*
*
*
*
Review: 'Much Ado' spotlights Holy City Shakespeare's dedication to the Bard: Shakespeare in the South
by Elizabeth Pandolfi
Charleston Post & Courier
'Much Ado' to Launch Company
by Bill Thompson
CharlestonToday.net
Much Ado About Shakespeare
by Peter Ingle
Charleston Art Mag
***
ARCHIVE
HCS Press Release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Shakespeare and SEWE Share the Stage
Local Theatre Company's Premiere to Coincide with SC's Largest Annual Event
Charleston, SC (January 20, 2011)-- Holy City Shakespeare theatre company will present its "homegrown" version of the comedy Much Ado About Nothing, February 17 & 18, 2012, 7:30pm, at the College of Charleston Sottile Theatre downtown. The production-- the company's premiere--will coincide with South Carolina's largest annual event (and the largest event of its kind in the nation), the Southeastern Wildlife Festival (SEWE).
An estimated 40,000 residents and visitors are expected to attend the festival that weekend, and HCS Artistic Director Laura Rose intends to show them how Shakespeare can be just as much a part of The Lowcountry as fly fishing and game retrieval.
“Our goal is to bring Shakespeare home to Charleston and, at the same time, to help our audience feel at home with him.”
Rose says it really isn’t difficult to make a 400-year-old play relevant and entertaining when it’s a Shakespeare play.
“I’m always amazed at how modern and familiar, his plays can be. Much Ado About Nothing is about family, marriage, and small-town life. But it’s also about finding how we can fit in and be happy without losing our individuality. It’s about soldiers coming home and getting on with their lives. It’s about women balancing personal independence with expectations at home. You could find any number of plays written today on similar subjects.”
To emphasize the American experience of those themes, Rose has set Shakespeare’s story in the 1940s, in a small, Southern town at the end of WWII.
The play is also famous for its “merry war” between Beatrice and the soldier Benedick. The pair fight so much, it’s obvious to everyone around them they are hopelessly in love with each other.
“They fire off zingers at each other until the end of the play. Even in truce, neither one compromises, and that’s why we love them as a couple. They’re very modern that way!”
While trickery threatens to bring lasting heartbreak to all the characters, happy endings and witty jokes ensure the play’s firm footing in comedy. The same small-town rumor mill that tears families and couples apart can also bring them together when intentions are good.
Rose’s choice of setting also brings opportunity for fun the local way. Thanks to Charleston music institution Roger Bellow and other area favorites, authentic live Southern folk music and a barn dance help bring this Shakespeare play home.
While not organizationally connected, Rose says that HCS and SEWE share similar aims and that their coming together in one weekend offers a way to see how Shakespeare can be as much a part of our culture as any product of local heritage.
“SEWE promotes the preservation of our natural treasures through art and education; HCS promotes the preservation of a cultural treasure in exactly the same ways. I hope to treat residents and visitors to a surprising complement to their festival weekend, and to help make Shakespeare a treasure we can call our own.”
February 17 & 18 (7:30pm): College of Charleston Sottile Theatre, 44 George St. $30 for adults, $20 for students (25 and under) and seniors (60+). Buy two, get 20% off on tickets purchased online (www.holycityshakespeare.org) or by phone (866-811-4111) until 9pm, Feb. 10.
* A number of tickets will be provided free of charge to community-based organizations; CBO directors contact HCS at 843-754-7267 for details.
###
For more information and press photos, please contact HCS Artistic Director Laura Rose at (843) 754-7267 or contact@holycityshakespeare.org.
****
Shakespeare company afoot in the Holy City
By Bill Thompson
The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC
Sunday, July 24, 2011
In the early days of the republic and well into the 19th century, it was not merely the urban sophisticate, literateur or committed theatergoer who was conversant in Shakespeare, but the common man as well. From the backwoods of Colorado to burgs along the Mississippi, the Bard was known.
In 1774, Charleston presented what is thought to be the first American performance of "Julius Caesar." In the 1820s, fabled stage actors Edmund Kean and Junius Booth brought their dueling portrayals of tragic heroes here.
Though an estimated 135 U.S. communities hold annual Shakespeare festivals and as many as 50 have active Shakespeare companies, he is no longer the jointly held property of everyone.
AP-The Bard is coming back with the new Holy City Shakespeare theater company.
Yet those great dissections of the human condition, tragic or uproariously funny, are our heritage. And there is no more penetrating and perceptive a guide to life, love and their assorted follies than the man from Stratford-upon-Avon.
"Just think about the many expressions so commonly used today that derive from Shakespeare. And the plays still have immense appeal," says Laura Rose, artistic director and co-founder (with husband Mark Poremba) of the new Holy City Shakespeare theater company.
A 20th-century image of Shakespeare being chiefly the province of elites served to deflect the larger audience from the pleasures of his work.
"But today we have the advantage of acting traditions that respect his words yet offer naturalistic performances. In my experience, when Shakespeare is done well, audiences always respond enthusiastically. Our company does not want to limit Shakespeare to theater spaces alone, but to places where people work and go to school."
Rose is well-aware that she is inaugurating a new (nonprofit) company here in an already crowded live theater market. But none center on Shakespeare.
"He does make a brief but welcome appearance at the end of each August in the College of Charleston's Summer Shakespeare Project, but he has had no permanent home in the Lowcountry -- until now."
The first two plays Holy City Shakespeare will produce are the comedy "Much Ado About Nothing," scheduled for spring 2012, and the tragedy "Hamlet," tentatively slated for fall 2012. Next month, the new company will announce a first round of auditions for the ensemble company and for roles in individual productions.
Bitten by the Bard
Born in Charlotte and with family ties to Charleston since the mid-1980s, Rose moved here in 2007.
An experienced actor, director and educator, Rose began her formal Shakespeare training in 1989. In 1993, she earned her M.A. in Shakespeare studies at the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-upon-Avon and continued her studies as a doctoral student in rhetoric at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
Rose has performed Shakespearean and Jacobean roles at the Shakespeare Institute and the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., as well as in theaters in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. Locally, she has acted in the Summer Shakespeare Project and Theatre/verv and performed non-Shakespearean material with Pure Theatre, the Footlight Players and the South of Broadway Theatre Company.
Her work also extends to feature films, documentaries, television and teaching.
"Education will be a focus of the company as well as performance," she says. "Beyond actor training, we plan to have workshops and guest lectures by people with classical acting training who have led schools in such cities as New York and Chicago."
Lay on, Macduff
The company will begin with a repertoire that is exclusively Shakespearean, Rose says, but in time may expand to do other classical plays.
"We want a core group of actors who are around, mostly, season to season, but we also want to have open auditions for individual productions. As far as performance spaces, we intend to be flexible and mobile."
The company's genesis was simple: Rose loved Shakespeare and didn't have enough opportunities to perform it here. "That's what made me turn the corner and take on the responsibility of a new company. Plus, I sensed a real desire for Shakespeare here. When the Flowertown Players presented 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in Summerville this past spring, everyone was buzzing about the design of the show. And it was spectacular. But what impressed me most was how many community members wanted to be part of the project and how many came to see it.
"It was packed from the beginning to the end of the run. That was the starting point for me. Now I want to add the training that carries local performances of Shakespeare to another level. That's the key to expanding the audience: give them a taste of what it can be."
Visit http://holycityshakespeare.org, e-mail contact@holycityshakespeare.org or call 754-7267.
****
Holy City Shakespeare brings the Bard to Charleston
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
****
HCS Press Release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Shakespeare Comes to Charleston:
New Nonprofit Theatre Company to Offer Shakespeare Performance and Education
Charleston, SC (July 14, 2011) — Shakespeare, historically, is no stranger to Charleston
theatre. In 1774, the city presented the first ever American performance of Julius Caesar,
along with 12 more of his plays in a single season. In the 1790s, socialites flocked to see
Shakespeare at the Broad Street Theatre. And in the 1820s, famous rival actors Edmund
Kean and Junius Booth converged on local stages to bring dueling portrayals of
Shakespeare’s best-known tragic heroes.
Today, however, the Bard is a rare guest to our tourist destination. He’s never appeared on a Spoleto program, and several years pass between local community theatre productions. He
does makes a brief but welcome appearance at the end of each August, in the College of
Charleston’s Summer Shakespeare Project, but Shakespeare has had no permanent home in
The Lowcountry—until now.
Holy City Shakespeare, a new nonprofit theatre company dedicated to Shakespeare
education and performance, intends to change that. Its founder, Artistic Director Laura
Rose, is a local resident and experienced actor, director, and college educator who began her
formal Shakespeare training in 1989. With an MA from the Shakespeare Institute in
Stratford-upon-Avon, England (Shakespeare’s birthplace and home to world-renowned
theatre ensemble, the Royal Shakespeare Company) and a PhD in progress there, she has
spent many years watching and thinking about Shakespeare performance. And she believes
the signs exist that Charleston audiences would welcome more performance of his plays.
“Recently, I’ve caught glimpses of the potential for Shakespeare performance here, when
audiences were clearly hungry to see it and local theatre artists were eager to take on the
challenge. In my experience, when Shakespeare is done well, audiences always
enthusiastically respond.”
Ms. Rose admits that many people have had encounters with “bad Shakespeare”—in her
words, “tedious reading assignments” or performances that were “boring, snooty, or simply
didn’t care about pleasing the audience.”
“These plays, she says, “were never intended to be read; they only were meant to be
experienced in performance. I don’t think you can really connect with Shakespeare if you
only study his plays quietly: you have to stand them up on their feet.”
So what is Shakespeare “done well”?
“For me, the best Shakespeare performances speak directly to us today—no matter who we
are, or what our age or background—then push us beyond the reach of our everyday lives.
The themes and human psychology in these plays really are timeless. And the language—at
times beautiful, clever, profound, wry, shocking, touching, insightful, hilarious—can take us
somewhere exciting and new.
“In an expert Shakespeare performance, the language sounds exceptional but also easy to
understand, the characters are memorable but still easy to relate to—all with very little effort
on the part of the audience. The result is both powerful and enormously entertaining.
People lucky enough to see Shakespeare’s plays performed with wit and clarity are often
hooked for life.”
The key to achieving such performance, Ms. Rose asserts, is actor training, which Holy City
Shakespeare intends to offer to company members and the wider community.
In her opinion, new production concepts and creative set and costume design don’t make or
break a Shakespeare show: the acting does. And not just any actor training will do. Ms.
Rose is a firm believer in a specific performance tradition, pioneered by Royal Shakespeare
Company founders around 1960, then further developed and tested with success over the last
50 years.
“British actors, directors, and performance coaches taught me—and I realize this is
ironic—that Shakespeare’s language doesn’t have to sound foreign to American audiences.
The other side of the coin, though, is that Shakespeare’s words still have to be honored by the
actor, not ‘translated’ or paraphrased in an attempt to modernize them. You have to respect the works (and your audience) enough to let the words do their magic. They’ve endured a
long time just as they are.”
What does this look like in action?
“Nowhere is Shakespeare better than live, onstage. But you can see famous actors trained in
this tradition everywhere on film, TV, and video. They are impressive whether you watch
them act Shakespeare or modern scripts. I mean long-time favorites like Patrick Stewart, Ian
McKellan, and Judy Dench, and younger generation talents like David Tennant, Adrian
Lester, and Nonso Anonzie. Not to mention the entire adult cast of the Harry Potter movies.”
In addition to actor training, HCS plans to offer workshops and lectures by guest experts in
Shakespeare performance from around the nation, and perhaps from across the sea. “So far,
we have interest from artists in New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC to come here and
share their expertise and enthusiasm. And I’m always in touch with Shakespeare
professionals in Britain, so I hope to make visits from them happen, as well.”
Further, an important HCS goal is to bring Shakespeare enrichment programs and
performance events directly to schools and other places where Charleston residents live and
work, such as community centers, nursing homes, and public spaces.
“Our goals are quite ambitious, and I’m well aware of the challenges that face nonprofit
community theatre. No doubt our success will depend on community reception and
support. But Shakespeare is a passion—I can’t ignore it, quite possibly at my own peril (she
laughs), and I know there are plenty of others in this town who will get on this ride with me,
on and off stage, because, let’s face it, it’s loads of fun.”
The first two plays HCS will produce are the comedy Much Ado About Nothing (Spring 2012)
followed by the tragedy Hamlet (tentatively Fall 2012). In August, HCS will announce their
first round of auditions for the ensemble company and for roles in individual productions.
If you are interested in supporting HCS’s efforts as a contributor, board member, artist, or
volunteer, you may contact the company by email (contact@holycityshakespeare.org),
phone (843-754-7267), or mail (PO Box 22154, Charleston, SC 29413).
# # #
Review: 'Much Ado' spotlights Holy City Shakespeare's dedication to the Bard: Shakespeare in the South
by Elizabeth Pandolfi
Charleston Post & Courier
'Much Ado' to Launch Company
by Bill Thompson
CharlestonToday.net
Much Ado About Shakespeare
by Peter Ingle
Charleston Art Mag
HCS Press Release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
An estimated 40,000 residents and visitors are expected to attend the festival that weekend, and HCS Artistic Director Laura Rose intends to show them how Shakespeare can be just as much a part of The Lowcountry as fly fishing and game retrieval.
“Our goal is to bring Shakespeare home to Charleston and, at the same time, to help our audience feel at home with him.”
Rose says it really isn’t difficult to make a 400-year-old play relevant and entertaining when it’s a Shakespeare play.
“I’m always amazed at how modern and familiar, his plays can be. Much Ado About Nothing is about family, marriage, and small-town life. But it’s also about finding how we can fit in and be happy without losing our individuality. It’s about soldiers coming home and getting on with their lives. It’s about women balancing personal independence with expectations at home. You could find any number of plays written today on similar subjects.”
To emphasize the American experience of those themes, Rose has set Shakespeare’s story in the 1940s, in a small, Southern town at the end of WWII.
The play is also famous for its “merry war” between Beatrice and the soldier Benedick. The pair fight so much, it’s obvious to everyone around them they are hopelessly in love with each other.
“They fire off zingers at each other until the end of the play. Even in truce, neither one compromises, and that’s why we love them as a couple. They’re very modern that way!”
While trickery threatens to bring lasting heartbreak to all the characters, happy endings and witty jokes ensure the play’s firm footing in comedy. The same small-town rumor mill that tears families and couples apart can also bring them together when intentions are good.
Rose’s choice of setting also brings opportunity for fun the local way. Thanks to Charleston music institution Roger Bellow and other area favorites, authentic live Southern folk music and a barn dance help bring this Shakespeare play home.
While not organizationally connected, Rose says that HCS and SEWE share similar aims and that their coming together in one weekend offers a way to see how Shakespeare can be as much a part of our culture as any product of local heritage.
“SEWE promotes the preservation of our natural treasures through art and education; HCS promotes the preservation of a cultural treasure in exactly the same ways. I hope to treat residents and visitors to a surprising complement to their festival weekend, and to help make Shakespeare a treasure we can call our own.”
February 17 & 18 (7:30pm): College of Charleston Sottile Theatre, 44 George St. $30 for adults, $20 for students (25 and under) and seniors (60+). Buy two, get 20% off on tickets purchased online (www.holycityshakespeare.org) or by phone (866-811-4111) until 9pm, Feb. 10.
* A number of tickets will be provided free of charge to community-based organizations; CBO directors contact HCS at 843-754-7267 for details.
###
For more information and press photos, please contact HCS Artistic Director Laura Rose at (843) 754-7267 or contact@holycityshakespeare.org.
The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC
Sunday, July 24, 2011
In the early days of the republic and well into the 19th century, it was not merely the urban sophisticate, literateur or committed theatergoer who was conversant in Shakespeare, but the common man as well. From the backwoods of Colorado to burgs along the Mississippi, the Bard was known.
In 1774, Charleston presented what is thought to be the first American performance of "Julius Caesar." In the 1820s, fabled stage actors Edmund Kean and Junius Booth brought their dueling portrayals of tragic heroes here.
Though an estimated 135 U.S. communities hold annual Shakespeare festivals and as many as 50 have active Shakespeare companies, he is no longer the jointly held property of everyone.
Yet those great dissections of the human condition, tragic or uproariously funny, are our heritage. And there is no more penetrating and perceptive a guide to life, love and their assorted follies than the man from Stratford-upon-Avon.
"Just think about the many expressions so commonly used today that derive from Shakespeare. And the plays still have immense appeal," says Laura Rose, artistic director and co-founder (with husband Mark Poremba) of the new Holy City Shakespeare theater company.
A 20th-century image of Shakespeare being chiefly the province of elites served to deflect the larger audience from the pleasures of his work.
"But today we have the advantage of acting traditions that respect his words yet offer naturalistic performances. In my experience, when Shakespeare is done well, audiences always respond enthusiastically. Our company does not want to limit Shakespeare to theater spaces alone, but to places where people work and go to school."
Rose is well-aware that she is inaugurating a new (nonprofit) company here in an already crowded live theater market. But none center on Shakespeare.
"He does make a brief but welcome appearance at the end of each August in the College of Charleston's Summer Shakespeare Project, but he has had no permanent home in the Lowcountry -- until now."
The first two plays Holy City Shakespeare will produce are the comedy "Much Ado About Nothing," scheduled for spring 2012, and the tragedy "Hamlet," tentatively slated for fall 2012. Next month, the new company will announce a first round of auditions for the ensemble company and for roles in individual productions.
An experienced actor, director and educator, Rose began her formal Shakespeare training in 1989. In 1993, she earned her M.A. in Shakespeare studies at the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-upon-Avon and continued her studies as a doctoral student in rhetoric at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
Rose has performed Shakespearean and Jacobean roles at the Shakespeare Institute and the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., as well as in theaters in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. Locally, she has acted in the Summer Shakespeare Project and Theatre/verv and performed non-Shakespearean material with Pure Theatre, the Footlight Players and the South of Broadway Theatre Company.
Her work also extends to feature films, documentaries, television and teaching.
"Education will be a focus of the company as well as performance," she says. "Beyond actor training, we plan to have workshops and guest lectures by people with classical acting training who have led schools in such cities as New York and Chicago."
Lay on, Macduff
The company will begin with a repertoire that is exclusively Shakespearean, Rose says, but in time may expand to do other classical plays.
"We want a core group of actors who are around, mostly, season to season, but we also want to have open auditions for individual productions. As far as performance spaces, we intend to be flexible and mobile."
The company's genesis was simple: Rose loved Shakespeare and didn't have enough opportunities to perform it here. "That's what made me turn the corner and take on the responsibility of a new company. Plus, I sensed a real desire for Shakespeare here. When the Flowertown Players presented 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in Summerville this past spring, everyone was buzzing about the design of the show. And it was spectacular. But what impressed me most was how many community members wanted to be part of the project and how many came to see it.
"It was packed from the beginning to the end of the run. That was the starting point for me. Now I want to add the training that carries local performances of Shakespeare to another level. That's the key to expanding the audience: give them a taste of what it can be."
Visit http://holycityshakespeare.org, e-mail contact@holycityshakespeare.org or call 754-7267.
****
Holy City Shakespeare brings the Bard to Charleston
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
****
HCS Press Release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Shakespeare Comes to Charleston:
New Nonprofit Theatre Company to Offer Shakespeare Performance and Education
Charleston, SC (July 14, 2011) — Shakespeare, historically, is no stranger to Charleston
theatre. In 1774, the city presented the first ever American performance of Julius Caesar,
along with 12 more of his plays in a single season. In the 1790s, socialites flocked to see
Shakespeare at the Broad Street Theatre. And in the 1820s, famous rival actors Edmund
Kean and Junius Booth converged on local stages to bring dueling portrayals of
Shakespeare’s best-known tragic heroes.
Today, however, the Bard is a rare guest to our tourist destination. He’s never appeared on a Spoleto program, and several years pass between local community theatre productions. He
does makes a brief but welcome appearance at the end of each August, in the College of
Charleston’s Summer Shakespeare Project, but Shakespeare has had no permanent home in
The Lowcountry—until now.
Holy City Shakespeare, a new nonprofit theatre company dedicated to Shakespeare
education and performance, intends to change that. Its founder, Artistic Director Laura
Rose, is a local resident and experienced actor, director, and college educator who began her
formal Shakespeare training in 1989. With an MA from the Shakespeare Institute in
Stratford-upon-Avon, England (Shakespeare’s birthplace and home to world-renowned
theatre ensemble, the Royal Shakespeare Company) and a PhD in progress there, she has
spent many years watching and thinking about Shakespeare performance. And she believes
the signs exist that Charleston audiences would welcome more performance of his plays.
“Recently, I’ve caught glimpses of the potential for Shakespeare performance here, when
audiences were clearly hungry to see it and local theatre artists were eager to take on the
challenge. In my experience, when Shakespeare is done well, audiences always
enthusiastically respond.”
Ms. Rose admits that many people have had encounters with “bad Shakespeare”—in her
words, “tedious reading assignments” or performances that were “boring, snooty, or simply
didn’t care about pleasing the audience.”
“These plays, she says, “were never intended to be read; they only were meant to be
experienced in performance. I don’t think you can really connect with Shakespeare if you
only study his plays quietly: you have to stand them up on their feet.”
So what is Shakespeare “done well”?
“For me, the best Shakespeare performances speak directly to us today—no matter who we
are, or what our age or background—then push us beyond the reach of our everyday lives.
The themes and human psychology in these plays really are timeless. And the language—at
times beautiful, clever, profound, wry, shocking, touching, insightful, hilarious—can take us
somewhere exciting and new.
“In an expert Shakespeare performance, the language sounds exceptional but also easy to
understand, the characters are memorable but still easy to relate to—all with very little effort
on the part of the audience. The result is both powerful and enormously entertaining.
People lucky enough to see Shakespeare’s plays performed with wit and clarity are often
hooked for life.”
The key to achieving such performance, Ms. Rose asserts, is actor training, which Holy City
Shakespeare intends to offer to company members and the wider community.
In her opinion, new production concepts and creative set and costume design don’t make or
break a Shakespeare show: the acting does. And not just any actor training will do. Ms.
Rose is a firm believer in a specific performance tradition, pioneered by Royal Shakespeare
Company founders around 1960, then further developed and tested with success over the last
50 years.
“British actors, directors, and performance coaches taught me—and I realize this is
ironic—that Shakespeare’s language doesn’t have to sound foreign to American audiences.
The other side of the coin, though, is that Shakespeare’s words still have to be honored by the
actor, not ‘translated’ or paraphrased in an attempt to modernize them. You have to respect the works (and your audience) enough to let the words do their magic. They’ve endured a
long time just as they are.”
What does this look like in action?
“Nowhere is Shakespeare better than live, onstage. But you can see famous actors trained in
this tradition everywhere on film, TV, and video. They are impressive whether you watch
them act Shakespeare or modern scripts. I mean long-time favorites like Patrick Stewart, Ian
McKellan, and Judy Dench, and younger generation talents like David Tennant, Adrian
Lester, and Nonso Anonzie. Not to mention the entire adult cast of the Harry Potter movies.”
In addition to actor training, HCS plans to offer workshops and lectures by guest experts in
Shakespeare performance from around the nation, and perhaps from across the sea. “So far,
we have interest from artists in New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC to come here and
share their expertise and enthusiasm. And I’m always in touch with Shakespeare
professionals in Britain, so I hope to make visits from them happen, as well.”
Further, an important HCS goal is to bring Shakespeare enrichment programs and
performance events directly to schools and other places where Charleston residents live and
work, such as community centers, nursing homes, and public spaces.
“Our goals are quite ambitious, and I’m well aware of the challenges that face nonprofit
community theatre. No doubt our success will depend on community reception and
support. But Shakespeare is a passion—I can’t ignore it, quite possibly at my own peril (she
laughs), and I know there are plenty of others in this town who will get on this ride with me,
on and off stage, because, let’s face it, it’s loads of fun.”
The first two plays HCS will produce are the comedy Much Ado About Nothing (Spring 2012)
followed by the tragedy Hamlet (tentatively Fall 2012). In August, HCS will announce their
first round of auditions for the ensemble company and for roles in individual productions.
If you are interested in supporting HCS’s efforts as a contributor, board member, artist, or
volunteer, you may contact the company by email (contact@holycityshakespeare.org),
phone (843-754-7267), or mail (PO Box 22154, Charleston, SC 29413).
# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Nonprofit Theatre Company to Offer Shakespeare Performance and Education
Today, however, the Bard is a rare guest to our tourist destination. He’s never appeared on a Spoleto program, and several years pass between local community theatre productions. He does makes a brief but welcome appearance at the end of each August, in the College of Charleston’s Summer Shakespeare Project, but Shakespeare has had no permanent home in The Lowcountry—until now.
Holy City Shakespeare, a new nonprofit theatre company dedicated to Shakespeare education and performance, intends to change that. Its founder, Artistic Director Laura Rose, is a local resident and experienced actor, director, and college educator who began her formal Shakespeare training in 1989. With an MA from the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, England (Shakespeare’s birthplace and home to world-renowned theatre ensemble, the Royal Shakespeare Company) and a PhD in progress there, she has spent many years watching and thinking about Shakespeare performance. And she believes the signs exist that Charleston audiences would welcome more performance of his plays.
“Recently, I’ve caught glimpses of the potential for Shakespeare performance here, when audiences were clearly hungry to see it and local theatre artists were eager to take on the challenge. In my experience, when Shakespeare is done well, audiences always enthusiastically respond.”
Ms. Rose admits that many people have had encounters with “bad Shakespeare”—in her words, “tedious reading assignments” or performances that were “boring, snooty, or simply didn’t care about pleasing the audience.”
“These plays, she says, “were never intended to be read; they only were meant to be experienced in performance. I don’t think you can really connect with Shakespeare if you only study his plays quietly: you have to stand them up on their feet.”
So what is Shakespeare “done well”?
“For me, the best Shakespeare performances speak directly to us today—no matter who we are, or what our age or background—then push us beyond the reach of our everyday lives. The themes and human psychology in these plays really are timeless. And the language—at times beautiful, clever, profound, wry, shocking, touching, insightful, hilarious—can take us somewhere exciting and new.
“In an expert Shakespeare performance, the language sounds exceptional but also easy to understand, the characters are memorable but still easy to relate to—all with very little effort on the part of the audience. The result is both powerful and enormously entertaining. People lucky enough to see Shakespeare’s plays performed with wit and clarity are often hooked for life.”
The key to achieving such performance, Ms. Rose asserts, is actor training, which Holy City Shakespeare intends to offer to company members and the wider community.
In her opinion, new production concepts and creative set and costume design don’t make or break a Shakespeare show: the acting does. And not just any actor training will do. Ms. Rose is a firm believer in a specific performance tradition, pioneered by Royal Shakespeare Company founders around 1960, then further developed and tested with success over the last 50 years.
“British actors, directors, and performance coaches taught me—and I realize this is ironic—that Shakespeare’s language doesn’t have to sound foreign to American audiences. The other side of the coin, though, is that Shakespeare’s words still have to be honored by the actor, not ‘translated’ or paraphrased in an attempt to modernize them. You have to respect the works (and your audience) enough to let the words do their magic. They’ve endured a long time just as they are.”
What does this look like in action?
“Nowhere is Shakespeare better than live, onstage. But you can see famous actors trained in this tradition everywhere on film, TV, and video. They are impressive whether you watch them act Shakespeare or modern scripts. I mean long-time favorites like Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, and Judy Dench, and younger generation talents like David Tennant, Adrian Lester, and Nonso Anonzie. Not to mention the entire adult cast of the Harry Potter movies.”
In addition to actor training, HCS plans to offer workshops and lectures by guest experts in Shakespeare performance from around the nation, and perhaps from across the sea. “So far, we have interest from artists in New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC to come here and share their expertise and enthusiasm. And I’m always in touch with Shakespeare professionals in Britain, so I hope to make visits from them happen, as well.”
Further, an important HCS goal is to bring Shakespeare enrichment programs and performance events directly to schools and other places where Charleston residents live and work, such as community centers, nursing homes, and public spaces.
“Our goals are quite ambitious, and I’m well aware of the challenges that face nonprofit community theatre. No doubt our success will depend on community reception and support. But Shakespeare is a passion—I can’t ignore it, quite possibly at my own peril (she laughs), and I know there are plenty of others in this town who will get on this ride with me, on and off stage, because, let’s face it, it’s loads of fun.”
The first two plays HCS will produce are the comedy Much Ado About Nothing (Spring 2012) followed by the tragedy Hamlet (tentatively Fall 2012). In August, HCS will announce their first round of auditions for the ensemble company and for roles in individual productions.
If you are interested in supporting HCS’s efforts as a contributor, board member, artist, or volunteer, you may contact the company by email (contact@holycityshakespeare.org), phone (843-754-7267), or mail (PO Box 22154, Charleston, SC 29413).
# # #