The exuberance of a rock concert, the camaraderie of a high school pep rally, and the enthusiasm that can only be mustered by several hundred teenaged students armed with Shakespeare’s canon will all be found at Shakespeare & Company’s 20th annual Fall Festival of Shakespeare. This landmark year of this nationally celebrated program will put on display the transformative power of Shakespeare’s words in young people’s lives, as teams of Shakespeare & Company education artists take up residence at local schools and lead students on a nine-week exploration that reveals the vibrancy, power and relevance of Shakespeare’s work in today’s world.
This year’s Festival, its 20th anniversary, is now underway: after two weeks of training in Lenox, the ten teams of Directors—Education Artists from all over the country—have completed recruiting in the schools, auditioning and casting their plays (not to mention cutting the plays down to 90 minutes!). Many schools are holding their first rehearsals today!
The Festival culminates with students from each of the 10 participating schools performing a Shakespeare play at their own school and then again as part of a four-day mini-marathon at Shakespeare & Company’s Founders’ Theatre, where its own Main Stage productions are mounted every summer. Shakespeare & Company’s set, props and costume departments collaborate with the education artists and the students to fashion a unique take on each play. This year’s marathon of student performances runs November 20 through 23.
Check out these videos to see what Fall Festival students and education artists have to say. And if you’ve never experienced the Fall Festival before, make plans to see it this year, November 20th-23rd (ticket info). Continue reading ’20th Annual Fall Festival of Shakespeare Now Underway’
The Boston Globe recently featured Irina Brook and her style of “organic adaptation,” which she is currently employing on The Canterville Ghost in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre. Brook is Shakespeare & Company’s first director-in-residence and will direct three plays over the next nine months.
In a rehearsal room, the five actors in “The Canterville Ghost” are creating a scene for the production. They all have costume pieces — a hat, a scarf, a teacup — to help define the characters, and with a suggestion from Brook, they’re off, improvising dialogue that is sometimes hilarious, sometimes incomprehensible, but always high energy. At any given moment, Brook will stop them, consider a section and work through it, refining the details.
Read the full story (free registration may be required). The Canterville Ghost opens on Saturday. Click here to buy tickets now.
The Canterville Ghost enters previews tonight! The play, based on the novella by Oscar Wilde, is directed by Irina Brook and written in collaboration with Brook, assistant director Anna Brownsted and the ensemble (including Michael Hammond, Michael F. Toomey, Dana Harrison, Alexandra Lincoln and Alyssa Hughlett). Together, they tell the hilarious and charming story of a grumpy old English ghost and the American family that just cannot be scared. Take a look at photos from the production. Buy tickets now.
Internationally acclaimed director Irina Brook, now Shakespeare & Company’s Resident Director, is at the helm of a world-premiere adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s short story The Canterville Ghost. The story of a curmudgeonly old English ghost and the American family that just will not be haunted is being adapted on-the-fly, collaboratively between the artists during rehearsals. Irina took a break from rehearsing and writing to discuss this process, the beauty of Oscar Wilde’s story, and jumping into the deep end.
The play features Michael Hammond (Iago in this summer’s Othello) as Sir Simon the Spellbinder, Michael Toomey (Bassinet in The Ladies Man) as the head of the American family played by Dana Harrison, Alyssa Huhglett and Alexandra Lincoln. The show runs September 19 through November 9th in the new Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre. Buy tickets now.
Shakespeare & Company’s new Director-in-Residence Irina Brook recently appeared on Stephanie Abrams’ radio show “Traveling Feet” (with Press and Marketing Associate Jeremy Goodwin). She talked about her love for the scenery of the Berkshires and the cultural opportunities afforded here, the joys of Oscar Wilde and the imaginative work behind the upcoming production of The Canterville Ghost.
Download the show here or at Stephanie Abrams’ website (look for hour one of the August 23rd show — the interview with Irina Brook begins about 34 minutes into the show).
The Canterville Ghost begins previews September 19. Buy tickets now.
Thank you to everyone who made this year’s day-long Studio Festival of Plays such a success! In its 14th year (probably!), the Studio Festival is an opportunity to see and hear what’s on the minds of Company artists and test-drive new plays for our audiences—you—and hear what they have to say. Take a look at photos from the readings below.
Did you see these readings? What did you think? Leave us a comment below and share your thoughts.
Continue reading ‘Studio Festival Wrap-Up (Photos)’
