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.
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.
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By Michael Hammond
I remember, when I was still an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, sitting in the library and writing a little essay in my journal about Shakespeare’s villain, Iago. There’s probably very little I wrote during that period that I would stand by now, but, given what I can recall about the contents of that essay, my thoughts and feelings about this character haven’t changed all that much over the years. I recognize in Iago today, as I recognized then, the consummate actor: an individual who instinctively understands which mode of speech and behavior will be required to convince and influence others. And it still makes perfect sense to me that Shakespeare would have drawn from his knowledge of the actor’s craft as he created this evil genius. And, although I’m less certain about this, I am also inclined to suspect that by presenting a character so ingenious in his ability to inspire and manipulate others, Shakespeare was offering those who mistrusted or even hated the theatre their worst nightmare. (Continue reading »)
Othello is now open! Buy tickets now.
Directed by Tony Simotes, Othello stars John Douglas Tompson as Othello and associate artistic director Michael Hammond as Iago, with music by Scott Killian, scenic design by Yoshi Tanokura, costumes by Gail Brassard and lighting by Les Dickert. Production photos by Kevin Sprague.
Joe and David of WAMC’s Roundtable welcomed artistic director Tina Packer and associate artistic director Michael Hammond yesterday to discuss the upcoming season: how the plays are chosen, how Tina manages it all, and where Michael Hammond gets his hair cut.
You can listen to the segment at WAMC’s website.
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