Tina Packer – Shakespeare and Gender Workshop

After rehearsing Heisenberg for four weeks, the play opened and  on opening night, director Tina Packer saw her fine work appreciated by an enthusiastic audience. Many directors would catch their breath and take a break. However, Tina Packer is speaking on the relevance of Shakespeare in today’s troubled times with an  OLLI group at the Berkshire Museum on August 29. On August 31 to September 2nd she will present her workshop on Shakespeare and Gender at Shakespeare and Company. Then she will offer a Public Speaking Workshop on September 21-23, also at Shakespeare and Company.

Bob and I were fortunate to talk with Tina about the Shakespeare and Gender workshop while she was still working on Heisenberg. Given her wonderful book  and performances of Women of Will, Tina is the right person to be discussing issues of gender in Shakespeare’s work. As usual, she inspired us to think freshly about Shakespeare and contemporary gender issues.

Click below to hear what she has to say.

Shakespeare and Gender

For more information about educational programs and productions, go to Shakespeare and Company’s website.

Shakespeare and Company website

 

Shakespeare and Company’s 2017 Season

Winter brightens considerably when theatres announce what they will be performing in their coming season. One anticipates the pleasures that await theatre goers. Recently we visited the campus of Shakespeare and Company to hear from their Artistic Director, Allyn Burrows, what is in store. In addition to  their Shakespearean and contemporary productions, there will also be  educational programs.  We also learned about the new outdoors performance space, Shakespeare’s Garden.

The company is also presenting a special treat on the weekend of February 18 at 7 pm  and 19 at 2 pm. Lovers’ Spat-Shakespeare’s Famous Couple Encounters offer readings of scenes from Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Night’s Dream among other Shakespeare plays where the characters  deal with the challenges all lovers face. The case includes Shakespeare and Company favorites Elizabeth Aspenlieder, Tamara Hickey, David Joseph, Jason Asprey and others.

 

Go to the Shakespeare and Company website for details.

Shakespeare and Company

For details about the rest of the season, click below

Allyn Burrows and 2017 Season

Lifelong Acting

Bob and I have enjoyed seeing the presentations of Acting 101 at the end of each sequence of classes. A range of people of different ages perform monologues and scenes with honesty and intensity. Why do acting classes have an appeal for people of all ages?  We decided to interview students we knew to find out what they enjoyed about studying acting, even if they weren’t interested in careers in acting. Miriam Silver and Maggie Pendergast were most obliging. We also spoke with Dan Silver who had studied acting as a young man, but went on to another career, but has since returned to it, acting with the Dorset Players and with Oldcastle Theatre Company.

Click below for the interviews.

Interview with Miriam Silver and Maggie Pendergast

Interview with Dan Silver

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall Festival 2016

The Fall Festival at Shakespeare and Company provides an opportunity for students from  ten area high schools to perform a Shakespearean play. Under the direction of Theatre Artists from Shakespeare and Company, the students work either on stage or backstage with other professionals from Shakespeare and Company. The plays are performed at their high schools and then at the non-competitive Fall Festival where all ten plays are performed. That audience  is their fellow students from the other high school productions.

Fortunately, the public can also have the pleasure of watching these exhilarating performances. The plays are ninety minutes long with dances, sword fights, comedy and drama that have thrilled audiences for four hundred years. This year the dates are November 17 to November 20. For tickets go to the Shakespeare and Company website

Shakespeare and Company

Bob and I interviewed three of the theatre artists who are directing the plays. To hear what the experience is like for the students and the directors, two of whom were in the Fall Festival when they were students in area high schools, click below.

Interview with Fall Festival Theatre Artists

 

The Girls Ensemble

Most of the theatres in our area offer young people opportunities to explore issues important to them and experience the joys of creativity. WAM Theatre, “where arts and activism meet,” has a program for adolescent girls, 13 to 18 years old. where they can address their concerns while learning dramatic skills and devising their own theatrical productions. This is a collaborative process that uses improvisation, games, movement, brainstorming, writing  and more to create original material for performance.

To learn more about this unique program, Bob and I talked with Alicia Maher, Education Co-ordinator and Barby Cardillo, Education Outreach and Teaching Artist. Girls come from many different schools in the area. Auditions are  December 10 and the performance will be February 17, 7:30 pm  at The Tina Packer Theatre at Shakespeare and Company. The theme for last year’s production was Miss Labeled. This year’s theme will be decided by the girls themselves as they talk and work together.

Click the link below to listen to Barby and Alicia.

Barby Cardillo and Alicia Maher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the link below to find out about the Decenber auditions.

Girls Ensemble Audition

Williamstown Theatre Directing Interns Program

Williamstown Theatre Festival not only presents a range of plays in its two theatres over the summer, but it also offers a variety of  educational programs. One of these programs is the Directing Internship Program. In this program the interns are usually recent graduates from undergraduate programs. Each intern assists a professional director with one of the festival’s professional productions. In addition, they work with the apprenticeship program to direct a play. These plays are short and take place in the company’s Directing Studio late at night.

Late in the season Bob and I had the pleasure of interviewing two of these directing interns, Mehr Kaur and Lily Riopelle. Listening to them we felt optimistic about the future of theatre. You can hear what they have to say by clicking on the link below.

Williamstown Directing Interns Mehr Kaur and Lily Riopelle

To keep informed of events at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, check their web page Williamstown Theatre Festival

                                     Coffee Break directed by Mehr Kaur

                                      Intervention directed by Lily Riopelle

Beauty and the Beast

Like most of the theatres in the region, The Berkshire Theatre Group has a range of educational programs throughout the year including  age appropriate productions for school groups throughout the year. There is a school residency program where children write and produce one act plays. There are also apprenticeship programs during the summer. One of the best known of their different programs  is the community theatre production which has been presented for the past eleven years during the summer season. Last year over 6,000 people attended performances of Mary Poppins. Over 120 children and adults from the community took part in the production in different capacities. They may be actors, musicians, backstage crew, ushers, supporting the productions in a variety of ways. Many return more than once. The positions are open to people from third grade through adult. The experience means a great deal  to the participants and involves them in the excitement and creativity of live theatre.

This year, the production is Beauty and the Beast which previews on August 11 and runs until August 19 at the beautiful Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. Bob and I were fortunate to interview the young people who are playing the title roles in Beauty and the Beast, Raymond White and Christy Coco.  To listen to the interview, click on the link below.

Interview with Beauty and the Beast

Berkshire Theatre Group

Barrington Stage Education Programs

Tim Pare and Jane O’Leary

As educators, as well as theatre goers, we know how important theatre can be for young people as they develop. The importance of the arts generally has been underrated by some educational policy makers. However, as we have interviewed theatre companies that  offer educational programs of different kinds to children and young adults,  we have seen how significant and important they are.  Having  heard generally  about the theatre programs Barrington Stage offers, we wanted more details. We were fortunate to interview Tim Pare and Jane O’Leary, the Director and Associate Director of the rich variety of programs available to young people in the Pittsfield and North Adams areas.  Tim and Jane provide an updated account of the programs, some of which are shown in  videos that were available on youtube.

Interview with Tim and Jane

 

Kids Act

 

Playwrights Mentoring Project

 

 

 

Action Theatre Conservatory

Our daughter-in-law, Maren is an actress, director and teacher. She has done all three at the Action Theatre Conservatory in Clifton New Jersey, as well as at other places. One of our fondest memories is when Maren directed the Scottish play, with the co-founders of Action Theatre Conservatory, Joel Robertson and Kathleen Kellaigh, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Our son Paul was Duncan and Macduff, our younger granddaughter, Marnie, who was ten or eleven at the time, played Macduff’s son and our older granddaughter, Kate, was the stage manager. The production was excellent.

Currently, Maren is being directed by Kathleen, in a production of Cabaret where she plays Fraulein Schneider. We are expecting rave reviews. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year we interviewed Maren about the Action Theatre Conservatory. The year before we interviewed Joel Robertson, who was in Kiss me Kate  at Barrington Stage about that production and about ATC.

Interview with Maren

Interview with Joel Robertson Part 1

Interview with Joel Robertson Part 2

 

Action Theatre Conservatory

A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Bennington College

Lysander and Hermia

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays and is performed widely. There are many different ways of approaching the play as is true with all Shakespeare’s plays. Besides theatre productions, Midsummer has been reimagined in ballet, opera, film and television.  The characters have appeared in paintings, children’s books, manga and graphic novels, as well as in literary and dramatic parodies such as Lords and Ladies and Shakespeare in Hollywood. 

The Bennington College Drama Department is offering a production of Midsummer at the Lester Martin Theatre on May 6,  7, and 8 at 8 pm. Bob and I had the pleasure of interviewing the play’s director, Jean Randich, Music Director Christopher Giannitti and Technical Director Michael Rancourt. After talking with them, we are excited to see this production.

We met on the set of the play which was quite impressive.  Here is a model of it.

 

Bennington College Midsummer Night’s Dream