Fifth Folio may host an occasional essay.

Consider Shakespeare’s plays and the competing claims of directors and publishers, image versus text.

Here is another lens. Sometimes opera companies employ Broadway directors with modern production values hoping to attract a ready audience. 

Pushing technology on the stage and in the pit, and even from points within the audience, can create something special. I get a rush from novelty but not when it comes without deliberation.

I’ve learned a great deal from directors who re-create the pageant as it once was, in ancient habits. Standing while playing can encourage musicians to step into their performance. Quieter, less stable instruments in smaller orchestras give that period music a matching frame.

It’s strange that two sides of a production can ignore each other, ideologies competing in a single production: an Esso gas station on a stage paired with a faithful orchestra. Are they trying to lull them with one and capture them with the other?

Lighting, staging, casting, costumes, music, text, and choreography are avenues for creativity. Where is there room for Shakespeare publishing to move in the present day? Comic books? Audiobooks? What about books?