The (Cue) Spaces Between

Abstract

The early modern theatrical practice of cue script acting provided an actor with his character’s part—a long strip of paper wound in a roll on a baton—that consisted only of his character’s lines plus a one- to three-word cue before each speech. In solitude, each actor would read and learn his lines and cues in sequence having never seen the entire script or knowing what occurred in between his actor’s lines until performed in front of the audience opening night. When using cue script acting as a performance-based method of teaching Shakespeare, students delve into a character’s part while engaging with others’, collaboratively making improvised, interpretive decisions; some fluid, some contradictory. This article explores cue script acting and collaborative writing as a collective method of engaging with Shakespeare by examining the similarities between these two practices. In addition, the article investigates the Deleuzoguattarian concept of the nomad and St. Pierre’s concept of nomadic inquiry to make connections between these two methods, arguing that cue script acting is a form of collaborative writing as inquiry.