Tuzenbach in Three
Sisters; Bassanio in The
Merchant of Venice; Julian
Marsh in 42nd Street;
Saturninus in Titus Andronicus;
Talthybius in Trojan Women;
Alcibiades in Timon of Athens;
Dazzle in London Assurance;
Cliff in Cabaret; and Nick in
Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?. New York: The
Waverly Gallery, Henry VI.
Regional: A.C.T., Shakespeare
Theatre, Berkshire Theatre
Festival, Denver Center
Theater, George Street
Todd Bartels (Florizel) OffBroadway: Adam
Rapp's Bingo with the
Indians (The Flea), Young
Jean Lee's Church (The
Public), Melanie
Marnich's Quake (Theatre
Row). Regional: Michael
Mitnick's Ed,
Downloaded (workshop,
Denver Center). International:
George Bernard
Shaw's Candida (Edinburgh
Fringe). NYU: Richard III,
Orpheus Descending, The
Emperor Antony, boom. Film:
Whit Stillman's Damsels in
Distress, American
Girl. TV: The Americans
(FX). Education: BA, Harvard;
MFA, NYU Graduate Acting
Program.
Brent Carver (Camillo)
Broadway: King Lear, Parade
(Drama Desk Award), Kiss of
the Spider Woman (Tony,
Drama Desk awards).
Stratford: Hamlet, Much Ado
About Nothing, Jesus Christ
Superstar, As You Like It,
Jacques Brel, Elizabeth Rex,
Fiddler on the Roof, Foxfire.
Other theater credits: My Life
With Albertine (Playwrights
Horizons), The Tempest
(Mark Taper Forum); High
Life (Crows Theatre, TO);
The Elephant Man, The Story
of My Life, Vigil, Larry’s Party
(Can Stage, TO); Cyrano,
Richard III (The Citadel,
Edmonton). Film/TV: Ararat,
The Event, Sleepy Hollow,
Deeply, Lilies, The Wars
(Genie, Gemini Awards)
Brent Carver in Concert; CD
Walk Me to the Corner.
Playhouse, Walnut Street
Theatre, Indiana Repertory,
Pioneer Theatre Company. TV:
Law & Order, Sex and the City,
Hope and Faith. Training: Duke
University and Juilliard.
Mark Harelik
(Leontes/Autolycus) Broadway:
The Light in the Piazza, Mrs.
Warren’s Profession, The
Normal Heart. Off-Broadway:
Old Money, The House in
Town, The Beard of Avon.
National tour: The Heidi
Chronicles. Regional: South
Coast Rep, Williamstown
Theater Festival, Mark Taper
Forum, A.C.T., Seattle Rep,
Intiman, Denver Center
Theater, La Jolla Playhouse,
Old Globe. Film: 42, For Your
Consideration, Election, The
Job, Meeting Spencer, Timer,
Eulogy, Watching the
Detectives, Barbarians at the
Gate. TV: Vegas, Awake,
Family Tree, The Good Wife,
Breaking Bad, Lie to Me,
Monk, The Big Bang Theory,
Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies,
Grey’s Anatomy, ER, Dirt,
Sleeper Cell, Prison Break,
Heroes, Medium, The Closer,
Nancy Robinette (Paulina)
last appeared at McCarter in
Twelfth Night. She has
performed most of her acting
life in Washington, D.C.,
recently as Anna in
Government Inspector and
Mme. Argante in Heir
Apparent as an Affiliated
Artist with The Shakespeare
Theatre. Other recent roles:
Essie in Ah Wilderness!,
Agrippina in You Nero, and
Ann in Well (Arena Stage);
Clara in The New Electric
Ballroom, Florence Foster
Jenkins in Souvenir, and
Nancy in Frozen (Studio
Theatre); Margaret in Walter
Cronkite Is Dead (Signature);
and Grace Anne in The
Carpetbagger's Children
(Ford's Theatre). She has
appeared at The Globe,
Everyman, Williamstown,
Waterfront Playhouse, Paper
Tom Story (The Clown)
McCarter: Loot, Twelfth
Night, Tartuffe. Mr. Story is
an Affiliated Artist at the
Shakespeare Theatre where
he has appeared in Twelfth
Night, Design for Living, The
Government Inspector,
Henry V, Richard II,
Cymbeline, and The Rivals.
Studio Theatre: A Number,
The Invention of Love, Pop,
The Pillowman, Legends!,
Ivanov, Prometheus, The
York Realist. Ford’s Theatre:
Sabrina Fair, 1776, Our
Town. Folger Theatre: 1
Henry IV. Roundhouse: Next
Fall. Arena Stage: The Book
Club Play. Hub Theatre: The
Clockmaker. Regional:
Berkshire Theatre Festival
(nine seasons), Seattle Rep,
Kansas City Rep, Yale Rep,
Provincetown Rep, Great
Lakes Theatre Festival. He
has been nominated for six
Bones, Desperate
Housewives, Will and Grace,
Seinfeld, Star Trek Voyager.
He is the author of (and
appeared in) The Immigrant,
The Legacy, and Hank
Williams – Lost Highway.
Mill, NYTW, and
Roundabout. She
toured Eastern Europe in
Stakeout at Godot's with
Scena Theatre, where she
also played Mother
Courage. Film/TV: Louie,
Homicide, The Hunley, and
Serial Mom.
Ted van Griethuysen
(Antigonus/Old Shepherd)
McCarter: Much Ado About
Nothing, Twelfth Night.
Broadway: Romulus,
Inadmissible Evidence. OffBroadway: Sounding Beckett,
NY Shakespeare Theatre. An
Affiliated Artist with The
Shakespeare Theatre
Company of Washington D.C.
since 1987, his credits include:
All’s Well That Ends Well, King
Lear, Major Barbara, Love’s
Labour’s Lost, (STC, Royal
Shakespeare Company,
Stratford-upon-Avon), Henry
IV, The Tempest. Studio
Theatre: The Steward of
Christendom, The Invention of
Love, The Habit of Art.
International: The Life of
Galileo (Battersea Arts Center,
London), Broadway from the
Heather Wood
(Mamillius/Perdita) McCarter:
Workshop of Phaedra,
reading of When We Were
Young and Unafraid. Other
theater: Three Sisters (Yale
Rep, Berkeley Rep); The
Seagull, A True History of the
Johnstown Flood (The
Goodman); Romeo and
Juliet, The Merry Wives of
Windsor (Old Globe); Othello
(Shakespeare Festival Saint
Louis); Travels of
Angelica (Cincinnati
Playhouse in the Park,
Acclaim Award Best
Supporting
Performance); King Lear
(New York Classical
Theatre); Our Town (Trinity
Rep); Misalliance (Publick
Theatre Boston); Two
Gentleman of Verona
Helen Hayes Awards and is
a graduate of Duke
Universtiy and The Juilliard
School.
Hannah Yelland (Hermione)
is delighted to be making her
debut at McCarter.
Broadway: Laura in Brief
Encounter (Tony nom., Best
Leading Actress 2011). West
End: Kate Nickleby in
Nicholas Nickleby with her
father, David Yelland, (also
Chichester Festival Theatre;
UK Tour; Toronto); Daisy in
Daisy Pulls it Off. U.S.
Regional: Brief Encounter
(A.C.T., Guthrie, St. Ann’s
Warehouse Brooklyn). UK
Regional/Ireland: Rachel in
My Cousin Rachel (Gate
Theatre, Dublin); Nora in A
Doll’s House (Abbey Theatre,
Dublin); Mrs. Warren’s
Profession (Vivie), dir. Sir
Peter Hall; French Without
Tears; Bedroom Farce; The
Linden Tree. TV: Modern
Shadows (Grand Theatre,
Luxembourg and the Arcola,
London), Lovely and Misfit
(Trafalgar Studios, London).
Awards: six Helen Hayes
Awards, the Will Award, and
Drama Desk Award. He is
Artistic Director and CoFounder with his wife, Rebecca
Thompson, of The Opposites
Company, arising from the
aesthetic theories of Eli Siegel.
(Guerilla Shakespeare
Company); Agnes of
God (Stray Dog
Theatre). Heather received
her MFA from Brown
University/Trinity Rep.
Love; Dinotopia. UK: Poirot,
A Touch of Frost, The
Secret, Ahead of the Class,
Micawber, Ultimate Force,
Dalzell and Pascoe, The
Project, Holby City. Film:
Method, AKA.
William Shakespeare
(Playwright) has had plays on
and off-Broadway and at
regional theaters around the
world, including Hamlet,
Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream,
King Lear and
Pericles. Shakespeare wrote
during the English
Renaissance, when theater
was one of the primary forms
of entertainment and new plays
were all the rage (but so was
bear-baiting, let’s not get
carried away). As an actor and
writer for the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men (later to
become the King’s Men),
Shakespeare wrote for a
dedicated company under the
patronage of some of the most
powerful nobles of his era. The
new works that he and his
contemporaries created
continue to have an abiding
influence on the drama and
literature throughout the world.
Rebecca Taichman
(Director) McCarter: Sleeping
Beauty Wakes by Rachel
Sheinkin, Brendan Milburn,
and Valerie Vigoda; Twelfth
Night. Off-Broadway: Luck of
the Irish by Kirsten Greenidge
(LCT3), Milk Like Sugar by
Kirsten Greenidge
(Playwrights Horizons),
Orlando by Sarah Ruhl
(CSC), Dark Sisters by Nico
Muhly and Stephen Karam
(world premiere, Music
Theater Group/Gotham
Chamber Opera/Philadelphia
Opera Company), The Scene
by Theresa Rebeck (Second
Stage). Regional: Marie
Antoinette by David Adjmi
(world premiere, Yale Rep
and A.R.T); She Loves Me
(OSF); Cymbeline, Twelfth
Night, Taming of the Shrew
(STC); Dead Man’s Cell
Phone and The Clean House
by Sarah Ruhl (Woolly
Mammoth, Helen Hayes
Christine Jones (Set
Design) Broadway: Hands on
a Hardbody, American Idiot
(Tony Award), Everyday
Rapture, Spring Awakening
(Tony nom.), The Green Bird
with director Julie Taymor
(Drama Desk nom.). OffBroadway: Coraline (Lucille
Lortel); The Book of Longing,
music by Philip Glass, based
on the poems of Leonard
Cohen (Lincoln Center
Festival). She recently
designed Rigoletto for the
Metropolitan Opera. She is
the artistic director of Theatre
for One, and is an adjunct
faculty member at NYU’s
Tisch School of the Arts.
The Winter’s Tale had its first
recorded performance in 1611
at The Globe Theatre in
London. Shakespeare’s most
recent McCarter credit is
Twelfth Night (2009), also
directed by Rebecca
Taichman. He is widely
considered to be the greatest
playwright in the English
language.
Award Outstanding Resident
Play); The Evildoers by David
Adjmi (world premiere, Yale
Rep); The Green Violin by
Frank London and Elise
Thoron (world premiere,
Prince Music Theatre,
Barrymore Award
Outstanding Direction of a
Musical). Ms. Taichman is a
graduate of Yale School of
Drama and has been an
instructor at the O’Neill
National Theater Institute,
MIT, Yale, and the University
of Maryland. Awards: TCG
New Generations Grant,
Drama League Directing
Fellowship.
David Zinn (Costume Design)
Broadway: sets and costumes:
Seminar; costumes: Picnic,
The Other Place, Other Desert
Cities, Good People, Bengal
Tigar at the Baghdad Zoo, In
the Next Room or the Vibrator
Play (Tony and Drama Desk
noms), A Tale of Two Cities,
Xanadu. Recent off-Broadway:
sets and costumes for The
Flick, Completeness, Circle
Mirror Transformation
(Playwrights Horizons);
Dogfight (Second Stage); The
Select (The Sun Also Rises)
(Elevator Repair Service);
Notes from Underground,
Chair, Orpheus X (TFANA),
That Face, Back Back Back,
The Four of Us (MTC). Opera:
Christopher Akerlind
(Lighting Design) McCarter:
Sleeping Beauty Wakes,
Twelfth Night, Mirandolina,
Changes of Heart, The
Triumph of Love. Broadway:
The Gershwins’ Porgy and
Bess (Tony nom.), Superior
Donuts, Top Girls, 110 in the
Shade (Tony nom.), Talk
Radio, Shining City, Awake
and Sing (Tony nom.), Well,
Rabbit Hole, In My Life, The
Light in the Piazza (Tony,
Drama Desk, Outer Critics
awards), Reckless, The Tale
of the Allergist’s Wife, and
Seven Guitars (Tony nom.)
among others. Recent: Rocky
the Musical (Hamburg
Germany), Marie Antoinette
Matt Tierney (Sound
Design) McCarter: The
Select (The Sun Also Rises).
Off-Broadway: Luck of the
Irish (LCT3); Detroit, Kin,
This (Playwrights Horizons);
Uncle Vanya, The Ugly One,
Blasted (Hewes award)
(SoHo Rep); That Face
(MTC); Elevator Repair
Service’s The Select (The
Sun Also Rises) (Lortel, Obie
awards, 2012), The Sound
and the Fury (April Seventh,
1928) (NYTW, Lortel nom.
2009). Regional: Ajax,
Futurity (A.R.T.), Red (Alley
Theatre), House of Gold
(Woolly Mammoth), BAM,
Center Theatre Group.
Former member of The
sets and costumes at New
York City Opera,
Glimmerglass, Santa Fe
Opera, Los Angeles Opera,
Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Regional: Yale Rep, Guthrie,
A.R.T, Berkeley Rep, La Jolla
Playhouse, Actors Theatre of
Louisville, Mark Taper Forum,
and many others.
(A.R.T) Anne Bogart’s
production of Norma
(Washington National Opera),
the premiere of Philip Glass’
Appomattox (San Francisco
Opera), and Kafeneion
(Athens/Epidaurus Festival).
Awards: Obie for Sustained
Excellence; Michael Merritt
Award for Design &
Collaboration.
Wooster Group: Hamlet (The
Public, Lortel nom. 2008),
Who’s Your Dada?! (MOMA),
The Emperor Jones. With
Young Jean Lee’s Theater
Company: Lear, The
Shipment, and Church.
Nico Muhly (Composer) The
music of New York–based
composer Nico Muhly has
been played by such
ensembles as the Britten
Sinfonia and the New York
Philharmonic, and sung by
soloists including Mark
Padmore and Jessica Rivera.
In addition to numerous
recordings of his own music
(available on Decca and
Bedroom Community
Records), he has collaborated
on projects with Antony and
the Johnsons, Grizzly Bear,
Jónsi of Sigur Rós, and Teitur
Lassen. His first opera, Two
Boys, is a co-commission by
the Metropolitan Opera and the
Lincoln Center Theater
Opera/Theater Commissions
Program, in a co-production
with the English National
Opera.
Ellis Ludwig-Leone (Music
Director) is a composer and
musician active in New York
City. He is a recent recipient
of residences from The
MacDowell Colony, Banff
Centre for the Arts, and the
Við Djúpið music festival in
Iceland. Ellis is the songwriter
and bandleader for San
Fermin, whose self-titled
debut will be released by
Downtown Records in June
2013. Other projects include
a ballet for Troy Schumacher
and BalletCollective, to be
premiered by ACME at the
Joyce Theater's Ballet v6.0
festival in August 2013. Since
graduating from Yale
University in 2011 he has
worked as a musical assistant
to Nico Muhly.
Camille A. Brown
(Choreographer) Broadway:
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Off-Broadway: Soul Doctor.
New York: Pins & Needles.
Concert: Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater,
Complexions, Hubbard
Street II, Ballet Memphis,
Philadanco, Urban Bush
Women. Awards: Princess
Grace Award in
Choreography; Founders
Award (International
Association of Blacks in
Dance); The Mariam
McGlone Emerging
Choreographer Award
(Wesleyan University); City
College of New York Women
& Culture Award; Bessie
nom. for "Best Performance"
in her work, The Evolution of
a Secured Feminine; Best
Choreography nom. from the
Black Theater Arts Alliance
for her first work on
AAADT, The Groove To
Nobody’s Business.
Companies: Ronald K.
Brown/Evidence, AAADT
(guest). Fashion: New York
Fashion Week (Saverio
Palatella's WholeGarment
3D). Education: University of
North Carolina School of the
Arts, BFA.
Gillian Lane-Plescia (Vocal
Coach) McCarter: Loot,
Ridiculous Fraud, A Christmas
Carol. Broadway: War Horse,
Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
Recent regional: Carousel
(Goodspeed), A Gentleman’s
Guide to Love and Murder
(Hartford Stage). She has
coached at Arena Stage,
American Players,
CENTERSTAGE, Classic
Stage, Clurman Theatre,
Goodman, Guthrie, Huntington,
Long Wharf, Milwaukee Rep,
NJ Shakespeare, Old Globe,
Playmakers Rep, Seattle Rep,
Shakespeare Theatre,
Steppenwolf, Yale Rep, Actors
Theatre of Louisville, Banff
Center for Fine Arts, and she
was also English Diction coach
for Lyric Opera of Chicago for
five seasons. She teaches at
The Juilliard School. Her
popular series of self-teaching
dialect CDs for actors are used
throughout the U.S., Canada,
England, Australia, and
Europe.
Laura Stanczyk, CSA
(Casting Director) has been
casting at McCarter since
2005.
Broadway: Follies, Don't
Dress for
Dinner, Lombardi, Ragtime, I
mpressionism, The
Seafarer, Radio
Golf, Translations, Coram
Boy, Damn
Yankees (Encores! Summer
Stars), Urinetown. In
addition: Ghost Brothers of
Darkland County (Alliance
Theatre), Cotton Club
Parade (Encores! in
association with Jazz at
Lincoln Center); Master
Class, The Lisbon Traviata,
The Golden Age, Broadway:
Three Generations (Kennedy
Center); Harps and
Angels (CTG); The Glorious
Ones (LCT); Dirty
Dancing (national tour); Long
Day’s Journey Into Night, The
Cripple of
Inishmaan (Druid/Atlantic);
The Shawshank Redemption
(Dublin/West End). Six Time
Artios Nominee and winner
for last year's production of
Follies.
Character Descriptions
Shakespeare’s Romances - BY CARA TUCKER
Late in his career, Shakespeare began to experiment with genre.
In the late 1800s, scholars struggling to reconcile the tragic and
comic aspects of these late plays, found themselves searching for
a term to capture the sweep of human experience encapsulated in
them. Influenced by the romantic movement of the first part of
that century, they began referring to them as “romances.” You
may be familiar with some of them: The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline,
Pericles, and The Tempest.
The term “romance” conjures up images of turtledoves and
bleeding hearts (or a tawdry breed of novel). Although that kind of
romance can be found in Shakespeare’s romances, the genre of
romance contains so much more. No two romances are the
same, and there is no precise formula for these plays as
Shakespeare wrote them. Romances swerve between humor and
heartbreak in a way that can be powerful, confusing, beautiful, and
contradictory. Multiplicity is one of the genre’s most potent
features. They are just as tricky to pin down as they are exciting
to explore.
“[Shakespeare’s late plays
are] a different genus,
diverse in kind, not merely
different in degree – romantic
dramas, or dramatic
romances.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1808
“We suddenly pass to beauty
and serenity; from the plays
concerned with the violent
breaking of human bonds, to
a group of plays which are all
concerned with the knitting
together of human bonds, the
reunion of parted kindred,
the forgiveness of enemies,
the atonement for wrong …
The dramas have a grave
beauty, a sweet serenity,
which seem to render the
name “comedies”
inappropriate; we may smile
tenderly, but we may never
laugh loudly, as we read
them. Let us then, name this
group, consisting of four
plays, Romances.”
Edward Dowden, 1879
At heart, romances are adventure stories. The characters achieve
redemption, but only by traversing dark, winding paths littered with
struggle. The world of the romance spans a wide stretch of time,
and it often brushes the supernatural, and includes a deus ex
machina. Romances juxtapose multiple settings, traveling
between troubled courts and untamed country. Kings, servants,
rogues, shepherds, and lovers teeter on the edge of disaster.
Romance’s characters have chances to change their courses in
life, but even the happiest endings are bittersweet. Romances are stories of opposites,
transformation, error, and discovery. Where tragedies ruin and comedies save, romances forgive.
So why did Shakespeare write these romances? Many of Shakespeare’s plays were based on preexisting stories, and a comparison can grant insight into Shakespeare’s intent as a playwright.
Changing these tales into romances sometimes changes them completely. The Winter’s Tale is one
such work. In the original story, the queen never returns from death after her king condemns her.
There is no forgiveness and no statue. When the king finally meets his long-lost daughter, he lusts
after her, unaware of her identity. When he discovers who she is, he commits suicide. The new
queen and her king wipe the horrible past away and begin anew. None of these elements are
present in Shakespeare’s story. As a romance, the story is no longer exclusively focused on tragic
loss. Instead, romance allows Shakespeare to tell a story that focuses on healing and
transformation. Tragic loss is exchanged for romantic forgiveness.
The Winter’s Tale can contain both joy and sorrow and sorrow at once. It is exactly because
romances contain such dramatic extremes that they contain such power: so much can be lost, and
so much can be found. Venturing into The Winter’s Tale, you can find a multitude of meaning in
every change and in every opposite. With all they contain, The Winter’s Tale will sweep you away
on an adventure bigger than a bear and more exciting than you’ve ever imagined.
Shakespearean Verse
What is the “language” of Shakespeare? How does it work? Most of the playwrights in
Shakespeare’s time were writing in a metrical form of verse known as iambic pentameter. In this
form, each line consists of five poetic units called “feet,” and each foot is equal to two syllables. The
second syllable of each foot is accented. Shakespeare most often used unrhymed iambic
pentameter, known as blank verse. Blank verse closely resembles the natural rhythms of speech in
English, which allows the speaker greater freedom of tone, while still having a specific emphasis
within the line, which would be lacking in prose.
A line such as, “But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?” from Romeo and Juliet
provides an excellent example of the use of iambic pentameter because it can easily be broken up
into its five feet: five stressed and five unstressed syllables.
But, soft / what light / through yon- / -der win- / -dow breaks?
Whether or not a character speaks in iambic pentameter is often attributable to his or her station in
life. People who are of a higher position in the class structure of the play often speak in meter, while
the lesser subjects tend to speak in prose. This, however, is not always the case.
SHAKESPEAREAN VERSE: SOME BASICS
GENERAL TERMS
Scansion: the analysis of verse to show its meter.
Meter: the systematically arranged rhythm in verse — rhythm that repeats a single basic pattern of
stressed and unstressed syllables.
Foot: the basic unit of verse meter.
TYPES OF FEET
Iamb: A metrical foot consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. (E.g.,
A-bove, Me-thinks, The night)
Trochee: A metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable.
(E.g., Me-tal, Feel-ing, Flow-er)
Spondee: A metrical foot consisting of two stressed syllables. (E.g., Play on, Well said)
TYPES OF VERSE
Pentameter: A form of verse consisting of 5 feet, 10 syllables.
Iambic Pentameter: A form of verse consisting of five iambs. (E.g., I do / I know / not what, / and
fear / to find)
Irregular meter: Often Shakespeare will break the pattern of stresses to create moments of interest,
to highlight themes and word choices, to create a rest or pause, or to underline the specific intention
of the character. (E.g., Would I / or not. / Tell him / I’ll none / of it.)
“Feminine” endings: Lines of verse that have an “extra” unstressed syllable which can occur at the
end of a verse line or within a verse line at the end of a phrase. (E.g., There is / a fair / be-hav- / -ior
in / thee, capt-ain)
Reprinted from McCarter Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Audience Resource Guide
Pre-Show
Educators: We recommend that you use one or more of the assignments and activities in this
document to introduce your students to William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and its context,
and themes, as well as to engage their imaginations and creativity before they see the production
Post-Show
Educators: We recommend that you use the questions, and activities in this document to have
students evaluate their experience of the performance of The Winter's Tale, as well as to encourage
further exploration of the play in production. Consider also that some of the pre-show questions and
activities might enhance your students’ experience following the performance.
(click to view printer-friendly PDF)
Core Curriculum Standards
According to the NJ Department of Education, “experience with and knowledge of the arts is a vital
part of a complete education.” Our production of William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and the
activities outlined in this guide are designed to enrich your students’ education by addressing the
following specific Core Curriculum Content Standards for Visual and Performing Arts:
1.1
The Creative Process: All students will demonstrate an understanding of the elements and
principles that govern the creation of works of art in dance, music, theatre, and visual art.
1.2History of the Arts and Culture: All students will understand the role, development, and
influence of the arts throughout history and across cultures.
Performance: All students will synthesize those skills, media, methods, and technologies
1.3appropriate to creating, performing, and/or presenting works of art in dance, music, theatre,
and visual art.
Aesthetic Responses & Critique Methodologies: All students will demonstrate and apply
1.4an understanding of arts philosophies, judgment, and analysis to works of art in dance, music,
theatre, and visual art.
Viewing The Winter’s Tale and then participating in the pre- and post-performance discussions and
activities suggested in this audience guide will also address the following Core Curriculum Content
Standards in Language Arts Literacy:
Reading: All students will understand and apply the knowledge of sounds, letters, and words in
3.1 written English to become independent and fluent readers, and will read a variety of materials
and texts with fluency and comprehension.
3.2 Writing: All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and
form for different audiences and purposes.
3.3 Speaking: All students will speak in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content
and form for different audiences and purposes.
3.4 Listening: All students will listen actively to information from a variety of sources in a variety of
situations.
Viewing and Media Literacy: All students will access, view, evaluate, and respond to print,
3.5
non-print, and electronic texts and resources.
In addition, the production of The Winter’s Tale as well as the audience guide activities will help to
fulfill the following Core Curriculum Content Standards in Social Studies:
World History/Global Studies: All students will acquire the knowledge and skills to think analytically
6.2 and systematically about how past interactions of people, cultures, and the environment affect issues
across time and cultures. Such knowledge and skills enable students to make informed decisions as
socially and ethically responsible world citizens in the 21st century.