From our Artistic Director, Allyn Burrows

Dear Discerning Viewers-

We at Actors’ Shakespeare Project are positively worked up to bring you a smashing year for our ninth season, one whose various initiatives trace the theme of turning toward home. Home for us connotes that which is central in our lives and we are so very grateful to the Boston area and its neighborhoods for coming out and supporting us as we continue to celebrate the language of Mr. William S.

We jump bang on into the year with the bloody classic Macbeth, who comes home to a host of surprises and wreaks havoc with his karma and his house guests. We’re pleased to lean into this favorite under the historic roof of the Chevalier Theatre in Medford Square. Haven’t been to Medford lately? It’s time. Come on up and chomp into a juicy steak before settling down in those hallowed halls for a comforting tale of betrayal, revenge, and murder. As the winter settles in you can then slide over to Davis Square and feel all hip, and at home, especially when you descend the staircase of the Davis Square Theatre for Two Gentlemen of Verona, telling your date y’all are about to enjoy what might be the first play of the greatest playwright known to mankind. Forget about what could happen after that, you’re already lucky to be exposing yourself to this comedy. In the even more blustery months of winter, let us wend our way over to the warm town hall feel of the YMCA Theatre in Central Square, for a new play by a ripping hot playwright, Will Eno, Middletown, a darkly twisted and sublimely funny rendering of what could be your hometown. You might recognize yourself- there’s a creepy thought! Come spring we bounce back downtown to the Modern Theatre at Suffolk University in Downtown Crossing for the mournfully graceful tones of one of Shakespeare later plays, Pericles, an enchanting tale of misadventure and reunion.

All of the characters in these stories carry with them a different relationship with their home, whether it’s coming home or leaving home or finding a home or watching home disappear over the horizon. As an itinerant company we like to make a home in various ways, and we do that all over this city, or cities if you consider town lines. We’re working from home in having all our productions next year directed by ASP company members, Paula Plum on Macbeth, Robert Walsh on Two Gentlemen of Verona, Doug Lockwood on Middletown, and myself on Pericles.  And we like to create an artistic home for the youth with whom we work to find the power of language and stories, from schools such as the Boston Arts Academy, Charlestown High School, and Boston Day and Evening Academy to the Incarcerated Youth at Play Project.

And finally, we find home through a sense of communal resonance with you our audience, and for that we are very, very grateful. Enjoy the shows!

Allyn Burrows

Artistic Director

Actors' Shakespeare Project

Living in Exile Rehearsal Update!

Greetings from the Living in Exile rehearsal room!

Our first week of rehearsal has had some spectacular moments—chariot races and armed rebellion, funeral pyres and ritual sacrifice, celestial voices and divine intervention. Did I mention this all takes place in a living room? With a cast of two actors and two musicians?

What Bob Walsh and Tamara Hickey do on stage is some cross between veterans telling war stories and children playing war games. They jump across time, space, characters, and furniture taking us not just through the story of The Iliad, but also the 9 years prior to the start of Homer’s epic when the Greeks “lived in exile” on the beaches of Troy.

Playwright John Lipsky had the War in Vietnam on his mind when he wrote the play, but his words still have powerful resonance today. Whether we’re politically pacifist or not, stories of war and violence are at the heart of our Western culture and provide the backbone for our shared oral traditions. Confronting this reality in an intimate domestic space such as a living room (or in a storefront in Davis Square) makes for powerful drama.

In rehearsal we’ve been drawing on imagery from contemporary warfare as well as from Greek antiquity. Keep checking back here for in-depth discussion of the rich and varied source material we’ll be bringing to life on stage.

-Roxanna Myhrum
Assistant Director
Living in Exile

The Winter Festival Presses On

We have had our hands full with the Winter Festival over here at the Actors' Shakespeare Project, and since my last post our foremost production of the Winter Fest -- Cymbeline -- has debuted at the storefront in Davis Square.

My internship here has been marked by new (and surprising) experiences -- even watching Cymbeline was novel to me, as it has been many years since I have patronized the theater, and I certainly have never sat that close to the action on stage. Before Cymbeline's premier, I was enlisted to work in the space setting things up and getting things ready for showtime. Sometimes it is nice to break the monotony of routine -- and negotiating extension cords around the storefront, hammering nails and getting the venue ready for the actors certainly serves as a reminder of how close to the stage we really are.

The most memorable experience from this week was helping Tamara Hickey read through the script for our third play of the Winter Festival: Living in Exile. The ritual may seem commonplace to most of the people around the offices here, but to someone less experienced in theater, it was captivating to some degree. It amazes me how much these actors are able to memorize in such short and busy periods of time. I'm looking forward to seeing the script put on in the space, and everything seems coming along well.

This weekend I look forward to bringing a student group I have organized on my own to come see Cymbeline. Doug Lockwood's production is certainly worthy of a second viewing, and I anticipate that my group is going to love the space and the experience of Shakespeare. Will keep you updated on the highlights of my time here. Over and out.

Fun Times Preparing for the Winter Festival (First post)

So I come in to work today from a five day weekend, and I got a new computer/desk setup -- big monitor and all. Could do worse, couldn't I?

So far we at Arts on the Armory have been plagued (or blessed, depending on your perspective) with numerous snow days. As I speak, the snow is falling in Somerville and Greater Boston, and it looks like we are going to be trapped out of the office again tomorrow. While the weather truly is fitting for The Winter Festival, days off are bittersweet in the sense that we have so much to prepare for!

My first month in the ASP offices working with marketing has been a novel experience. The whole idea and concept of marketing is something I have hardly any experience with, and our marketing director here has really been showing me the ins and outs. I think the best example I can proffer was watching her barter the price for MBTA ads down to less than half the price, with free ads thrown in on top of that.

But the story I was really excited to share occurred last Wednesday. Laura and I went in with the Winter Festival directors (Doug Lockwood, David R. Gammons, and Allyn Burrows) as well as Tamara Hickey to film a segment for Somerville Community Access Television. Long story short, the folks at the studio threw me on one of the cameras, essentially because they could (like the Mallory quote: "Because it's there"). It was like being a kid all over again, even though I just stood there without having to do anything but watch the camera monitor and put on a big set of earphones. Interview went great (did it in one take), and we hope to have it on the website once the segment is finalized.

Clichéd moral of the story: anything can happen at Actors' Shakespeare Project. Coming up: Winter Festival in one week, leading a student group to come see Cymbeline, battling the snow for the next few days! Will keep you posted.

-T

Without Fail: Every Time I Perform Shakespeare

No matter how much Shakespeare I've performed, how many of his plays I have seen or read, the amount of reverence I endow shakespeare with always astounds me. Its almost to the degree of feeling unworthy to speak his language - foolish, right? I remind myself that it is only language - my language - words, when strung together a phrase - nothing more. Yet, I have this nag in the back of my head screaming, "but it's poetry, beautiful poetry, don't mess it up!!!"

In rehearsal however, when I watch my fellow actors shape, justify, fumble over, examine, love, hate, cry through Shakespeare's words I know I am sooooo not alone. Though my cast mates may not have the nag chanting in the back of their heads, we're all just trying to figure out. Truthfully, it's like any other play I've ever done, I just have to make sure those strung together phrase make sense. Thank you Shakespeare Lexicon.

History Comes Alive...in a Basement

"Can no man tell me of my unthrifty son?" Henry IV asks of Hal at the beginning of Henry IV Part I. These days, it's a juggling act in the rehearsal room. What scene are we doing? Which act? Who am I playing this time? Wait...what PLAY is this?

Yes, what play indeed. We are rehearsing Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2 simultaneously. What a great amount of theatre ASP is generating with this production; and what a fitting way to usher in the fall and kick off their seventh season.

As always, Shakespeare's words are the guiding light in the room, only to be matched by the intelligent and probing minds of the actors taking the story on. Fifteen big talents meander in and out of the coveted basement in Harvard Square six days a week to analyze and bring to life the text. "How can you make what you want ok to get?" one actor asks during an early table work session.

Henry IV takes the crown from his cousin, Richard II. Hal rebels against his future as king by fraternizing with drunks and prostitutes. If nothing else, the chemistry between Hotspur (Allyn Burrows) and Lady Percy (Sarah Newhouse) is so precious, that as an observer sometimes I think love can conquer all. Then we start work on the next scene, and I remember Henry IV is primarily wrought with familial turmoil and the waging of wars instead.

I go in the next room to get a five foot sword for someone to hold. Douglass kills Blunt in under two minutes. We go on dinner break. We come back and Hotspur is about to demolish Hal at the end of Part One. Who's going to win? Only you can cheer on the opponents when history comes alive Sept 29.

Melanie Garber
AD

Right. This text is immediate and we're thick in it. A massive story, and a feast. If we do it justice, and we're throwing ourselves that direction, there'll be every reason to see both.

MY WOUNDS AKE AT THEE

Who is not Timon's. What heart, head, sword, force, means but is Lord Timon's?

Fully entrenched in the rehearsal process, I find myself now with these verbiages from the text. Shakespeare's work (and/or whoever else) tends to stay with you...and with a room full of high caliber performers such as this one the story is becoming a vivd dream to me, whilst awake and even when I'm asleep.

These melodious eight creatures that make up the cast of Timon are creating a world that demands twenty three characters of them--and counting. With a hat, a change in posture, a different register of voice each storyteller figure flows into the next as this ensemble drudges up and dusts of the sometimes forgotten meaning of what it means to play in a theatrical context. In large part, if there isn't a sense of joy in the creating, then why do it in the first place? Any other reason is married to ego and hype. I'm honored to watch these professionals be betrothed to the text and constantly work towards serving it in an intelligent, engaging and clear manner.

TIMON OF WHO?

Timon of Athens. Who wrote that?

Though the answer to this question seems to be woefully unknown to many, and debated by an even smaller sum, Timon has luckily found a home with ASP this season.

It has been quite the productive and not uneventful week for us. Bill was nearly kept asunder from the group by the great European ash oddity of 2010. Thankfully, however, our fearless leader ended up missing only....our first rehearsal. Impressive? Yes. But that's Bill for you.

Through his compassionate approach and wildly inventive mind, he has already started to sculpt the piece quite clearly. More specifically, the text itself stands to resonate with today's economic climate, and then some.

This accessibility is no small feat, especially since most of these characters are not the nicest of fellows. As one actor jokingly put it after an initial read through, "I get to play a dazzling array of assholes."

I'm excited to keep working. Laughter is hearty and frequent. Conversation is probing and rich. Plus, if nothing else, how many productions can say that they rehearsed sans director for their first rehearsal? It has to be less than a baker's dozen, I'm sure.

Taking on Timon

We're very excited to have launched our latest production, "Timon of Athens", which will be presented from May 19-June 13 at Midway Studios in Fort Point Channel. Part satire, part tragedy, "Timon" tackles complex themes of greed, hubris, and the power of money. Contemporary audiences will find many parallels to our current economic situation in this tale of financial management gone awry.

Rehearsals began this week and our brilliant cast is already hard at work developing their characters and shaping the interactions that will engage the audience in "Timon". Under the insightful leadership of director Bill Barclay, we've begun -scene by scene - to flesh out the production and to assess how a variety of influences, including Beckett, Kandinsky, and Brecht will help us tell the "Timon" story.

We look forward to sharing the details of our progress and hope to see you at Midway!

Hey cuz, thanks for vistiting. We're thrilled with how Othello is going and we're eagerly anticipating digging in on that crazy Timon of Athens. Please do consider coming to our Gala on April 17. The more the merrier! See you soon,

Allyn

Collaboration Continues to Yield Confidence and Learning

Watching my students work with Robert Walsh is freshly inspiring every year. Eliot Short Term Treatment has just completed its fourth year of collaboration with the Actors' Shakespeare Project, and each year has seen students taking their learning and performances to new heights. For the past four weeks, Bob Walsh has helped my students use both the pen and the stage to access Shakespeare's language and storytelling, and as they've examined love, jealousy, loyalty, and betrayal in Othello, they've come to see the themes and circumstances of their own lives mirrored in a story so old it is difficult even to read. As in years past, it was again a powerful experience to watch my students explore the possibility that to struggle may be universally human, that their circumstances may not be as isolating as they seem. Once again, as I watched Bob challenge my students to dig into their characters' desires and fears, I saw them digging into themselves.

Largely through Bob's tirelessness and passion, our collaboration has gained greater depth and breadth each year. True to form, this year saw the most powerful and dynamic student performances yet, with students staging three scenes from Othello for an audience of peers, caseworkers, actors, clinicians, teachers, administrators, and group care workers. With student input stronger than ever, student voice this year guided script edits, fight choreography, blocking, and live sound. Students collaborated in the development of original soundtracks for their scenes using audio recording technology, and in a moment of great creative insight, one student envisioned and put forth a teleprompter design that allowed students to perform without scripts in hand for the first time ever. Though both acting and performing for an audience were new and challenging experiences for every student, not a single student expressed upon reflection the sentiment that exploring Shakespeare through a more traditional classroom approach would have been better. Robert Walsh and ASP have once again helped my students discover fun in academia and contemporary significance in the arcane. Perhaps most importantly, ASP has helped my students find the courage to engage with and embrace something new. No matter the context or subject, real learning requires courage, and my students have proven themselves brave indeed. As one student wrote in response to the famous line from Julius Caesar:

I move forward with my life and rely on what's mine.

Can’t rewind for my past I left behind

They say, “Cowards die many times before their deaths.”

Well, I choose to fight until I have nothing left.

-DM

Evan Gentler

English Teacher, ESTT

...and my personal favorite, the stage manager giving last minute instructions (with Resident Company member Bobbie Steinbach in the audience - see her comments below on the show!)

Jason Bowen leading the cast in a group warm up and inspirational speech, flanked by Peter Quince and Flute the bellows mender (you can just make out Marketing Director Laura Sullivan in the background)...

...Seth Bodie teaching Oberon's fairies how to apply false eyelashes...

A photo's worth 1,000 words...

Last night was the final dress for BAA's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and here are some photos of the cast and crew putting the FINAL touches on!




Titania and one of Oberon's fairies applying make-up and nail polish for a fully polished look! (as designed by Seth Bodie)

Naps, knifes, and neck snapping

Being a violence designer has apparently skewed Rob Najarian’s sense of beauty. During rehearsal when he declared, “That is a lovely picture,” he was not describing an early embrace between Desdamona and Othello or even one of Cassio and Bianca’s saucy entanglements. No, he was gushing about how Roderigo (played by Doug Lockwood) wielded his knife a few inches above Cassio’s (Michael Forden Walker) head as they began their deadly duet in scene V.1.

Devising violence for Shakespeare requires an alchemist’s expertise (as illustrated by last fall's post on the sausage tests required for Taming of the Shrew). Minimal stage directions, e.g. “They fight”, must be transformed into realistic brawls with a wide variety of weapons. Each switch of a blade, slap across a face, and snap of a neck must be broken down into minute details. Actors who may not have extensive stage combat training must quickly grasp all the nuances to safely execute maneuvers while keeping the Elizabethan dialogue rolling. And, unlike dance, performers can rarely rely on music to set a cohesive rhythm for the group.

Watching Rob bounce back and forth crafting jabs, thrusts, and falls for all the killings in Othello, is oddly enough thoroughly entertaining. Somehow he manages to remember each person’s individual sequence of movements complete with grunts and moans (his falsetto version of Desdamona ironically slayed everyone watching), maintain a narrative logic within the fight, and pepper his instructions with $5 words like penumbra.

If you are curious to know more about this bloody craft, feel free to check out my interview with Rob about fight choreography from Monkeyhouse's blog.



Karen Krolak
Assistant Director

The Final Countdown!

I think I want to use this blog basically to toot the horn of the amazing student Stage Manager on the Midsummer Night's Dream that Jason Bowen and Magda Spasiano are directing at Boston Arts Academy. I went to a couple of hours of rehearsal on Monday afternoon (their final dress is this afternoon!) just to see if anyone needed any help. Every in the room continues to work so, so very hard on the show - Russ Swift, the lighting designer, was there on one side of the tech table, tweaking the timing on lights. Jason (who along with Magda is also designing the sound), sad on the other side of the tech table tweaking the volume of the final sound cue so both it and Puck's final speech could be heard. Jenna Lord, the scenic designer, and Seth Bodie, the costume designer, were not only putting the final touches on their design elements but continuing their role as teachers by filling the students in on theater etiquette (always check with the costume designer or wardrobe supervisor before you grab your costume off of the rack for the first time; the bag that holds your small costume pieces is a "ditty bag"). On the other side of the room sat three ASL interpreters, watching rehearsal to learn the script for the performance for which they will be interpreting.

And in the middle of everything and everyone, sat the stage manager. Now, she has not done this before. She is a junior in high school who never took blocking before, never wrote a cue into a script, never called a cue before. But there she was, calling the room to attention, telling everyone where to start and when, writing down all of the new blocking that comes in the final moments of rehearsal when new props are added and new scene changes require new entrances, setting the props table, keeping everyone informed of where and what and who and when! My favorite moment came during the scene when Puck and the fairies put the lovers to sleep so Puck can erase the erroneous charms on the men. The direction required Puck to give a specific hand signal on a specific line and the lovers to respond to this magic in a specific way so that a "button" sound and light cue can happen (a "button" cue is one that happens in a zero count usually on a specific movement or word so that it is extremely essential that it be spot on because a mistake will be more noticeable than on a cue that lasts, say 20 seconds). And the Stage Manager nailed it each and every time. She was able to communicate to Jason and to the actors what she needed in order to make it happen - consistency of movement and of speech rhythm. Her calling of the cues feels and looks like the culmination of everyone's weeks of work - the lights, the sound, the costumes, the words, she brings them all together and BOOM! she makes them go! She puts the poetry in motion. The beauty everyone imagined on paper, in the flourescently lit rehearsal room....she says Sound Cue A and Light Cue 1 go....and the beauty is realized.

Laura and I will be headed over today to watch their final dress and I can't wait to watch the stage manager call an entire show. I have no doubt it will be astounding.

See you there!
Adele
Manager of Artistic Operations

Moving into the space

Sunday's rehearsal was the last in the rehearsal room. Tomorrow begins a new phase: moving into the performance space at Villa Victoria in Boston. Scenes that take place on the grand curving staircase or on the balconies, entrances and exits through the double doors or the upper doors or via the ladder -- places that till now have been suggested in rehearsal by low platforms or signaled by taped lines on the floor, or that have just been implied, in thin air -- will now be physically realized.

"Into thin air" -- hard to imagine not having that expression available in English, but what if Shakespeare hadn't invented it in The Tempest? A few now-common phrases in English that come from Othello: "a foregone conclusion" . . . also, the expression, "to wear your heart upon your sleeve," something Iago says he will never do.

At every rehearsal new windows open for me onto the play. Seeing the actors do the lines, I'll suddenly get it -- I'll think: "So THAT's what that line is for! That's WHY he says that! NEEDS to say it, at that exact moment! THIS is where she finally realizes it. THAT's when he suddenly feels the stab of it!" I find it infinitely fascinating, these glimpses into how the play works, how cunningly and intricately it's been composed. I love watching the actors make discoveries as they rehearse, and through watching and listening to them, I get to make them too. Often it's an actor's physical gesture, some movement or subtle intonation, that throws open the window in my mind. And then I'm amazed that I didn't see it before! But I didn't. The actors make it live. And then I think once again (as millions have before) how brilliant Shakespeare was at writing for the actors -- as well as for the rest of us.

Joyce Van Dyke
Dramaturg