Bob --
Thanks for stirring my memories on this. I'm home with a sick Emma (just turned 8 by
the way) so I can take a few moments to add to your recollections.
First of all, I think all of you would have found it a wonderful evening in the Barn. Bob
may be onto something here -- a Barn reunion every October for the AFTLS weekend?
It's a treat to sit in there and listen to Shakespeare without any big fans or
generators whirring and humming. You can hear the crickets inbetween lines.
I think you all also would have been highly impressed with the deftness with which the 5
actors ducked under the beams to enter the "discovery space" to sit on the steps
and watch the next scene; they'd only had 4 hours in there to prepare and I saw no one
even come close to banging their head....
Speaking of the AFTLS history with Winedale, there was a lovely little moment outside the
Barn after the play when Will and Jeff Larsen were talking to one of the ensemble, Julian
Rivett, a short, lithe actor with a hockey player's nose who was an amazing
animalistic Puck (I thought of Terry often -- he really went for the "goblin"
aspect, had a delightfully twitchy face, sniffed and grunted and scowled and leered) as
well as a lusty Theseus (again, thought of Terry, and the famous "underwear
opening" to Midsummer at the '90 reunion).... and Will was telling Julian about
how the first AFTLS production he saw was when he was a little kid was Midsummer,
"And in the play-within-the-play the guy playing Nick Bottom handed me the sword to
give him the final stab -- and I did!" After figuring out what year that'd been,
Julian burst out, "I know that guy! When I go back to London, I'm gonna tell
him, 'I met the kid you stabbed you out at Winedale."
So, to add to Bob's report, for those interested in hearing more (pardon the length,
but Bob got me fired up again about this...):
The most remarkable aspect of AFTLS, if you've never seen this company, is how
Winedale-esque they feel, compared to most professional productions you'll see, as
good as one might be. There is a quality of open, nothing-hidden-up-my-sleeve playing,
with a real focus on language and character, that is refreshing. Like the craftsmen,
they have to invent; like early Winedalers, they have to come up with their own solutions,
sans director. The artfulness with which they do this is part of the Shakespearean
quality of the experience; it's great on a big stage, but especially magical in the
Barn. Costumes are a few simple pieces over modern dress; props are basic and often mimed
or used in multiple ways, like the umbrellas Bob mentioned.
They began with a unique conceit (again, does this sound familiar...?) of being traveling
players, barging in chattering from outside, one of them towing a suitcase on wheels that
had all their stuff in it. "What are we doing tonight, again?" One of them
asked. Another: "Oh god, who booked us in a BARN, for God's sake!" One
actor asked someone on the front row for their program -- "Oh, it's
'Dream'! Right, then!" And they spread themselves and began to introduce
their characters, in the way Doc described this summer as we discussed that idea.
The next Winedale moment for me was in the opening scene, as the first instance of
role-switching arrived. Egeus had to become Demetrius. And back again. So the big
curly-haired rugby-player of a guy (later Nick Bottom in the mesh shirt, and yes, Bob, I
thought of Brook too) who was playing Egeus had a pair of plastic-rimmed glasses on, and
when it was time for Demetrius to speak, the actor whisked the glasses off, handed them to
the guy standing next to him (playing Lysander), and became a plaintive Demetrius, while
Lysander held the glasses in place where "Egeus" had been, as if he were still
there. After Lysander insulted Demetrius with the "do you marry HIM" line,
Demetrius nimbly, deliciously, wound his way back to the glasses and re-possessed them and
there was Egeus again -- "Scornful Lysander!" And that line got a laugh in a
way it never quite has before.
Near the end, they used this again to great effect once all the lovers were awakened --
this time Theseus held the glasses in his right hand, since Demetrius was onstage with his
arm around Helen, and when Theseus said, "Egeus, I must overbear your will," and
announced the marriages, Theseus shook the glasses with a little tremble of impotent rage,
and we could all just see Egeus there, fuming and glaring at Lysander and Hermia. I think
it was the first "take" I've ever seen performed by a hand and a pair of
glasses.
Bob's right about the bawdy, I found that stuff less funny and more layered on --
"two hard things" was repeated several times by Quince, over the laughter of the
audience as Bottom and Flute locked lips in a "stage kiss" that suddenly
surprised them both by feeling... real. Then when they heard Quince, they looked down,
recoiled in sudden embarrassment, and retreated, shaking off the spell.
I'm always more inclined to see that sort of thing as a cheap laugh, and in some
productions (the ones I've seen in Zilker Park here) that kind of schtick is used with
a sledgehammer subtlety that takes me out of the world of the play, often for good. But
my thoughts on this one changed a bit about this after talking to the actors and listening
to them at the Q&A, as they explained the genesis of the idea of Bottom and Flute
having some sort of sudden, surprising infatuation. They really saw it in a very sweet,
innocent way -- two guys who suddenly clicked, as people sometimes do while working on
plays in isolated conditions (ahem), and found a kind of support team in one another that
helped them find the courage to give a great final performance. Maybe it was the lovely
accents, and the thought of "No Sex Please, We're British" and naughty
Pythons, but listening to them, I found myself believing that they really saw the
bawdiness as innocent and in line with the zany spirit of sexual desire coursing through
the play.
In other words, it was still generous, not cynical.
A few other things:
There was a moment when Helena was being chased from up the right stairwell and along the
balcony and down the left stairwell (again, impressive, considering they'd only had a
few hours) that took me right back to sitting in the balcony and watching six of you work
on 3.2 in August and tracing that same path. But I do have to say that you six in that
scene created something a bit deeper and richer than the AFTLS crew did, as good as they
were. I don't think it was just the magical layer of two genuine longtime friends,
one short and one tall, playing Hermia and Helena in the very spot where they first grew
to love one another... though that was undeniably moving. I think the reunion
performance also had just a bit more sensitivity to the nuances of the emotions, the
heart, of the encounter. And Zig and Craig are hard to beat as the flustered, sputtering
fellas. There was nothing quite as giddy as "Acorn acorn A-corn!!!"
At random, another neat little touch: Puck would enter as a kind of warthog on all fours
-- had a green baseball-type cap with little horns -- and I think when it was one
direction (backwards) he was the snorting goblin; then suddenly he reached up, switched
the cap's direction, and stood, as if he'd been transformed to an appearance more
suitable for speaking to the audience.
And at the end, as Puck go to "when the wolf behowls the moon," in a truly
Winedalesque, Gallowayesque burst of energy, Julian lept from the stage, tore down the
center aisle, shouting out the lines as he ran, and stopped (apparently) somewhere about
where Doc used to stand and watch the plays and let out a huge, lusty howl... and then ran
back in.
All in all, it was a wonderful fall night, and a great tonic after the horrible OU-Texas
football game (which for Longhorn fans is "the good old days" compared to last
Saturday... oof). But I have to say one final thing in closing, if you're still
reading:
Camp Shakespeare's Midsummer was still better. And the Camp As You Like It even
better than that. I didn't shed any tears during the AFTLS performance.
So DO join Bob and Jeff and Joy and I and come out for AFTLS (Tempest) next year, and help
support this great program, but more importantly, if you want to see something even more
special in the Barn and say hey to Doc and support a great program that also changes young
people's lives, DO take the plunge find a way to make it for at least one Camp
performance in June or July. If you don't have Winedale flashbacks as you watch and
listen, I'll buy you a case of Shiner.
See you next summer, then.
cheers,
cs
On Oct 27, 2010, at 9:41 AM, Pees, Robert wrote:
The play was fascinating. The night before, the
Actors from the London Stage had just concluded their UT campus performances in a big
theater, and so it was interesting to see how they transferred their production from a
large proscenium stage to the Winedale theater barn.
All five actors were nimble--vocally and physically--and they used the space creatively.
Titania's bower was an umbrella perched on the upper level of the stage. The lovers
fell asleep on the stair landings, nicely framed by the handrails. And, if memory serves,
Puck liberally helped himself to a sip of the drink of front-row audience member Joann
Ayres. Pyramus and Thisbe used a folded umbrella for their self-slaughter, with a funny
bit of stage business when the extended umbrella collapsed telescope-like into
Thisbe's bosom.
Costumes were minimal--bits of fabric, hats, a handkerchief, etc. adorning ordinary
street clothes. Bottom's undershirt was a mesh top that echoed Peter Brook's
famous production. The umbrellas were also probably a nod to another famous production,
directed by Adrian Noble.
The actors did not hold back on the bawdy stuff. They took a bit of liberty with
Quince's line "there is two hard things" (use your imagination and you
won't be far off). The translated Bottom definitely liked his new equipment. The wall
scene was suitable raunchy. And Oberon's chastisement of Puck--"this is thy
negligence"--involved some telekinetic ball-busting.
It was also nice to be in the theater when it wasn't a hundred degrees outside.
Though it was the day of the UT/Oklahama game, the theater was full and included a
smattering of Camp Shakespeare veterans (including Will Larsen and Augie Stromberger),
some of James Loehlin's class of 2010 (who may have had a cup of sack or two as
evidence by the amplitude of their guffaws, but who nonetheless were very efficient barn
volunteers for set-up, etc.), and Jeff, Clayton, Joy and me from the recent reunion.
It was great to see Doc, who had also arranged for his La Grange High School students to
see the play. He reported to me that they liked the dirty parts. Perhaps the only flaw
in the evening was that the AFTLS version of the play did not clothe the Philostrate in a
stylish Hawaiian shirt.
-----Original Message-----
From: weeklong-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:weeklong-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Alice Gordon
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 8:52 PM
To: weeklong-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Weeklong-l] Mini-reunion fall 2010
What a handsome quartet.
How was the play?
Love,
A
From: Clay Stromberger
<cstromberger(a)mail.utexas.edu>
Reply-To: <weeklong-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:58:43 -0500
To: <weeklong-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: [Weeklong-l] Mini-reunion fall 2010
Okay, so it wasn't Zig's garden-by-the-Bay in Oakland, but you may
recognize the structure in the background -- four of us were among the
folks who came out to Winedale to see the Actors from the London Stage perform
"Midsummer"
earlier this month. Doc was there too but we weren't able to snag him
for this photo...
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