Cut Him Out in Little Stars: Romeo and Juliet in Diaspora

Core Program 2016–17
Entertaining the Idea: Shakespeare, Philosophy, Performance

Conference 2: Cut Him Out in Little Stars: Romeo and Juliet in Diaspora

—a conference organized by Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine; Lowell Gallagher, University of California, Los Angeles; and James Kearney, University of California, Santa Barbara

co-sponsored by
UCLA Office of Interdisciplinary & Cross Campus Affairs
UCLA Department of English
UCI Shakespeare Center

To me she speaks; she moves me for her theme:
What, was I married to her in my dream?
Or sleep I now and think I hear all this?
What error drives our eyes and ears amiss?
Until I know this sure uncertainty,
I’ll entertain the offer’d fallacy.
—from The Comedy of Errors

To entertain is to delight and amuse but also to receive guests and hence to court risk, from the real dangers of rape, murder, or jealousy to the more intangible exhilaration of self-disclosure and captivation in response to another. To entertain an idea is to welcome a compelling thought or beckoning fiction into the disinhibited zone of speculative play. “I’ll entertain the offer’d fallacy,” says Antipholus of Syracuse as he abandons himself to the comedy of errors. Like Antipholus, readers of fictions and viewers of plays entertain “themes” and “dreams” on their way to recognition and new knowledge as a mode of testing the significance and reach of the thought-things and person-problems, encountered in a world co-created by their imaginative participation.

The second conference addresses the international migrations of Romeo and Juliet and the philosophical repercussions wrought by translation, adaptation, and media transfer.

Images
William Blake, 1757–1827
Juliet Asleep (illustration to Shakespeare) & Cordelia and the Sleeping Lear (illustration to Shakespeare)
Pen and watercolor on paper, ca. 1780
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Speakers
Shaul Bassi, Ca’Foscari University of Venice
Joseph Campana, Rice University
Leticia Concepcion Garcia, University of California, Irvine
Carla Della Gatta, University of Southern California
Lowell Gallagher, University of California, Los Angeles
Hugh Grady, Arcadia University
Ariane Nada Helou, Ahmanson-Getty Fellow
Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine
Viola Timm, independent scholar

Master Class: “Palm to Palm: A Working Session on the Pilgrim Scene from Romeo and Juliet“
Peter Kazaras, University of California, Los Angeles

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Program
Friday, January 20, 2017

9:00 a.m.
Morning Coffee and Registration

9:30 a.m.
Welcome

Lowell Gallagher, University of California, Los Angeles
Introductory Remarks

9:45 a.m.

Remembering Romeo and Juliet
Moderator: Robert N. Watson, University of California, Los Angeles

Shaul Bassi, Ca’Foscari University of Venice
“Romeo and Juliet in Italy: A View from the Balcony”

Carla Della Gatta, University of Southern California
“Romeo and Juliet in Spanish Language and Performance Traditions”

Hugh Grady, Arcadia University
“Love and Death in Romeo and Juliet”

Discussion

12:00 noon
Lunch

1:00 p.m.

Romeo and Juliet among the Arts
Moderator: Kent Lehnhof, Chapman University

Joseph Campana, Rice University
“Of Dance and Disarticulation: Juliet in the Land of the Dead”

Ariane Nada Helou, Ahmanson-Getty Fellow
“Juliet’s Vocal Metamorphoses”

Lowell Gallagher, University of California, Los Angeles
“The Cut of the Voice and the Erosions of Home: Juliet’s Musical Soundworlds”

Discussion

3:15 p.m.
Walk to Jan Popper Theater

3:30 p.m.

Palm to Palm: A Working Session on the Pilgrim Scene from Romeo and Juliet

A master class featuring singers from Opera UCLA and actors from the UCLA Department of Theater, under the direction of Peter Kazaras, Director of Opera UCLA

Please note that the master class will take place in Jan Popper Theater,
located inside Schoenberg Hall.

5:30 p.m.
Reception

Saturday, January 21, 2017

9:30 a.m.
Morning Coffee and Registration

10:00 a.m.

Roundtable: Entertaining Romeo and Juliet: Cute, Impure, Spanglish, and More
Moderator: James Kearney, University of California, Santa Barbara

Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine
Viola Timm, independent scholar
Leticia Concepcion Garcia, University of California, Irvine

11:15 a.m.
Coffee Break

11:30 a.m.

Staging Shakespeare: A Workshop

Lowell Gallagher, University of California, Los Angeles
Ariane Nada Helou, Ahmanson-Getty Fellow

How do conceptual choices about where and when to locate the action of a Shakespeare play affect our understanding of the play? What do we gain from moving a play out of its historical setting—for example, Renaissance Verona or Republican Rome—and into worlds unknown to the play’s author and original audiences? And what, if anything, do we lose? Participants will be led through sample production histories and performance excerpts, followed by hands-on work with the represented plays.

1:00 p.m.
Program concludes

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After booking Day 1, please book Day 2 at: 1718.ucla.edu/little-stars-2/#register/