麻豆影院

Colorado Shakespeare Festival director sought help to facilitate 鈥榦ne of the most amazing forms of communications in theatre鈥�

Tyler Lansford is transforming the death of Julius Caesar into new life for Roman rhetoric. Audiences attending this summer鈥檚 Colorado Shakespeare Festival will see, hear and feel the resurrection.

Lansford, who teaches Latin and Greek literature in the 麻豆影院 , is coaching Julius Caesar actors on rhetoric.

Lansford and the Shakespeare festival have teamed up on the belief that helping actors more fully understand classic rhetoric might help them better convey the full meaning of the play and of its subject. So Lansford shows actors what rhetoric is鈥攁nd is not.

And rhetoric is not a dirty word.

Classic rhetorical devices enrich masterpieces from the Iliad to the Gettysburg Address. Nonetheless, Lansford notes, 鈥渞hetoric has declined from a cornerstone of liberal education to a dismissive epithet for misleading or bombastic speech.鈥�

Rhetoric is a rich and rewarding art, categorized like a science. But few playgoers have the background to catch, on the fly, 鈥渁ny but the most obvious instances of antithesis, anaphora or conduplicatio,鈥� Lansford states.

Don鈥檛 be fazed by the Greek terminology. Anaphora, for instance, is the repetition of a word at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or sentences. Brutus鈥� speech at Caesar鈥檚 funeral features this device:

鈥淎s Caesar loved me, I weep for him.
As he was fortunate, I rejoice at it.
As he was valiant, I honor him.
But, as he was ambitious, I slew him.鈥�

That is just one of many rhetorical devices the play employs. And the primacy of rhetoric is why Anthony Powell, director of the CSF鈥檚 2017 production of Julius Caesar, sought Lansford鈥檚 help.

Many actors, particularly younger actors, must perform the elegant rhetoric onstage, but can be 鈥渄azzled by the sheer profusion of ornamental flourishes with which virtually every line flashes and gleams,鈥� Lansford states.

鈥淲e know that the principal method of publication in the ancient world was oral performance 鈥� everything from the Iliad and the Odyssey to Livy鈥檚 history of Rome was composed for the ear,鈥� Lansford says. 鈥淭he difficulty is that we don鈥檛 have any native speakers of ancient Greek or Latin, so our ability to re-create the performance aspect of classical literature is severely limited.鈥�

The play demonstrates the power of rhetoric, which Cassius uses to persuade Brutus of the need to kill Caesar. Such rhetoric is 鈥減art of the action of the play, not just in the background of the language,鈥� Lansford says.

Powell first read Julius Caesar in high school, and understood it included grand rhetoric. He comprehended this more fully after reading Rome and Rhetoric: Shakespeare鈥檚 Julius Caesar, a 2011 book by Pulitzer-winning historian Garry Wills.

So how will a Colorado Shakespeare Festival audience benefit from the actors鈥� coaching in rhetoric?

鈥淲hen the actor is really operating on all cylinders and has a lot going on in their head, an audience won鈥檛 necessarily know what they鈥檙e seeing or what the actor is actually doing,鈥� Powell observes. 鈥淏ut they know something is going on, and they lean forward in their seats.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the most amazing forms of communications in theatre, to me.鈥�

Lansford concurs, noting that trained actors like those in CSF will deliver lines expressively even without knowing all the components thrumming under Shakespeare鈥檚 hood. Still, when actors understand the 鈥渢ricks and tropes鈥� of the play, they gain the 鈥渢ools to work with it in a more creative way, a more expressive way.鈥�

Because Latin and ancient Greek are no longer spoken languages, 鈥渢hat glorious rhetoric produced by Cicero or Demosthenes remains inaccessible in a basic way. We will never hear a Greek or a Roman speech spoken again, and there are some remarkable reports of the effect that a speaker like Cicero could have on crowds, the electrifying effect he could have on crowds.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 almost as if he knew how to go straight for the central nervous system,鈥� Lansford says, adding:

鈥淚 am excited by the idea of reviving that aspect of the classical tradition 鈥� even if indirectly 鈥� by helping actors realize the expressive potential of classical rhetoric in Shakespeare.鈥�

And he observes: 鈥淚 think rhetoric has fallen on hard times. It鈥檚 identified with deceptive speech, and that鈥檚 a sad comedown for a noble art.鈥�

The 鈥檚 2017 production of Julius Caesar runs from July 7 through Aug. 12 at the Mary Ripon Theater on the CU 麻豆影院 campus. For tickets or information, click .

听