Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU

Theater and Engineering? You betcha! At Arizona State, no less!!

2012-02-19T13:00:00.000-08:00

Two major movements are creating new opportunities and new horizons in theater: media engineering and youth theater. So imagine how ahead of the curve one could be by being certified to practice and teach any combination of the two. There are a few programs budding across the country. MIT's Media Labs has some extraordinarily innovative programs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AsHheQb5og --

One newer program that is quickly drawing attention and building renown is the Media and Engineering program through the Herberger Institute for Design and the ARts at Arizona State University in Tempe http://herbergerinstitute.asu.edu/degrees/.

With a decided bent toward interactive and multimedia programming, puppetry and social awareness in storytelling, the School of Theater and Film at ASU offers Master's and Ph.D. programs that foster community partnerships, actualization of voice and individuality, and deep understanding of the place and purpose of electronic media in the arts. http://theatrefilm.asu.edu/community/childrens_workshops.php

Combining traditional theater with electronics devices and by using not only the stage but screens over and around the stage engages the IPOD/IPAD/Computer generation in the experience of theater in a way they can better comprehend, making the programming more accessible to them.

Shakespeare would be thrilled to know that his plays are ripe for adaptation to the interactive multi-media age. He's probably kicking himself that he can't play now.

Arizona Dichotomy

2012-02-13T19:46:00.000-08:00

Arizona, land of sunshine and paradox. Yesterday I attended a show at ASU (http://lib.asu.edu/librarychannel/2012/01/31/ep117_azcentennial/ )celebrating the Centenniel of Arizona Statehood (14 February 1912), and it's hard to keep track of the dichotomies as they fly at me.

In a state where the average woman still make less than a third of what a man makes, in a place where sexual harassment is still something you gotta love about the boys, in an atmosphere where women still defer to the authority of their husbands, Jan Brewer is the Governor, Rebecca White Berch is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and Gabrielle Giffords has (tragically) ascended to national heroism.

An entire school system in the second largest city in the state just outlawed The Tempest, but the people in the School of Theater and Film at Arizona State University had no idea that the spectre of censorship hovered now nearby. In fact, when contacted by telephone, people at the University of Arizona's School of Theater, Film and Television in Tucson had no idea that The Tempest had been named non grata anywhere. "But that's absurd. Why would anyone be afraid of The Tempest in the 21st Century?"

Why indeed.

To be continued

Another Arizona Point of View

2012-02-01T12:04:00.000-08:00

Just when you think Arizona is a black hole, you realize that people like Morgan Schuldt are there by choice and by happenstance, and it's actually a vibrant place for artists . . .

http://radio.azpm.org/azspotlight/podcasts/2010/8/6/70-meet-writer-morgan-schuldt-a-champion-for-the-power-of-language/

The False Report of Banned Books In Tucson: The Tempest in the Arizona Teapot

2012-01-31T18:20:00.000-08:00

The False Report of Banned Books In Tucson: The Tempest in the Arizona Teapot

Arizona here I Come

2012-01-27T16:07:00.000-08:00

As you will see in the posting below, Arizona State University's Theater and Film Department has commissioned an innovative play, an epic look at the Unsung Heroes of the state. What you won't see in the post is that the university is spending money on the arts, that despite the apparent lack of arts savy, the outward absence of cultural sophistication, the university is attracting some of the brightest and the best from all over the country. I'll be interviewing some of them, will be talking to people in the Tucson public school system where they are banning The Tempest, and will be looking at the state of the arts in the self-contradicting state.

ASU MainStage offers peek into moments from Ariz. history

2012-01-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

ASU MainStage offers peek into moments from Ariz. history

Meanwhile, in Arizona

2012-01-26T03:24:00.000-08:00

Another preliminary news link -- background info for the Arizona series. . . http://news.yahoo.com/chilly-reception-obama-lands-phoenix-words-gop-governor-001215385--abc-news.html

Stay tuned for more. We know drama!

Lord What Fools These Mortals Be. . .

2012-01-25T09:58:00.000-08:00

Arizona's an interesting place. The elect governors like Jan Brewer and support legislation that practically legalizes bigotry and discrimination, and yet they also elect legislators the calibre of Gabrielle Giffords.

Right now, there are few places in this country where a struggling artist can live and find work, and it's especially difficult in the theoretically enlightened Northeast, whereas in Arizona, programs like government adoption of art therapy as a prevention for recidivism, or publically funded theater programs, ahead-of-their time majors in all kinds of arts specializations at the public universities and colleges, et cetera, make ARizona a magnet for some of the country's brightest and most creative. What Arizona is is a microcosm of paradoxes and dichotomies that defy understanding.

What makes Arizona most interesting is the sense that pundits have that in Arizona we see a wave of the future of America. When the State legislature ignore public outcry and Presidential criticism and legislation to curtail illegal immigration, they seemed to be setting a precedent that would enable similar enactments throughout the heartland.

Which could be true. More than many states, Arizona is a melting pot of our own nation. People move to Arizona from all over the US, hoping to find more affordable housing, wider variety of jobs, fairer weather, more congenial lifestyle, and they arrive to find that they face there the same problems they left wherever they emigrated from. And that makes for some distinctively American malease.

So it's interesting to watch what's happening there. And to consider what the ramifications are for us nationwide. Over the next few weeks, I am going to look at some of the seeming exercises in self-contradiction. I'll interview some Arizonans and bring some of their projects to this website, and perhaps you'll respond with your reactions.

To begin, this item that about banning The Tempest in Tucson schools. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2090536/O-Brave-New-World-That-Has-Such-Stupid-People-Int.html

Could it be a harbinger of dread things to come, or is it naught but a flash in the desert?

What is Much Ado?

2012-01-17T15:23:00.000-08:00

Check out the youtube promo below -- an Australian Shakespeare company tells us what Much Ado's all about. Don't you want to come play?

January 26, at 7:30 at the Westside Theater. You know you want to!

Much Ado About Nothing | trailer (2011)

2012-01-17T15:21:00.000-08:00

2012-01-17T14:06:00.001-08:00

http://www.njartsmaven.com/2012/01/join-fun-with-asc-in-unrehearsed.html

REady, Set, Participate. . .

2011-12-31T08:33:00.000-08:00

Below we've placed a kind of primer, an enticing little intro to Shakespeare's delightful romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing, the play we hope will attract a maximum of audience participation. Please take a look at the video, which shows the simplicity of the rollicking romp, and then join us on January 26, at 7:30 PM, for an evening of Rough Magic - No Holds Bard: Much Ado About Nothing. Refreshments and talk-back for all participants to follow. Check out the full overview of the program on the website, under the The Season tab.

Much Ado About Nothing ~ Hip-Hop Animation by Flocabulary ~ Presented by...

2011-12-31T08:27:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Carol Shares Speaks for Occupy London

2011-12-31T08:11:00.000-08:00

Lest you doubt how timely A Christmas Carol really is, check out this clip from a production being sponsored by the Occupy London forces at St. Paul's Cathedral, whose administration has been overwhelmingly supportive of the movement.

Occupy London presents Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" in the porch...

2011-12-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

Passion and Purpose Speeds the Plough Forward

2011-12-21T04:18:00.000-08:00

....then there
was a star danced, and under that was I born.

Directing a classical theater company is no simple task. Such a company is a complex organization, and leading it requires building a complicated network of resources. This is not a job for the faint of heart . . . or for the faint of skills. Directing a classical theater company requires an elaborate – and rare – composite of background, a nexus of experience, talent , intelligence, common sense, and tenacity. The director needs be as complex as the organization, a person who can manage finances, entertain the community, attract and curry donors, counsel personnel, engage in politics, and foretell the future; and if that person wants to remain sane, h/she must also be able to retain an inner smile over the course of an unparalleled roller-coaster ride that can ascend to the heights of euphoria and descend to the depths of despair in a single breath. It’s a tall order, and anyone who takes it on has to be equal parts starry-eyed optimist and grounded pragmatist at all times. In other words, one needs to be the likes of Colette Rice, Producing Artistic Director and Playmaster of the Actors Shakespeare Company at New Jersey City University.

Colette didn’t set out to helm a theater company in Jersey City. In fact, she divided her early professional training between music and the theater. Rice left her home in Sacramento, CA, to study acting at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, and then to attend Northwestern University, where she earned both a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music degrees, with an emphasis in Voice and Opera Performance. “My roots,” she says, “were always in the theater. I loved the theater, and I was, even as a youngster, in love with Shakespeare’s language, with the drama of his plays.” But it was music that brought her east.

In New York, Colette continued to pursue her opera career, auditioning, competing and performing in metropolitan area and regional venues. Winning the prestigious Liederkranz Foundation Award in New York City afforded her the opportunity to perform at Alice Tully Hall. Opera was the focus of her life. At the Sarasota Opera, Rice met John Basil, Artistic Director of the American Globe Theatre in New York, who was directing the production of Simon Boccanegra in which she was featured. After talking extensively about the art of William Shakespeare with the director and taking his classes, she felt, she says, "like I'd been let out of a cage." She knew then that she had to return to acting, especially to Shakespeare.

“I rediscovered Shakespeare through Opera,” says Colette. “And through that, I was understanding that opera was not necessarily where I belonged. My inclination was to turn down roles that were musically appropriate for my voice in favor of roles that had more meat to their characters. And an opera singer who chooses roles based on character rather than on music probably should reconsider her professional choices.

“So there I was in an interesting predicament. I was totally enthralled with Shakespeare, was passionate about the work. But I didn’t have a track record. I wanted to be doing Shakespeare, but my tangible experience had been elsewhere. How was I to make that transition?”

Colette got lucky at that point. She met a group of like-minded actors, who joined together and founded a theater company to produce Shakespeare's plays; that group disbanded eventually, but a sub-group decided to establish another organization, this one dedicated, at least at first, to producing the Shakespeare canon; they founded what eventually came to be known as the Actors Shakespeare Company.

“At that point, I was the one with the most extensive background,” laughs Rice. “I had coached singers and actors,
I
had studied a LOT, and I had acted in more Shakespeare than many of the original actors. Also, I had worked both in business and in the world of grant making; I was the only person everyone felt would be capable of leading the new organization, and that’s how I became the Director.”

Colette Rice had done what most artists do – she had taken day jobs to sustain her pursuit of her artistic career. And on the way, she had accrued skills and knowledge that had preened her for the job she now cherishes at the ASCNJ. She worked for Morgan Stanley and for Credit Suisse and was instrumental in establishing the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. “I remember thinking ‘why me? Why am I here at Doris Duke – which I loved, by the way – when I really feel like I'm supposed to be an artist? ' But I know now that it was all kind of meant to be – I was gaining skills for running the organization I now run.”

Despite the extensive preparation, the part of her job Colette finds most challenging is the fundraising. Fine Arts fundraising in any economy is difficult at best, and in these troubled times, it is a constant trial, a never-ending juggling act. Operating under the aegis of a university, as the ASC does – the New Jersey City University – helps but is not a panacea. The company director must decide daily what she can cut and still keep going, what to do to be prudent with a smaller and smaller pool of money. “You apply for grants, you seek sources in the world of finance, and you just soldier on. It’s the most difficult thing to do day after day without getting discouraged.”

Which is why Rice dwells most on the positive aspects of her position. “You know, when I first got into this, I thought I was doing it to be an actor. I thought I would love the acting the most. But I discovered that I love directing, LOVE it. As a director, I get to act out all the parts, to explore all the motivations not just of character but of plot and staging as well. That’s a gift, a true gift!”

Rice says she is committed to creating a judgment-free environment in which her actors can experiment freely, can examine, scrutinize, personalize their roles. “We have great trust for one another, the actors and I. We also have great trust in our literature. I know that the actors know how to deliver performances that are true to the text and the story, and they know that I can both lead them and listen to them as we find the way together. It’s a remarkable freedom to have such a relationship!”

On March 16, Colette Rice’s production of Macbeth premiers at the Westside Theater, a production Rice is particularly proud to be mounting. “We have seven actors playing all the roles, telling the story through a ritual circle-storytelling style.” There will be a flow of the characters and a dedication to the crux of the story, which, according to Rice , is the coexistence of good and evil in everyone. “The thrust of the main story,” she says, “is encapsulated in the witches’ line, ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair.’ Nothing is what it seems, no one ever says exactly what they’re talking about because there is always an underlying motive, an underlying fear, a ‘something else’ that belies the words. This play’s a great warning. We must all stop using euphemisms and see things for what they are. We must all acknowledge that we are capable of great evil and must recognize what it is in each of us to do our best -and our worst! - and shed a light on our own motivates for choosing righteousness or ill.”

Rice really appreciates the discovery. She revels in the process of uncovering the meaning of a play, of finding that portent in the marrow of the individual parts of the play, and she exults in sharing that process with an audience. “I really believe that the audience is capable of so much, “ she says as she launches into her explanation of No Holds Bard, a program she’ll host and facilitate on the 26^th of January.

Through a fully staged though impromptu reading of Much Ado About Nothing, members of the audience will be invited onto the stage to see why “the play ’s the thing. . . “ Members of the company will execute the key roles , but instead of passively watching, anyone in the audience who WANTS to climb onto the stage and participate will be welcome to read, wander through the play and exhilarate in the revelation along with the actors. Afterward, actors – including those from the audience – will meet with the audience in an informal discussion/refreshment session to discuss the experience from both sides of the stage.

In a way, No Holds Bard, the innovative and exciting project Rice designed, represents a coming full circle for the multi-faceted Producing Artistic Director and Playmaster. “I played Beatrice in one of our early productions. I love this play, and I am prepared to do a little directing, a little coaching and a lot of casual playing as we go along. Also, as ASC was developed from an unrehearsed company, it feels like a not to our beginnings to experiment with that form again. The difference is that this time, we are inviting everyone to jump off that cliff with us."

Colette Rice has found the essence of being the very model of a modern major general at the Actors Shakespeare Company. She has found the music in the words and the rhythm in the practice. She effuses energy and thereby infuses both her company and her lucky audience with a theater experience that is alive and ever-evolving.

Colin Ryan's a Fortunate Man

2011-11-26T13:32:00.000-08:00

Colin Ryan will have two Christmases this year . . . four times a week from December 8-18. Starring in two one-man Christmas-themed plays performed as Christmas with Dickens & Dylan, at the Actors Shakespeare Company of New Jersey, Ryan will have an opportunity to display his finely-tuned acting skills and to exercise his educational expertise by introducing audiences to the multiple nuances of language and story that reverberate through every culture.

Ryan, playing Dylan Thomas in A Child’s Christmas in Wales and Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, is as excited about his double roles in the two-tiered show as he is about his double roles as a member of the ASC since 2003.

“Of course, I was very familiar with A Christmas Carol – who isn’t? – since there are so many adaptations out there. But I was far less familiar with A Child’s Christmas in Wales, and what a splendid find that is.” Each of the plays, condensed to run a total of 90 minutes plus an intermission, offers a singular insight into the meaning and culture of Christmas; and, says Ryan, “Both were intended for a listening audience such as ours.”

First on the bill is A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Thomas’ lyrical, touching, mostly autobiographical “memory play.” Thomas wrote the play for the radio and was featured as the reader in several productions. “It’s a rich, almost mythological and poetic look at childhood,” Colin Ryan effuses. What I love about it is that it’s not fantasized in any big way. It’s not all rose-colored and idealized but rather only slightly rosy and enriched by the great enjoyment the author gets out of the scary, sad, and mischievous moments he remembers from his childhood. It’s not at all saccharine. It’s genuine even when it’s sweet . . . very real.”

What Ryan hopes is that through the Dylan piece, school children and adults alike will find a mode for experiencing their own memories and for giving them life and meaning. And for the Dickens piece, he hopes his audiences will find the resonance for our troubled times.

“You know,” says Colin, in his educator mode. “Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol to read it aloud to live audiences.” In fact, since 1853, when Dickens read portions of his novella in the St. Martin-in-the-Fields church hall to benefit a public hospital, the work has been a staple of the season, a cherished literary work that embodies the spirit of the season.

“So the conceit is that I – as Charles Dickens himself – have been paid to read my work for this group assembled. But I’ve lost my book in my journey to get here, and so I have to recite the story from memory. So mine is the primary voice, which is, of course, the voice of The Christmas Carol narrator.”

Colin says he is continually struck by how very current the work is, how it mirrors so vividly the challenges we all face today. “I was running lines with my wife (ASC member, Former Education Director Elizabeth Belzoni), and I got to the speech where Scrooge says that it would be fine with him if the poor would die, that they should go ahead and do so ‘to decrease the surplus population.’ She stopped me and pointed out how heart-stoppingly current that speech is. That’s frightening. But so true!”

For Ryan, who has seen dozens of adaptations of A Christmas Carol, the thing that stands out about this one is that it doesn’t suggest that Scrooge’s is an easy redemption. He suffers for his revelations, and it is a difficult journey he takes to get to enlightenment. “(Director) Peter (Galman) and I have been careful to track that.” Dickens’, Ryan reminds me, was not interested in teaching his readers to have fun. The original version is horrifying in the pictures it conjures, and it’s not about Scrooge finally seeing the way he missed out on the true meaning of the fun everyone was having at Fezziwig’s party. It’s about taking responsibility for the condition of mankind, for carving a meaningful space in one’s own world.

“There’s so much substance here,” Colin sighs. So many layers of language in each piece, so much meaning.”

Together, the two pieces offer a feast of holiday gifts for all.

Christmas With Dickens & Dylan, directed by Peter Galman and starring Colin Ryan, opens December 8^th, at the Westside Theater. Performances on Thursday 12/8 and 12/15, on Friday 12/9 and 12/16, at 7:30 PM; as well as on Saturday 12/10, 12/17 and on Sunday 12/11, 12/18 at 3:00 PM. For information and directions, call 201-200-2390 or email info@ascnj.org.

Filming Shakespeare ?. . .

2011-11-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

Last week, I had the great good fortune to see the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Tempest, starring Christopher Plummer, in a version taped on high definiton (the hyper-filmic 24P), projected at Symphony Space on Broadway, in New York City.

After the screening, Plummer, who was also the Executive Producer of the film project, and his director Des McAnuff and their producer Barry Avrich miced up and answered first canned questions to be added to the EPK material for the DVD's distribution and then some audience comments and questions as well.

Throughout the talk-back, Avrich kept insisting on calling the production a FILM, and he called McAnuff a film director. To me, the label denigrated the richness of the hybrid that the production actually seemed to be -- not a film because we are always kept at bay by the fourth wall, absent in the world of film, but not theater despite the fact that we are always aware of and wishing to be closer to the magic of the live stage. The effects, except for some cinematography and editing, are purely theatrical conceits and conventions; though Shakespeare's script may be, as Avrich avowed, cinematic, my experience of this production was not exactly that at all.

Those of you who attended the screening of Richard III a couple weeks ago know exactly what I'm getting at. Olivier enlisted the camera to be his collaborator in telling the story, and he set his production in a purely filmic world. He followed a tradition of film adaptation that has been popularizing Shakespeare since film emerged as a medium.

This Tempest is not that at all. It will, or could, actually popularize the experience of theater going. But if an audience expects to see a film, s/he should rent Julie Taymor's version or Paul Mazursky's or Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books.

DVD versions of live productions abound these days, especially in the world of Opera. The Met regularly releases taped versions of their best work for viewing around the country, around the world; many of the world's best opera companies are doing the same. Some of these productions remain faithful to the purely staged performances, and others allow themselves more leeway, knowing they are on film. A great production of Don Giovanni, for example, took the DVD viewer into the Vienna woods and enlisted a variety of locations to enhance the story and music. Even that production, however, was not precisely a "film;" it, too, was a hybrid.

What should we call these? Do we have to have a label?

The Tempest movie trailer

2011-11-12T05:20:00.000-08:00

Dylan Thomas — A Child's Christmas in Wales

2011-10-18T02:49:00.000-07:00

A Child's Christmas. . . .

2011-10-18T02:39:00.000-07:00

My father Alfred Swett , perhaps the last of the great Victorian iconoclasts, followed his mother’s dream for him and went to Medical School, But along the way, he pursued his own passion: English Literature.

As an English Major at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he not only read omnivorously, but he also committed whole passages of his favorites to memory. He never became a writer or a teacher, but his enthusiasm for the written word was the source of great joy to his eight children.

Where other fathers might read stories to their youngsters at bedtime, Alfred recited the Canturbury Tales and Shakespearean Sonnets. While other fathers might teach his children nursery rhymes, Alfred shared lyric passages from plays and epic poetry.

At holiday season every year, he would quote largely from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but his favorite holiday gift was to play his recording of Dylan Thomas reading A Child’s Christmas in Wales. The Thomas memory resonated with him and provided him a vehicle on which to transport us to his own personal small-town holiday world, his own emotional history, which was otherwise difficult for him to embrace.

Thomas’ sonorous Welsh tones were in my head long before I understood the language, and by the time I was old enough to attend productions, I, too, had committed whole portions to memory. Which only heightened the pleasure.

There’s no such thing as too much of this profoundly personal, entirely universal work. Listen to the excerpt above, from a recording of Dylan Thomas reading, and then hie thee to the West Side Theater for Christmas With Dickens and Dylan, December 8-18, presented by the Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU in Jersey City.

And may it bring you great joy. . . .

A Christmas Carol-ing, by Carla Stockton

2011-10-13T08:45:00.001-07:00

My Jewish grandchildren will be visiting me over the holidays. We’ll be looking for things to do together, and there might be a few Chanuka activities sponsored by the likes of Chabad Lubavitch, but most of the fun stuff for kids in New York at the holiday season have to do with Christmas, and we’ll be partaking of those things while they’re in the City.

Christmas, as we have learned, is no longer simply a religious holiday. It’s a national holiday, celebrated by Christians and non-Christians alike. Attending tree lightings and Nutcracker performances and the Radio City Christmas Extravaganza have become as traditional as hearing Handel’s Messiah. Or attending a production of A Christmas Carol.

Every season when I was a child, I marched right alongside all my schoolmates into the auditorium on the last day of school before the holiday break, and I watched, rapt with pleasure, as Alistair Sim, as Ebeneezer Scrooge, found his way through his Christmas lesson about charity and the spirit of Christmas. The message was universal, and it had no time constraints: be kind to one another, and find love and happiness or be a scrooge, and die a miserable outcast.

When I reached preteen-hood, I began producing small cuttings of the Dickens classic for my family during our holiday celebrations. My brothers and sisters played various roles, but I always played Scrooge. It felt like our story as much as anyone else’s, especially as we were not wealthy, were a large family and were somewhat out of sync with our very gentile little town in upstate New York.

That’s the thing about A Christmas Carol. It’s all inclusive. Even the most resolutely avowed atheist has to recognize a pertinent message therein, Tiny Tim’s exhortation “God Bless us Everyone,” notwithstanding. It’s as seasonally traditional as gingerbread houses and sugar plum fairies and fun for all children of all ages.

The number of times the tale has been remade and reworked attests to its enormous popularity. It seems that almost every year or so there is a new film, and there is no end to new adaptations for the stage, including the one that will be presented at the West Side Theater as half of A Dickens/Dylan Christmas, directed by Peter Galman, December 8-18.

It’s an uplifting, cathartic experience to see and hear A Christmas Carol. Come one come all.

F.y.i. Here’s a partial list of the film and video productions:

Movie Versions

A Christmas Carol (1938) starring Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, June Lockhart, Leo G. Carroll, and Terry Kilburn. 69 min.

A Christmas Carol (1951) starring Alastair Sim, Meryvn Johns, Michael Hordern and Glyn Dearman 86 min.

Scrooge (1970) starring Albert Finney, Sir Alec Guinness, Edith Evans and Kenneth More. 115 min.

A Christmas Carol (1984) starring George C. Scott, David Warner, Susannah York, Frank Finlay, Edward Woodward and Nigel Davenport. 100 min.

Scrooged (1988) starring Bill Murray, John Forsythe, Karen Allen, Carol Kane, and Bobcat Goldthwait. 111 min.

A Christmas Carol (1999) starring Patrick Stewart, Nick Adams, Desmond Barrit, Charlotte Brittain, Tom Brown, Kenny Doughty, Laura Fraser, Richard E. Grant, Joel Grey, Roger Hammond, Celia Imrie, Ian McNeice, John Mills, and Saskia Reeves. 93 min.

Cartoon Versions

An All Dogs Christmas Carol (1998) 73 min.
Christmas Carol: The Movie. (2001) 77 min.
A Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994) 90 min.
The Jetsons Christmas Carol (1985) 30 min.
Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) 25 min.
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962) 52 min.
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) 89 min.

Jim Carrey’s A Christmas Carol (2009)

Scrooge - The Morning After The Ghosts - famous scene from the classic m...

2011-10-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

King John Fights from Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU

2011-10-10T03:50:00.000-07:00

Denise Hurd is a Cool Aunt!

2011-10-10T03:35:00.000-07:00

Denise Hurd’s got some ‘splainin’ to do. . . .

“In fact, I may never be forgiven, ” she says, faux remorse wrinkling her brow. She leans across the table and looks deeply into my eye. “I did the unthinkable. I lost a swordfight.”

She sits back, dumps a sweetener into her coffee and look at me again, this time gleaming with mischievous delight.

Two years ago, her nephew, now 7, attended an Actors Shakespeare Company of New Jersey performance of Henry V, where Denise was playing the vanquished French commander. She laughs. “He has not yet forgiven me for losing that fight. To this day, he still comes up to me and says ‘Denise, Denise . . . no whining, no begging not this. You should have hit him with your sword!’”

“He understood enough about the play – which was especially amazing since I was speaking French and not English – that I had lost my fight. And he understood enough about my work as a fight director to know I gave up that fight. He knows that I am technically a better fighter than my opponent was. And he understood that at five. He got it.”

It’s an accomplishment Denise is particularly proud of. It's what makes her a truly "cool aunt" to her nephews, aged 7 and 4. As far as Denise is concerned, making the story and the action of a play transcend even the language should be of paramount importance to any actor or director. And it’s aspect of her work at the Actors Shakespeare Company of New Jersey that she cherishes most.

“I love that we focus on clarity. We are all about finding clarity of language, yes, but also about clarity of ideas, clarity of story.” She pauses to consider. “Clarity of thought,” she adds.

For Denise, the job of the company is to bring the audience into the world of the play by making the story, the concept, and the emotion present. “I hate concept theater,” she says. “Or rather, I get annoyed when a concept has no connection to the story being told. I wanna know why is that Mercutio a Scot bezerker? Why is no one else acting like that? What is that piece of business that has nothing to do with moving the story forward? Does that costume have anything to do with what is supposed to be happening on stage? I hate theater that is not impelled by oral design, which is not motivated by anything in the oral life of the play. I love that at the ASC we concentrate on being clear!"

It was her sense of clarity in the theater that produced Denise’s first moment of resonance with the world of the stage.

The year Denise was three, her father Hugh Hurd was a member of the company in residence at the Guthrie Theater. Hugh, played Mercutio in their production of Romeo and Juliet, and Denise attended a dress rehearsal. When the action reached Act 3, Scene I, and Mercutio got to his “A plague on both your houses,” speech, Denise suddenly could no longer tolerate the action; she was very upset but not “for the obvious reasons.”

“I didn’t understand that he was dying,” she says. “I was three, and that was just too permanent. But I could see that his friends didn’t like him anymore, and he was being left alone.”

Just as Mercutio was about to draw his last breath, Denise rushed onstage. “It’s all right, Daddy,” she cooed. “I still love you.” She laughs as she remembers. “To say the least, it was a disrupted rehearsal.”

From then on, she was always hyper-sensitive to the stories on stage, hyper-aware of the way in which an audience is moved by the action, and she was destined for her own life in the theater.

Denise says she always assumed she’d work in the theater. “Growing up I thought every grown-up was involved in the theater. I recognized that everyone didn’t act, of course, but I really thought all adults worked in the theater. . ‘cause that is what all the grownups around me did.” I never thought I wouldn’t work in the theater.

Denise grew up around theater folk. In addition to her father Hugh, who died in 1995, her mother Merlyn Purdy Hurd, currently a successful neurotherapist, was also an actor. More than just a legacy, the theater was a natural progression . . . “For all of us.”

Denise’s sister Adrienne Hurd is a dancer and choreographer, currently a teacher at the Alvin Ailey Dance School, and her other sister is Michelle Hurd, veteran television actor and star of The Glades. It’s the family business.

Like her sisters, Denise, began her studies at St. Anne’s High School in Brooklyn Heights, which, she says, had and still has a really good theater program. Her drama teacher there was Maurice Blanc, now deceased, whom she recognized even then as a “really great theatrical innovator. He was really great at getting great performances out of kids.” Blanc eschewed the more standard high school fare and challenged his students with Three Penny Opera, Williams, Odets, and Shakespeare.

From there Denise went on to Yale University to complete her undergraduate studies and was a theater and history major, participating as an actor at the Yale Dramat. After a year at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Drama program, she left academia behind.

Her interest in fighting began in her senior year of high school, when she was briefly on the fencing team at St Anne’s. “In those days, for some obscurely anti-feminist reason, they only allowed women to do the foil.” But she found it invigorating nonetheless. “There’s something really empowering about brandishing a sword,” she demurs.

At Yale, she briefly joined the fencing team but soon realized “Oh, I could have a life” and left the team. “But because I was on team ever so briefly, I found my way into choreography.”

“I was doing Cyrano at Yale, and the director said, ‘Oh, you were on the fencing team. Could you choreograph the fight scenes?’ And I was too naïve to know what I didn’t know, so I said yes.”

It turned out to be a life-changing experience. “The guy playing Cyrano was left-handed, which I’m not; and the guy playing Le Vicomte de Valvert – I called him Velveeta because he’s so cheesy – was very tall, right-handed and couldn’t fence. So I had to learn to fence left-handed and teach someone who had minimal body skills and who was way taller than I how to fence. What was good was that I was forced to learn to solve the kind of problems I’d need to solve as a choreographer. I had to keep the actors safe, or at least to make the situation onstage less than dangerous. It was a great education.”

Most of all, Denise hastens to add, she had to learn how to change her mindset from “fighting to the touch” to conveying a story. “I didn’t call myself a choreographer yet. I was an actor, but I wanted to do more with stage combat. So I went on to get training in Stage Combat to be better stage fighter . . . and to preserve myself. I had gotten kicked in the head in a children’s show and I needed to learn how to protect myself."

Along the way, Denise became a certified actor combatant in unarmed confrontations, in broadsword, dagger and rapier fights. She teaches Acting and Introduction to the Theater at City College, and she still loves her weapons work at ASCNJ. “It’s fun to run around with the sword,” she laughs.

But she won’t be choreographing Macbeth, the next mainstage production that will feature her work at the ASC. From March 16-April 1, 2012, she’ll be playing Lady Macbeth, and the production will feature a small cast of actors playing multiple roles.

Denise believes that she will confine herself to the role of actor in this one and will let someone else choreograph the fights. “I don’t think that I could do both. I think I would go crazy!”

She’s not sure she’ll invite her nephews to see Macbeth, however. To see someone they love being so very evil might just be too painful for the sensitive youngsters, and Denise is absolutely certain that the story will be so clearly told that it will be entirely real.

A winter's Tale, by Dylan Thomas

2011-10-08T14:17:00.001-07:00

To whet your appetite for a Thomas wintertime, listen to Richard Burton reading the poem "A Winter's Tale" below. . .

Richard Burton reads 'A Winter's Tale' by Dylan Thomas

2011-10-08T14:17:00.000-07:00

More Jacobean theater

2011-10-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

Check this link out. . . http://www.bristol.ac.uk/drama/jacobean/taster6.html

Food for Thought?

2011-10-06T12:03:00.001-07:00

Here's a look at Jacobean Theatre, reconstructed by video artist Terry Flaxton, at the University of Bristol, UK. What do you think? What are the benefits of a university commissioning such video experiences to put up on the web, send out in the form of dvd's, etc., to educate and inform potential audiences of the FUN and amazement that can come of classical productions?

What're your thoughts? Write us a comment . . . your discussion creates buzz, and buzz brings readers to the blog. . . . So WRITE ON!

Reconstructed Jacobean Theatre

2011-10-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

Some Scroogey faves. . .

2011-10-05T06:22:00.001-07:00

Next in our series. . . a look at favorite Christmas Carol productions. Cindy wrote that Mr. Magoo's her favorite Scrooge, so here's a clip, thanks to the brilliant archiving of YouTube.

We're Despicable (Plunderer's March)

2011-10-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

2011-09-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

The Christmas Carol Quiz

How well versed are you in Christmas Carol trivia? Test your acumen for the classic tale right here with our little pop quiz.

1. Where is the climactic scene in A Christmas Carol set, at whose home in what part of what town? Be specific -- Dickens names the neighborhood.

2. Who is the character pictured here?

3. Who is Scrooge's partner, and where is he?

4. What role does the partner actually play in the play?

5. Name Scrooge's nephew and the nephew's mother, Scrooge's sister.

6. What is Bob Cratchit's wife's name?

7. How many Cratchit children are there?.

8. What caused Scrooge's descent into melancholy over Christmastime?

9. What is the name of the benevolent boss in Scrooge's past?

10. Name three actors who have famously played Scrooge.

Check your answers below. If you answered fewer than all ten, you NEED to see A Christmas Carol playing as part of our Christmas with Dickets and Dylan celebration December 8-18. If you got all right, you WANT to come see us bring these classic characters to vibrant new life yet again! Hope to see you there. . . .

[1. Cratchits' home, Camden Town, London; 2.)The third visitor, the Ghost of Christmas Present; 3.)(Old) Jacob Marley is underground, dead as a door-nail; 4)He tells Scrooge to mend his ways or fact the spirits who will visit him this night; 5.)Nephew is Fred; Fan is S's sister; 6.)Mrs. Cratchit; 7.) Six: Peter, Belinda, Martha, an unnamed daughter, an unnamed son and, of course, Tiny Tim ; 8.)Belle; 9.)Old Mr. Fezziwig; 10.) Lionel Barrymore in a radio adaptation in 1930's and '40's (subbed by brother John when Lionel was ill), Alistair Sim (1950 film), Michael Caine (w/Muppets, 1988); Bill Murray (Scrooged, 1988), George C. Scott (1984), Cyral Ritchard (1964), Albert Finney (1970), Frederic March, 1954, Tim Curry (1997), Jim Carrey (animated version 2009), Patrick Stewart (1999), and many many more. . . .]

Coming soon. . .

2011-09-28T12:02:00.002-07:00

To whet your appetite for more of Scrooge, we'll be posting some moments from some of the best productions . . . Below is an excerpt from a 1984 animated version. . .

A Christmas Carol part 4

2011-09-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

2011-09-26T09:35:00.001-07:00

Our sample of Dylan Thomas' work below, read by the poet himself, will whet your appetite for more. It's a craving you'll get to satisfy when the Actors Shakespeare Company of New Jersey presents A Child's Christmas in Wales, December 8-18, at the West Side Theater. Details on our website and at the box office.

"Then was my Neophyte" by Dylan Thomas (poetry reading)

2011-09-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

2011-09-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

A fabulous new retrospective going on at the Morgan Library Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. 212-685-0008. See the description below, and then go check it out! You'll find a Dickens you do know and another you had no idea was hiding behind that Victorian facade!

The Morgan Library & Museum - Upcoming Exhibitions - Charles Dickens at 200

2011-09-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

The Morgan Library & Museum - Upcoming Exhibitions - Charles Dickens at 200

2011-09-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

Below is an excerpt from Under Milkwood, a play by Dylan Thomas, read by the poet himself. This is his single most popular prose piece, written during his so-called later period in 1954. It is, as is A Child's Christmas in Wales, a play for voices.

Critics noted the similarities between Thomas and James Joyce. In Under Milk Wood and Joyce's Ulysses, each author captures the life of a whole society as it is reflected in a single day. Joyce's day, of course, takes place in the vibrant city of Dublin; Thomas's day, however, takes place in the cozy Welsh village of Llaregyub. Do you hear echoes of Spoon River (Edgar Lee Masters, 1915) as well?

What is your critical observation?

2011-09-20T05:17:00.001-07:00

Dylan Thomas Fern Hill - Lost Soundtrack - Moving On

2011-09-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon. . .

2011-09-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

In preparation for our upcoming production of A Child's Christmas in Wales, we begin here a series of snippets from the life and work of Dylan Thomas. Born in Swansea, Wales, Thomas famously died of alcohol poisoning at the Hotel Chelsea after a night of drinking at the White Horse Inn in Greenwich Village. The poetry he created remains among the best-loved, of the most-quoted poetry in the world. Watch our blog for excerpts from his work, snapshots of his life. See our first post, an excerpt from Fern Hill, above.

2011-09-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

The Fiasco Theater has some exciting ideas for nurturing their company. In this brief video, they speak a little about themselves. A look at some ways to grow a company into something with a wider field of influence. . . . Let us know what you think! Your coments are priceless.

2011-09-12T02:57:00.000-07:00

If you're visiting us, you are a fan of great productions of Shakespeare's plays. Be sure to check out the Fiasco Company's production of Cymbeline now playing at the Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, in Greenwich Village. Our review follows below.

Pictured in first photo(see post below for details,)l-r: Co-Director Ben Steinfeld, Jessie Austrian, Co-Director Noah Brody, Paul L. Coffee, Emily Young; behind Steinfeld is Andy Groteleuschen. In the second photo, Act II begins with Ben Steinfeld, Emily Young and Paul L. Coffey.

2011-09-12T02:50:00.000-07:00

The Original Fantastics

Fiasco Presents Cymbeline at the Barrow Street Theater

At the start of the Second Act of the Fiasco’s production of Cymbeline, now playing at the Barrow Street Theater in Greenwich Village, three characters break into a full-out Bluegrass number, replete with banjo, guitar and washboard. The song, like all the great Shakespeare songs, reminds us where we are in the play, examines characters’ dilemmas, and moves the plot along. My friend turned to me as it finished and enthused, “Now that’s the way to start Act II!”

Anyone who’s ever directed a play knows that the attack in Act II, the moment when you welcome the audience back into the world of the play is critical. This brilliant start of a brilliant Act II perfectly encapsulated the production’s strength: it is simply captivating.

Cymbeline is a difficult play to take seriously. A Monty Python-esque pastiche of Shakespeare’s best and worst moments, with characters, scenes and lines recognizable (yet no one’s sure if Cymbeline was written before or after any of them) from Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Cesar, King Lear, A Winter’s Tale, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and even Piramus and Thisby, the play within Midsummer Night’s Dream, the work is seriously over-written and crowded with ridiculous plot twists and moments of absurdity that owe their souls to Commedia del’Arte.

And yet, so many productions do take it seriously, weighing productions down with overwrought performances of too-elaborate speeches, in a weight that belies the airiness of the script.

Which was why I loved the fairy tale world Mark Lamos constructed for it a few years ago, first at Hartford Stage, then at Lincoln Center. It was a visual feast, a delicious collage of light and energy and costume and sets that provided a joyous romp through an unreal world. But even Lamos’ production was bogged down in detail, taking itself seriously as a play with a message, a kind of prequel to Angels in America, Jupiter flying in on a golden eagle to bring his cautionary message: “No more your petty petty, petty spirits of regions low . . . offend our hearing!”

Well, the Fiasco production has cut that line. And, thank goodness, lots of other ones as well! Their production of Cymbeline has magically created a silly tale so rich, so electrifyingly, its message flies on the gossamer wings spun by brilliant staging, radiant acting, vivid music. This is a production of near-perfection, a Shakespearean melodramatic comedy on a plainly lit stage, where multitudinous settings are portrayed by a single wooden trunk; six players in fifteen roles, wearing simple but evocative costumes and speaking lines expertly cut and pasted, strut and fret their mere two hours upon the stage to thoroughly satisfy the details of a convoluted story. In the process, by singing a capella or accompanying themselves on a variety of folksy instruments, they smooth transitions, correct inconsistencies, and move the audience to respond with real emotion.

Because the play is carried by the actors, driven by a remarkably talented pair of directors (Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld), whose trust of the actors is exemplary, the most exceptional component of this exceptional production, is its ensemble. The players, generous with one another, attuned to one another, enmeshed with one another, manage to deliver a play that surprises in a very unexpected way.

The audience is drawn into, and then moved by, a ridiculously unbelievable tale because they receive the tale from an ensemble that entirely trusts one another and from actors who never lose sight of the fact that they embody characters not caricatures. Though there were some moments when one or another actor slipped a bit – as Posthumous (but strangely, never as the Roman), co-director Noah Brody mumbled his text; Emily Young took a bit too long to commit to her Queen’s evil, as though at this one performance she was going to play a more sympathetic witch, and then she seemed to have some trouble finding her Belar(ius)ria character after her songfest – to complain would be trivial nit-picking. These are actors with real chops, creating characters who jump to three-dimensional life even while speaking nonsense. Like their directors, they make bold choices and then they justify their every move.

The standout choice was apt casting of Jessie Austrian as Imogen and deciding she would have but one part to play. She is the hero of the story, the foundation on which all that is reasonable rests. Virtuous and vulnerable, sheltered and perhaps naïve, she makes a farcical journey through sadness and tragedy and learns through her own adversity how inconstant and untrusting men are

Thus may poor fools
Believe false teachers: though those that are betray'd
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.

She finds the beheaded body of the man who by all appearances must be the lover who spurned her, and she is moved to pity him even while she scolds him. “O Posthumus! Alas, Where is thy head? Where’s that? . . This was my lord. . . . A very valiant Briton and a good.”

The moment when Imogen finds the beheaded body of Cloten-presumed-Posthumous, her husband, could have caused the actress to lose herself in the farce, but Austrian finds emotion deep within herself, and the result is that even in this most unbelievable of moments, Imogen is deeply credible, a girl reaching maturity in an epiphany that moves her audience to tears.

Austrian’s Imogen emerges from the experience with a healthy degree of skepticism. She forgives her loathsomely inept father, rejoices that her husband is alive to take her to his bed, welcomes the long lost brothers who nearly killed her. This is an Imogen made of strong stuff. She may have two brothers found, but if her father has half a brain, he’ll name her as his successor.

Pictured above: The cast of Fiasco's Cymbeline: Jessie Austrian(Imogen); Noah Brody(Co-Director/Posthumus/Roman Captain; Paul L. Coffey(Pisanio/Philario/Lucius/Guiderius); Andy Grotelueschen(Cymbeline/Cloten/Cornelius); Ben Steinfeld(Iachimo/Aviragus); Emily Young(Queen/Frenchman/Belaria). Photo courtesy of NYTimes.com.

2011-09-09T04:27:00.000-07:00

Video artist Terry Flaxton, whose installation entitled In Other People's Skins played from November 2010 till June 2011 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, is a faculty member in the Drama: Theater, Film, Television Department, and a Senior Research Fellow who collaborates with educators at the University of Bristol. His colleagues in the Drama School presented him with the challenge of shooting a high definition stage production of Jacobean dramas for HD DVD – with the added problem of using authentic light sources so that the only light sources were lanterns, torches and candles. Candles lit the set of a Jacobean playhouse, but Terry needed Many of the cast carried candles or lanterns, and these acted a little overhead light to help his HD shoot, as the keylight for the actor. Here is the article Terry Flaxton wrote for Showreel Magazine about the experience, an adventure in enlivening the theater of the 17th Century! For further information, check out the university's site and the background on the project at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/drama/staff/terry-flaxton/

LIGHTING A JACOBEAN TRAGEDY

by Terry Flaxton

http://www.youtube.com/user/terryflaxton?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/0/WeSN78EIQlg

Early in 2004 I received a call from my then business partner, producer Alison Sterling of Ignition Films. We! had shot various HD projects together and she called to tell me that Martin White, Professor of Theatre at Bristol University, had been won over by our arguments that HD was the way to go with his forthcoming research project for the Arts and Humanities Research Board. He wanted to make a high definition DVD. Back then, the specs for HD DVD had only just been agreed, but I guessed the technology to achieve our goal would be just coming on stream if we shot in December 2004, leading to post-production through 2005 and output to DVD by autumn/winter 2005.

In the Wickham Theatre at the University of Bristol, Martin and his designer Jennie Norman have made a full-scale reconstruction of an indoor Jacobean playhouse, based on drawings by Inigo Jones. It would have been in an intimate indoor space like this that the first performances of plays such as Webster!s The Duchess of Malfi would have played – to an audience altogether more select than at the outdoor Globe Theatre.

Martin wanted a way to recapture, as authentically as possible, the playing conditions of the time. The theatre is lit entirely by candlelight, with both tallow and beeswax candles handmade by a specialist chandler in Yorkshire using 17th century techniques. The actors were dressed by Shakespeare!s Globe, where designer Jenny Tiramani works entirely with the materials and methods of the period, producing exquisite, authentic (right down to the underclothes) hand-sewn costumes in the vibrant silks that would have been seen on stage at the time. Experienced classical actors (ex-RSC and Globe) rehearsed for two weeks on a variety of scenes chosen to exemplify the low-tech lighting methods of the time.

Possible solutions
The question arose as to the best way of documenting this event. We had to film two days of performance under conditions as close to the original lighting as possible. We also had to devise a method of filming that would reflect the way actors of the period would have used the auditorium, playing to different parts of the house. Jacobean actors and playwrights were well practiced at delivering their political message (and their asides) to the different social strata, and the cost of the seats broadly defined where each social class could be found in the playhouse. Glance to the expensive seats and the actor can talk to the aristocracy. Look to the cheap seats they are talking to the poor. Our contemporary audience would have to experience this through the use of our cameras looking at the actors as they addressed us. We began to formulate a plan derived from the brief.

On a standard DVD we know we can switch angles by the touch of a button. Therefore, how many strata of society were to be represented? The answer came back: four. So we had a four-camera shoot on our hands. We decided to use only the standard lens – yes, we had zooms, but we theorised that the part of the lens that produced what the eye would see from the camera positions would give the best sense of being in the auditorium to the DVD user, who could then switch viewpoint freely. I have actually shot a series of DVDs of recitals for music buffs using multiangle DVDs, so this was familiar territory to me. I knew it had to be HD from the start because we had to have not only the sensitivity, but also the resolution to reproduce the wonderful costumes. I first came across HD years ago on a Philips test shoot when I was technical co-coordinator of Philips! Customer Day. The whole of Philips worldwide shut down for a day and I organized an 18-country, nine-language, 10-camera shoot coming out of Eindhoven with live feeds from the 18 countries – complete madness, but it worked. Along the way, Philips wanted to try their 1250 line system (which incidentally was pretty good), but in the end bandwidth limitations and lack of cameras floored us, so we went 625 line PAL instead.

Since 2000 I’d used Sony!s 900 and then the 750, as well as Panasonic!s Varicam. The Sonys were slower in terms of light, at around 300 ASA (1080 lines), with Panasonic!s 60fps camera around 800 ASA (720 lines). There isn!t really time here to go into which format has more resolution and which has more colour information, but given the massive compression that all HD images currently go through to get to tape, there!s not really much in it between the two formats.

The cognoscenti of the HD world know that only when we have uncompressed data do we have a chance for complete technical and artistic excellence. I have output both systems to 35mm film and at that point it!s only a question of taste about the ‘feel’ of the image. You could always go to the new Sony SR deck and gather at greater data rates and quality, or you could go over to the Viper or the Genesis or Dalsa, etc for filmstream quality images – but then budget becomes an issue.

Available light
We had around 32 candles in four chandeliers and another eight on the wall, but I knew candles alone would not do the job. Shooting with candles is fearsomely difficult – not that you can!t shove any amount of light in and use any amount of tricks, but getting the look right is the real issue. Here I applaud the BBC!s version of Persuasion lit by John Daly for getting it right. Other more recent pumped-up versions of the candle look are more pyrotechnic in feel.

I had managed successfully to shoot a scene in a small HD drama lit by one candle using the Panasonic Varicam. It was clear to me that if there was any way the actors could carry their own lights whenever possible, then this would act as a key for both them and others around them if I had the camera settings in exactly the right place. And I mean exactly. If I went too far down in exposure, the image would be irrecoverable once it had gone into post and through compression for the incoming HD DVD systems. It was a characteristic of Jacobean staging that naked flame in various forms would be brought in to illuminate the action – torches, candles and lanterns were regularly carried by the actors to enhance the dramatic feel of a scene.

At the same time, we had to be authentic, so that meant as little light as possible. Given the brief from Martin, I was keen to find an image that reflected as accurately as possible what the audience might have seen while in the theatre. But then, not everything back then would have been distinct to the naked eye – the audience was supposed to be staring through the gloom of candlelight at a sometimes dull, sometimes undefined, sometimes distant image, brought to life by the presence of the bodies moving around in space, accompanied by the sound they generated while moving. And of course, the spoken text was more important then than the visual image (people in the 17th Century talked of going to "hear a play!).

The vibrancy of the costumes would have been a key factor for the audience, as the deep velvets sucked up light, making darker images amid the overall wash of candlelight. There would also be occasional sparkles given off by jewellery – and sometimes fine thread and glittery elements were sown into the costumes. All of this helped the theatre audience to create an image of the actors that was far clearer than their eyes were actually registering.

The shoot
In a spirit of authenticity I considered merely making technical decisions about format and camera and letting the image be, but in the end mind won over heart and I hung nine white paper globes above the stage. These had black skirts to stop light spill on to the sides of the set and I ran 275W photofloods inside them at between 15 and 20 per cent. This produced the right colour temperature and just a little extra light to enable the camera to stop grabbing at the image and producing artefacts from the data passing through the colour matrix and other digital processes.

I used different elements of my "grid! to bring up key or backlight. In this light the human eye would have to squint to see something. During much of the shoot I and my gaffer, Colin Holloway, would look at each other and without words express a sort of, “Oh well, into the abyss we plunge”, as we took the minimal extra light down and down. You could almost hear the cameras groaning.

As we got into the shoot there were moments when, as everyone gathered around the four monitors and expressed delight in the images, someone would say, “why can!t we go without any additional light at all?” I had to explain that monitors do not tell the truth about HD currently and, because of compression issues, the processes we would go through in post would change what they were seeing, which meant I had to use my precise judgement about exposure and its consequences.

Exposure had to be set at just the right place – exactly – and this judgement was born out of my own experiences, not out of a sense of hope. The monitor is always an issue on a shoot – everyone thinks they know what to do with light without realizing the interlaced nature of the image they are looking at and the ramifications of its route into post.

Post production
We got through the shoot OK and post-production has begun. We made DV clones, digitized into Final Cut and later I shall make the relevant timelines and do a standard DVD to make sure the whole thing works before re-digitizing into Final Cut at HD levels on Ignition!s own kit. The budget allows us to go into Final Cut!s Varicam codec and, given that we are off into DVD territory next, the compression involved at that stage is certainly no worse than the degradation and introduction of artifacts that comes from DVD compression.

I take advice all the time from top professionals in all the relevant areas so that my DP mind is in tune with my ‘post’ mind. Also, all DPs out there should be aware of Geoff Boyle!s wonderful Cinematographers Mailing List, as real pros from all around the world who are using high definition regularly exchange their experience about the use of new formats – as well as old. In the end it!s all a balancing act – getting the right HD format and the right post route for the desired outcome and the target price. If anyone out there knows any different about the HD DVD route I’m taking, get in touch.

Panasonic actually came in to sponsor the project at the post stage and let us have various decks for free to digitize at different levels, so we were doubly glad we!d picked them. At one level high definition is a minefield, especially if you!re going to make a film print or a film for digital projection. The TV routes that downconvert to PAL or NTSC are now becoming familiar, as are the output to HD channels in the US and elsewhere. As soon as a new format hits the market every cameraperson has to know about it and profess knowledge, and in HD there are many potholes to fall into, so you!d better be convinced that the DoP you!re talking to knows what they!re doing. The DoP is your advisor, your capturer of the image, the arbitrator between art and technicalities, the technical negotiator with the format and the crew and, critically, the quality control person for your project all the way through post. Choose wisely.

At another level HD is just another format, so you shouldn’t be scared of going into it – after all, using it is the best way of learning.

HDV purchase
On principle I never own cameras, so that their purchase doesn!t run my professional life. However, I have just broken my own rule and bought the little Sony HDV (HVR-Z1E) camera. Ignition Films, with Alison Sterling producing again, is currently shooting an ITV programme on it – shoot HDV then downconvert to PAL with a possibility of returning to the rushes when TV has up-rezzed to some form of HD. Later in the year we!ll be shooting the feature Human Remains on HDV, so as another format arises to fill our minds with new data, we rise to the challenge. And with the specs for ultra high definition video having been agreed, we look forward with excitement – and sometimes disbelief – to the claims by the equipment manufacturers of what is coming our way in the next few years.

Take a look at some of the footage for yourself: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/drama/jacobean/taster6.html

2011-09-08T03:13:00.001-07:00

Food for Thought

2011-09-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

Well, music may very well be the food of love, but ideas still flourish as the food for thought. . .

From time to time we will be posting stories about minor controversies in the world of Classical Theater, and we invite you to weigh in with your opinion. Today's blog posting from America Public Media's Marketplace Radio show (10 March 2011) is the first in this series, and we hope it will inspire reactions from our readers.

As part of a respected educational institution, we thought it appropriate, at the start of the new school year, to raise the question "To Cliff or not to Cliff. . . " And, to go one further, are the Cliffs of the Cliffs a brave new venture or a travesty, another indication that our culture is deteriorating fast and furiously.

Click on the link in the article below, and give a listen. Then write to us.

We want to hear from you. . . .

CliffsNotes goes digital | Marketplace From American Public Media

2011-09-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

CliffsNotes goes digital | Marketplace From American Public Media

Peter Galman Wants to Bring the Ship to Port

2011-08-29T02:59:00.000-07:00

Peter Galman, as Prospero, and Bethany Reeves, as Ariel,
await the coming storm.

. . . and, when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book. . . .
Prospero, inThe Tempest, V,1

It’s not hard to imagine Peter Galman as Prospero, The Tempest’s brilliant seer who orchestrates a hurricane and then pacifies the world with a tribute to love and a paean to The Theater.

Peter Galman’s eyes twinkle merrily or burn with introspection when he talks about his epiphanies, and you can see the magician rising from deep within him as his ardor bubbles forth. There’s a touch of the poet in him when he talks about how he found himself preparing to bring Prospero to the New Jersey stage.

As he will readily tell you, the years have been punctuated by many realizations, beginning most saliently in his youth at Purdue University, when he realized that as an engineer, he made a pretty good actor. Nowadays, he finds himself at full circle, a middle-aged man engineering deals to keep William Shakespeare alive and well and thriving in Jersey City.

Peter Galman, actor, philosopher, raconteur and advertising salesman, is a member of the Actors Shakespeare Company of New Jersey, and, in true Shakespearean tradition, serves both as actor and as Marketing Coordinator. His relationship with the company is, he says, quoting the bard, “. . . a marriage of true minds,” and he intends to see that the confluence of art and business will be good for both him and the company he loves so much.

The journey to Jersey City began when Galman, having left his home in Chicago to study engineering at Purdue, found that he lacked motivation for applied physics, materials or thermodynamics. Like so many youngsters who discover their creativity after high school, he drifted inevitably into theater, enrolling in available acting classes, starring in various university productions.

Galman’s mother, recognizing the pulse of a real passion, enrolled her son in a nationwide competition for a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. “Mom told me to go to Chicago – that there was this opportunity there – but she was pretty nonchalant about it. So I thought it’d be kind of a lark. She’d sent my name in, and one of my fraternity brothers was going to Chicago anyway, so I figured what the hell.”

Much to his delight, Peter was granted tuition at the acclaimed theater school, and the next thing he knew he was twenty years old, still (technically) a virgin, sitting on a park bench in Washington Square Park, reading the Village Voice classified ads, trying to decide whether to spend the $50 he had in his pocket on housing or on food.

He lived a hand-to-mouth existence for two years – studying at AADA, learning how to breathe life into characters by making use of his sensory experiences, being cast in showcases, going to watch actors craft their art.

From 1969-73, Galman inhabited the role of Tom Hughes, the onscreen love child of Bob and Lisa Hughes, a pivotal couple in the ongoing television drama As the World Turns. During Peter’s tenure in the role, Tom Hughes grew from a petulant teenager to a draft-dodging accidental murderer to law student, attorney, loving husband and father. At first the trite writing, banal scripts and repetitive plots were fun for the young actor. He was making money, had a devoted bevy of fans.

However, he didn’t really appreciate what the true value of the work was, which, in the end, proved to be a rigorous training in diligence and perseverance. The soap forced him to prepare a performance in little time under strenuous pressures; no one ever let him forget how much depended on his remaining popular, maintaining ratings, and no one ever offered him shortcuts to learning vast numbers of lines every single day. The lessons were invaluable.

Eventually, the character continued to evolve, but Peter left in 1973, when his demand for better pay won him some dollars but lost him the role. Freed from the soap’s golden leash, Peter Galman began to explore new territories.

He studied with Stella Adler, who taught him to dwell and grow in his own imagination, to see the big picture and envision big ideas. She told him he could build on his television experience by incorporating her theater of realism, and he blossomed under her direction. “Lots of people were withered by Stella’s criticism,” Peter considers. “But not me. My critiques were more like ego-builds than the shakedowns most of my peers got. I was lucky. She really liked me.”

Stella also encouraged Galman to exercise his innate resourcefulness.

With a growing family (Peter has two daughters and a son, now grown), Peter had to make a living, and he applied his skills of diligence and perseverance and became a Product Placement representative, creating partnerships between filmmakers and advertisers for mutual benefit.

Peter had always admired Shakespeare, had been smitten by Laurence Olivier’s clipped, impeccable recordings, productions at the University of Chicago, the work of Michael Mac Liammoir and others; he learned whole sonnets, digested monologues, committed roles to memory for future work. And then, while studying with Acting Coach Elizabeth Browning, he discovered the First Folio. And suddenly he knew that this was the work he had been born to channel.

In 2002, while performing in his own one-man show off-Broadway, Peter met Colette Rice, Artistic Director and Play Master for the Actors Shakespeare Company, who was auditioning actors to add to the Actors Shakespeare Company, then located in Hoboken. Peter read Shylock for her, and she said it was the best Shylock she had ever seen. “It was easy to make her feel that way,” Peter demurs, his blue eyes flickering with momentary shyness. “What she was seeing was an actor in his passion. She hired me on the spot.”

Since then, he has created memorable performances for the ASCNJ, including Cardinals Pandulph (King John) and Richelieu (Three Musketeers), Ancient Pistol (Henry V), Bottom (Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Claudius (Hamlet). Then, in 2009, he finally got the opportunity to play The Merchant of Venice’s Shylock, the role that brought him to the company in the first place.

And now, if Peter’s engineering skills come to full fruition, he will set about to manufacture such stuff as (his and company’s) dreams are made on. His efforts will create funding to produce a fabulous 400th Anniversary celebration production of The Tempest, in which Peter will also play the part of Prospero.

For the celebration, the company seeks to pull out all the stops, to create a production that dazzles its audiences in every way. And that takes a budget.

To date, money still needs to be raised to create a show that matches Artistic Director Collette Rice’s vision, and Peter has initiated programs to create a tempest of activities that will drive the company into the public's attention.

A new website with an interactive blog, community outreach programs, school visits will be some of the ways the Company will go to the public for support. They will seek sponsors and friends, and they will tap into whatever resources are available to them as they concurrently seek to build new ones.

On the afternoon of Sunday, September 18, they will host their first ever Shakespeare festival in Bayonne. “It’ll be at the beautiful 16th Street DiDominico Park, on the stage of the bandshell on lovely Newark Bay, overlooking the gantries of Elizabeth.” The day will be a kind of miniature Renaissance Faire, featuring dancing, sword fighting displays, vendors, singing, etc. Mark Smith, Mayor of Bayonne, will introduce the theater company at the event.

“We all recognize how lucky we are to be part of this company,” Peter says. “And we want to spread the word that what we have is very special, we’re worth the trip to Jersey City. So it’s my mission to make sure we tell the world, raise awareness of who we are and what we do and how much we love this work!”

Contact information: www.ASCNJ.org

A Logomaniac Examines Romeo and Juliet Quartos and Folios

2010-12-06T09:39:00.001-08:00

by Paul Sugarman

Paul Sugarman (bottom right) has appeared with Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU in Passion’s Slave, Henry the Fifth, The Three Musketeers, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, King John, and Hamlet and will be in the upcoming productions of Logomaniacs and The Tempest. He is founder of the Instant Shakespeare Company which is finishing up its eleventh year of doing annual readings of all of Shakespeare’s plays. To find out more about the Instant Shakespeare Company email rawshakespeare@yahoo.com. He also publishes pocket edition of the First Folio and Quarto settings of Shakespeare’s plays.

At ASC we take pride in working from the earliest published texts of Shakespeare because there are great clues for performance there that modern editing can take away. Some of Shakespeare’s plays were published during his lifetime. These were published in Quarto editions so named because they took the standard printing sheet of the day and folded it into quarters (Approximately 4 ¾” x 6”). This was a standard size for popular books, more serious books were published in Folio which was the size of a sheet unfolded (Approximately 9 ½” x 12”). No one thought plays were worth the seriousness of publication in Folio until Ben Jonson took it upon himself to publish his own plays in that format in 1616. Shakespeare’s plays were not published in Folio until 1623 by members of his acting company in a book titled “Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories and Tragedies” known to us now as the First Folio. For 18 of the plays this is the only source we have and those plays would have been lost if not for this publication including The Tempest, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth.

When you first look at these original editions it can be disconcerting. To start with, ‘s’ looks like ‘f’ and the letter ‘u’ is interchanged with ‘v’, the letter ‘i’ with ‘j’. Also this was one hundred years before the first dictionary so the spelling can often be bizarre. One of the first things you have to realize is that these publications were trying to present how the play sounded on the page. In Shakespeare’s time most of the population did not read so that the spoken word was of far greater prominence and these publications were meant to capture the sounds of the plays.

Shakespeare’s Quartos divide into 2 categories: the “Bad” and “Good”. The “Bad” Quartos were pirate editions, unauthorized publications that are thought to have been set from players recollections of a play they had done or what had been transcribed by audience members and published by a printer out to make a quick buck. These Quartos often have more extensive and descriptive stage directions to explain what’s going on onstage. “Good” Quartos are thought to have been put out by Shakespeare’s acting company often to counter a “Bad” Quarto or as another source of income. There is no direct evidence that Shakespeare was very involved in the printing of Quartos.

One of the interesting things to look at between Quarto and First Folio texts is that there are sometimes substantive differences. In the First (Bad) Quarto of Romeo & Juliet, Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech is set as verse, while in the Second (Good) Quarto and the First Folio set all but the last four lines as prose. Some of the Quartos were the direct source for the Folio and some of the plays were rewritten by the time they made it to the Folio.

So now you can have several texts that may contradict each other, but as actors we know that contradictions are really our friends. If a character doesn’t have contradictions they’re boring. The contrasts that they offer are the spice of drama. So if you want to look at the texts you can try the variations out in rehearsal and see which works best for you.
Below are text versions and scans of the original pages of these 3 variations on the Queen Mab speech.
Quarto 1 1597

Mer: Ah then I see Queene Mab hath bin with you.
Ben: Queene Mab whats she?
She is the Fairies Midwife and doth come
In shape no bigger than an Aggat stone
On the forefinger of a Burgomaster,
Drawne with a teeme of little Atomi,
A thwart mens noses when they lie a sleepe.
Her waggon spokes are made of spinners webs,
The cover, of the winges of Grashoppers,
The traces are the Moone-shine watrie beames,
The collers crickets bones, the lash of filmes,
Her waggoner is a small gray coated flie,
Not halfe so big as is a little worme,
Pickt from the lasie finger of a maide,
And in this sort she gallops up and downe
Through Lovers braines, and then they dream of love:
O're Courtiers knees : who strait on cursies dreame
O're Ladies lips, who dreame on kisses strait :
Which oft the angrie Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breathes with sweet meats tainted are :
Sometimes she gallops ore a Lawers lap,
And then dreames he of smelling out a sute,
And sometime comes she with a tithe pigs taile,
Tickling a Parsons nose that lies a sleepe,
And then dreames he of another benefice :
Sometime she gallops ore a souldiers nose,
And then dreames he of cutting forraine throats,
Of breaches ambuscados, countermines,
Of healthes five fadome deepe, and then anon
Drums in his eare : at which he startes and wakes,
And sweares a Praier or two and sleepes againe.
This is that Mab that makes maids lie on their backes,
And proves them women of good cariage. ((the night,
This is the verie Mab that plats the manes of Horses in
And plats the Elfelocks in foule sluttish haire,
Which once untangled much misfortune breedes.
Rom: Peace, peace, thou talkst of nothing.
Mer: True I talk of dreames,
Which are the Chi dren of an idle braine,
Begot of nothing but vaine fantasie,
Which is as thinne a substance as the aire,
And more inconstant than the winde,
Which wooes euen now the frosê bowels of the north,
And being angred puffes away in haste,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.

Quarto 2 1599

Mer. O then I see Queene Mab hath bin with you:
She is the Fairies midwife, and she comes in shape no bigger thê
an Agot stone, on the forefinger of an Alderman, drawne with
a teeme of little ottamie, over mens noses as they lie asleep: her
waggõ spokes made of l_og spinners legs: the cover, of the wings
of Grashoppers, her traces of the smallest spider web, her collors
of the moonshines watry beams, her whip of Crickets bone, the
lash of Philome, her waggoner, a small grey coated Gnat, not
half so big as a round litle worme, prickt from the lazie finger of
a man. Her Charriot is an emptie Hasel nut, Made by the Ioyner
squirrel or old Grub, time out a mind, the Fairie Coatchmakers:
and in this state she gallops night by night, throgh lovers brains,
and then they dreame of love. On Courtiers knees, that dreame
on Cursies strait ore Lawyersfingers who strait dreame on fees,
ore Ladies lips who strait one kisses dream, which oft the angrie
Mab with blisters plagues, because their breath with sweete
meates tainted are. Sometime she gallops ore a Courtiers nose,
and then dreames he of smelling out a sute: and sometime comes
she with a tithpigs tale, tickling a Persons nose as a lies asleepe,
then he dreams of an other Benefice. Sometime she driveth ore
a souldiers neck, and then dreames he of cutting forrain throates,
of breaches, ambuscados, spanish blades: Of healths five fadome
deepe, and then anon drums in his eare, at which he starts and
wakes, and being thus frighted, sweares a praier or two, & sleeps
againe: this is that very Mab that plats the manes of horses in the
night: and bakes the Elklocks in foulesluttish haires, which
once untangled, much misfortune bodes.
This is the hag, when maides lie on their backs,
That presses them and learnes them first to beare,
Making them women of good carriage:
This is she.
Romeo. Peace, peace, Mercutio peace,
Thou talkst of nothing.
Mer. True, I talke of dreames:
Which are the children of an idle braine,
Begot of nothing but vaine phantasie:
Which is as thin of substance as the ayre,
And more inconstant then the wind who wooes?
Even now the frozen bosome of the North:
And being angerd puffes away from thence,
Turning his side to the dewe dropping South.

Folio 1623

Mer. O then I see Queene Mab hath beene with you:
She is the Fairies Midwife, & she comes in shape no big-
ger then Agat-stone, on the fore-finger of an Alderman,
drawne with a teeme of little Atomies, over mens noses as
they lie asleepe: her Waggon Spokes made of long Spin-
ners legs: the Cover of the wings of Grashoppers, her
Traces of the smallest Spiders web, her coullers of the
Moonshines watry Beames, her Whip of Crickets bone,
the Lash of Philome, her Waggoner, asmall gray-coated
Gnat, not halfe so bigge as a round little Worme, prickt
from the Lazie-finger of a man. Her Chariot is an emptie
Haselnut, made by the Joyner Squirrel or old Grub, time
out a mind, the Faries Coach-makers: & in this state she
gallops night by night, through Lovers braines: and then
they dreame of Love. On Courtiers knees, that dreame on
Cursies strait: ore Lawyers fingers, who strait dreampt on
Fees, ore Ladies lips, who strait on kisses dreame, which
oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, because their
breath with Sweet meats tainted are. Sometime she gal-
lops ore a Courtiers nose, & then dreames he of smelling
out asute: & somtime comes she with Tith pigs tale, tick-
ling a Parsons nose as a lies asleepe, then he dreames of
another Benefice. Sometime she driveth ore a Souldiers
necke, & then dreames he of cutting Forraine throats, of
Breaches, Ambuscados, Spanish Blades: Of Healths five
Fadome deepe, and then anon drums in his eares, at which
he startes and wakes; and being thus frighted, sweares a
prayer or two & sleepes againe: this is that very Mab that
plats the manes of Horses in the night: & bakes the Elk-
locks in foule sluttish haires, which once untangled, much
misfortune bodes,
This is the hag, when Maides lie on their backs,
That presses them, and learnes them first to beare,
Making them women of good carriage:
This is she.
Rom. Peace, peace, Mercutio peace,
Thou talk’st of nothing.
Mer. True, I talke of dreames:
Which are the children of an idle braine,
Begot of nothing, but vaine phantasie,
Which is as thin of substance as the ayre,
And more inconstant then the wind, who wooes
Even now the frozen bosome of the North:
And being anger’d, puffes away from thence,
Turning his side to the dew dropping South.

Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU’s World Premiere production of Logomaniacs runs from December 5–19, 2010 at the West Side Theater. Tickets are available through http://www.theatermania.com/.

A Cinematic Guide to Romeo and Juliet

2010-11-16T07:02:00.000-08:00

Be it Charles Gounod’s opera, Serge Prokoviev’s ballet score or the Leonard Bernstein musical, nobody seems to be able to get enough of Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers. An ImDb search on the title yields no fewer than 85 entries ranging from a 1916 version with Silent-Era ‘Vamp’ Theda Bara playing Juliet to the possibly despicable, at the very least notorious, “The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet” made in (natch) 1969. Many an argument can be formed in compiling a list of highlights, so the following selection should be taken with a grain of salted popcorn.

To the modern viewer 1961’s West Side Story could seem dated, but in its day the on-location shooting in New York City and subtle altering of the story to reflect the state of race relations earned the movie kudos for gritty realism. Realism is of course, relative – Natalie Wood’s singing was really done by behind-the-scenes workhorse Marni Nixon and Richard Beymer’s singing was really done by Jimmy Bryant. No matter. The electric Jerome Robbins dance numbers were 100 percent legit. Seeing Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris and Eliot Feld charging through the streets of The Big Apple almost makes one want to join the Jets or the Sharks, but wannabes might want to wait till the final reel before deciding to make their gangsta dreams come true.

A year before the salacious “Secret Sex Lives” hit the screen, Franco Zefferelli directed the then-unknown Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in his Romeo and Juliet. The film gained notoriety for the director’s choice in actors who were close in age to the teens as Shakespeare wrote them and achieved immortality for its attention to detail, sumptuous costumes and timeless Nino Rota score. In addition to Hussey and Whiting, notables included Michael York as Tybalt and Milo O’Shea as Friar Laurence.

Anglophiles of a certain age will remember The BBC’s Shakespeare Plays series of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s with a quickening of the heart. Production values were disputably bargain basement, but the series boasted unforgettable performances from the likes of Derek Jacobi as Hamlet, a pre-Chariots of Fire Ian Charleson as Bertram in All’s Well that Ends Well and John Cleese as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shew. 1978’s Romeo and Juliet was the very first play filmed for the series. While Patrick Ryecart as Romeo and the then fourteen-year-old Rebecca Saire as Juliet would probably pass unnoticed by audiences of today, Alan Rickman’s somewhat snarly turn as Tybalt most certainly would not. Severus Snape indeed.

Leonardo DiCaprio was the tragic teen of the nineties. Prior to professing, “I’m King of the World!” with Kate Winslet at his side on the soon-to-be-decked Titanic, he was gazing at angelic Claire Danes through a fish tank in Romeo + Juliet. Baz Luhrmann opts to bring the tale into Los Angeles circa 1996 – a world replete with gangs, guns and drag queens all throbbing to the beat of an iPod-ready soundtrack. Thrilling visuals and clever re-imagining of characters and plot often threaten to submarine the text, but it’s still garnering boatloads of fans after more than a decade.

There you have it – an extremely subjective romp through the most well-known film adaptations of one of the most well-known plays of all time. That being said, let’s take a moment for the also-rans. While not exactly teens at the time, Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer made a respectable showing in the 1937 entry. The story is very effectively told using the language of dance in the 1966 Margot Fonteyn/Rudolph Nureyev pairing as well as Alessandra Ferri and Wayne Eagling in The Royal Ballet’s 1984 undertaking. All of these and more are yours for the viewing with the help of a library card or Netflix membership. But nothing quite compares to seeing it live. For that privilege, be sure to stop by Jersey City’s West Side Theater where Romeo and Juliet will be performed from November 5-21 by Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU. Tickets are available through http://www.theatermania.com/.

Introducing JC Vasquez!

2010-10-27T11:25:00.000-07:00

In Actors Shakespeare Company's ten-year history, Romeo has been played by Zach Calhoon, Colin Ryan and, in a recent ASC Lab, by Jonathan Hopkins. ASC’s Blogger sat down for a chat with JC Vasquez to get to know the company’s newest Montague a bit better.

ASC: What does the JC stand for?
JC: Juan Carlos. I’m Colombian by way of Miami. I was born in Miami. The reason I usually go by JC is because my name in Spanish typically sounds very beautiful but in English sometimes sounds ugly. Also in loud spaces people sometimes think my name is Warren or One, which I do think is funny because there was a Paul Rodriguez movie called ‘Juan in a Million’ (note: that 1994 film is actually called A Million to Juan, but it’s still funny JC!). It’s actually the second most common name next to Mohammed.

How did you get from Miami to New York?
I came to New York for graduate school. I got accepted into the Actors Studio at the New School for Drama. That was a three year program and I’ve been here ever since.

How did you end up finding ASC at NJCU?
That was through Playbill or Backstage. I auditioned and was invited back for a Company callback, but the callback never happened. Lo and behold I ended up seeing another audition notice for the Company, so I sent an email saying “I’d like my callback please!” And so I was invited to a callback and then I got invited to do [The Scottish Play]. And then I auditioned again and got Romeo.

Shakespeare is not where you’ve done most of your work previously. What sort of work had you done before this?
I’m contemporary. I was trained in a more contemporary style. In the past I’ve done a lot of downtown theater and experimental, avant-garde type of stuff. I’ve gotten to do many types of theater but I’ve never gotten to do Shakespeare before now.

This production has a more contemporary look and feel. Do the character and language feel contemporary to you?
Thinking of him as contemporary definitely gives me more license to ask “what would I do as a 16-year-old now?” It creates more freedom for me because I don’t have to feel constricted by the period or be unsure of what the social constructs were back then. If there were any, since it doesn’t feel as though these characters are very limited. Obviously you can’t change the language – the language is of the period. But what you can bring to it is your behavior and I think that’s what will make it seem more contemporary. I can tell you for example in the scene with Romeo and Mercutio’s vulgar wordplay [Act II, scene IV], I keep on having the image of playing around with guy friends where they’ll play the ‘smell-my-fingers’ game. You know what I mean? That sort of behavior is something contemporary audiences get and that’s what I like to watch, as somebody who doesn’t have so much Shakespeare experience. What I like to watch onstage is when the acting is clear in the physicality. I might not be listening for whatever reason, but if I see somebody play around with gestures suddenly I know what they’re talking about. We’re talking about sex? I’m back in!

How has the experience of working on one role in Romeo and Juliet differed from the many roles you played in The Scottish Play?
It’s not really that different. With Romeo, each scene he’s in shows me a different side of him. If I was looking at the beginning of the play and I fast-forward to the end of the play, these could be characters in different plays because they’re so different. It’s simpler [than The Scottish Play] because I don’t have to come up with a different physicality for each character, but I do have to discover how Romeo is different. And to make it even more nuanced, to find out how he is different from me.

What have you found? How is he different from you?
He speaks his mind. Romeo is somebody who, in a way, doesn’t have a censor. It’s either his sense of beauty or love, but everything is so much that he can’t contain it and his heart is going to explode. Or the flipside, when his despair is so great that his heart’s going to implode. But he can’t ever just say ‘nothing’ about it. That’s a big thing, because I don’t find myself ever having very much to say. And even if I do, I’m hard pressed to talk about it. I think that’s the main thing. What I have that’s similar to Romeo is that I am such a romantic. When I was younger, I had three big books that I used to write in all day. A few lines of poetry would come into my head about my day and I would have to write them down! I relate to his feelings of yearning for love or the beauty in life. His need for love, I guess is what it is. I can relate to that, but everybody can.

Are there any roles you’d like to play in the future?
I would love to play Valentine (Two Gentlemen of Verona) – that’s my audition monologue and I’ve never seen a production. And I would love to play Edgar in King Lear. I love him.

Do you have any thoughts on what you’re doing after Romeo and Juliet?
I don’t really know. I’ve really been focusing on this production. Actually, I kind of vowed not to do any more theater after this project and only do film, but I always make a vow like that at some point and I always come back. This last time I made this vow was in July of last year. I decided I was going to quit acting. But I only lasted six months before I ended up coming back. And I ended up getting this!

So I guess theater is your Rosaline…or maybe your Juliet?
It can be both! I like Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote, “art is a jealous mistress”. I think that’s very true.

JC Vasquez will be playing Romeo in Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU’s production of Romeo and Juliet from November 5–21, 2010 at the West Side Theater. Tickets are available through http://www.theatermania.com/.

Meet Our Sweets!

2010-10-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

By Natalie Lebert

For the Shakespeare fan, Halloween, the season of sugar and spirits, inevitably evokes the character of Mercutio who rhapsodizes in Romeo and Juliet about the nightly comings and goings of Queen Mab, our favorite faeries’ midwife.

…She gallops night by night
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are…

Plaguing ladies with blisters because their breath is scented with the odor of candy? Ouch. Steady on Mercutio – many of us like candy. In fact, the ladies of ASC at NJCU would like to take this opportunity to speak on behalf of their favorite sweet…

Colette Rice, ASC at NJCU’s Artistic Director and Play Master for the upcoming productions of Logomaniacs and The Tempest, shared the following: It’s been said to me that you can take the girl out of California, but you can’t take the California out of the girl. This is certainly true as far as candy is concerned. My sweet tooth comes from my mother, as does my favorite candy. Every Christmas I visit family in northern CA, where Mother and I make an assortment of candies that friends and family drool over. Fudge, English toffee, divinity, peanut brittle… everyone has their favorites. But when the confections are complete, Mother and I package up our homemade delicacies and open her box of See’s chocolates – Nuts & Chews. She almost always has a box of See’s because everyone knows it is her favorite. Last Christmas she had four pounds in the freezer by January 2. Scotch Mallows are her chief weakness, though anything with caramel elicits moans of bliss from both of us. Personally, I have a penchant for the cashew brittle – a salty, sweet delight of crunchy caramel and cashews dipped in velvety white chocolate. See’s is only available in the Western U.S., so it’s a pleasure associated largely with home and family. Maybe that’s why it is such a sentimental favorite. Still, having eaten a lot of chocolate in my time, I can also say it’s some of the finest candy one can buy. Eating it with your mum? Well, that’s just an extra layer of sweetness.

Bethany Reeves, Voice Master for ASC at NJCU and soon to appear as Ariel in ASC at NJCU’s production of The Tempest, was almost unable to choose, but finally settled on “a luscious, rich, dark chocolate filled with creamy caramel. High class. Godiva at the least.”

Denise Hurd has choreographed many a thrilling swordfight during her years with ASC at NJCU. She helmed last season’s reading of Madness in Valencia and will be in charge of Shakespeare’s Queens, an ASC Lab coming your way in February, 2011. Denise’s favorites showcase her artistic bent: “Although I am very [fond of] walnut fudge, especially from Lilac chocolates, I really love Marzipan. I love the taste of almonds and the cool shapes you can twist it into.”

Jessica Myhr will be appearing in ASC’s upcoming Logomaniacs and gets her fix from… “The cupcake - What's not to love about an individual cake with frosting in a cozy little wrapper? The word alone conveys cuteness! My favorite is the red velvet cupcake...much like the yummy roles I play - it is colorful, in a deep red color, and has a rich cream cheese frosting (if done correctly) that is indulgence at its finest. Cake is after all a sweet for queens!”

Jessica Weiss has appeared in several ASC at NJCU main stage productions including last season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and will be playing Miranda in this season’s production of The Tempest. Jessica broke with our resident chocolate fans, but like Colette, her sweets elicit memories. “Some of my favorites are apple and cherry jolly ranchers, because my grandfather used to carry them in his pockets – we called him the candy man. He passed away when I was eight, that's about all I remember about him.”

Susannah Baddiel, a longtime Company member and part time UK resident, played Titiania in last season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her preference in sweets carries a distinct across-the-pond bias –go figure. “Favorite candy: Fudge - the English variety, which is confectionary. US fudge is often a hot chocolatey sauce, or chocolate syrup? English fudge is very sweet. Cornish or Devonshire fudge (from the counties of Cornwall and Devon) is the best. Maybe because their milk is so good, which has something to do with the cows, which'll have something to do with the grass...”

Elizabeth Belonzi played Puck in ASC at NJCU’s recent production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and serves as the company’s Director of Education. Liz provided what might have been our most unorthodox sweet: Cheese! She explains “since my 30's I have all but lost my taste for sweets. I would much rather order an extra appetizer or, even better, glass of wine then a desert when I go out to dinner. Whenever I tell people that fact, [they think] my lack of sweet tooth is some super power. I think a love of cheese, specifically ‘night cheese’, has replaced sweets as my comfort food.”

There you have it. Sweets (and cheese) vindicated. If you’re sweet on Shakespeare, you can catch Actors Shakespeare Company at New Jersey City University’s production of Romeo and Juliet from November 5–21, 2010 at the West Side Theater. Tickets are available through http://www.theatermania.com/.

Natalie (Nate) Lebert has been an ASC member since 2004, happily crossing the gender divide with roles as Celia (As You Like It) and Banquo/Porter/Lady MacDuff (Macbeth). She has also played Feste (Twelfth Night) and Grumio (Taming of the Shrew) for The Queens Company (www.queenscompany.org).

I Enjoy Being a Guy

2010-09-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

A few thoughts on the nature and craft of cross-gender acting

By Natalie Lebert

As an actress who finds herself for better or worse often playing men in theater, I am frequently questioned on the “how” of it. How do I manage to play male roles so convincingly? Do I do endless research? Do I spend my days and nights observing and obsessing over the physical characteristics of the male of the species? A hushed pause generally follows while the inquiring mind waits for me to spill my well-honed secrets.

Are you ready? Hang on to your hats. The answer is…no. To all of it. There is no endless research; there is no feverish examination of men (at least not for a job). As it happens, I am one of those women who are ‘blessed’ with a speaking voice that settles in the lower registers. I also tend to be overweight and my largeness apparently gives me a certain brute presence onstage that can read as male. Sorry to disappoint, dear reader, but that’s the extent of my mystery. But do not fear...years of masquerading as the not-so-fair-sex have taught me a thing or two. Allow me to share what I like to call:

A Drive-By Guide to Playing Men Onstage.

Shake What Yo’ Mama Gave You: This is to say, examine your day-to-day behavior for untapped maleness. Check out your physical bearing when you get really angry. Do you try to make yourself bigger and taller? Do you stand with your legs farther apart to give yourself a wider base of support? Guess what? You are being guy-ish! Listen to yourself when you are explaining a subject you know really well. See how your voice lowers? Ok, you don’t sound like James Earl Jones or anything, but truth to tell, most guys don’t either. Rather than beginning by observing men, begin by observing yourself for signs that Mars is far closer to Venus than previously thought.

Pick a Guy, Any Guy: Now that you’ve mined your own behavior for “the man inside”, let’s take a look at some men outside. Watch what body part they lead with when walking (take a guess). Watch how they walk and give it a descriptor. Would you call it purposeful? Striding? Describe it and see if you can embody it. How do their arms hang at their sides? How do they sit? Describe it. Wide? Loose? Describe and then embody it. A director I greatly respect, Rebecca Patterson of The Queens Company, says that gender is based in role playing. You are an actor and it’s a role, play it!

Take It To The Text: What we learn as actors is that what characters say indicates who they are. This holds as true for gender as any other trait. Examine what you have to say as a male and see if there is muscle in it. If you find it, relish it when you have to speak those words. Look for strong sounds, consonants and imagery. See if you find yourself thinking “a girl would never
say that!” You are probably right.

There you have it. My three steps to being a man onstage. Look inside, look outside, look at your words. Be willing to play and give yourself over to being the guy YOU can be. Nobody swaggers like you. Flaunt it!

The Jewish King Lear

2009-02-03T08:55:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, February 8, at 2:30PM Actors Shakespeare will present a rare reading of a neglected classic of the Yiddish theater: דער יידישער קעניג ליר (Der Yiddisher Kenig Lir) or, The Jewish King Lear by Jacob Gordin. The play, written in 1892, tells the story of a Jewish patriarch whose life and family fall apart, in much the same way as Shakespeare's King Lear.

A poster for the original 1898 production of The Jewish King Lear

The reading, the latest in ASC's The Play's the Thing series, will be at Congregation B'Nai Jacob in Jersey City, and represents an exciting new partnership between ASC and this community organization. The reading will be co-directed by B'nai Jacob Cantor Dr. Marsha Dubrow and ASC Artistic Director Colette Rice. Dr. Dubrow will give a short talk on the Yiddish Theater in America at 2:30PM, and the reading will begin at 3:00PM; a free reception with the cast will follow the reading.

The Cast for the reading:

Reb Dovidl Moysheles, A rich Jewish scholar – Gerald Kline*
Khane Leah, his wife – Cindy Boyle*
Etele, his eldest daughter – Elizabeth Belonzi
Avrom Harif, her husband – Colin Ryan*
Gitele, his second daughter – Liza Skinner*
Moyshe Hasid, her husband – Craig Colfelt
Taybele, his third daughter – Jessica Weiss
Trytel, his servant – Paul Sugarman
Herr Yaffe, a student at the Rabbinical Academy – Jonathan Hopkins

Stage Directions – Daniella Rabbani
Purim Players & Musicians – Marsha Dubrow, Craig Eichner
Aidan Koehler, Daniella Rabbani, David Rosenberg

* denotes member Actors Equity Association

The Three Musketeers

2008-11-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

When The Actors Shakespeare Company formed about eight years ago, the founding members were excited to be taking the performance of Shakespeare to "new heights." Of course this is what we imagined we were about, having gleaned from various sources and our own conjecture, a notion of Elizabethan theatrical performance. This much was certain: public performances took place in daylight and the audience were free to eat and drink during the show. It was apparent that strict observation of the "fourth wall" barrier between the audience and an imagined world on the stage had, though it brought a new degree of realism to the theater in the early 20th century, was not useful to us because it served to isolate actors and audience. This isolation made any interaction between the lit stage and the dark house only incidental, representing a break in the world of the performance. Further it weakens, in my opinion, such essential elements of Shakespeare's work as the soliloquy, forcing it into an overly broad spectrum of cerebral introspection, rather than an active argument with the audience, cast as something like the jury of a character's conscience.

We were eager to reexamine staging principles, delivery of text , voice and movement in the Renaissance model, which I am happy to say has caught on. All over the US and Europe the example set by the reconstructed Globe Theater in London is redefining performance techniques. The RSC has even redesigned its main stage to reflect this new sensibility. In regional theaters all over America actors are looking their audience in the eye and asking "Who calls me villain?" The feedback ASC has received since we started has as few common themes, among them: humor (even tragedies have light moments) and accessibility. Which brings me to Panto.

Shortly after drama school I was working as an actor in London when an actress with whom I shared an agent got a job in a Christmas Panto near my apartment. Now, the term "panto" was rarely uttered by any of my British colleagues, I observed, with out a roll of the eyes or at least an ironic tone, much as many New York actors react to the idea of soap operas. Well, I had seen my great-grandmother's favorite soap before I was old enough to object and knew such a popular genre was not popular for nothing. I therefore took the opportunity to see Dick Whittington, my first panto, and broaden my horizons a bit. What a treat! The production was a flood of stimulation - none of it accidental: Sarah the Cook (played by a man) threw candy to the kids, led a sing-along and shot sexual innuendoes and double entendres in every direction. The audience had a shouting match with King Rat (during his soliloquy) and was encouraged to shout advice to Dick Whittington's (sexy) cat, played by my actress friend. There were dresses, fights, jokes and romance in abundance and, having enjoyed a cup or two of wine during the performance, I left in a real "holiday" mood.

A little research into the origin of the modern Christmas Panto suggested its roots were in commedia dell'arte and had traveled to Britain from Italy in the 16th century. Another Renaissance form of entertainment, which worked wonderfully well today.

Panto is now considered family theater, but very different in my view from theater merely intended for consumption by young people. It was after seeing a particularly thin "young people's" dramatization of The Three Musketeers that I decided to pick up the book. My reading confirmed that the book didn't belong just in the juvenile section of the library, but as many great works of fiction, it had appeal across the generations. I had seen a few film versions and it was clear from the variety of popular interpretations, that the novel was a rich vein from which many different elements could be mined. There was of course action - lots of sword fighting, which I always loved - so it had appeal for boys. There was sex - which everybody likes... pretty much. Period dresses were, I had observed, very popular with girls. Throw in a bare chest or two, some of Dumas' clever repartee and as well as some of the book's tasty romance and you've got a family show. I therefore set about writing a new stage adaptation of the novel.

As I waded though French and English versions of the text, I began to see more than just a series of pleasant sensations for the reader. Without attempting to adapt Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty, I will simply suggest that we all to the theater or the movies for stimulation - of all kinds. This stimulation: emotional, intellectual or sensual can include revulsion, embarrassment and anger. Thus the uncooked fish I got to be brought out by the fishmonger in the London scene. We like pleasing images, noble actions and words and happy or funny outcomes of course, but we do like to be reviled a little as well I think. The fish, though far from a graphic image of gore or depiction of extreme emotional cruelty was meant to add a touch of bitter to an otherwise rich dish. On balance, I believe now my script could use a few more pinches of that kind of seasoning, especially if the Parisian baker and London apple seller had been able to distribute their wares to the audience as was intended. No eating or drinking allowed in the theater seats, alas. The actor who plays the fishmonger opted for a stuffed catfish toy rather than my frozen dorade in the end as well. Put off by the smell, alas. Alas.

Timur Kocak

And now, a word from our Playwright...

2008-05-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about ASC's The Play's the Thing New Work series is working with a playwright who isn't dead. As much as we all love Shakespeare, we do often wish we could sit down and pick his brain on the motivations, detail and origins of his works.

So, we did just that with Sean Michael Welch, author of the latest new play in the series, Pompey :

My final performance at the University of Michigan-Flint was in the role of Pompey in Measure for Measure. Pompey is designated as the clown character in the work, but I took a different approach with him, portraying him as a more manipulative and seductive person. Now, in the final act, I had no speaking lines, but was on the stage as an observer. As I sat there, night after night, watching the action unfold, I found the whole end to be deeply unsatisfying. As an actor I understood the metaphor of God's justice, but as a character living in this world, my concern was with the reality before me.And that became the inspiration for the piece.

I has started writing Pompey in 2000, before I moved to New York. I turned out three pages, and then realized I didn't know what I was going for. The concepts were not solidified in my mind, so I left it alone. In 2005, having lived in New York for four years, and seeing more and more ridiculousness in politics, I found that I finally had an angle to work with and a solid concept to work from.

So, Pompey is my voice against the manipulations of powerful people and the use of wealth and influence to escape justice. Not God's justice, but a justice that was meant to incorporate everyone on a level playing field, which is what the American legal system promises to do. And who better to lead us through this exploration than a criminal?

The reading of Pompey is May 14th at 7:30PM at the West Side Theater, 285 West Side Avenue, Jersey City, NJ.

You can read more about ASC here, and more about Sean Michael Welch here.

POMPEY

2008-05-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

The Play's the Thing is ASC's series of readings of new plays. This year we are proud to feature a new play by Sean Michael Welch, Pompey.

Pompey is a darkly funny look at what happens "offstage" in the Venice of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. Welch's play shows a city and its people struggling with issues of sexuality, vice and crucially, class.

Pompey features the talents of Elizabeth Belonzi, Cindy Boyle*, Justin Gibbs*, Michael Hajek*, Jonathan Hopkins, Natalie Lebert*, Patrick McCarthy*, Esau Pritchett*, James Rana*, Colin Ryan*, Ron Sanborn*, Paul Sugarman, Raymond Wortel, and Jessica Weiss.

The reading is May 14th at 7:30PM at the West Side Theater,285 West Side Avenue, Jersey City, NJ.

You can read more about ASC here, and more about Sean Michael Welch here.

"Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:"

2008-02-22T12:06:00.000-08:00

Timur and his crew of Merry Volunteers paint the floor of the theatre:

Working with the Original Folio and Quarto Texts

2008-02-15T09:25:00.000-08:00

Some words below from Paul Sugarman on ASC's text process, and particularly the Folio and Quarto texts we have been using on Merchant of Venice. Paul has been an ASC actor for several seasons now, and is Salanio in Merchant. He is also the company's resident text expert, which is saying something, considering the general level of Shakespeare nerdiness and self-dramaturgy at ASC! Paul was an editor of the immensely useful Applause edition of the First Folio, and he publishes his own pocket editions of original texts under his Raw Shakespeare imprint.

One of the things that I find most exciting about the Actors Shakespeare Company is that we work with the original published texts of the First Folio and Quartos to get closer to Shakespeare’s original intent. The First Folio was the first collection of Shakespeare’s plays published in 1623, seven years after his death. It included 36 plays, 18 of which had never been published. The book was edited by members of Shakespeare’s acting company and it is believed that the theatre companies prompt scripts were used as a reference, since the stage directions are often quite specific about what needs to be done. The Quartos were texts of individual plays. Most people are probably unaware of how much the modern texts of Shakespeare have been cleaned up and edited to make Shakespeare into a neat literary package. The First Folio and Quarto texts are much messier but with many clues for actors.

Recently there has been a lot of interest in looking at the clues for actors in these early texts, thanks largely to the work of Patrick Tucker who wrote “Secrets of Acting Shakespeare” and Neil Freeman who has compiled “The First Folio of Shakespeare in Modern Type.” The spelling in these original texts is often quite bizarre as you have to keep in mind that this was more than a century before the first English dictionaries, many times these spellings suggest how the words sound. There are also clues for the actors in punctuation and capitalization. Since there was precious little time for rehearsal in Shakespeare’s time (as they could often put on 10 different shows in a 2 week period) there needed to be clues for the actors to pick up their parts quickly. Capitalizing a word in the middle of a line can be a suggestion that the word should be emphasized. A colon can be an indication of a change of approach or a physical move.

Actors Shakespeare Company uses Patrick Tucker’s Folio “kits” which include a master script and cue-scripts, or sides, for the actors, which contain only the character’s lines and their cues, as well as cues for exiting or entering. In Shakespeare’s time that would be all the actor would get, because of the amount of work involved in copying the script and because of the fears of the script being stolen and published in a pirate edition. Working with these “cue scripts” gives us a chance to use some “original practices” by attaching them onto dowels these sides become “rolls”.

Paul Sugarman, in a less scholarly mode

The benefit for an actor of just having your own “roll” is that you only have your own lines and cues to focus on and to have them make sense. It forces the actors to listen for their cues. Being open to the clues in the original text often solves many problems for the actor. Almost all the actors who work with the original text find that these clues often help. Working on these plays in this way it becomes clear that they were written to be performed and were made by the consummate man of the theatre, William Shakespeare.

The Merchant of Venice was popular in Shakespeare’s lifetime and was published several times in “Quarto” form. This gives us and added text to reference along with the First Folio. Many Shakespearean scholars believe that the First Quarto of Merchant is the closest to Shakespeare’s original writing and a better text than the First Folio. Most of the play is the same but there are some key differences. For our production we have started with the First Folio but all the actors were given copies of the First Quarto so that they could refer to it and update their texts if desired.

There will be an Actors Shakespeare Company Quarto published of our performance text of Merchant of Venice with endnotes indicated the textual choices made.

Merchant Rehearsals Officially Begin

2008-01-31T06:54:00.000-08:00

Monday Night was the first full rehearsal for ASC's The Merchant of Venice. ASC first rehearsals are a bit different than many other companies', and come from our history with Unrehearsed Shakespeare. After weeks of private study, as well as one-on-one and small group coaching, the whole cast meets and does the entire play. On their feet. With no rehearsal or set blocking. The result is sometimes messy somtimes sublime, but never boring.

A few pictures of the event from our own "Jessica", Beth Ann Leone:

Justin Gibbs (Bassanio) and Elizabeth Belonzi (Portia)

Jonathan Hopkins (Lorenzo)

Jessica Weiss (Nerissa) and Michael Hajek (Stephano) sing

First Look at the Merchant Set

2008-01-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

Our talented set designer for The Merchant of Venice, Timur Kocak (also our Salerio!) has shared his latest sketch for the design of the set and floor painting. As usual, it's a lovely thing:

Shylock Speaks

2008-01-14T06:58:00.000-08:00

A few thoughts from Peter Galman on his preparation for the role of Shylock in ASC's upcoming production of The Merchant of Venice, opening February 21st:

Shylock in the Merchant of Venice is the voice of oppressed, the trod upon, the rejected, the categorized, the object of scorn that all striving humankind can relate to. Somewhere deep inside us comes a voice that cries out in defense of ourselves when victimized by hatred or even when slighted for one more preferred. It comes from the same place in us that wants a second chance, for the tables to be turned, for a second opinion, for an apology, for vindication. Shylock is presented with such an opportunity, and we see him with it right at the beginning, at the introduction of his character in the play. He senses the rich opportunity of that moment and revels in it. It's what attracted me to him in the first place. This voice compels hearing and demands attention.

"Like my fellow Jews, I may be confined to a ghetto and relegated to the un-Christian business of moneylending, and my words are steeped in deep resentment of my plight, but my spirit yearns to walk the earth as one of God's creatures, in communion with my fellow human beings."

What I am discovering as I go deeper into the development of character is my dual nature. Shakespeare may not have had much experience with Jewish idiosyncrasies, but in the very first scene he hits upon one of the most typical: that of saying one thing but meaning something else! This strikes to the heart of the Jewish stereotype. After I vent to the offer of Antonio all the bilious reasons why I would reject a transaction with the Christian, I do an about face and confide I would be friends and have Antonio's love. That's just the start of exposition to my dual nature. I am torn by a passion, by a conviction that compels me to "use or be used". I have a choice all the way down to the lines at the end and I think if I stay with that dynamic throughout it will make for a compelling characterization.

I am now reading of Shylocks played in past productions, and it amazes me how each, whether it be Edmund Kean, or Sir Tree, or Sir Henry Irving, or Jacob Adler of the great Yiddish Theater in the early 20th Century, becomes a statement of the way to play him as to appeal to the audience of their respective theatres. Irving was all dignity in the face of indecency. Adler edited the play so that he was on stage half the time, and was patriarchal, biblical, a tower of strength, patience amidst suffering. A response to the opinion of some that the play is anti-semitic? Perhaps, but Shakespeare's Jew is loaded with humanity and needs no revision to be given "size". Others may make the argument that Shylock's actions are not true to the Jewish identity, but Shakespeare is not writing to an ideal, but to the idea that we are alike and resemble each other in action within a given circumstance -- "to the time and pressure", one of his great themes.

Justice and Mercy

2008-01-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

Some thoughts from Colette Rice, ASC's Artstic Director and Play Master of The Merchant of Venice:

I’m well into individual actor coaching for Merchant. What a joy to work on this play! I honestly had no idea how much I would come to love it. It has always perplexed me. So many productions seem to miss the mark. Yet, I haven’t ever felt certain about what that mark is, exactly.

Working with the actors on individual roles has helped to raise many questions. What does The Jew represent in the play and what does The Christian stand for? Why is it that so many of the characters make less than honorable choices? Is there a “good guy?” How does the plot of the three caskets fit with the Antonio/Shylock plot? Oh, there are so many questions… Today I’ll share a few initial impressions based on our coaching to date.

Shylock may represent the letter of the law in Venice: that within us which is inflexible, rigid, intractable, myopic, greedy, and that which feels it must be “right” at all costs. If we are to realize our potential and unlock our higher natures from the lead caskets in which they are all hidden, these parts of ourselves must be either transformed or rooted out. Shylock has a lot of very good reasons for being how he is and Shakespeare spells those reasons out. Yet, in the end he must be changed, or all is lost.

Shakespeare does an interesting thing in this play. He gives us an antagonist in Shylock about whom an Elizabethan audience would have had very strong and specific judgments. Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta had been exceedingly popular for several years, and depicted a Jew who was merciless, cruel, vicious and miserly – and who gets his comeuppance at the end of the play. The Elizabethans were generally very xenophobic people, regarding strangers of all sorts as suspicious and dangerous. Shakespeare’s audience would “know” Shylock before he even began to speak, and he is somewhat true to form. He tells us that he hates Antonio because he is a Christian and because he lends money as a charity and not a business. He would have been a very easy character for the audience to peg: The Villain – The Other who is not like me.

But, as he often does, Shakespeare adds a twist. He gives us this villain and antagonist, and then has him turn around and accuse us, along with all of the Christian characters, of being exactly like him. I don’t think that Shylock’s most famous speech is so much a plea for understanding as it is an accusation and bitter pill of truth: we are all Shylock.

Certainly the Christian characters in the play, with whose ambitions we seem to be meant to sympathize, are hardly without human frailties. Shakespeare’s Venice is a land famous for its laws and the laws are followed to the letter. Mercy doesn’t seem to be in great abundance, though there is a great deal of hubris and blame. The Venetians of the play seem to live beyond their means and to judge anyone who is not exactly like them. They are hardly living from any ideals of Christianity, despite their protestations of their faith. And then Shylock holds Hamlet’s famous mirror up to their natures – and ours. He tells us to take a look at what made him the way he is. Take a look inside ourselves.

And what is needed in this world of judgment, cruelty, avarice and spite? Divine intervention. Portia serves as a sort of Deus ex machina, descending from Belmont (“beautiful mountain”) to Venice and entering the court disguised as a man to transform the events and characters of the play. She introduces Mercy into this world of fierce justice, first challenging Shylock and then Antonio to find that divinity within that allows us to bestow mercy. Her disguise is necessary in order to enter the court at all – as a woman, she has no place there. Yet it is, in part, her womanly nature and understanding that is needed in the moment. Her heart and her mind are both essential in solving the problem of the bond.

There is so much more to discuss. The play is a bottomless well of wisdom and opportunity to learn about ourselves. We’ll be posting more observations as we delve deeper into coaching and rehearsal. We look forward to seeing you at our opening in February.

-Colette Rice
Producing Artistic Director
Play Master, The Merchant of Venice

The Merchant of Venice Cast List

2007-12-17T13:28:00.000-08:00

Meet the Cast of ASC's The Merchant of Venice:

Peter Galman*- Shylock, a rich Jew

Terence MacSweeny - Antonio, a merchant of Venice

Elizabeth Belonzi - Portia, a rich heiress

Justin Gibbs* - Bassanio, Antonio's friend, suitor likewise to Portia

Colin Ryan* - Gratiano, friend to Antonio and Bassiano

Jessica Weiss - Nerissa, Portia's maid-in-waiting

Jonathan Hopkins - Lorenzo, in love with Jessica

Beth Ann Leone* - Jessica, daughter to Shylock

Craig Colfelt - Lancelot Gobbo, the clown, servant to Shylock

Patrick McCarthy* - The Duke of Venice
& Old Gobbo, father to Launcelot

Timur Kocak* - Salerio, friend to Antonio and Bassiano

Paul Sugarman - Solanio, friend to Antonio and Bassiano

Michael Hajek* - Tubal, a Jew, friend to Shylock
& Stephano, servant to Portia

Jordan Meadows* - Prince of Aragon, suitor to Portia

James Rana* - Prince of Morocco, suitor to Portia

*Denotes members of Actors' Equity Association (AEA), The Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

"Strange Eventful History": King John Fights

2007-12-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

In addition to bringing you information on Actors Shakespeare Company's upcoming productions, from time to time, we'll delve into ASC's history to bring you some highlights from the Company's 7 year History. We're calling it "Strange Eventful History"

Below check out a short film from ASC's Spring 2007 production of King John.
The film was made by Timur Kocak and Ron Sanborn, and the Fight Choreography is by David Godbey and Denise A. Hurd.

"Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer"

2007-12-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the new Actors Shakespeare Company blog! ASC is a classical theatre company located in Jersey City, NJ. We are launching this blog to keep you informed of the news and developments with our upcoming productions and events.

Coming next: The Merchant of Venice, playing at the West Side Theater, located on the campus of New Jersey City University, February 21st to March 9th 2008. Tickets are available now at TheatreMania.

More information on Merchant and ASC are always available at our Official Website.

In the coming months, we’ll be chronicling the Merchant creative process here, with previews of costume and set designs; interviews with actors, musicians and designers; and discussions with Artistic Director Colette Rice on ASC’s approach to one of Shakespeare’s most controversial and thought-provoking plays.

So, keep checking back for more news and information!