By Steve Hendrickson. I was recently invited by Rake Magazine to be a guest blogger- sharing experiences and thoughts about Eurydice, the play I’m just about to open with the Ten Thousand Things Theater here in Minneapolis.
The blog is called Letters From Eurydice and can be found at http://www.rakemag.com/search/node/Letters+From+Eurydice+I
By Michelle Hensley, Artistic Director. So, I’ve directed six plays by Shakespeare now. They have all seemed to bring at least some measure of pleasure and delight to our audiences, be they prison inmates, homeless people or veteran theater-goers. The Star Tribune just declared that we do the best Shakespeare in the Twin Cities. That makes me think we’ve figured something out about how to do it. I wonder what it is we’ve figured out. The first time I ever directed Shakespeare was TTT’s Measure for Measure in 1998 – I had never even directed a Shakespeare scene in grad school (it wasn’t the best grad school). I was scared of attempting Shakespeare long before rehearsals began, during rehearsals, and before almost every performance – from our opening show at the Dorothy Day Center to our first performance ever at a men’s prison, the Ramsey County Men’s workhouse. Even with our most recent production of Richard III, though I felt much more confident going into rehearsals that somehow we could make it work – there were points where I was still scared out of my wits! And the thing that always scares me is THE STORY! It is one of the very hardest parts of directing Shakespeare – making the story CLEAR! Anyone who thinks you can just direct Shakespeare and let him take care of the storytelling all by himself is probably going to end up with a pretty bored and restless audience. Who is that guy who just walked on stage? What is everyone blathering about? What just happened? Why did that guy just make those other guys leave the stage, and where are they going? Who is that woman – how is she related to anyone else – where did she come from? Who are all those people that guy just rattled on about? Wait, why did that guy just get angry? What are they all blathering on about? These are the basic questions that go through the minds of anyone watching Shakespeare if you’re not careful. I don’t want my audiences to have to worry about not knowing the answers to those basic questions. And if you don’t know the answers to these basic questions you do worry. And then you get tired of worrying, so you just check out. You’ll disconnect and start wishing you were somewhere else. That’s usually what happens to me when I go to Shakespeare. I want my audiences to be free from worry! So they can do more fun things like identify with characters, engage with them, judge them, laugh at them, and think about their behavior and the story from all kinds of angles and perspectives– You can’t do those things if you’re worried about who is who and what people are saying and doing! So with every TTT Shakespeare show, an enormous amount of energy goes into making sure the story is clear. It’s my job one. It all sounds so basic — but it really isn’t so easy!
Richard III by William Shakespeare
As in Shakespeare’s times, an all-male cast explores the violence and destruction that stem from unbridled ambition. As in Shakespeare’s times, an all-male cast explores the violence and destruction that stem from unbridled ambition.
