News From the Festival
Rich Rubin, Playwright of NAAP Play Caesar’s Blood
Rich Rubin, Playwright of NAAP Play Caesar’s Blood
The second play in our New American Playwrights’ Project is Caesar’s Blood, by Rich Rubin. It will have staged readings the week of 8/10 with public performances on 8/14 and 8/15 at 10am in the Auditorium Theatre.
Here’s what we learned in a chat with Rich.
He’s been writing plays since 2008 when he retired from his medical practice. His plays have been produced both in the US and internationally and he is the recipient of many awards. This will be his second trip to Cedar City. He was here in 2011 for the Neil Simon Festival and while here attended several plays at the Festival. He’s looking forward to his return.
Rich told us that the genesis of the play was a book he read called “Brothers – On His Brothers and Brothers in History”, by George Howe Colt. The chapter about the Booth brothers triggered Rich’s imagination and after much research, this play is the result.
Caesar’s Blood is based on factual events. It takes place in late 1864, during the American Civil War. Lincoln had just been re-elected. The Booth brothers (Edwin, Junius Brutus and John Wilkes) were all famous actors of that era. For one performance only, they appeared together in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Junius Brutus and Edwin were pro-Union and John Wilkes was pro-confederacy and pro-slavery.
There are two layers of conflict in the play: that generated by their differing political views andby sibling rivalry. Act I is in their dressing room before the play and Act II is after the performance. Additional characters are their mother and Edwin’s dresser, an ex-slave.
Does this evening lay the groundwork for Lincoln’s assassination? You’ll have to watch the staged reading and decide for yourself.
The play has had three previous staged readings. Rich’s goal for this week is to work with the Festival’s terrific actors and his director, Josh Stavros, to strengthen the play with the ultimate goal of a complete production. He is looking forward to being surprised and inspired during the process.
And lest you think it’s a dark play, he assures us that there are plenty of sharp, witty moments where audiences respond with laughter.
You can learn more about NAPP at http://www.bard.org/napp/. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at www.bard.org or at the door.
Shakespeare Festivals Serve As a Source of Inspiration
Sam White
Recent visits to the Utah Shakespeare Festival by two notable figures in the theatre and literary worlds have at least one thing in common. Both Sam White, founder and executive director of Shakespeare in Detroit, and Ian Doescher, author of the popular William Shakespeare’s Star Wars books, cite attending Shakespeare festivals as inspiration for their work.
According to Sam White, it was performances at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2008 that inspired her to create an organization to bring Shakespeare to Detroit. While returning to her then home of Las Vegas, White thought, “If they can have a festival in the middle of the desert, we can have Shakespeare in Detroit.”
It took years of perseverance, but in 2013 White produced and directed a performance of Othello in Detroit’s Grand Circus Park. Seven productions later, after performing in non-traditional venues scattered across the city, Shakespeare in Detroit is launching another season aimed at bringing Shakespeare to the locations in Detroit where people already go.
White’s love of the Bard and Detroit push her to give Shakespeare to the people of Detroit. “If there is any city in the world that can relate to Shakespeare, it’s Detroit because of what we’ve been through and what we’re going through,” she said. “There’s comedy, tragedy, and pain.”
White spoke to several groups during her most recent visit to Cedar City as part of the Statera Foundation Conference. More information about White’s story is available at http://www.shakespeareindetroit.com/#!our_story/c18bc.
Ian Doescher was at a performance at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival when the idea to tell the stories of Star Wars with iambic pentameter and other Shakespearean language devices came to him. A love of both Star Wars and Shakespeare fed the project for Doescher, but he also wanted to use Shakespearean language and references for another purpose.
“I do hope that these books can be a bridge into Shakespeare for kids,” he said. “My books get them used to the feel of the language so that hopefully when they open up real Shakespeare, it’s not as big of a leap.” Rhymed couplets, iambic pentameter, soliloquies, and character asides to the audience are found throughout the five books of the series, with a sixth due out this fall.
Shakespeare references also provide hidden gems for those more familiar with the works of the Bard. For example, in The Empire Striketh Back, much of the witty banter between Han and Leia references banter between some of Shakespeare’s famous couples: Beatrice and Benedict, Romeo and Juliet, and others.
Fans of Shakespeare, Star Wars, and Doescher’s work itself attended Doescher’s keynote address at the Wooden O Symposium, hosted by the Utah Shakespeare Festival and Southern Utah University. More information about Doescher’s work is available athttp://www.quirkbooks.com/shakespearestarwars.
SUU & Festival Fellowship Program Continues
The SUU & Festival Fellowship Program
Cedar City, UT – Now in its second year, the SUU Fellowship Program at the Utah Shakespeare Festival is now running at full steam. This program provides Southern Utah University students an opportunity to work at professional theatre while gaining credit towards their degrees.
Participating in the program’s second year are Austin Andrews, Phoebe Bock, Jordyn Cardwell, James Alexander Greig, Chalise Jenkins, Luke Johnson, Halie Merril, Kristine Norbdy, Aimee Pearson, and Robby Wilson.
This program would not be possible without the generous support of Southern Utah University and Provost Brad Cook. Artistic Directors Brian Vaughn and David Ivers have wanted to develop the fellowship program for years, but there weren’t enough resources within the Festival. Thankfully, SUU has stepped in and provided the funding essential to make this program happen.
“The SUU Fellowship provides an incredible platform for the practical application of what has been learned in the classroom,” said Artistic Director Brian Vaughn. “Not only are these students building relationships with top professionals within the field; they are also acquiring the professional experience that one that needs prior to graduation. In the cut-throat world of theatre, giving the student the opportunity to get ahead is central to why this program exists.”
These 10 students either work in the technical shops building the shows or act in The Greenshow and in different shows as ensemble members. Each receives school credit while working alongside professional actors and technicians who mentor them throughout the summer.
The Fellowship Program allows students to bridge the gap between educational and professional theatre. These fellows not only grow as students, but they are receiving hands-on experience that will open many doors after they graduate.
Austen Andrews, entering his third year in the BFA technical theatre and design program at Southern Utah University, is a stage management fellow at the Festival this summer. “Stage management is a discipline that is not easy to teach,” Andrews explains. “One has to learn by doing, and what better way than working at a professional theatre. I am exposed to a myriad of techniques and styles of stage management from the Festival’s team. I am grateful for the chance to represent SUU at the Utah Shakespeare Festival!”
Currently in the BFA in classical acting program, Halie Merril will be featured in The Greenshow as well as being part of the Ensemble in Amadeus and South Pacific. “There are several things I’m learning and I’m overjoyed to be growing as a performer and person,” she said. “Going from years of admiring these actors to being in the same room as them is exciting and rewarding. I’m so grateful to be in the fellowship, and it feels amazing to know I’m going to share the stage with people I look up to so much.”
Southern Utah University Provost Brad Cook explains, “The Fellowship Program is one of many ways SUU is providing relevant, applied experience for students to connect with their future communities of practice. Experiences such as this afford focused reflection for students in order to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarify values. Experiential learning is also referred to as ’learning through action’, ’learning by doing’, ’learning through experience’, and ’learning through discovery and exploration.’ The students who go into this program will have an incredible advantage in their next stage of life, whether that is graduate education or employment.”
Tickets are on sale for the Festival’s 54th season, which will run from June 25 to October 31, 2015. The eight-play season includes Shakespeare’s King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV Part TwoandThe Two Gentlemen of Verona. The season will also include Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific,Charley’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas and Steven Dietz’sadaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.
Company Spotlight: Isabel Smith-Bernstein and Gail Wolfenden-Steib
Name: Isabel Smith-Bernstein
Position: Dramaturg
Have you ever worked at the Festival before?
This is my first year and I’m excited to be here!
Where’s your home base?
Washington DC
What’s your education/training background?
I hold a bachelor’s in Humanities and Arts in history and dramaturgy from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
What brought you to your field and what keeps you doing your craft?
I found dramaturgy as a freshman at CMU–I went there thinking I would become a lawyer– and transferred as soon as I figured out what a dramaturg was. Dramaturgy is a way for me to work with Shakespeare and the classics in a living, breathing way.
I love dramaturgy, you get to work in four time periods simultaneously: when the play was written, when the play is set, when the director sets the play, and when the play is being performed. Providing context for the cast and crew and facilitating “aha!” moments never gets old.
Everytime you work on a production, it’s like working on something completely new. That’s what keeps me coming back to dramaturgy and especially Shakespeare–there’s always something new to discover.
How will you spend your time off while here?
Hiking!
What does the Festival Experience mean to you?
As of right now, it means getting to work on three amazing and different shows at once. The Festival Experience enables me to meet and work with all kinds of talented and creative people.
If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
I wish I didn’t have to sleep. Think of how much I could get done!
If you had a time machine, where would you like to visit?
Maybe cliche, but Shakespeare’s England. That way I could see the plays performed with their original practices and hopefully discover a few lost ones.
Name: Gail Wolfenden-Steib
Position: Costume Painter/Dyer
Have you ever worked at the Festival before? If so, for how many years and in what roles/capacity?
Yes-19 summers costume painter dyer and 4 Falls-once as painter dyer, one year craft supervisor and two years crafts technician.
Where’s your home base?
Tempe, AZ
What’s your education/training background?
MFA Stenography with a costume focus, BS clothing and textiles at Arizona State University.
What brought you to your field and what keeps you doing your craft?
Creative element, freelance work, and stimulating environment.
How will you spend your time off while here?
Hiking, retail therapy, designing a show for Childsplay, and making belly dance costumes.
What does the Festival Experience mean to you?
A chance to see old friends and make new ones. Learn some new skills, be inspired creatively.
Do you have a favorite memory of working in the Adams Theatre?
This is my first season to work in the Adams Theatre, so I’m building my memories. I’m excited that I get to be a part of The Taming of the Shrew, with Fred Adams directing in the Adams Theatre’s final season.
If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
Figure out how to defy gravity so I could wear the costume without a bra.
If you had a time machine, where would you like to visit?
Victorian India
NAPP - Affluence by Steven Peterson
New American Playwright Project – Affluence by Steven Peterson
A highlight of the summer season at the Festival is the New American Playwright Project. Three plays are selected from many submissions. Each playwright spends a week at the Festival and Festival actors and artists present their plays as staged readings, followed by an instructive discussion between the playwright, actors, and audience.
The first play for this season is Affluence, written by Steven Peterson. We chatted with him to learn more.
Peterson was an English major in college and started writing during his early years. After a number of years in the corporate world, he has returned to play-writing full time. Peterson is a two-time winner of the Julie Harris Playwright Award (2013 and 2014) and a winner of the Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition (2012). He lives in Chicago where he is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
He characterizes this as a dark comedy. He got the idea for the plot in 2010. At the end of that year, the estate tax law was changing significantly. Folks were joking about “if there’s ever a year for a rich relative to die, this is it.” His thought – “there’s a play in there.”
Tough times have hammered the once-wealthy Woodley clan. Yet the week after Christmas brings hope. Grandmother is dying and will leave them a bundle. Only there’s a problem: Inheritance tax rates surge at the stroke of midnight, and the old gal isn’t gone yet. What does a desperate family do? And who else is at risk on the slippery slope of murder? It’s a dark comedy indeed.
Peterson arrives in Cedar City on Sunday, August 2. During the week, he’ll work with director Frank Honts and the cast of six characters (cast members include John Ahlin (this year’s Falstaff), Michael Doherty (from Charley’s Aunt), Nikki Ellege and Samantha Ma (ensemble members)) to prepare for the public staged readings. You can attend on Friday, August 7 and Saturday, August 8 at 10 am in the Auditorium Theatre. Tickets are $10 and available in advance at www.bard.org or at the door.
His goal for the week? “Theatre is a highly collaborative art. I look forward to the insights from both the director and the actors. For a playwright, it’s only when you see a play performed that you really see what it is. I like to watch the audience during staged readings to see their reactions. The balance between comedy and horror is tough and this will help me see if we’ve achieved it.”
You can learn more about NAPP at http://www.bard.org/napp/ and purchase tickets online at www.bard.org or by calling 800-PLAYTIX. Tickets are $10 and also available at the door. Affluence will be performed as a staged reading on August 7 and August 8 at 10am in the Auditorium Theatre.
Star Wars and Shakespeare at the Wooden O Conference
The Bard Side of the Force
Author Ian Doescher has “translated” five of the six Stars Wars episodes into iambic pentameter and Shakespearean English. As part of the Wooden O Conference at Southern Utah University, he will do a book signing and deliver the keynote address today, August 3.
For the book signing, he will be at the Gift Shop in the Randall L. Jones Theatre from 12:30pm to 2pm. He’ll be signing his book William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, which you can purchase there.
At 5pm you can attend his keynote address in the Great Hall in the Hunter Conference Center on the SUU campus. Tickets are only $5 and can be purchased in advance at www.bard.org or at the door.
During this keynote, entitled “The Bard Side of the Force”, he will discuss the process of taking Shakespeare on a journey to a galaxy far, far away. From the genesis of the idea to deciding how to make characters like Yoda and Jar Jar Binks true to the Bard, he will share his journey. Along the way, he’ll tell us why he thinks students might find Star Wars to be the perfect entry point into Shakespeare’s plays.
Ian Doescher is the author of the William Shakespeare’s Star Warsseries. He has loved Shakespeare since eighth grade and was born 45 days after Star Wars Episode IV was released. Ian has a B.A. in Music from Yale University, a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in Ethics from Union Theological Seminary. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife Jennifer and two sons.
We had a chance to ask Ian a couple of questions.
Who tend to be your fans? Star Wars fans? Shakespeare fans? Scholars?
The biggest group is Star Wars fans, who have embraced the books and have been very kind. Shakespeare fans are next, followed by teachers and theater people. A small number of people from these groups find bones to pick with what I’ve written, but by and large the reception to the books has been really positive. The Star Wars fans enjoy the books because they deepen the stories of their favorite characters, Shakespeare fans like projects that make the Bard relevant and current again, teachers appreciate what the books can do for their students, and theater folks enjoy thinking about how it could be performed.
Why should non-scholars come to your keynote?
Let’s be clear: I myself am not a Shakespeare scholar. I’m a person who loves the works of Shakespeare, has enjoyed reading Shakespeare, seeing the plays, watching the films, and so on, but I have had relatively little formal training in Shakespeare. When I talk about my books, therefore, I’m not approaching Shakespeare from an academic’s standpoint, but from a fan’s standpoint. Non-scholars will enjoy the keynote, I hope, because I’ll be talking in a really down-to-earth way about how I came to fully express my inner nerd/geek as I wrote the books.
There are currently five books in the series, each telling a different portion of the Star Wars saga. Titles include The Empire Striketh Back and The Jedi Doth Return.
And if you’re wondering “what is the Wooden O?” – it’s a literary and scholarly conference, sponsored by the Festival, focused on works from medieval to early modern times i.e. the 1500s to late 1600s. Attendees are scholars who present peer-reviewed papers on topics related to this season’s plays. This year, as a co-conference, the Rocky Mountain Medieval Association will be here as well. The conference runs from August 3 – August 6. More information is available at http://www.bard.org/wooden-o-symposium/
Again, tickets to the keynote (August 3, 5pm at the Hunter Conference Center) are only $5 and can be purchased in advance at www.bard.org or at the door. The book signing will be the same day, August 3, from 12:30pm to 2pm in the Gift Shop at the Randall L. Jones Theatre. Hope to see you there.
Author of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars Scheduled As Keynote Speaker
Author of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars Scheduled As Keynote Speaker
Cedar City, UT- The Wooden O Symposium, hosted by the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Southern Utah University, and the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, is excited to announce Ian Doescher, author of the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars series, as the keynote speaker at this year’s conference. He has “translated” five of the six Stars Wars episodes into iambic pentameter and Shakespearean English.
Doescher’s keynote presentation will be on August 3 from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the Great Hall at Southern Utah University’s Hunter Conference Center. Tickets are only $5 and can be purchased in advance at bard.org or at the door.
The Wooden O Symposium is a literary and scholarly conference exploring life in Medieval through Early Modern times within the text and performance of William Shakespeare’s plays. Scholars from all disciplines submitted papers that offer insights and new ideas springing from the era of Shakespeare.
“I look forward to visiting the Wooden O Symposium and sharing my particular take on how Shakespeare and Star Wars mix,” said Doescher. “I’ll describe how the idea came to be, my writing process, and how I tried to give equal honor to both the Bard and the galaxy far, far away.” Further more, he will discuss why students might find Star Wars to be the perfect entry point into Shakespeare’s plays.
There will also be a book signing in the Randall L. Jones Theatre lobby on the same day, August 3 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. Books will be available for purchase.
Doescher has loved Shakespeare since eighth grade and was born 45 days after Star Wars Episode IV was released. He has a B.A. in music from Yale University, a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in ethics from Union Theological Seminary. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife Jennifer and two sons.
Additional events include presentations of academic papers, sessions with the cast of King Lear, and a plenary session by Aden Ross, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright, speaking on #kinglear: Shakespeare’s Most Contemporary Play.
The Glories of Playing Falstaff
Brother, Can You Coin a Word?
Blog # 4 Oh, What a Knight!
Victor Hugo was asked to pen a brief introduction to a newly translated (into French, by his son) version of Shakespeare’s play. He came back with a 300 page tome. Authors, critics, and scholars cannot resist perpetually Shakesplaining the Sweet Swan of Avon and his characters. I could try to match wits with that heap of genius, trading Bardbarbs with Priestly, Auden, Hazlitt, and Granville-Barker, or try to out Bloom Bloom on Falstaffiana, but I’d fall short, so I’d best take advantage of my unique vantage point; 11 times inside the belly of the behemoth. And like Shakespeare I’ll coin a new word: Anthroportrayology; the study of Falstaff by performing him. Here are clumsy, random and oddball observations I’ve made of the Fat Knight being the Fat Knight. And so I don’t go Hugo, I will strictly stick to my self-imposed limit of 1000 words per blog and keep my thoughts tedious and brief.
Fasten your seat belts; we’re in for a blimpy ride! Tackling Falstaff is to go dirigible-istic…like entering the Versailles of bouncy castles. ‘Tackle’ is the perfect word in that it originates from the idea of gaining control over something with ropes, like a wild horse or Professor Marvel’s balloon. Gulliver-like Falstaff cannot be tied down; he rises, ascends, soars till in the clear sky of fame he o’ershines all as much as the full moon doth the stars in the firmament. He is a humongous, challenging role.
Playing Sir John is a buffet accompli! He’s not simply Vice or the Lord of Misrule; he is all things…he is vastly human. Falstaff is fully formed, forged by a ruthless world set against him. But he fights back with all he’s got: Aplomb, charm, pathos, rationality, sagacity, invention, appetite, learning, and a dozen more. And chief amongst his weapons is his wit. His nimble, youthful mind outthinks anyone; “I am only old in judgement and understanding” he says. He is the greatest rhetorical escape artist in all Literature, swiping the cheese out of any verbal trap. The feast of facets that is Falstaff will make any actor fat with acting choices.
Get that prince over the finish line! Falstaff, the Bible-quoting hulk, pursues a single less-than-divine goal; redemption on Earth. He seeks not Elysian but strawberry fields…forever. And for that he must survive the cruel world until Hal is king. He only has to delay the decay of his aging body. Shakespeare always has sub-themes in his plays, and Henry IV Part Two constantly touches on growing old, disease, mortality, and Falstaff is acutely aware of Time. He has heard the Chimes at Midnight but never gives up hope of a golden dawn.
The key is freedom! Shakespeare’s greatest creations; Othello, Hamlet, the Scottish king, and Lear are all hobbled in their first scene or two by fate’s fickle hand, learning of what will plunge them, as Sir Ralph Richardson puts it; “Into an avalanche of circumstances that will become a terrific drubbing in Shakespeare’s washing machine, stripping the characters to the very thread of their fabric.” Only Falstaff (I think the greatest creation) isn’t taken to the cleaners. Slight spoiler alert (this sentence only); Falstaff doesn’t find out his fate until the last possible moment of part two…his Shakespearean flaw is a blind spot in his inestimable wisdom…he didn’t see the trap he can’t escape coming. (Resume reading) Falstaff is free…free to be Falstaff through two entire plays. Free to do whatever it takes to survive, to which an actor can bring all his imagination and experience. He’s a chess queen that can move twice in a row; he has nearly bondless freedom
A cowardly liar? Imposerous! Embellisher yes, raconteur yes, but Falstaff sees clearly how the world works. He may steal a purse but he will not be lectured by those who steal a crown. He sees through ‘Honor’ to what it can sometimes result in; being bluntly dead. He rejects war’s self-sacrifice in principle, hollering “Give me life!” on the battlefield. He is a lover not a fighter, but if badgered into a corner, he will wolverine out using his genuine ferocity; he’ll put the fist in pacifist. For centuries critics called him a coward, and labeled his antics “a parody” of a soldier. They couldn’t comprehend that Falstaff’s choice to avoid foolishness and folly would become a legitimate viewpoint. A viewpoint standing in stark contrast to Henry IV’s, whose dying word of advice to Hal is “To busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels.” Shakespeare was ahead of his time…ahead of all time.
Womb with a view! After being recognized by Coleville, Falstaff clutches his stomach and says “My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me!” An intrepid scholar or two has suggested that the word choice ‘womb’ bolsters a theory that Falstaff represents a feminine point of view. And you know what?…watching Shakespeare’s maturing view expressed by female characters, through Kate in his early Taming of the Shrew talk of the shame in “offering war when they should kneel for peace”, and then in middle play Henry IV part two, the widow Percy, invoking Hotspur’s memory, sensibly plead “For God’s sake go not to these wars!” and then, late into the canon, reading Shakespeare masterfully sum up that view with Volumnia’s (Coriolanus’ mother) passionate appeal in act 5 scene 2, I think those scholars may be on to something! Knowing how Falstaff, with his womb-manly charm, seeks to kiss My Lady Peace at home, he does seem to wear Shakespeare’s feminine mantle…of course he doesn’t put on a dress until Merry Wives of Windsor.
The repelicious joys of repertory! Here is a blogblitz of the fun playing a different part each night: I’m completely surrounded by some of the best actors in the country! The super-smart audiences grow familiar as they see all three Shakespeare shows, and some more than once. I get to notice subtle similarities in the different plays, like the unique honesty of both Kate and Cordelia refusing to betray their malevolent sisters, when they justifiably could, rather suffering the consequences. It is fun to one night strive to put over Falstaff, and the next have my biggest worry be hanging a King Lear banner correctly (and I’m more nervous about that banner than anything). Likewise it is cool being ersatz father to Sam Ashdown in Henry then being actual father to him in Shrew. I love the continual discovery working with superb scene mates…the tiniest details in Shakespeare become “ah ha!” moments, like seeing Saren Nofs-Snyder play a moment a certain way caused me to alter saying the word “flattering” to the “false” sense rather than the “complimentary” sense. It suddenly opened up the whole scene with Doll Tearsheet, leading to as tender a moment as any in Shakespeare…and a thousand more joys.
Falstaffection! What I love most playing Falstaff is Shakespeare’s sub-theme of having Sir John measuring everyone he meets by how they can laugh. From the moment he first limps onstage chiding all Mankind that he alone is the cause of all laughter to the moment his life changes hearing the new king say “Reply not with a fool-born jest” laughter is Falstaff’s life’s blood. For me the saddest moment in the play is Falstaff planning how he will make Prince Harry laugh…pining for a once-was, that he doesn’t know is a never-will-be.
There is Honor in that word Falstaff! The one-of-a-kind love story that is Falstaff and Hal in parts one and two is not only momentous within Shakespeare‘s canon, but all Theatre! The act 2 scene 4 tavern scene in part one, where Hal and Falstaff majestificently take turns playing Hal’s father, and then Falstaff playing Hal with all that is unsaid and below the surface, to me is the birth of modern theatre. And then to play its mirror, the act 2 scene 4 tavern scene in part two, with decay and entropy here and glory gone, and Falstaff speak of being “the man of action”, it is Shakespeare’s genius to have Hal run out to do his duty. The world is seeing (and needing) Henry the Fifth for the first time! When you think that the next thing Shakespeare created when he took up his quill again was Beatrice and Benedick, the Ali and Frazier of repartee, you know he was at this moment in the groove of all time; his greatest plays were about to spill forth. He changed Theatre by creating human beings, introspective, flawed, conflicted. And to stand on stage and be a part of that glorious moment, that fulcrum on which all Theatre was catapulted to its full potential is…is…well the word hasn’t been coined yet to describe it.
Final Word Count: 1517. Oops! (I get it now Mr. Hugo) Oh well…to paraphrase Falstaff, “The laws of blogging are at my commandment!” (By my count I’ve coined 18 new words and phrases! And I’m sure none of them will make it into the vocabulary. But if each of the 1517 words was a newly coined word, they still wouldn’t beat Shakespeare; he bedazzled the language, coining thousands.)
For my previous blog check out http://www.bard.org/news/l14odvhph5w3vtuexgggge1jkkg8ym
My Next blog: #5 The Great Shakespeare Mystery
Company Spotlight: Kaitlin Mills and Aaron Stephenson
Kaitlin Mills, Actor
Have you ever worked at the Festival before? If so, for how many years and in what roles/capacity?
Yes! This is my third summer season as a member of the acting company.
Where’s your home base?
Currently it’s Pittsburgh, PA.
What’s your education/training background?
I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Classical Acting from Southern Utah University.
What brought you to your field and what keeps you doing your craft?
I first knew I wanted to act when the USF tour came to my high school. Now, what drives me to keep up the work is the connection made with the audience. It’s a connection that you don’t really get from any other art form, and when it does happen it’s magic.
How will you spend your time off while here?
Probably eating at all my favorite restaurants in town! I also love the outdoors, so I’ll try to get some good hiking in.
What does the Festival Experience mean to you?
The Festival Experience for me has to do with making those connections with the patrons. Here, unlike anywhere else I’ve worked, you have so many opportunities to meet the people who come see the shows. There are workshops and talkbacks and so much more. You really get to see, firsthand, the impact the work has.
Do you have a favorite memory of working in the Adams Theatre?
There are so many to choose from! I grew up loving this theatre, so if I have to choose, it would be working on it professionally for the first time in The Tempest.
If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
I would like to be able to change my appearance at will. It would be really helpful as an actor!
If you had a time machine, where would you like to visit?
I would love to see a Shakespeare play performed in his time!
Aaron Stephenson, Lead Audio Engineer
Have you ever worked at the Festival before? If so, for how many years and in what roles/capacity?
This is my first year at the festival, and first time in Utah.
Where’s your home base?
312, The Windy City.
What’s your education/training background?
I studied performance at Nebraska Wesleyan, and later completed the sound engineering apprenticeship with Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
What brought you to your field and what keeps you doing your craft?
I came for the music and stayed for the storytelling. I love how flexible sound can be. It is both passive and active, as we create moods and atmospheres, as well as help inform the inner lives of the actors, and often represent unseen characters in the world of the show.
How will you spend your time off while here?
I want to hike, explore, find concerts and friends, and hopefully bring a little bit of Chicago to the Cedar City life.
What does the Festival Experience mean to you?
I like theatre that is an immersive experience. The wide spectrum of work combined with the green show and high level of community involvement represents a commitment to the art form that inspires and invigorates me as an artist.
If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?
I would love to be able to teleport, as well as be impervious to temperature/weather. I love to travel and that would allow me to go EVERYWHERE.
If you had a time machine, where would you like to visit?
I think I would visit my parents when they were my age, so that we could better understand each other’s joys and challenges.
Audiences Are Raving
“Tremendous.” “Action, drama, and intensity abound.” “Must see.” “Amazing. Loved every second.” “WOW!” “What a show!”
Guests have been flocking to our 2015 season, and many of them have commented on social media or via email on their “Festival Experience.”