Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

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Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 1:54pm

1) In THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, is Portia really considered a leading role? I always considered her a featured role... In response to the Tonys 2011 nominating Lily Rabe in the leading category..

2) In KING LEAR, what would the following characters be considered - Goneril, Regan, Edmund, Edgar, Gloucester - all featured or any leading?

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 2:03pm

1) Rabe was petitioned for leading and approved by the committee. I would consider Portia a leading role.

2) I think anyone besides Lear and maybe Cordelia has to be considered featured.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 2:05pm

1) Portia is a usually considered leading role. I am not sure how she could be considered otherwise. She is the heroine of the play, responsible for its denouement, and her plot is given almost as much focus as the main plot. She is the female lead of the play and her part is considerably larger than the featured characters.

2) I would consider all those roles featured.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 4:33pm

1) In THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, is Portia really considered a leading role? I always considered her a featured role... In response to the Tonys 2011 nominating Lily Rabe in the leading category..

Portia is the pivotal female role in a play in which all the roles - even Shylock and Antonio - could arguably be considered featured. She is also the "voice of reason," to the extent this brilliant but troubling play has one, and the vehicle by which the action is resolved, with her the crowning center of the plays famous poetic denoument.

Shorter answer: she could be considered either lead or featured.

2) In KING LEAR, what would the following characters be considered - Goneril, Regan, Edmund, Edgar, Gloucester - all featured or any leading?

Clearly all featured.

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 6:05pm

I do not know the text that well, and the only production of The Merchant of Venice I have seen is the Pacino/Rabe one, but in that production, Portia was to me unquestionably a leading role. Portia was really the focus of the production (and it seemed that she had more lines than anyone else, including all the men).

"What was the name of that cheese that I like?" "you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start" "well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 8:32pm

I always find Shakespeare funny that way.

Like Midsummer Night's Dream... who's the lead of that?
Cymbeline?
Othello?

And is it the line count that determines it for you or is it the character at the center of the action of the piece?

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 8:38pm

I never understood why Iago was considered Leading. Surely, Othello is the leading character and Iago should be considered Featured.

It's like in Streetcar, Stella is obviously just as bloody leading as Blanche is, and yet she is always considered Featured/supporting. Except for when McDormand played her in 1988... both McDormand and Danner were in the leading category

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 8:45pm

When Shakespeare wrote, I don't think he really cared about who was leading or supporting. He told his story.

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 9:05pm

Portia is also the largest role in the play (going by number of lines - 22% are hers).

#10

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 9:13pm

We never suggested or implied that Shakespeare cared or didn't care, we are simply having the discussion for ourselves. I'm sure one way or the other, Shakespeare would be glad to know that we are still talking about his plays, through whatever topic. I'm interested in this area of discussion and just want to know other people's views, that's all... :)

#11

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 9:15pm

Iago and Othello are pretty evenly matched. As much as Othello is the protagonist of the play, Iago drives that play from the moment it begins.

Some people paint, some people sew, I meddle.

#12

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 11:09pm

If you're counting lines I believe Iago is a bigger part than Othello.

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#13

Shakespeare - Leading and Featured Roles Question

Posted: 8/15/11 at 11:59pm

That wasn't my intent -- I understood the reason for the discussion, and didn't mean to imply anything negative toward that.

I AM, however, having a difficult time putting into words what I was trying to express -- which is maybe why I didn't say more with my original post.

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