A Reduced Shakespeare Experience
When done well, nothing approaches the intimacy of the connection between an audience and the actors of a live theatrical performance. Whether the intimacy is achieved through the execution of a well drafted script or the careful placement of quick ad libs that connect directly with the audience, such a event can be enjoyable to anyone regardless their role in the production or their seat in the house.I have not often attended live theatrical performances in my life. Whenever I have it has been out of obligation - I know someone involved in the production - or at the invitation of someone else - most often I am the guest of someone who knows someone involved in the production. I suppose that on a local, community level this process of sociometric promotion is not all that rare. It might not be all that rare even for larger scale, major market theatrical productions. It seems to me that whenever I have attended a larger scale production, I had gratis seats that were provide through a friend of a friend who knew someone in the production.
My point is that at the most basic level the promotion of art depends on interpersonal connections.
I think that art in any form is important. It connects people to one another through their souls.
I am thrilled that at least two of my three children (Amanda and Sarah) appreciate the performing arts. That is not to say that my son, Rob is artistically challenged or unappreciative of theatre. It is just that his tastes differ slightly from his siblings.
There is an old joke about saving bacteria because it is the only culture that most people have. That may be true but I also think that at times artists and patrons of the arts tend to snub the popular culture without fully appreciating the historical context and relevance. What is 'popular' today may be 'classic' tomorrow. Stranger things happen: Ozzie Osborne is 'mainstream' enough to get a Presidential 'shout out' and Cadillac uses Led Zeppelin's "Rock'n'Roll" to pitch their luxury cars. I rue the day that Brittney's Spears' 'Hit me Baby One More Time' is considered a 'classic' but I am pretty sure that the work of many of the mainstream performers will outlast their careers.
My daughter Amanda has participated in the Summer of Fine Arts (SFA) program in the local community and, as I probably mentioned in an earlier blog served as stage manager for the recent production of Kiss Me Kate. She made several friends in the course of her experiences this summer, many of them aspiring actors and actresses but moreover she was exposed to people that appreciate the performing arts.
Sarah, my other daughter seems to be focused on almost anything artistic. Whether out of her own essence of through the influence of her sister's involvement with theater stage craft, she has also grown this summer.
Last night was a rare opportunity for them to bring Dad into their present sphere of artistic influence - they talked me into chauffeuring them to see the Reduced Shakespeare Company's production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at the Melbourne Civic Theatre in West Melbourne, FL. It should come as no surprise that many of the friends that Amanda made in the course of her SFA experience were in attendance. One of the actors, Mark Labelle had appeared in the SFA production of Kiss Me Kate.
Jimmy Klein and Anthony Mowad complete the trio that performed the light-hearted examination of 'Willie', the man, the myth, the legend.
‘Fun’ is probably an overused adjective in approaching the overall worth of an experience but in this case it is particularly apt. I feel that I learned at least as much about Shakespeare from watching last night’s performance as I did from all the English courses that I endured both in high school and college - and had a much more pleasant frame of mind afterwards. It has it all, from Romeo and Juliet to McBeth – done in an authentic Scottish accent. The performers even prove that they know Hamlet forward and backwards – and proceed to perform their greatly condensed version at a record pace and, of course, in reverse with a caveat regarding Satanic references about Frank Sinatra being God.
True to the claims in the title, the complete works of man from Stratford on Avon are presented in a greatly abbreviated, way. There is a script. It was written by Jess Borgeson, Adam Long, Daniel Singer and J. M. Winfield. Yet the presentation not only lends toward the inclusion of ad lib but even seems to be an extended, fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants performance. An effective performance does not allow the script to be so evident that the audience is constantly reminded that it is there.
Some of the presented facts that I had forgotten from my study of Shakespeare are that the master playwright wrote 37 plays, 16 of them comedies - the play asserts that the plots were so similar that they could be condensed and presented as one play. He also wrote 154 sonnets that the performers present as condensed onto one side of a 3" X 5" index card.
The performance was nothing like the stiff, mechanical, antiquated, boring, culturally required presentations of Shakespearean plays. I am relatively certain that if 'Willie' was alive today and understood some of the references to modern times, he would be amused. To a strict, stiff, purist I suppose the production might offend or even seem heretical in the overall worship of the 'one man who single-handedly put English on the map of legitimate languages' as one of my English literature professors once asserted - a belief I am sure Geoffrey Chaucer might dispute.
I heartily recommend seeing the production before it leaves town. Performances continue from Thursday through Sunday until July 24th at the Melbourne Civic Theatre, 3030 New Haven Avenue (corner of US 192 and Wickham), West Melbourne, FL. Call in advance to reserve seating as the venue is small.
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posted by Unknown @ 7:21 AM
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