Some Early Notes and Inaugural Data on the vShakespeare Concordance

Written by ina on Monday, 11 of May , 2009 at 12:15 am
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I’ve been musing on creating a Shakespeare Concordance that includes side-by-side comparison of Folio, playscript (as used by my SL Shakespeare Company), and (interpretive) Modern English editions, as well as other language editions, with video and audio segments (SLSC again!) and inline notes (and perhaps even some rudimentary scansion — stray syllable counts, if not some de-dum marks!) Beautiful(ish) layout with jQuery perkiness, and just convenience, in general, especially for acting troupes who use the first folio for analysis.

Today I’ve gone through creating its first data file (and, there are also several foreign language files, aside from some of the Mandarin Chinese, all translated by volunteers, each one lined up by row numbers).

It’s initially a series of flat files, for reference for actors. At the current rate, aiming to produce a Shakespearean-play-a-year, it’d probably take a bit for the actual lexicon to fill up. The spreadsheet above should easily convert to csv for php’s text processing functions to shrill!

It started when I was trying to catch up on what our original Mandarin Chinese translator was supposed to translate, but didn’t get to do. Fortunately, for OEP1, I’d finished much of the wardrobe assignments and scenic design items months ago in our preview season in late 2008 - so I had some time for manual labor. But, the Chinese texts I found were all so sterile, I ended up translating my own versions, where I attempted to convey more of the poetry and interpretive meaning I’ve applied in directing Twelfth Night. (You can see a bit of what I mean in the “first data file,” especially my Modern English interpretive translation.)  This unexpected bout of creativity made me remember how when I first encountered Shakespeare’s plays in seventh grade, I’d read them quite differently than the standard interpretation. So, it’s given me chance to (literally!) find my own meaning in the play, where I disagree with the various editions (and, it seems, that many words in the concordance are taken out of context — or perhaps not viewed as creatively, as should — for example, there’s the reference of fools’ breast in Act 2, which might have been taken literally, with a drunken Andrew noting Feste’s breasty breast!, instead of interpreted as voice).

Category: Amusing, Projects, Reviews, theatre

Who is Ina Centaur?

A 25-year old American polymath of Taiwanese ancestry pretending to be old and Caucasian in Second Life. Semi-retired independent scholar also dabbling as an independent artist in new media, particularly theatre and the humanities—notably Shakespeare. Programmer, playwright and novelist. Formal academic background in http://portfolio.inacentaur.com/ina/scientist, philosophy, and bioengineering.

This is largely a personal blog which isn't always up-to-date. There's no one definitive way to stalk me ;-).