When I say "performance," I don't mean only a fully staged production. I just mean that a play on the page is not the same as a play read by oneself, to oneself. Which is what Rudin argued, apparently successfully.
It's unclear what the judge would have eventually required. But to suggest that it's about the "script," as if the script on the page can somehow be isolated from a broader performance context, is exactly what Rudin was arguing against. Lee's Estate read "the script" and thought one thing. Rudin was arguing that to judge a play just by "the script" is not appropriate.
Not that he wanted to stage a full performance, or that he thought such a thing necessary. Had it come to it, I imagine some sort of minimally staged reading (basically a table read with the actors on their feet) would have been the result. |
