GEES Project Podcast

John Milton's Comus - Interview with John Edwards on the music of Comus - Pt. 2

Director Heather Davies and theorbo player and music director John Edwards chat about the music in John Milton's masque Comus and especially about the dance music of masques in general, and the dances of William Lawes which we used in our production.
Visit https://musiciansinordinary.ca/episodes to click through the series and download mp3s to add to your music playlist.
This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

John Milton's Comus - Interview with John Edwards on the music of Comus - Pt. 1

Director Heather Davies and theorbo player and music director John Edwards chat about the music in John Milton's masque Comus and especially about the original songs by Henry Lawes.
Visit https://musiciansinordinary.ca/episodes to click through the series and download mp3s to add to your music playlist.
This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

John Milton's Comus - Interview with director Heather Davies

Director Heather Davies discusses the special challenges of the masque form, Milton’s verse and the rehearsal process in the time of covid with John Edwards.
Visit https://musiciansinordinary.ca/episodes to click through the series and download mp3s to add to your music playlist.
Heather Davies was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and grew up in Toronto, Ontario. She’s trained as a dancer, singer, actor and musician and has worked professionally since her teens. Heather moved to the UK to continue her actor training; she lived and worked in theatre there for 18 years. In 2001 she began focusing on directing full-time when she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as a resident director, working there for nearly three years. She returned to Canada in 2007 to attend the MFA- Theatre program at York University, graduating in April 2009. From September 2009 to February 2011 she was the Artistic Associate at The Grand Theatre in London Ontario. She continues to enjoy directing, writing, teaching and adapting in the UK and across Canada.In 2017 Heather became the first Artistic Director of The Ryga Festival, (inspired by renowned Canadian writer, George Ryga) in Summerland, BC and directing Colours in the Storm at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. In 2018, as well as returning to Summerland, Heather’s stage adaptation, Judith: memories of a Lady Pig Farmer, (based on the original novel, Judith, by Alberta writer Ardith Van Herk), will premiere at the Blyth Festival. Other projects in development include Silverfish (an original play about economic migration) and the stage adaptation of Night Desk, (novel by George Ryga).
This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

John Milton's Comus - Interview with Prof. Deanne Williams

Deanne Williams is professor in English at York University, a Fellow of the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies and a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada. She was dramaturge for our production of Comus, has written extensively on girl performers in the Early Modern Period and dedicates a chapter to Milton’s character of The Lady in her book Shakespeare and the Performance of Girlhood published by Palgrave. In this episode she discusses what she learned about Milton, Comus, The Lady and the Brothers in preparing our performance.
Visit https://musiciansinordinary.ca/episodes to click through the series and download mp3s to add to your music playlist. 
This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

John Milton's Comus with music by William and Henry Lawes - Part 2

John Milton's Comus (Bridgewater manuscript version), with the original songs set by Henry Lawes and dance music by William Lawes, directed by Heather Davies, performed by Roger Honeywell - Attendant Spirit, Paul Hopkins - Comus, Bethany Jillard - The Lady, Tracy Ryan - Elder Brother, Beryl Bain - Second Brother, and Tahirih Vejdani - Sabrina, with The Musicians In Ordinary string band led by Christopher Verrette, 1st vln. with Patricia Ahern, 2nd vln. Felix Deak and Laura Jones, violas da gamba and John Edwards, theorbo.
(Sc. 1) The scene changes to a stately palace set out with all manner of deliciousness, soft music, tables spread with all dainties. Comus appears with his rabble, and the Lady set in an enchanted chair, to whom he offers his glass; which she puts by, and goes about to rise.
(Sc.2) The scene changes, then is presented Ludlow town and the President's castle, then come in country dances, and the like etc. Towards the end of these sports the Dæmon with the 2 brothers and the Lady come in.
This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

John Milton's Comus with music by William and Henry Lawes - Part 1

John Milton's Comus (Bridgewater manuscript version), with the original songs set by Henry Lawes and dance music by William Lawes, directed by Heather Davies, performed by Roger Honeywell - Attendant Spirit, Paul Hopkins - Comus, Bethany Jillard - The Lady, Tracy Ryan - Elder Brother, Beryl Bain - Second Brother and Tahirih Vejdani - Sabrina, with The Musicians In Ordinary string band led by Christopher Verrette, 1st vln. with Patricia Ahern, 2nd vln. Felix Deak and Laura Jones, violas da gamba and John Edwards, theorbo.
The first scene discovers a wild wood. Then a guardian spirit or Dæmon descends or enters. 
This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

Board Lutebook Podcasts - George Torres-Deanne Williams-Delyght Pavan-Delyght Gallyard-I cannot keepe my wyfe at Howme

George Torres, Prof. in Music at Lafayette College, Deanne Williams, Prof. in English at York University, and John Edwards discuss correspondences between lute instruction manuals and manuals on civility from 16th and 17th century in France & England, how lute lessons were also decorum lessons, & the lute lesson in Taming of the Shrew. We hear Delyght Pavan & Gallyard (Johnson) & I Cannot keepe my wyfe at howme (anon.) from Margaret Board’s lutebook. This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

Board Lutebook Podcasts - Deanne Williams - Masque Dances

Prof. Deanne Williams, author of Shakespeare and the Performance of Girlhood, discusses the Stuart masque, its meaning and its participants. From Margaret Board's Lutebook we hear lute arrangements of The Antiq Masque, The Witches Daunce, The Lady Phyllyes Masque, The Lady Elyza, her Masque, The Prince his Almayne and The Prince his Corrento played by John Edwards. This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

Board Lutebook Podcasts - Tom Bishop - Lachrymae, Poore Tome, Bony Sweete Robyn, Goe from my Wyndowe

Prof. Tom Bishop (Univ. of Auckland) talks to John Edwards about plays, theatres, playgoers and pieces in Margaret Board's Lutebook she’d need to know to get all the references in the plays of Jacobean London. From Margaret’s book we hear Lachrymae, by John Dowland, referenced in Knight of the Burning Pestle, anonymous settings of ballads Poore Tome (King Lear) and Bony Sweete Robyn (Hamlet), and Richard Allison's setting of Goe from my Wyndowe (also Knight of the Burning Pestle). This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed. 

Board Lutebook Podcasts - John Edwards - Delacourt Pavan, Markanthonyes Gallyard, Orlando

Margaret Board was born in 1600, the daughter of a rich merchant, and had Europe's leading lutenist, John Dowland, as a teacher. Her book of lute pieces, notated in tablature in her hand and that of her teacher, is a collaboration between what her lute master thinks she needs to know and her taste as a young woman in Jacobean London. This episode was originally released on the Musicians In Ordinary's podcast feed.