Season's Greetings from Willamette Shakespeare

The holidays are nearly here and although we are still more than half the year away from opening Much Ado About Nothing, there is a lot going on at Willamette Shakespeare. On the logistical side, we are gearing up for a Spring fund-raiser and finalizing performance locations and details.

On the creative side, we have lined up most of our design and technical team and continue to develop the production concept, edit the script, and organize auditions for January. Over the next few months, you will hear details on the upcoming season and meet our new production team.

Until then, we wish you and your families a joyful holiday season. Thank you for your continued support, and we will see you in 2012.

Daniel R Somerfield
Artistic Director

Auditions for Much Ado About Nothing

It's audition time again. We are going to be doing things a little differently this year. Rather than hold our own auditions, we will be participating in a joint audition with other Shakespeare companies from around the greater Portland area.

Sarah McGregor as Diana in All's Well That Ends Well

So, if you audition for us this year, you will also have the opportunity to audition for Post5, Portland Actor's Ensemble, OPS Fest, and Northwest Classical Theatre Company. Post5 has been kind enough to offer to host all the companies at the Mile Post 5 "Community for Creatives" in NE Portland on January 15th and 16th. We hope to see you there!

Audition Details
Milepost 5
900 NE 81st Ave
Portland, OR 97213

Sunday, January 15th     10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Monday, January 16th    4:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Please prepare 1 or 2 classical monologues. At least one piece should be from Shakespeare and at least one piece should be in blank or rhyming verse. The piece(s) should total no more than 3 minutes. You must be registered to attend.

For registration instructions and further details, please see the audition website at http://www.pdxshakespeare.com.

The Oregon Cultural Trust

The year is coming to a close, and as a supporter of the arts in Oregon, you have a unique opportunity to double down on your donations.

Chet Wilson, Anna Gettles, Nathan Dunkin, Jim Halliday and Phillip Berns in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Here's how it works: donate $50 to a Willamette Shakespeare or another participating arts and cultural organization. Then go to the Cultural Trust website. Donate $50 additional dollars to the Cultural Trust, matching your donation to Willamette Shakespeare. Come tax time, that $50 donation to the Cultural Trust comes back to you in the form of a credit on your Oregon taxes. Think of it as telling the State of Oregon to use some of its collected tax dollars to support the arts.

The money that goes into the Cultural Trust comes back to the arts community via direct grants and through the OCT's cultural partners. Many local theatre companies, including Willamette Shakespeare, have been supported directly or indirectly by the Cultural Trust.

We encourage you to start a holiday tradition of donating to the Oregon Cultural Trust and help the arts thrive in Oregon.
 

How You Can Help

If you want to participate in Willamette Shakespeare's upcoming season, there are a number of ways to do so.  If you are an actor, we encourage you to attend our open auditions at the beginning of the year.

Frank Woodman as Lafeu and Susan Jonsson as the Countess in All's Well That Ends Well

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.

Shakespeare Around Town

Just because Willamette Shakespeare is done for the season, doesn't mean there isn't Shakespeare to be seen in the area. We encourage you to attend the performances offered by the companies listed below.

Northwest Classical Theatre Company - Hamlet
Hamlet! A rare chance to see what many people consider to be Shakespeare's greatest work in the intimate Shoebox Theatre. Alana Byington directs.

Hamlet runs December 16th - January 22nd.

$20 Adults / $18 Students
The Shoebox Theatre
2110 SE 10th Ave
Portland

Portland Center Stage - Shakespeare's Amazing Cymbeline

PCS Artistic Director Chris Coleman's adaption of this lesser-known Romance will be performed in the intimate Ellyn Bye Studio.

January 31st - April 8th
$41 - $51 ($25 for students)

Ellyn Bye Studio
Gerding Theater at the Armory

128 NW 11th Ave

Portland

More Shakespeare to report? Email info@willametteshakespeare.org. We will add your show to our list.

Announcing Much Ado About Nothing

Dear Friends of Willamette Shakespeare,

With wine country harvest winding down (finally) and winter just around the corner, we are already starting to think about summer. Choosing a more obscure and difficult play like All's Well That Ends Well created an exciting challenge last year, but you can't do a problem comedy every year!

Susan Jonsson as the Countess and Anna Gettles as Helena in All's Well That Ends Well

This year, we have chosen to perform the popular crowd-pleaser Much Ado About Nothing. This wonderful play has remarkably accessible language and a straightforward story. It prominently features Beatrice and Benedick, arguably the most compelling romantic couple Shakespeare ever created. Skeptical and witty, they are contrasted with the youthful and naive Claudio and Hero, the youthful lovers whose trials drive much of the plot. Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's funniest comedies, largely because of the wit and folly of Beatrice and Benedick as they are coerced by their friends into discovering mutual love.

As always, we will approach the play with our distinct perspective, striving to create joyful theatre that is approachable and intelligent, and, of course, pairs nicely with a bottle of Willamette Valley wine and a picnic!

We loved all three locations last year, and all three hosts were excited to invited us back, so we again will perform the first three weekends in August at Reed College in Portland, Stoller Vineyards in Dayton and Montinore Estates in Forest Grove.

Again, performances will be free this year, and wine and food will be available at all locations. Stay tuned for details about next season, special events, fund-raisers and our upcoming auditions early next year.

Thank you for your continued interest in Willamette Shakespeare!

Daniel R Somerfield
Artistic Director

An invitation from our friends at the Portland Ballet:

The Portland Ballet (Nancy Davis, artistic director) will perform the world premiere of John Clifford’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, from November 25 – 27, 2011 at PSU’s Lincoln Hall, 1620 SW Park at Market. The production, with original costumes, set, lighting and Felix Mendelssohn’s music performed live by the PSU Orchestra (Ken Selden, conductor), has six performances only, immediately following Thanksgiving Day: Friday, November 25, 2:30 PM and 7:30 PM; Saturday and Sunday, November 26 and 27, 1 PM and 4 PM. Tickets for the one-hour ballet, range from $15 - $35, with family discount available, and can be purchased at www.theportlandballet.org, the PSU box office or TPB studio. Information: 503-452-8448.

The Portland Ballet has, for the past several years presented a holiday production with a twist: it wasn’t The Nutcracker and it wasn’t in December.

Yet, the charming ballet La Boutique Fantasque, which enjoyed box office and critical success from 2003 – 2010, fit a winter holiday theme since it’s all about wonderful toys that come to life in a magic toyshop.

This year, the company has added even more imaginative zest to its holiday production. Its Thanksgiving weekend performances will evoke the anything goes atmosphere of the leafy, mysterious, romantic and silly, cool of an August night when The Portland Ballet presents the world premiere of John Clifford’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Based on Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a timelessly popular tale of foolish fairies, mixed up humans, mischievous sprites and love-sick donkeys. It’s a comedic confection to delight the entire family.

The story, with its varieties of romance, fantasy and foolery, diaphanous gowns and shimmering fairy wings, is extremely well-suited to ballet. The irresistible scamp Robin Goodfellow, better known as Puck, was made to cavort across a dance stage.

For details, see http://www.theportlandballet.org/Performance/.

How You Can Help

Brian Allard as Parolles in All's Well That Ends Well

If you want to participate in Willamette Shakespeare's upcoming season, there are a number of ways to do so.  If you are an actor, we encourage you to attend our open auditions 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.

Shakespeare Around Town

Just because Willamette Shakespeare is done for the season, doesn't mean there isn't Shakespeare to be seen in the area. We encourage you to attend the performances offered by the companies listed below.

More Shakespeare to report? Email info@willametteshakespeare.org. We will add your show to our list.

Thank you!

Dear Friends of Willamette Shakespeare,

Our third season is over, and we would like to thank all of you who made it possible: the actors, the technical team, musicians, donors, volunteers, the board and, of course, our wonderful audiences. We averaged more than 200 people per show, and your donations were the most generous we have ever had.

Craig Currier, Sarah McGregor and Frank Woodman in All's Well That Ends Well.

Thank you, too, to our hosts, Reed College, Stoller Vineyards and Montinore Estate, for providing us with beautiful locations for us to perform.

Every year is a learning experience for us, organizationally and artistically. We experiment with format, content and production style to provide ever more engaging experiences to our audience. We want to know how we did, so I encourage you to email your comments or suggestions to info@willametteshakespeare.org.

Stay tuned for our 2012 season announcement and off-season events. They will be posted on our website, our Facebook page and in our newsletter. In the meantime, please try to attend other productions in the area. Summer is almost over, but there is still classical theatre to see in the greater Portland area. We will send out occasional updates over the course of the year to keep you up-to-date on all the Shakespeare productions we hear about.

Thank you and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Daniel R Somerfield
Artistic Director

How You Can Help

Brian Allard and Nathan Wright in All's Well That Ends Well.

If you want to participate in Willamette Shakespeare's upcoming 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.

 

Shakespeare Around Town

This was certainly the "Summer of Shakespeare," but just because summer is nearly over, doesn't mean that there aren't other shows to see.

More Shakespeare to report? Email info@willametteshakespeare.org. We will add your show to our list.

• Final Weekend of All's Well That Ends Well
• Rogue Gourmet Menu
• How You Can Help!
• Shakespeare Around Town

Dear Friends of Willamette Shakespeare,

This is truly Portland's Summer of Shakespeare. Even with a few shows having closed, someone wanting to spend a weekend with the Bard has plenty of options. Among them is our final weekend. Our first two weeks have been enormously successful: great wine, food, music and theatre have been fortuitously accompanied by lovely weather. The audience has responded. Attendance has already been exceeded 1300 people, and we hear that Montinore Estates is rolling out the red carpet for our closing weekend.

The King (Craig Currier) offers Diana (Sarah McGregor) a husband.

And so we move on to Forest Grove and can promise another weekend of great wine, food, music and theatre. And while I am reticent to promise great weather, it's looking good so far; The Weather Channel is promising highs in the 80s.

Rendezvous String Band will be on hand all three days at Montinore to provide pre-show music and Rogue Gourmet will be selling delicious picnicables. Of course, there will be wonderful wines from Montinore Estates.  As always, the show is completely free!

The show starts at 7 PM Friday and Saturday, 6 PM Sunday. Pre-show music begins one hour before curtain.

See you this weekend!

Daniel R Somerfield
Artistic Director

Anna Gettles as Helena

• Opening Night at Reed College
• What is a Problem Comedy?
• Music Schedule
• How You Can Help!
• 2011 Performance Dates and Locations
• Shakespeare Around Town

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.

Nathan Wright as Lavatch rehearsing All's Well That Ends Well.

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.

Susan Jonsson (Countess) and Anna Gettles (Helena) rehearsing All's Well That Ends Well.

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

Music Schedule

Willamette Shakespeare has teamed up with a number of area musicians to provide free music to complement our free classical theatre.  We encourage you to join us one hour before curtain and enjoy the music.  Check out our Facebook page for forthcoming descriptions of the musicians.

Craig Currier as the King rehearsing All's Well That End Well.

• 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

• An Interview with the Costumer
• An Offer from Bag&Baggage
• Seeking Volunteers
• 2011 Performance Dates and Locations
• Shakespeare Around Town

This season, Willamette Shakespeare hired young talent Clare Parker to design and build costumes for All's Well That Ends Well. Over the last couple of years, Clare has designed shows in Portland for Hand2Mouth Theater, Sojourn Theater and Portland Community College. She will be transferring to Southern Oregon University in the fall to resume her studies in costume design.

Clare Parker's rendering of the nurse in All's Well That Ends Well

WS: Can you tell us something about how you have been approaching the project? How is it similar to different from the approach you have taken on other projects?
Clare: This is the first Shakespeare play that I have ever designed costumes for, so how I have approached this project has been radically different from anything else I've done. I usually research what other designers have done for the play I am designing for, but since "All's Well That Ends Well" is not regularly set in the 30's and 40's there are not many images to refer to. Instead, I have relied heavily on the research and knowledge from other shows I have done set in the 30's and 40's.

WS: What makes design for Shakespeare easier or harder than for other playwrights?
Clare: When reading the script I found many indications of costume written into the dialogue. For example, referring to Parolles, "The soul of this man is in his clothes." From this we could tell that although Parolles may love his clothing, he may not have very good taste.

WS: How does the WWII setting of this production impact your design decisions? Did it provide any inspiration? Create any design challenges?

Clare:The 30's and 40's are two of my favorite eras for fashion. It was challenging, though, to translate some of the characters' looks from the original Shakespeare era to WWII. For example, what does a modern court jester wear? This dilemma inspired research on comics of the 30's and 40's which led me to the Marx Brothers, specifically Harpo Marx. This setting also inspired research on Madeleine Vionnet, an amazing dress maker of the era. Her designs inspired many of my dress designs for this show.

WS: Tell me how you found your way into costume design?
Clare: I have always loved making things. I taught myself how to sew when I was 10 and  discovered an interest for fashion history, especially the Renaissance. From there I got into costume design by accident. My High School theatre department needed a student costume designer, and I have been in love with costume design ever since!

See more images of Clare's costume here.

Shakespeare, Shakespeare everywhere! Our friends at Bag&Baggage have a Restoration comedy adaptation of The Tempest opening July 28, running weekends until August 13, and to sweeten the deal they are offering Willamette Shakespeare's mailing list subscribers a $5 off coupon for tickets! Just use the code WILLSHAKE5 when buying tickets online at www.bagnbaggage.org or when calling their box office at 503 345 9590! Check them out on Facebook to see some amazing photos of the crazy costumes!

Seeking Volunteers

Since we do not charge admission, we rely heavily on you to make each season a success. Among the most helpful ways you can contribute is by serving as a Willamette Shakespeare volunteer. At this point, we are looking for people who can help us serve as ushers and house managers, help us direct traffic and generally make the show experience an enjoyable one for our audience. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Karen Halliday, our volunteer coordinator, at volunteer@willametteshakespeare.org or 503-537-1926.

Clare Parker's rendering of the King in All's Well that Ends Well

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.

2011 Performance Dates and Locations

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 Estate, Forest Grove, OR [map]

 

Shakespeare Around Town

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.

OPS Fest - Twelfe Night

Ops Fest or the Original Practice Shakespeare Festival uses the first Folio and essentially no rehearsals. Actors learn roles and find out which one of a number of roles they will be playing the day before the show. Performances are faced-paced, energetic and lots of fun. Performances are free!

• 7/22 7 PM - Director Park
• 7/24 6 PM - Carolwood Park, Beaverton 7/30 2pm Gabriel Park
• 7/31 2 PM - Lents
• 8/14 1 PM - Gresham Plaza

Portland Actor's Ensemble - Much Ado About Nothing

Portland Actor's Ensemble has been performing in Portland-area parks for over 40 years. See http://www.portlandactors.com/ for more information. Performances are Free!

• 7/30 - 7/31 3:00 PM - Laurelhurst Park
• 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

June 16th - September 5th. See website for details.
Free
Varous parks around Portland

The Portland Shakespeare Project - As You Like It

Artistic directory Michael Mendelson and his new company will be presenting As You Like It this summer. As their mission statement states, the company is "dedicated to educating, enriching, and entertaining audiences by producing classical works and contemporary works associated with classical material."

Through August 7th.

Tickets are $28.

Artist's Repertory Theatre

1515 SW Morrison St. in Portland

Bag and Baggage - The Tempest

Bag & Baggage performs original adaptions of the Bard's work year round but takes up residence in the summer at the plaza of the Hillsboro's Civic Center. See http://www.bagnbaggage.org/ for more information.

July 28th - August 13th 7 PM

$14

Tom Hughes Civic Center Plaza, Hillsboro

E. Main St. between 1st and 2nd

Post5 Theatre - Romeo & Juliet

Post5 is the latest company to join the rapidly expanding Portland Shakespeare scene. They will be performing in the courtyard at the Milepost5 "community for creatives" in NE Portland. Performances are free!

August 5th - August 27th at 7 PM

Free

The Courtyard at Milepost5

900 NE 81st Ave in Portland

More Shakespeare to report? Email info@willametteshakespeare.org. We will add your show to our list.





• Willamette Shakespeare and the Cultural Trust
• Participating
• 2011 Performance Dates and Locations
• Shakespeare Around Town

Dear Friends of Willamette Shakespeare,

Oregon’s one-of-a-kind Cultural Trust program is a unique opportunity for taxpayers to make a statement about the importance of the art and cultural programs in our great state. As most of you know, the Trust allows Oregon taxpayers to match any donation they make to a qualifying cultural organization (there are over 1300, including Willamette Shakespeare) to the Trust for a tax credit. So, if you donate, $100 to Willamette Shakespeare and then donate $100 to the trust, you not only get a tax write-off for that original donation, when tax-time rolls around you get that second $100 back as a tax credit. And, your donation gets pushed right back into those arts organizations that you wanted to support in the first place.

Alex Yochim and Teresa Lawrence in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Right now, the Oregon Cultural Trust is pushing hard to reach an ambitious $630,000 June 30th fund-raising goal that would allow it to make a record $1.7 million in grants to Oregon non-profit cultural organizations. I encourage you to support this effort. Oregon can be a challenging place to run an arts organization. Municipal funding is rare, particularly in this era of cash-strapped governments, and the competition for private grants is extreme. Nonetheless, Oregonians continue to create art that entertains and educates. One need look only at the explosion of companies producing Shakespeare in the Portland area--often for free--to see this passion for arts in action.

If you have already donated to Willamette Shakespeare, you can make your matching Trust contribution right now and get it back on your 2011 Oregon taxes. If you have not, I hope you will consider doing so. Like the Cultural Trust, we are pushing toward a fund-raising goal by the time All’s Well That Ends Well opens in August at Reed College. Our spring fund-raiser was a success, but we still have a way to go to meet our goal. We are just days away from starting rehearsal and I am confident that we will be successful, but we need your help.

So, I ask you to contribute to Willamette Shakespeare and keep free classical theatre alive in the Willamette Valley. Match your contribution to the Trust and support cultural institutions across the state.

Thank you very much, 

Daniel R Somerfield
Artistic Director

Participating

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.

Meredith Ott as the First Fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream

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 are always on the lookout for people to volunteer 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.

• Editing Shakespeare's Text
• The New Website
• Participating
• 2011 Performance Dates and Locations
• Shakespeare Around Town

Rehearsals don't start for a few months and, at this point, my time is mostly dedicated to logistics and fund-raising. In addition, I have one responsibility directly related to preparing for the rehearsal process: editing the final script. I can just hear you saying, "Editing? The Bard's words? Why would you do that?" I'm so glad you asked.

When staging a modern dramatic work, the director generally knows what the script is: it's what's in the book. The director is encouraged, sometimes bound by copyright, to use the text as written.

All's Well That Ends Well from a replica of the First Folio.

Shakespeare is a little more complicated. There really are no definitive texts. Elizabethan authors lacked the copyright protection and publishing mechanisms of the modern day. As a result, we often don't know whether a particular text of a play is accurate or authentic. Some early editions of the plays were published while Shakespeare was alive, but many of those are thought to be compiled from the memories of actors and audience members who were on hand when the plays were performed. Later folios are often thought to be more accurate, but even that is controversial.

To add to the confusion, there are many editions since the folios that edit, modernize and combine previous texts with the objective of making the language easier to read, more suited for research or to meet the editor's conception of authenticity.

At the end of the day, however, the director needs to choose an existing text, or edit a new one, that will be suitable for the production that he or she envisions. That may mean not only picking and choosing between editions, but also making further modifications, such as cutting for time or audience comprehension.

It requires a lot of time and patience, but it is a crucial part of the process of producing Shakespeare's work. And, fortunately, it's something I enjoy doing. Yes, I am a Shakespeare text nerd and proud of it.

My editing decisions with All's Well That Ends Well are something of a departure from our first two seasons.  I decided to cut very little from the original source material in our first two productions. While this strategy worked just fine last year for the tersely written A Midsummer Night's Dream, our inaugural production of As You Like It ran a little long, clocking in at over two and half hours without an intermission.

This year, I started with the First Folio as our source. All's Well That Ends Well is a long play that I thought would strain the audience's attention. So, I took out the scissors and started cutting (well, figuratively speaking--all my editing is done on a computer). All in all, about 25% of the play ended up on the cutting room floor. The editing process was considerably more time consuming than in previous years, as I examined each line, even each word, as a candidate for removal. The criteria for evaluation were:

• Does it advance the story?
• Would it entertain our audience?
• Does it contain breath-taking language that sends shivers down my spine?

A teaser from the All's Well That Ends Well poster.

If the answer to all these questions was "no," the word, the line, and, yes, even the entire scene, was cut. I did not add any material, nor modernize the language, keeping the process well within the range of editing, rather than adaption.

Some people might find my willingness to remove the words of the Bard cavalier, or even heretical, but it is worth noting that almost every company producing one of Shakespeare's plays will go through a process similar to this. And the notion of creating an "authentic" experience by leaving the play untouched and unaltered ignores that the world has changed and the modern theatre-going experience has changed with it (thankfully).

So we try to use Shakespeare's wonderful words and relevant themes to say something about what the world is like now. Considering these plays were written over four centuries ago, it's always amazing to me how little the text needs to change to speak to modern audiences.

If you have an opinion about how we edit, or about editing in general, feel free to pop over to our Facebook page and let us know. And, if you are curious about where the text started and how it changed, let me know and I would be happy to send you a PDF with redlines, showing each deletion, modification and addition.

Daniel R Somerfield
Artistic Director

Last month we quietly rolled out a new website. We improved the site organization, adding more information and photos from previous shows. The site is still a work in progress, and we will continue improving the site, adding more information about the organization and providing more broadly useful information about Shakespeare. If you have any comments on the site, feel free to let us know.

Participating

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.

Nathan Dunkin as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream

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 are always on the lookout for people to volunteer 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.





Nathan Dunkin as Bottom in a A Midsummer Night's Dream

Daniel R Somerfield
Artistic Director

Participating

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.

Chet Wilson and Anna Gettles as Snug and Starveling in A Midsummer Night's Dream

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 are always on the lookout for people to volunteer 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.