August 1st 2011: Opening Night at Reed College!
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 12:00PM Dear Friends of Willamette Shakespeare,
Opening night is nearly upon us. This coming Friday, All's Well That Ends Well opens at Reed College's Cerf Amphitheatre in Portland. And once again we encourage you to bring a picnic or purchase one at the show. As always, wine will be available for purchase at all three locations. And, as always, the show is FREE.
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Nathan Wright as Lavatch rehearsing All's Well That Ends Well.
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Like anyone in the theatre, our cast and crew love to play for large audiences. We appreciate your contributions, but you can also help us by spreading the word about what we do. Bring friends to the show. Tell your neighbors. Repost our events on Facebook. In the last two years we have managed to bring free classical theatre to thousands of people. With your help, we can bring it to thousands more in this, our third year.
Thank you so much and see you at the show!
Daniel R Somerfield
Artistic Director
*** Spoiler alert: if you don't know the plot of All's Well that Ends Well and prefer to be surprised, don't read beyond this sentence!!! ***
All's Well That Ends Well is one of a number of Shakespeare's later plays often known as "problem comedies." There are many definitions of the term and many opinions about which plays do and do not qualify for this categorization. It is generally agreed, however, that "problem comedies" have conventional comic structure (hence the "comedy") but offer a more ethically or morally ambiguous view of the characters and situation (hence the "problem") than a conventional comedy.
It is worth noting that while today we think of comedy in terms of content (e.g., "is this funny?"), Elizabethan comedy had more to do with dramatic structure: a comedy was something that ends happily, or at least ostensibly so, with social order having been re-established. Humor was generally involved but was not necessarily the defining characteristic.
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Susan Jonsson (Countess) and Anna Gettles (Helena) rehearsing All's Well That Ends Well.
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All's Well That Ends Well certainly fits the broad definition of the problem comedy. By the end of the play, the loose ends are more or less tied up, and the leading man and woman are married, a requirement for a traditional comedy. However, the action of the play and its resolution are treated by the author with a degree of ambiguity. A number of questions are asked by the play, and the answers provided are not entirely satisfying if we are looking for everything to be tied up in a neat little bow.
* Is Helena's trickery justified?
* Do we think that her actions will ultimately lead to a stable and satisfying relationship with her new husband, Bertram?
* Has Bertram grown or learned anything?
* What the heck does Helena see in him anyway?
* Has the action of the play restored order?
Without definitive answers to these questions, the audience is left not knowing if they have experienced a happy ending or what conclusion the author wanted them to draw. One hopes these questions encourage the audience to think about the complexity of human behavior and to realize that people are rarely all good or all bad. In the end, the world rarely provides simple answers to complex questions.
We have a choice when we decide to perform a play such as this: we can gloss over the complexities and try to alter the spirit of the play to accommodate a more traditional comedy, or we can accept the nature of the play's ambiguities and draw them out, making for a more nuanced theatrical experience.
As you might guess, we aspire to the latter. One of the traditional frustrations with this play is that it lacks heroes and villains. Instead, Shakespeare chose to create each character as a realistic person with honor and treachery, wisdom and foolishness, combined. And doesn't that sound a whole lot more like the real world? And shouldn't we try to honor that?
To my way of thinking, THAT is what makes a problem comedy: a play composed of characters of such complexity that they are almost bursting out of the rigidity of form to the point that a new form is created. These plays can be challenging and sometimes frustrating to us because they defy the conventions that we are so completely trained to expect, but in the end they have so much more to say about the human condition than any conventionally structured comedy.
So, enjoy the comedy. Think about the message. My best hope is that, with our production, you will find the problems challenging and the comedy entertaining.
Daniel R Somerfield
Artistic Director
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Craig Currier as the King rehearsing All's Well That End Well.
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- Friday, August 5th: Rio con Bio
- Saturday, August 6th: Ben and Chris Fox
- Sunday, August 7th: Susan Jonsson & Reece Marshburn: A Salute to the Four Feisty Women of All's Well
- Friday, August 12th: Ben and Chris Fox
- Saturday, August 13th: The Frank Messina Band
- Sunday, August 14th: Roughly Hewn
- Friday, August 19th - Sunday August 21st: The Rendezvous String Band
If you want to participate in Willamette Shakespeare's season, there are a number of ways to do so. If you are an actor, we encourage you to attend our open auditions that we hold at the beginning of the year.
If you are interested in participating in the design or technical aspects of the production, please send a resume to daniel@willametteshakespeare.org. If you are not experienced in theatre on or off-stage but still would like to participate, there are other ways you can help. We always need volunteers as ushers, as house-managers, and for poster placement, etc.
And, of course, we welcome donations. We are committed to keeping the shows free, and we can't do that without help from people who can afford to make a contribution. Willamette Shakespeare is a 501(c)(3) public charity, and any contribution made to the organization is tax deductible and can be matched with the Oregon Cultural Trust for a tax credit. More information on contributing via check or online is available at our website.
Performances of All's Well That Ends Well will be Fridays and Saturdays at 7 PM and Sundays at 6 PM. Although food will be available for purchase, you are welcome to bring your own picnic. Local wines will be available for sale at all locations. Oregon Liquor Control Commission regulations do not permit audience members to bring their own alcohol.
- August 5th - 7th: Reed College Cerf Ampthitheatre, Portland, OR [map]
- August 12th - 14th: Stoller Vineyards, Dayton, OR [map]
- August 19th - 21st: Montinore Estates, Forest Grove, OR [map]
A number of other companies have shows coming up this summer. We encourage you to support Shakespeare in the Willamette Valley by attending as many of these shows as you can.
- 8/6 2 PM - George Rogers Park, Lake Oswego
- 8/14 1 PM - Gresham Plaza, Gresham
- 8/20 2 PM - Esther Short Park, Vancouver, WA
- 8/28 1 PM - Laurelhurst Park, Portland
- 8/6 7:00 PM - Maryhill in the Gorge
- 8/7 3:00 PM - Lynchwood Park, Gresham
- 8/13 - 8/14 3:00 PM - Washington Park
- 8/20 - 8/21 3:00 PM - Gabriel Park
- 8/27 3:00 PM - Marylhurst University
- 8/28 3:00 PM - Concordia University
- 9/3 - 9/5 3:00 PM - Reed College
Free
Varous parks around Portland
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