A "Merry War"

Synetic's Much Ado About Nothing and American Post-war Iconography

Authors

  • Sheila T. Cavanagh Emory University

Abstract

Synetic Theatre, a Washington, D.C. area theatrical company with artistic roots in the Republic of Georgia, has achieved significant renown for its ongoing series of "wordless" Shakespeare performances. Highly choreographed, these "physical theater" productions vary dramatically in tone and presentation, although they each use distinctive costuming, music, and movement in order to offer nuanced interpretations of Shakespearean drama despite the absence of spoken language. Although their style closely resembles dance, they push against those definitional boundaries and encourage audiences to view their presentations as movement-based genre pieces that defy ready categorization.

Author Biography

Sheila T. Cavanagh, Emory University

Sheila T. Cavanagh is Professor of English at Emory University and served as Fulbright/Global Shakespeare Distinguished Chair in the UK (2016-2017). She is founding director of the World Shakespeare Project (http://www.worldshakespeareproject.org) and co-Director of "First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare" and Emory's Year of Shakespeare (2016-2017). She also held the Masse-Martin/NEH Distinguished Teaching Professorship. Author of Wanton Eyes and Chaste Desires: Female Sexuality in the Faerie Queene and Cherished Torment: The Emotional Geography of Lady Mary Wroth's Urania, she has published widely in the fields of pedagogy and of Renaissance literature.

Downloads

Published

2017-05-01