Taking the Measure of One's Suppositions, One Step at a Time

Authors

  • Regina Buccola Roosevelt University

Abstract

One Step at a Time Like This, a Melbourne-based theater company, developed an astonishing interactive meditation on Measure for Measure for Chicago Shakespeare Theater's World's Stage Series in the fall of 2014. An immersive, ambulatory theater experience, Since I Suppose pushed audience participants to examine the complex sexual politics of Shakespeare's play, the city of Chicago, and their own personal moral identities through a variety of different lenses. Since I Suppose challenged its audience participants' assumptions of imperviousness to the corruption of a political aspirant like Angelo, the weakness of a political figure such as the Duke, or the myriad temptations of a sprawling city. In the manner of the best productions, One Step at a Time Like This produced an adaptation of Measure for Measure that left audience members with not merely a different understanding of the play, but of themselves. Diving deeply into a corrupt world of substitute political leaders, substitute sexual partners, and substitute decapitated criminals, Since I Suppose left its audience to contemplate the profundity of the most basic question of identity: Who are you?

Author Biography

Regina Buccola, Roosevelt University

Regina Buccola is Professor of English and Chair of the Humanities at Roosevelt University in Chicago, where she also serves as Director of Literature and Languages and core faculty in Women's and Gender Studies. She has published several books on early modern British drama and culture, most recently as editor of A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Critical Guide and co-editor, with Peter Kanelos, of Chicago Shakespeare Theater: Suiting the Action to the Word. In addition to several essays in collections, she has also recently published in Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England. She serves as the scholar in residence at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and is one of the Midwest American reviewers for the online journal Reviewing Shakespeare.

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Published

2018-05-01

Issue

Section

Appropriations in Performance Reviews