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Shakespeare in Delaware Park Announces Shakesperience Production SHAKESPEARIENCE, (Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s high school apprenticeship program) will be holding a performance on Friday August 14th at 6:15 pm, prior to Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s main stage performance of JULIUS CAESAR. This year’s show is an adapted 40 minute version of ANTONY AND CLEOPATA with 9 area High School Students performing.
Shakespearience teacher Beth Donahue states, “Power, cowardice, shifting loyalties and greed play out a backdrop of kingdoms as the Shakespeareience interns explore the story of two lovers separated by oceans and joined together by passion and vanity. Join us for this energetic 40-minute adaptation of Shakespeare's ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA and discover why a woman who can command an army can be brought low by a bad hair day.”
The Shakesperience Program is open to area high school students and is designed to provide in-depth theatrical experience with theatre professionals. Each session runs for five weeks, beginning the week prior to regularly schedule professional Shakespeare in Delaware Park performances. In addition to attending classes, students gain hands-on experience in a professional production as part of SDP technical crew.
All performances are free of charge.
Behind the scenes at SDP: The world’s a stage
Anyone visiting Delaware Park in the autumn, winter or spring seasons will see a very different skyline than the one that’s there in the summer. That’s because the stage that has been home to so many Shakespearean performances is taken down after every last show and put up again at the start of the next season.
And that’s no small task.
“I affectionately call it The Beast,” says Scott Richardson, crew leader in charge of the – on average – crew of between 12 and 14 that assemble the stage every year.
And a beast it is.
It takes the full stage crew 3 weeks to assemble the more than 1,000 pieces that make up the monstrous stage – and that’s not including whatever extra pieces that season’s productions might call for.
It’s a big job from the beginning – city workers deliver the stage to the build site, from where it’s stored in the off season at the sewer authority warehouse. It’s all done extremely carefully, as keeping the pieces in the right order can save a lot of moving around later on.
And as the whole thing sits on a heavy steel base that’s secured to blocks several feet below ground level, it’s important that the pieces don’t have to be moved around more than absolutely necessary.
And as they also have a limited amount of time to work with the city’s crane, it’s vital that everything is ready to go.
“By the time the actors are on stage, it all has to be actor safe,” says Richardson. [Safety] is one of the main concerns.”
In addition to the stage, they also have to set up light towers and sound booths; it’s everything that makes SDP possible.
The stage itself is 15 years old. While it’s been necessary to replace boards and planks on an individual basis to keep the structural integrity, there’s still plenty of life in the structure.
And it’s written clearly on the walls.
One 22-foot-high façade is in the familiar Tudor style, and the other side is black. If the two summer productions call for different backgrounds, the entire thing has to be flipped between shows. Even that is a process that takes two days.
And up close, both sides bear signs of shows past.
There’s paint from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, from Romeo and Juliet, even a garish pink section that was a background for Much Ado About Nothing and remnants of a staircase from King Lear. Those who have been with the company for many of its seasons need to do nothing more than look at the stage to remember the shows that have been performed on it.
“There have been a number of amazing shows on this stage,” says Richardson. “We remember them all.”
There’s something magical about the stage of a theatre production, especially when that stage has weathered not only year after year of productions but has also been the backdrop for introducing new faces and new friends to the wonderful, fantastic world of Shakespeare.
This piece marks the first in a series of three, that are designed to share a small piece of what goes on behind the scenes of one of Buffalo’s most treasured institutions – Shakespeare in Delaware Park. The series will give some unsung heroes of the backstage their own moments in the limelight. To read part two of this series please Click Here
‘Julius Caesar’ - Shakespeare in Delaware Park
I like Tim Newell as an actor but I’m not sure Cassius is supposed to dominate “Julius Caesar” as Newell dominates Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s production. Director Steve Vaughan trimmed the relatively short play, eliminating some of Brutus’ (Doug Zschiegner) scenes. That leaves a feisty, angry, devious Cassius dominating center stage, a man Caesar (Dan Walker) never trusted. “Julius Caesar” is one of Shakespeare’s most simple plays, at least generally. A group of upper crust types decide they don’t like the power grab by Caesar and kill him. Then, they lose a bloody civil war and Cassius and Brutus commit suicide rather than be strangled in a cave under Rome, leaving the field to Mark Antony (Adriano Gatto) and Octavius (Kurt Erbb).
It’s actually about a lot more than that, of the clash between the old republican Rome of Brutus and the new imperial Rome of future Emperor Augustus.
It’s also about a man, Brutus, known because a distant ancestor killed the last king of Rome who doesn’t realize how much times have changed. Cassius and his allies in the plot play up to Brutus’ ego and use him, making him the front man in the assassination and in the speech to the crowd for Caesar’s funeral.
This isn’t one of those play where someone not familiar with Shakespeare can get lost in what’s going on, trying to figure the duke of this and the earl of that and Sir Whomever. Basically, this is a power struggle like those in Washington or, especially Albany, on a steady basis. And, if you think we don’t use murder as a tool, you haven’t been listening to enough paranoid talk show hosts for enough years.
Vaughan is a pretty straight-on director, working with a pretty straight-on script and some fine work with his specialty of stage fighting.
He keeps the show’s pace swift and never slows. The pivotal battle of Philippi is really well done, as is the actual assassination scene.
Vaughan also has a really strong performance from Gatto as Antony, with a beautifully staged funeral scene, you know, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen…”
There is also some really fine costume work from Ken Shaw, with his Roman military uniforms on a relatively bare set.
There is some weak casting, Cassie Gorniewicz’s Calpurnia and Erbb’s Octavius as examples.
“Julius Caesar” is worth the trip to Delaware Park and don’t be scared by the thunder in this summer of endless thunder, lighting and rain...it’s part of the show (fortunately). Take your dinner and perhaps a nice wine and “cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.”
‘Julius Caesar’ carries plenty of punch in the park
Friday night’s weather was perfect for murder. After the latest in a relentless series of rainy evenings forced the cancellation of Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s opening performance of “Julius Caesar” on Thursday, fortune smiled on the resilient company and blessed the bloody production with dry skies and a cool breeze.
All the better to witness an engrossing if slightly redacted performance of the play that incites so much fascination among certain American high school students and so many naps among others.
Be assured that there wasn’t a heavy eyelid on Shakespeare Hill as Steve Vaughan’s swift, muscular and confident production strutted its two hours and 15 minutes upon the stage. Vaughan promised audiences a streamlined and forceful production of Shakespeare’s popular tragedy, and on those accounts delivered a rousing success.
Shakespeare’s accounting of the great Roman dictator’s violent assassination and its equally brutal aftermath is rife with lessons that can’t help but seem applicable to the recent political history of this country and embattled regions the world over.
The play is packed with hard-learned lessons on the dangers of absolute power, the destructive potential of jealousy and the challenges of preserving one’s rectitude amid base and violent surroundings.
At the center of “Caesar” is not the dictator himself, but Marcus Brutus (Doug Zschiegner), a friend and confidant to the ruler woefully conflicted over how to quash his emperor’s tyrannical ambitions. Brutus, the original frenemy, eventually joins the conspirators, led by the spiteful Cassius (Tim Newell).
After the assassination, Caesar loyalist Marc Antony (Adriano Gatto) lets slip the dogs of war, valiant men drop like flies, and thus the Roman Republic falls in on itself like a house of cards.
As Brutus, a man “with himself at war,” Zschiegner exudes a soft air of confidence, adopting an understanding tone in his heated conversations with Cassius.
Newell, as Cassius, proves yet again why he is the go-to choice to portray Shakespeare’s vengeful and insecure characters. Newell deftly swings between the poles of outrage and tenderness in his exchanges with Zschiegner, at points sounding like a jilted lover longing for comfort.
Dan Walker lives up to his 6 foot 5 stature as Caesar, whom he plays with a delicious blend of braggadocio and affability. As Portia, the lovely Diane DiBernardo glimmers, as do the campy David Bondrow as the devious Decius Brutus and sarcasm-ridden Larry Smith as Casca.
Period costumes by Ken Shaw are excellent, as is the spare set by Ron Schwartz and effective lighting by Christopher Cavanagh. As usual, Tom Makar’s sound design deserves special mention for its borderline-campy use of screeching strings and other horror film-worthy effects during scenes of imminent violence.
Like many directors who fashion Shakespeare’s scripts for mass consumption in the great outdoors, Vaughan cut some exchanges that help tangentially to fill out the background of the production but are largely extraneous to the action.
Such cuts mean the play has gained speed occasionally at the expense of subtlety. But the tradeoff, in a production engineered to pack a pointed emotional and intellectual wallop, is well-justified.
Julius Caesar in the Park
Shakespeare in Delaware Park will open its production of Julius Caesar this weekend – weather permitting. And certainly the chance to see a Shakespearean tragedy in the open air on a fine summer night is one of the great things about Buffalo. A few reminders are always useful: Do arrive early to ensure a good location. Shakespeare in Delaware Park attracts huge crowds and if you arrive too close to show time, you will be forced to sit on the periphery at the back where the people who chat throughout the show tend to sit. Such people are completing undaunted by glares of disapproval, so your best strategy is to set your blanket up early in a prime location. Shakespeare veterans (and you will know them by their Shakespeare in Delaware Park t-shirts) pack a picnic dinner, and watch the play with rapt attention.
Julius Caesar can be one of the most fun tragedies. It contains some of Shakespeare’s most famous lines, among them:
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (Act III, Scene II).
“But, for my own part, it was Greek to me” (Act I, Scene II).
“A dish fit for the gods” (Act II, Scene I).
“Cry “Havoc,” and let slip the dogs of war”(Act III, Sc. I).
“Et tu, Brute!” (Act III, Scene I).
“Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings” (Act I, Scene II).
“Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more”(Act III, Scene II).
“Beware the ides of March”(Act I, Scene II).
“This was the noblest Roman of them all” (Act V, Sc. V).
“Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look” (Act I, Scene II).
“As he was valiant, I honour him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him” (Act III, Sc. II).
“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once” (Act II, Scene II).
The plot of Julius Caesar is somewhat complex and a reminder of the major turns can be useful.
As the play begins, Caesar has just defeated his archrival, Pompey, in battle, and the population is neglecting their work to celebrate. Caesar enters triumphant with an entourage of his friends and is soon warned by a Soothsayer to “beware the Ides of March,” advice which he dismisses and ignores. The scene introduces Caesar’s key associates: Brutus, who is conflicted and concerned that the people want Caesar to become king; Cassius who is manipulative and notes that Caesar is just a man no better than anyone else and unsuited to rule as king; and Antony. Caesar confides in Antony that he does not trust Cassius.
Casca relates to Brutus and Cassius how, during the celebration, Antony had offered the crown to Caesar three times as the people cheered, but that Caesar refused it. He also describes how Caesar had fallen to the ground in a seizure before the crowd, but even this demonstration of weakness did not diminish the enthusiasm of the plebeians for him. As Brutus leaves, he reveals that Cassius has successfully undermined his confidence in Caesar.
There is storm that night with other bad omens. Cassius plants forged letters in Brutus’ home, ostensibly written by Roman citizens, expressing concern that Caesar has become too powerful. Cassius knows that Brutus will remove Caesar from power if he believes it is the will of the people.
Cassius and his co-conspirators arrive at Brutus’ home. With Brutus taking the lead, the men agree to lure Caesar from his house and murder him. Cassius wants to kill Antony too, Brutus thinks that too many deaths will dishonor them. The conspirators depart. Brutus’s wife, Portia, detecting that something troubles him, pleads with her husband to confide in her, but he refuses.
Caesar prepares to leave home for Senate, as Calpurnia, his wife, worried by nightmares in which she has seen smiling men bathing their hands in his blood urges him to stay. Ultimately, one of the conspirators convinces Caesar that Calpurnia has misinterpreted her dream, and he departs for the Senate in the company of his future killers.
As Caesar proceeds through the streets, the Soothsayer again tries to warn him. The citizen Artemidorus hands him a letter of warning, but Caesar refuses does not o read it. At the Senate, the conspirators encircle Caesar, and one by one, they stab him to death. When Caesar sees Brutus among them – “Et tu, Brute!” he surrenders to his fate and dies.
The remainder of the play involves Antony’s efforts to avenge Caesar’s death. The conspirators all end up dead – though Brutus manages to do so honorably.
Under the direction of Steve Vaughan, this production promises to have wonderful physicality. The production stars stars Dan Walker s Caesar, Adriano Gatto as Antony, Doug Zschiegner as Brutus, Tim Newell as Cassius, Diane DiBernardo as Portia, Cassie Gorniewicz as Calpurnia, Larry Smith as Casca, Katie White as the Soothsayer. Julius Caesar continues thorugh August 16, Tuesdays - Sundays at 7:30 p.m. on Shakespeare Hill in Delaware Park, behind the Rose Garden. Admission is free. Call 856-4533 with questions. And do be prepared to make a generous donation at intermission!
SHAKESPEARE'S WORK IS FILLED WITH THE STUFF OF LIFE
My Shakespeare comes to Buffalo every summer, and he brings his friends along. They are a raucous bunch — from John Falstaff, who carries the whole world somewhere between his belly and his wit, to the sleepwalking Lady Macbeth, whose bloody hands just never come clean.
I look forward to my Shakespeare’s annual visit because he touches every corner of this town with his antic wisdom, and those who invest a few hours with him in Delaware Park are sure to come away with more than just an evening’s entertainment. This investment pays dividends in beautiful language, serious humor and rekindled genius that will continue to teach all of us to recognize the limitless potential in the world.
In 1592, my Shakespeare was the toast of London. His plays attracted all sorts of people, from the glorious Queen Elizabeth I to Jimmy the oxcart man who grubbed a living in the cobblestone streets of
England. Everyone is welcome in my Shakespeare’s world. When the Globe theater announced a new play by Stratford’s favorite son, it was “must see theater” for citizens of every class.
In 2009, the tradition continues. Pick any summer evening and you are likely to see folks from every spectrum of Western New York society. In 1597 there were, of course, the luxury boxes, where one could sit, wine and dine, and occasionally glance over at the stage and see how the story was unfolding. If you happened to be educated, so much the better. Shakespeare loved to sprinkle his plays with quips from the classics and allusions to tickle even the most erudite in the audience.
On the opposite end of the spectrum were the Groundlings. For two copper pennies they could get into the Globe, enjoy an apple and hurl its core at the stage if the performance wasn’t up to snuff. The Groundlings’ seat was on the ground, thus the appellation. What they may have lacked in education they made up for in their enthusiasm. Sometimes the Groundlings found their reactions an integral part of the play.
What is there in my Shakespeare’s world for modern Groundlings? Plenty. First of all, Shakespeare in Delaware Park is free. In the 400 years since Shakespeare put quill to parchment, the cost of admission has actually gone down! This in itself seems miraculous, but it is true. Of course you will be encouraged to put money in the coffer during intermission, but no one will twist your arm or pick your pocket.
Then there is action. Sword fights and battles abound. Shakespeare did not have access to the electronic wizardry of Lucas and Spielberg. But he did have a direct pipeline to the greatest special effects machine ever invented: the human imagination. In an age that worries about the abuses of power and personal freedoms, “Julius Caesar” speaks directly to us as if it were written last week.
And modern Groundlings will take a special delight in the fatal march of destiny that touches all of the characters in my Shakespeare’s world. “The Tempest” begins in a storm at sea. But we are reminded that such tempests are nothing compared to the tsunamis that reside in the human heart.
In the end, we still need to welcome my Shakespeare today. His plays and poems are filled with the stuff of life: comedy, tragedy and most importantly love. Think about that while sitting on your blanket in the park. Let the music of his language pluck the harp strings of your soul.
My Shakespeare is back in town. Grab a blanket and pull up a piece of the ground. There ain’t a bad seat in the house. And by evening’s end, my Shakespeare will be yours
Caesar for the park
If Derek Campbell’s production of “The Tempest” was the brains of Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s current season, Steve Vaughan’s “Julius Caesar” is the brawn.
Vaughan, a longtime fight choreographer and frequent director for the company who also teaches at Niagara University, took a scalpel to wide swaths of dialogue, beefed up fight sequences and distilled Shakespeare’s famed tragedy into a swift two hours of what he called “sex, violence and spectacle.”
“I cut all the extraneous things out,” Vaughan said. “Everything that was not directly related to the plot or the story, I cut.”
In his years of directing and fight choreographing for the summer Shakespeare company, Vaughan has developed a reputation for producing no-nonsense shows that hone in on the essential and leave the rest to the audience’s imagination. And that’s especially true with “Caesar,” which Vaughan touts as his favorite Shakespearean script.
Vaughan compared “Caesar” to his directorial project from last summer, “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” the way one might compare Mozart to Papa Roach.
“ ‘Merry Wives’ was a commission script. Queen Elizabeth said, ‘Write me some more funny things about Falstaff.’ It’s a half-assed play,” said Vaughan, whose tendency not to mince words as a director also applies to newspaper interviews. “ ‘Caesar’ is a play that he wrote because he wanted to, because it was in his soul, it was in his heart. And it’s way better.”
The role of Caesar will be played by SDP veteran Dan Walker, who praised Vaughan’s directorial approach for its economy and strength.
“With Steve directing, it’s a very musical Caesar,” said Walker, a former Marine who at 6 feet, 5 inches, makes a rather muscular Caesar himself. Given his stature and proclivity for roles that require a certain swagger and confidence, Walker was not about to play the great Roman emperor as a cowering old man, as some have opted to do in the past.
“Caesar’s not a dope,” Walker said. “He knows these guys who come to get him aren’t his friends.”
“Caesar” also has the built-in benefit of unmatched familiarity among Shakespeare’s works, popular as the play has been for decades in high school English classrooms across the country. Oft-quoted lines — “Beware the ides of March,” “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,” “Et tu, Brute?” and the like — live on in the minds of theatergoers as hallmarks of one of the Bard’s bloodiest and most frequently performed plays.
For Vaughan, the production will succeed only insofar as its audience is willing to use its imagination to color in the world anchored by Shakespeare’s words and the director’s intense fight choreography. He is, for instance, refusing to use stage blood in the play’s most famous sequence.
“I’m going to trust my audience, and you can tell them that,” Vaughan said. “So please don’t expect reality, because reality has nothing to do with theater.”
Fine cast makes the most of ‘The Tempest’
"No reservations, no admission charge, just a beautiful park and a night under the stars." Not a bad deal, you have to agree. The above is Saul Elkin’s annual welcome to another outdoor tandem of plays by William Shakespeare in Buffalo’s Delaware Park, the first being the Bard of Avon’s last, perhaps shortest and most retrospective work, The Tempest, now 400 years old and as popular as it is puzzling.
Elkin is the paterfamilias of Shakespeare-in-Delaware-Park, now in its 34th season, and he often does double-duty, organizing the productions yet occasionally taking on a stage role and rightfully a major one such as The Tempest’s Prospero, the usurped, mostly benevolent Duke of Milan, island exiled for many years and a man with magical powers to control people and events to his liking.
This is the fourth Tempest" for the summer troupe, a tale deemed allegorical by some, a romance or tragi-comedy by others. There are theories about the evils of colonization and another premise holds that the play was Shakespeare’s farewell to theater and stagecraft. Poet, critic and novelist Mark van Doren probably said it best about the play.
"The Tempest," he said, "is whatever we take it to be."
The story, multilayered, can be perplexing: Prospero and his daughter, virginal Miranda, have been banished from Milan but in this production, somehow end up in the Caribbean, fitting perhaps given a "New World" feel about the tale.
Years pass. Prospero longs for home, and it is here that The Tempest begins its long road to reconciliation between brothers and friends, disloyalties and worse forgiven, grudges healed. Before all of this occurs, Prospero lets several dangerous plots unfold — no real harm is done, but only Prospero knows outcomes.
A half-man, half-beast, Caliban, has been enslaved and exploited by Prospero and wants his freedom; a spirit, Ariel, a symbol of everything positive about humanity, also wants independence. Caliban festers. Ariel remains true but grows impatient. Prospero is edgy and angry, even while knowing how it will all turn out. He barks at Caliban; he spits at Ariel, "You malignant thing."
Prospero arranges a perfect storm, a tempest, a shipwreck — Shakespeare’s familiar symbolism of the sea — with survivors, all with different perspectives on where they are and what’s what. Everything gets settled, including Miranda’s future and Prospero’s return to civilization.
"Our revels are now ended," Prospero says in a famous few lines of Shakespeare. "We are such stuff as dreams are made on."
The Tempest has been tinkered with here, with mixed results. Director Derek Campbell has devised three Ariels, blue, wispy creatures who dart and flit and melt into the night. Great idea; Kristen Tripp Kelly,
Jay Pichardo and Nathan Winkelstein are wonderful sprites.
Original music by Tom Makar — including Bob Marley reggae rhythms — inserts fun even if sots Trinculo and Stephano, with their Mississippi redneck accents, muddy the Caribbean waters, complicating understanding for first-time Shakespearian audiences seeking relevance. It’s an odd take.
Director Campbell sees global ramifications in the political shenanigans here, and so he’s cast Tafik T. Muhammad — Obama? — as Ferdinand, Miranda’s love interest. It’s a reach.
Generally, the cast is fine, a sprinkling of summer Shakespearians — Jim Mohr, Neil Garvey, Gerry Maher, Tom Loughlin — and some excellent newcomers, Muhammad, Elexa Kopty and Aaron Pitre, lithe and catlike as Caliban—and, of course, Saul Elkin, overseeing, all-wise, as Prospero, his “revels” speech a bit rushed but still great to hear as it wafts over park and lake.
There’s a set both nautical and tropical by Ron Schwartz; it complements nicely.
Shakespeare in Delaware Park Announces Shakesperience Intern Production
Shakesperience, Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s high school intern program, will be holding a performance on Friday, July 10th at 6:15 pm, prior to Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s main stage performance of The Tempest (Rain Date – July 11th). This year’s show is an adapted 40 minute version of Twelfth Night with 7 area High School Students performing.
Shakespearience teacher Kate Loconti states, "This performance of Twelfth Night has truly been a collaborative process. We have rehearsed four days a week for three weeks and have worked together to cut the script, develop the concept and work on the characters. Throughout the process, we have focused on understanding the details of the text, bringing it to life with well-thought out interpretations of the characters, and finding new and exciting moments with the play's heartfelt and witty story. It has been an entertaining journey to Illyria and back, and we hope you enjoy it."
The Shakespearience Program is open to area high school students and is designed to provide in-depth theatrical experience with theatre professionals. Each session runs for five weeks, beginning the week prior to regularly schedule professional Shakespeare in Delaware Park performances. In addition to attending classes, students gain hands-on experience in a professional production as part of SDP technical crew.
All performances are free of charge.
Shakespeare in Delaware Park is now in its 34th Season. The Tempest performances are held every evening (except Mondays) at 7:30 p.m. through July 12th. SDP’s second show of the season, Julius Caesar opens July 23rd and runs until August 16th. Shows take place on Shakespeare Hill in Delaware Park, next to Hoyt Lake behind the Rose Garden, off Lincoln Parkway near the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
Shakespeare in Delware Park Announces 34th Season of Free Theatre
Shakespeare in Delaware Park is pleased to announce its 34th season of free professional outdoor theater. The summer’s exciting season will begin June 18th when THE TEMPEST takes the stage. Originally listed as a comedy, modern editors have relabeled The Tempest as one of Shakespeare’s late romances, and it is now considered to be one of his greatest works. The part of Prospero has been played by many great actors, and this anticipated production will not disappoint when Shakespeare in Delaware Park founder and artistic director Saul Elkin takes on this role, directed by Derek Campbell. Filling the second slot and opening on July 23rd will be the classic tragedy, JULIUS CAESAR. This crowd-pleasing tale of honor, patriotism, friendship and betrayal will be directed by Steve Vaughan and star Dan Walker as Caesar and Doug Zschiegner as Brutus.
Shakespeare in Delaware Park reaches over 40,000 audience members each season and is proud to be celebrating 34 incredible years of high-quality professional theatre, which remains FREE for the public to enjoy. The Tempest runs June 18th – July 12th with Julius Caesar on stage July 23rd –August 16th. Performances are held every evening (except Mondays) at 7:30 p.m. (no performance July 4th). Shows take place on Shakespeare Hill in Delaware Park, next to Hoyt Lake behind the Rose Garden, off Lincoln Parkway near the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Further information may be obtained at www.shakespeareindelawarepark.org or by calling (716) 856-4533.
Season Sponsors Provide Generous Support
2009 Season Sponsors include M & T Bank, Erie County, New York State Council on the Arts, WGRZ Channel 2, WBFO 88.7FM, The Buffalo News, Rich Renaissance Catering and CPI. Additional funding comes from members, donors and audience donations.
Shakespeare in Delaware Park Announces 2009 Season Auditions
Open auditions for Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s 34th season will be held on Saturday April 4th.
Open Call: Saturday April 4th from 9am to 2pm
Callbacks will take place Sunday April 5th and Monday April 6th
Auditions will be held at The Market Arcade Building, 617 Main Street, Buffalo 14203 (this is NOT the Market Arcade “Movie” Complex)
ALL AUDITIONS ARE BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. Everyone interested in being considered for the 2009 season must make an audition appointment. To arrange an appointment, please call (716) 856-4533, on or after March 30th (no audition appointments will be accepted before the 30th). Leave your name, phone number, date and approximate time you wish to audition. You will be called back with a confirmation of your audition time. Multiracial casting all minorities and ethnicities encouraged to audition.
This year’s productions include:
The Tempest Julius Caesar Actors should prepare one memorized, Shakespearean monologue, not to exceed 2 minutes. If you have played a “principal role” for Shakespeare in Delaware Park in the past 3 years you do not need to prepare a monologue, just call for an audition appointment and callback information. All Actors are requested to bring a resume/career bio and a head shot to the audition.
Please Note: the role of Prospero in The Tempest has already been cast.
Iroquois to stage world premiere of Shakespeare on trial
This new production, featuring plays of old, is written by Anthony Giordano, a playwright and actor in numerous independent films and off-Broadway productions. His past plays, “Drama Club” and “Tap Dreams,” have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, England, Australia, and South Africa.
His newest play, “Shakespeare on Trial,” focuses around a modern-day high school where the senior class is asked by the Board of Education to decide whether or not Shakespeare will be taught the following year. What begins as a simple school assembly transforms into a full-blown trial, where the Bard’s work is examined and put to the test.
“I was a high school English teacher for many years. I absolutely loved Shakespeare, so I thought it would be interesting to have a play where many of the lines, there’s something like 20 or 30 quotations of Shakespeare, were in the play said Giordano. Also there is the idea that some people think that Shakespeare is not appropriate for high school students any longer, that it’s out of date. Well, I figured, why not let students put Shakespeare on trial and let them defend him?”
Giordano decided to list his play on the New York State Theatre Education Association Web site, in hopes of finding a school that could perform the initial run of the show to see what in the script worked, and what didn’t. He could then make the needed changes and send the improved script in for publication.
A school was found when Lisa Ludwig-Kramer, Drama Club director at Iroquois and managing director of Shakespeare in Delaware Park, contacted Giordano about performing the play.
“You know, I have such a great group of students, and I have to admit, they’re this excited every year, they love doing theater so much. But every year, you go to pick the musical or the play, and you see how many other schools are doing the same show you are doing.
“So this is something I think that they are very excited about, the opportunity to do a show that absolutely no one has ever done before,” said Ludwig-Kramer.
The enthusiasm of Iroquois drama students was clearly evident at auditions in early February, when more than 60 students auditioned for what was originally 18 roles. Though more parts were added to up the number of roles to 28, Ludwig-Kramer felt the excitement of students who did not get a part should not go to waste. She came up with the idea of having students without parts perform Shakespeare monologues, sonnets and small scenes in the lobby before the show and during intermission.
As students will be performing bits of Shakespeare both on stage and in the pre-show, Ludwig-Kramer felt they should see Shakespeare performed live by professionals. Prior to auditions, the Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s Shakespearience troupe came to Iroquois to perform “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Play,” a piece with a variety of Shakespeare’s works, and to work with the students on their acting.
“One of the things I strongly believe in is that Shakespeare is not only meant to be read, it’s meant to be heard. A lot of time, in schools, reading Shakespeare, they don’t get to see it spoken live on stage. Once they see it, it energizes them,” said Ludwig-Kramer.
Many of the students, such as junior Victoria Pacuzzi, 16, were nervous about acting out Shakespeare’s work. Much like her anti-Shakespeare character Parker, Victoria was not the biggest Shakespeare fan prior to the show. “I was a little scared because I struggled with it in school sometimes and I was worried if I could pull it off, but it’s going really well,” she said.
Performing pieces written in the 16th century wasn’t the only challenge facing the cast. Another challenge was performing a newly written show. As the script is still in revision, students would get updates from Giordano periodically with changes in the script and rewrites.
“We all know it is a work in progress. I will jokingly say that the script is certainly not Shakespeare,” said Ludwig-Kramer.
The students are adapting very well to the process, she said. They’ve come to accept that while they may have already memorized their lines for Scene 3, at any time their director could walk in with an e-mail saying it has all been changed. More than anything else, students are excited about what is perhaps a once in a lifetime experience.
“To work for someone you never see, it’s kind of like being Charlie’s Angels. You never see who you’re working for, you only hear from him,” said senior Annie Haselswerdt, 18.
Giordano is coming to meet the cast the day before opening night and will hold a talkback with the cast and the audience after the first performance.
“I was really excited when we found out we were doing a new play because I would be creating a character who no one has ever seen or heard of. You can leave behind something that other actors can look at. I’ma little nervous, though. I hope that the image that he [Giordano] had of my character, I hope that I can fulfill them,” said Annie.
Equally excited about the opportunity is the playwright. In the past, he hasn’t always had the chance to see his plays performed, so he is looking forward to seeing how the students have interpreted what he wrote on the page.
“It’s great to work with students because they really put their heart and soul into it. This will now be the original cast. They will create the characters. Often the play I have in my head, isn’t the play I see. Very often, it’s much better than I imagine, because they bring something that I don’t imagine to it. I love going to people later, and saying, ‘You played a much better character than I wrote.’ I’ve never been disappointed, actually,” said Giordano.
Iroquois will stage “Shakespeare on Trial” at 7 p. m. March 13 and at 3 and 7 p. m. March 14. Tickets are $8, $6 for students and senior citizens and will be available at the door one hour before curtain. Call the Iroquois Drama Club hotline at 652-3000, Ext. 3001.
A devious plot collapses in laughter
Director Steve Vaughan, with a hand both broad and precise, leaves no joke unexplored, no physical gesture underplayed, nor any insult subtly delivered. His actors are encouraged to thicken their accents and gambol, moon or roar with abandon, which they do.
The cast, with 17 in speaking roles and 10 or so in the supporting ensemble, is clearly having a great time in this show, which opened Friday after a one-day weather delay.
Vaughan also conveys the deeper meanings. A few of the Bard’s lessons: be happy with what you have; things may not be as they seem; Father does not always know best, etc.
Ken Shaw’s costumes strongly support these messages and the tone that is struck. The use of sheer fabric in many of the clothes leaves things both covered and exposed, but neither fully.
The slightly repetitive plot finds Sir John Falstaff (Norman Sham) hitting the town of Windsor, looking to remedy his financial woes. Falstaff’s dopey plan involves wooing two upper-class, married women, at the same time, with the same love letters.
The plan, of course, goes wrong, and the play becomes essentially a screwball comedy of comeuppance all around. In my book, this is a dish best eaten quickly; here, it is drawn out. And it is a lot of fun, though a tad overlong.
The wives of the title are Mistresses Ford (Susan Drozd), the saucier of the two, and Page (given a Kay Ballard/Eve Arden kind of turn by Beth Donahue). Once they discover Falstaff’s silly plan, they decide to take revenge on him. Not just twice, but three times, they trick him into a rendezvous and humiliate him instead.
Throughout are classic devices such as devious servants interfering in their masters’ devious plans, sending people to wrong locations, disguises, and hiding behind curtains and in laundry baskets. And, so there’s no mistaking it: tons and tons of jokes about weight and sex. When they are delivered in Elizabethan English, they are still funny, if, again, a bit repetitive.
Sham, naturally funny, gives us a Falstaff with a couple of revealing, Jackie Gleason-esque moments, where rueful self-awareness meets callow hope.
Paul Todaro, as Ford, one of the husbands, brings out a good deal of his physical comedy arsenal, roaring with rage, stomping on his hat and clenching fists in frustrated and murderously jealous intent.
The subplot, involving three suitors of Page’s lovely young daughter Anne (Anne Roaldi), is also a great source of amusement. Two of the men — her mother’s and father’s choices, Dr. Caius (Roger Keicher) and Slender (Steven Petersen) respectively — ridiculously and selfishly vie for her hand, while she has already made up her mind to marry the third (Zak Ward).
Jeffrey Coyle, as the genial and bemused Host of the local inn, and Chris Standardt, as Justice of the Peace Shallow, one of the (barely) cooler heads, provide nice counterpoint to some of the hijinks that go on.
Of course, all ends well. The mix-ups are unmixed, the conflicts un-conflicted and the whole party ends up laughing together rather than trying to kill one another.
It's "Knight" Time in Delaware Park
"Why see the Dark Knight when you can see the fat knight?" exclaimed cast member Norman Sham during the intermission of The Merry Wives of Windsor Sunday in Delaware Park. The performance was part of the annual Shakespeare in Delaware Park series. The plot centered on Sham's character, a portly, hard-drinking and womanizing knight named Sir John Falstaff. Falstaff is a far cry from the "caped crusader," and instead of deeds of heroics, Falstaff specializes in embarrassing antics.
Shakespeare in Delaware Park has been a fixture in Buffalo for over three decades now, and routinely draws between 40,000 and 50,000 people each year. Lisa Ludwig-Kramer, Managing Director for Shakespeare in Delaware Park, explained that "it[Shakespeare in Delaware Park] started when artistic director Saul Elkin wanted to bring a free Shakespeare festival to Buffalo 33 years ago."
Earlier this year King Lear ran in Delaware Park, after a four week break for rehearsal The Merry Wives of Windsor began.
The dark story of King Lear could not be more different from the upbeat play running now. Ludwig-Kramer explained the choice, "Saul [Elkin] picks the shows every year. We try to mix things up every year and do a tragedy and a comedy. We already did King Lear, one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, and we wanted to balance it out with a more lighthearted work."
The Merry Wives of Windsor follows two storylines. The first involves Falstaff's attempt to have an affair with two married women, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. However, the two women are not at all attracted to Falstaff and decide to try and humiliate the knight. To make matters worse, both of the ladies' husbands find out about Falstaff's plan. While all this is going on Mistress Page's daughter, Anne, is being wooed by three different men.
Though some of the humor of the play has faded with time, much of it has not and spectators were laughing aloud through much of the play. Especially funny were two scenes in which Falstaff tries to escape from Ford's house without being detected, first in a basket of dirty laundry and then dressed as an old woman.
The entire cast was very able, but several really stood out. Sham gave a very humorous and vibrant performance as Falstaff. Susan Drozd and Beth Donahue were also perfectly cast as the scheming wives. Probably the best performance came from Paul Todaro who gave a forceful performance as jealous husband Mr. Ford.
The audience seemed to love the play. "I though it was fantastic and everyone had great stage presence," said Jessica Abbott of Hamburg.
Even Shakespeare in Delaware Park veterans like Jessica Tasker of Blasdell liked the show. "I really liked it. I thought it was really funny. I think its one of the best that I've seen here. It had a really funny plot, the acting was really good," Tasker said.
If you want to catch a performance the show will go on until August 17, Tuesdays through Sundays, starting each night at 7:30.
For Immediate Release: As a “must-see summer event”
Shakespeare in Delaware Park reaches more than 40,000 audience members each
year and is proud to be celebrating 33 incredible years of high-quality
professional theatre which remains FREE for the public to enjoy.
As a special feature for this production, Artistic Director Saul Elkin will
present a 30 minute pre-show talk with the audience at 6:45pm on Wednesday
July 30th and August 6th before THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR performance.
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR cast also features veterans: Beth Donahue,
Susan Drozd, Paul Todaro and Chrissy McDonald. Directed by Steve Vaughan,
costume design by Ken Shaw and set design by Ron Schwartz. Shakespeare in
Delaware Park performances are held every evening (except Mondays) at 7:30
p.m. Shows take place on Shakespeare Hill in Delaware Park, next to Hoyt
Lake behind the Rose Garden, off Lincoln Parkway near the Albright-Knox Art
Gallery. Further information may be obtained at
www.shakespeareindelawarepark.org or by calling (716) 856-4533.
2008 Season Sponsor M&T Bank returns as the main corporate sponsor, a role
M&T has played for the past 14 seasons. Additional funding comes from
members and voluntary audience donations, as well as the Erie County
Cultural Resources Advisory Board (ECCRAB) and New York State Council on the
Arts (NYSCA) and the Peter C. Cornell Trust. Media sponsorship is provided
by The Buffalo News, WGRZ Channel 2 and WBFO. Travers Collins
donates creative work.
Saul Elkin as Lear: A mad triumph for Shakespeare at Delaware Park
This “Lear,” starring the company’s founder and artistic director Saul Elkin in the title role and directed by Derek Campbell, is Shakespeare at its unvarnished best. With no bells, whistles, gimmicks or even questionable interpretations from its actors, the show allows Shakespeare’s themes and language to speak loudly for themselves.
For Elkin, who acts opposite his daughter Rebecca Elkin (Cordelia), this is an important performance. After two previous attempts at Lear, he’s said this will be his last crack at the role, considered one of the most challenging and thus most rewarding roles in all of theater. Elkin’s deeply impassioned performance Tuesday swung expertly from furious outrage to raving madness to tragic clarity. Elkin’s indignation was righteous, his madness subtly good-natured and his final epiphany moving.
In an attempt to immediately suspend disbelief, Shakespeare starts his masterpiece off with an absurd proposition. Lear, King of England, asks each of his daughters to profess their love to him so that he can parcel out his kingdom to them accordingly. After Goneril (Eileen Dugan) and Regan (Marie Costa) gush shamelessly, Cordelia refuses to heave her heart into her mouth. This sets off a tragic chain of events that quickly descend from order into chaos amid which the daughters that seemed to love Lear most turn into his biggest nemeses.
There’s also the Earl of Gloucester (Jim Maloy), betrayed to the delight of Cordelia’s sisters by his sniveling illegitimate son Edmund (corrosively manipulative Joseph Wiens). Edgar (newcomer Nathan Winkelstein), Gloucester’s other son, feigns a bit of madness himself, while Lear’s fool (Tim Newell) tries desperately to add a degree of levity.
The cast in this production is prodigiously gifted, and some performances that stick above the others (aside from Lear, of course) are that of Maloy as the noble Gloucester, Newell at his comic best as the Fool, Weins’ downright fiendish rendition of Edmund and, especially, Costa as Regan.
In the role of the more evil of two already evil sisters, Costa is almost magnetically vicious, more creature than woman. When, after Gloucester’s betrayal by Edmund, Cornwall (Dan Walker) plucks out Gloucester’s eyes, Costa’s Regan is — dare it be said — a little turned on. It’s an interpretation that adds a deeper hint of sinister darkness that makes the audience even more aware of just how unjust life has been for Lear and Gloucester.
Christopher Cavanagh’s lighting, in concert with sound design from Tom Makar, intentionally unspectacular sets and props from Ron Schwartz and costumes from Donna Massimo, helped to draw the healthy sized crowd on Shakespeare Hill into what was an already every inch an engrossing production.
A Fabulous Feast for a Fabulous Cause
One of Buffalo’s greatest gifts is certainly Shakespeare in Delaware Park. The plays are free and something that many of us look forward to not just for entertainment, but as a rite of Western New York’s brilliant summer. In order to keep these grand experiences alive, please consider joining the 14th Annual Fabulous Feast on March 29th. It will be held at the stunning Connecticut Street Armory from 6-10PM.
It’s always a good time with auctions galore (live, fishbowl and silent), dancing, singing and sword fighting! The feast is a show in itself with a cornucopia of wine and beer, hors d’oeuvres, cheddar and broccoli soup, a salad of greens, goat cheese, blood oranges and vinaigrette, chicken and turkey drumsticks, stuffed pork loin, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, vegetables, dessert and coffee. As icing on the cake, per se, the Up Start Crow Awards will also be presented. This is SDP’s biggest and most important fundraiser of the year and really offers something for everyone to enjoy so come one, come all! This year, Shakespeare in Delaware Park will be presenting King Lear and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Shakespearean attire is welcomed but not required. For more information please go to the SDP website: www.shakespeareindelawarepark.org.
Tickets are $65 for members and $75 for non-members. They can be purchased through Paypal on the Feast’s webpage or you can call SDP's office for tickets at 716.856.4533.
Elkin to play Shakespeare’s Lear in Delaware Park opener
Ian McKellen did it. Brian Bedford did it.
And now Saul Elkin, the dean of Buffalo’s theater scene, is going to take what he said is his second and final shot at one of Shakespeare’s meatiest and most lusted-after roles: King Lear.
“I just felt it was a time of my life when I needed to have one more crack at it, and I needed to do a little training and getting the stamina up to do it,” Elkin said. “It’s been cooking in my head.”
Elkin’s turn as the troubled ruler in Shakespeare’s “King Lear” will kick off the 33rd season of Shakespeare in Delaware Park on June 19.
In another casting match made in heaven, the annual outdoor festival will mount the Bard’s comedy “The Merry Wives of Windsor” starting July 24 and starring the comically gifted Norm Sham as Falstaff.
Shakespeare Poetry Contest Success
Last night, BRO/BRM teamed up with WBFO at Shakespeare in the Park. We ran a contest to see who might come up with a winning sonnet/poem praising Buffalo. We collected over 40 entries, and let me tell you, we have some true writers out there. The winner, chosen at random, was one of those people.
Ode to Buffalo Where place, but the Queen City, To be treated to a professional production And the cost—not a pence; available to every soul And this, only one of the extraordinary offerings Let us share our secret, Buffalo, truly the queen, We will share more in the coming days. Special thanks to Tom at Pavlov's Togs, the Shakespeare in the Park people, our great audience, WBFO, and especially WBFO's Gabe DiMaio, whose presentation of the contest was more than we could have hoped for.
'Othello': a perfect confluence of forces Tim Newell and Jolie Garrett star in "Othello," presented by Shakespeare in Delaware Park. A persistent drizzle Thursday night forced Shakespeare in Delaware Park to delay the premiere production of its anticipated season closer, "Othello," by a day.
And though not a drop of rain impeded Friday night's debut, storm clouds of a different sort gathered over Shakespeare Hill, raining down a torrent of rage, jealousy and downright fiendishness.
"Othello," having only been staged once before in the long history of the company, requires a perfect confluence of forces.
The title role, more than any other, requires a deeply commanding presence. The unconscionably villainous Iago must be portrayed by a master of duplicity. In this well-paced and moving production, director Saul Elkin has found that confluence in an admirable cast that does justice to one of Shakespeare's most heartbreaking and violent tragedies.
Elkin's out-of-town talent search for the title role yielded New York City-based Jolie Garrett, a capable and forceful actor whose first crack at the legendary Moor was brimming with pathos. Garret's booming voice and commanding presence contained all the furious anger and righteous jealousy that the role demands, though his light-speed and sometimes overeager delivery occasionally obscures some of his better lines.
It has long been said that "Othello" belongs to the character of Iago above all, and the serpentine Tim Newell did nothing to dispel that notion. Shakespeare gave this archvillain most of the juicy lines, and Newell's carefully nuanced and often playful Iago serves as the ever-charging engine behind the briskly paced production.
Newell employs all manner of subtle comic devices and shines brightly in his exchanges with the ineffectual Roderigo (played by Peter Meachum, whose comically effective lips add needed levity to the show), whom he manipulates with great ease. When he speaks with Othello, Newell's eyes dart back and forth with a sort of half-guilty, half-evil light behind them.
This is especially effective in one of several back-and-forths between Iago and Othello in which they discuss the honesty of Othello's innocent wife, Desdemona. "Long live she so! And long live you to think so!" Iago says and then casts a subtly guilty eye toward the audience … almost to the point of hamming it up but stopping just short.
Chirs Critelli, as Othello's noble lieutenant Cassio, delivers a flawless and moving performance, as does Rebecca Elkin, whose Desdemona is alternately soft-spoken and hysterical and falls perfectly between Jolie's power and Newell's duplicity.
Donna Massimo's costumes are universally gorgeous, from Desdemona's shimmering gowns to her Roman-inspired soldier uniforms.
As Iago says, the play is well-tuned at the start, but it's wonderfully captivating to watch as he "sets down the pegs" to produce a powerful sort of discord.
Shakespeare in the Park: An Edwardian woman gets her man
The women of Shakespeare are often notoriously strong, dagger-tongued personalities adept at outsmarting their male counterparts.
In Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s production of “All’s Well That Ends Well,” director Derek Campbell has focused on the love-struck Helena (Kate LoConti), a character whose cunning, charm and penchant for manipulation finds echoes in famous women throughout literature and history.
Campbell has moved the setting for Shakespeare’s complex comedy from the Elizabethan era to the Edwardian, an approach that succeeds in making its modern feminist connotations more evident. One is almost immediately reminded of Princess Diana of Wales, who, like Helena, used her fierce intelligence and grace to woo an otherwise wayward and obstinate aristocrat.
In Helena’s case, that aristocrat is Count Bertram (played by newcomer Andy Moss), who is an unfortunate and stuck-up man trapped in mental adolescence. When the low-born Helena fails to catch his eye, she embarks on a devious and questionable scheme to force their marriage. He flees fast, and she follows faster, intent on reeling him in at any cost. In the course of her pursuit, Helena gains the trust of Bertram’s mother and plays many of the minor characters like a kid plays hopscotch.
The play is wonderfully acted. Robert Rutland, who plays the ailing King of France, shows his Shakespearean chops for the first time on the Delaware Park stage, and his fresh and dynamic performance makes us wonder what took him so long.
Lisa Ludwig shines as Count Bertram’s eminently mannered mother, whose transformation from serpent to dove is great fun to observe. As memorable comic characters go, Tom Loughlin takes the cake as Parolles, the blundering and unscrupulous soldier whose cowardice undoes him. Loughlin’s skill at physical comedy and deft timing — especially in an exchange with Helena on the subject of virginity — produce the heartiest laughs in the show.
But the gleaming diamond in this production is LoConti, whose forceful Helena contains an easy and modern irreverence imbued with irresistible grace. She makes Helena’s dubious plans — to trick Betram into marriage by stealing his ring and conceiving his child — seem almost honorable by employing a kind of revolutionary forthrightness that Campbell highlights.
Ken Shaw’s costumes, from this red-clad soldiers to the countess’ glimmering dresses, perfectly capture the aristocratic aplomb and haughtiness of the Edwardian period. Campbell’s eye and ear for modern humor is evident in too many spots to mention, but reaches its apex in a scene containing four eligible bachelors, each impeccably dressed in Shaw’s cricket-playing outfits. Each one assumes a dapper, nonchalant stance as they are turned down, one after the other, by the coolhearted Helena.
Lighting designer Brian Cavanagh also deserves credit for creating an enchanting effect of moonlight in an outdoor scene that came just after dusk.
As Campbell suggests in the playbill, there is something bubbling under this play, a “dark, troubled interior” that belies its supposedly comic nature. The play has so many questions and facets to explore that a lesser production might have confused them by focusing on too many at once. By casting “All’s Well” as Shakespeare’s closest approximation of feminism, the play transcends comedy and becomes something much deeper.
‘All’s Well’ as Shakespeare season opens When Jolie Garrett walked into a casting room in New York City in April, Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s Saul Elkin knew he was “the one.”
Garrett performed a monologue from the first act of “Othello” using the room’s baby grand piano and floor-to-ceiling mirror to accentuate his performance. As Garrett performed the scene, a plea the Moor Othello makes to justify his love for the white Desdemona, Elkin and festival Managing Director Lisa Ludwig were taken aback.
“She loved me for the dangers I had pass’d,/ And I loved her that she did pity them,” Garrett said, nearing the end of the famous speech. “This only is the witchcraft I have used:/ Here comes the lady; let her witness it.”
“We just pulled back in our chairs and thought, ‘God, will this guy ever accept the role?’” said Elkin, the executive and artistic director of the festival.
Luckily for them, Ludwig said, he accepted immediately.
“To me, it’s very ‘Matrix,’ very Keanu Reeves,” said Garrett, a New York-based actor who beat out a field of 30 competitors for the lead role in “Othello,” the second production of the Shakespeare festival’s 33rd season set to debut on July 26. Opening the season will be “All’s Well That Ends Well,” starting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
“I have not played Othello, but I have been working on the character for 10 years, adding layer upon layer upon layer, and they saw that when I walked into the room,” Garrett said. “It cannot be mistaken.”
Even over the phone, Garrett’s sentences are measured, carefully considered and often grandiose, recalling the dignity and presence of Laurence Fishburne (who played Othello opposite Kenneth Branagh’s villainous Iago in a 1995 film). The man might as well converse in iambic pentameter. Having appeared in Shakespeare productions in New York and around the country, Garrett is finally ready to set his decade-in-the making creation on its feet.
Considered one of Shakespeare’s best and most memorable tragic characters, Othello demands an actor of commanding presence who embodies the necessary combination of blind trust and ruinous jealousy that sits at the heart of the play.
Elkin, the festival’s executive and artistic director since its inception in 1976, has only staged Othello once, in 1991.
With the title role secured, Elkin looked to the brimming Buffalo theater community to fill the role of the evil and duplicitous Iago, who will be played by veteran Tim Newell. With perennial festival leading man Paul Todaro spending a summer in Pittsburgh, Newell expressed delight at the opportunity in his Artie Award acceptance speech in early June, in which he jokingly thanked Todaro for skipping town so he could play the juicy role.
But for all the familiar faces that will grace the festival’s outdoor stage, a sizable contingent of newcomers, both young and old, are taking cracks at some venerable roles.
The first production, Shakespeare’s comedy “All’s Well That Ends Well,” will star, among others, Shakespeare in the Park newcomers Robert Rutland (seen often at Studio Arena Theatre) as the King, and the 22-year-old Andy Moss as the arrogant young Bertram, a character he says embodies a kind of “preteen angst.”
Moss, a recent graduate of the University at Buffalo’s musical theater program, is excited at the transition from the classroom to the stage, where some of his former teachers will become his peers.
“I think all the stuff I learned from them was great, but I’m learning more being onstage with them than I ever did in class,” Moss said. “You learn to take all that education you have and make it into something that’s a true technique.”
The debut of “All’s Well That Ends Well” on Thursday marks the long-awaited return of director Derek Campbell to the Delaware Park stage. His last stint as a director in Delaware Park was 1984’s “Measure for Measure.”
“Derek coming back is tremendous,” Moss said, noting that he had not yet been born the last time Campbell directed a Shakespeare in Delaware Park production.
Because most of Buffalo’s theaters take a break for the summer, Moss added that Shakespeare in Delaware Park provides an opportunity for different segments of the theater community to merge.
For Elkin, the oft-cited universal nature of Shakespeare’s work is motivation to stay faithful to the Bard’s scripts, while past productions he’s directed have sometimes taken a more radical approach. “I no longer feel now that I have to force relevance,” Elkin said. “The plays sort of speak for themselves.”
As for “All’s Well That Ends Well,” Campbell is moving the comedy up several centuries to the Edwardian period (about 1901-1919), and some of the rehearsal techniques might seem a little unorthodox. Costume designer Ken Shaw, for instance, hosted actors at his house to watch episodes of the British reality show “Manor House,” which is set in Edwardian Britain, to get an idea of the characters’ dress and movements.
Whatever the interpretations or directorial approaches, Elkin said that the impact of the summer event — which reaches 50,000 people each summer — is undeniable.
“There is a moment, when the sun goes down, it starts to get dark and the stage lights take over, the sounds of the city diminish, and audiences stop fidgeting,” Elkin said. “It really is very magical.”
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And the actors think that they have it tough – all they have to do is remember their lines.
Attending the world premiere of a new play does not mean you have to travel all the way to the Big Apple’s Broadway. To be one of the first to see a brand-new play, all that has to be done is to attend Iroquois Drama Club’s production of “Shakespeare on Trial” March 13 and 14.
Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s production of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” has a lot going for it.
Shakespeare in Delaware Park (SDP) is pleased
to announce the second production of the 2008 season of free professional
outdoor theater. After a rainy start to the 33rd SDP season, KING LEAR
closed Sunday July 13th entertaining record crowds. Shakespeare in Delaware
Park will now continue with THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. This comedy is
known to be the only Shakespeare play to deal exclusively with contemporary
English Life and features the famous “fat knight” Sir John Falstaff, which
will be played by local favorite Norm Sham.
After a week of dreary weather and more than its share of false starts, the ranting and raving of Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s “King Lear” finally came out in full force Tuesday night.
