NATIONAL PRESS CLUB LUNCHEON
with

ZOE CALDWELL

 ACTOR AND WINNER OF THE 1998 SIR JOHN GIELGUD AWARD

MODERATOR:  JOHN AUBUCHON

NATIONAL PRESS CLUB

WASHINGTON, DC

1:01 P.M. (EDT)

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 1998

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MR. AUBUCHON:  Since you're being honored by the Shakespeare Guild this week, I should ask, many Americans feel that Shakespeare can be performed properly only by those who are born with or who have acquired a British accent.

MS. CALDWELL:  (Perhaps in indignation or astonishment.)  Ah!  (Laughter.)

MR. AUBUCHON:  How do you feel about that?  When you've directed productions of plays, such as "Hamlet" or "Macbeth" or "Charles"  "Richard III" and "The Taming of the Shrew," have you encouraged people to talk like proper Englishmen?

MS. CALDWELL:  No!  No.  And I totally disapprove of that.

You know, the sounds that Shakespeare wrote for were  (imitating American vowel and R sounds)  gold, cold, sister, brother, bath, path.  But then they had those three Hanoverian brothers  (laughter)  George I, George II, George III.  The first one didn't speak any English at all.  The second one spoke very, very broken English.  And the third one was a little mad.  (Laughter.)

But during the time that those three Hanoverian men were reigning, the word they couldn't say  gold, cold  (using Germanic pronunciation and dropping R sound)  they said gold, cold, sister, brother  (using broad A)  bath, path.  But because they were the kings, that became the king's English.

So in point of fact, American actors have a great, great asset, because their sounds are the sounds that Shakespeare wrote for.  And we have got to give them the courage to do that.  I do; I will not allow them to say  (using broad A)  dance, France, all that stuff.  (Laughter.)

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