SONGS FOR MY DAUGHTERS: SHORT DOC  

Choosing to perform in dialect is an artistic design choice. Audiences make assumptions about characters in plays based on how they speak. Like any accent, both Cockney and RP can be markers of education, social standing, power,  and wealth.​Students in this production learned to perform Cockney and RP. As an accent created to neutralize and divide English speaker in Great Britain, RP is representative of speakers who are considered socially elite, well-off, educated and often of noble rank, whereas Cockney is associated with people who come from low-income or working-class boroughs of England. 

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In Shakespeare's London, the "lower class" primarily consisted of laborers, servants, farmers, and artisans who worked with their hands: essentially anyone who did not own land and relied on daily wages for survival. This group included launderesses (the Washerwomen in Emilia). .​Laundresses were expected not just to keep linen washed, but were also connected with sex work. 

Although RP was not spoken in England in the 17th century (the dialect spoken at court would have been Early Modern English), we used RP as it is a standardized accent that is representative of the place and culture of the characters who speak it in Emilia.

“Oh God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace. “ Beatrice, Much Ado About Nothing, Act IV scene I.

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In Llyod Malcolm's play, all characters are played by women. Pictured here is a student portraying Shakespeare himself.

Some Shakespearean scholars believe Emilia Bassano may have strongly influenced or even written many of Shakespeare’s plays, pointing out the thematic focus on Italy, references to Jewish scriptures, characters named after people in Emilia’s life, and some of his strong female characters., including reference to the dark lady in his sonnets.

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