Author Archives: Shakespeare

As You Like It – Actors’ Blog #8

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As You Like It Blog – Valparaiso University

Jen guards our exponentially expanding collection of luggage.

Jen guards our exponentially expanding collection of luggage.

Here we are in week 8 of our 11 week tour…still just about managing to squeeze our belongings into suitcases that fit the airline luggage allowance!

This week we were back in Indiana at Valparaiso University. When we left the mid-west, back in Feb, it had been a covered in snow and extremely cold…so it was a pleasant surprise on Monday, to find that the snow had largely melted and that Spring was starting to make its presence felt. Friday was so Spring-like that I even took the opportunity to take a running tour of the campus with Theatre student Chrissie. This would have been impossible a month ago without getting stuck in a snow drift. Now the only limitations were my speed and fitness levels.

This is the third time that “Valpo” has been host to AFTLS, and it was great to see this experience reflected in the diversity of the classes we attended. I spent Tuesday visiting a session in the Law department. Final year students had all written a personal paper on a particular legal angle in one of Shakespeare’s plays and the breadth of their research was fascinating. I lead various exercises encouraging them to explore the role of the audience in Merchant of Venice and especially enjoyed having them experience connection to an audience while standing in the middle of the room on a large wooden boardroom table…I recommend it to executives snoozing through meetings everywhere.

One of the great things about the American college system is the opportunity for studying such a range of subjects, and nowhere is this more the case than Valpo. I met so many students with dual majors across disciplines. Even those students following a single major in theatre will study design, acting, costume making, lighting design, stage management and so on. Many of the students acting or working in shows on campus are not majoring in theatre but are nonetheless making it an integral part of their college experience. We were very well looked after by a Kari-Anne and her team of students studying for a Masters in Arts Administration, many of whom had travelled from China to study the course in Valpo. I also spoke to a number of other students who were taking opportunities to study abroad during the course of their programmes, several of whom are off to Cambridge this Autumn. 

The Faculty responsible for teaching the broad range of classes on offer are of course multi-talented. I would love to have been able to attend the Tap class, taught by Ann (who also teaches costume design) and we spend Sunday admiring faculty member Alan Ernstein’s beautiful hand-made furniture (and amazing Black Bean Soup!).

Being back in our home state meant this week offered a lovely opportunity to catch up with familiar faces from earlier in the tour.  We had visits from colleagues at Notre Dame and also from Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer and Saturday night brought members from all three institutions together as we toasted the closing night of the show in Stacks…from the outside a seemingly humble office block but inside a terrific bar and restaurant full of books with an encyclopaedic drinks menu to match.

Next week we are staying put in Valpo (giving our suitcases another week to mysteriously expand!) as we will be working at Westville Correctional Facility a few miles down the road.

Westville Correctional Facility (Westville, Indiana)

Westville Correctional Facility (Westville, Indiana)

As You Like It – Actors’ Blog #7

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AFTLS hits Music City…

“Come, sing; and you that will not, hold your tongues” – Jaques, As You Like It

Yours truly (Joannah Tincey) blends in with the locals in Nashville.

Yours truly (Joannah Tincey) blends in with the locals in Nashville.

Ah, Nashville how we have loved thee! A brilliant week was had by all, as we dashed around, eager to sample the best that city could offer…and what a list! Monday was my birthday so we hit the Honkytonks (very subtly dressed) to give our dancing shoes free-reign. Tuesday we had a more sedate evening watching the brilliant Music City Doughboys at the Station Inn. I spent Friday wandering the streets of Downtown and visiting the museum of Country Music.

Since the age of about 4, I have been listening to country music, care of journeys in my day’s car.  When I got married last year,  Kenny Rogers’  ‘The Gambler’ was on our wedding play-list, mostly because it was one of the first songs I remember knowing all the words to. Kenny joined the Country Music Hall of Fame (in Nashville) last year and I was tickled pink to take a picture of his bronze plaque to email my dad back home.

Kenny Rogers preserved in Carbonite

Kenny Rogers preserved in Carbonite

In between all this, we had our classes and performances on the lovely Vanderbilt Campus.  The students of Vanderbilt are a talented and engaging bunch.  I spent time with Actors, Stage Managers and English students and all were readily able to turn their hand to anything I asked of them.

If a theme emerged for me this week, it was the power of story to create unity.  I worked with five students as part of their devising class on Tuesday and we explored varying approaches to story-telling and character, working as a collective group.  I spent Thursday looking at status in Shaw’s Pygmalion, a story which, by the end of the session, seemed to me to depict class as artifice, a game that belies the fact that under the social mask lies a collective humanity.

Vanderbilt's thrust stage allowed audience on three sides.

Vanderbilt’s thrust stage allowed audience on three sides.

It felt fitting then, that this week’s performance of As You Like it should be in thrust, placing us in the middle of our audience, enabling us to see faces and talk to them as if they were part of the stage itself. Jen even explored sitting with them while Celia recounted her tale of meeting Orlando.  And in fact Nashville as a city is a living testimony to the power of music and story to bring people together and give them a good time…

“You’ve got to capture an audience. You don’t go out there and just sing, or just play. If you can’t capture an audience, you might as well not be out there.” – Roy Cuff

Next week we are reunited with our home-state Indiana, as we play at Valpo University.  We’re looking forward to meeting the next set of students and faculty and also, hopefully, catching up with a few familiar faces from earlier tour weeks.

As You Like It – Actors’ Blog #6

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The ABCs of A&M: A is for Aggies; B is for Boots (and a Bat); C is for Cowboys

This week team AFTLS continued to work Texas-side with a week’s residency at Texas A&M (in College Station, Texas)…go Aggies!

bat-mexican-free-tailed-flight

We arrived just a week before Spring Break and were a bit apprehensive that this might cause a dip in audience numbers, especially towards the end of the week. We needn’t have worried. A&M traditionally has us booked for larger classes (150 students or so) and audiences at both the workshop sessions and the performances were excellent…on Friday we even had a Mexican Free-Tailed Bat visit the auditorium and stage to get in on some Arden action.

Large classes meant that we paired up for a few sessions this week, which was fun. It was also great to see the rhythm of the verse and the power of imagery and character engaging so many students at once. Our aim is to get as many students speaking Shakespeare as we can, which in large classes means lots of group work. Students were challenged to get on their feet and work together, and we were all impressed by the readiness with which they rose to the occasion. A 6′ 5″ strapping Silvius in army uniform, orchestrating a chorus of “…and I for Ganymede”…”and I for Rosalind”…”and I for no woman” was a highlight for me and Jen.

Jennifer Higham shows of her new country kicks.

Jennifer Higham shows of her new country kicks.

Also topping Jen’s week was the purchase of some truly amazing Cowboy (Girl?) boots…see picture.  Her love for these beauties is boundless. Dan has also purchased a rather stunning pair and together they made quite the dashing couple at Sunday’s visit to THE RODEEEOOOH! 

As Monday’s flight to Nashville was an early one, we headed back to Houston on Sunday to spend the night closer to the airport. As luck would have it, the Livestock Show and Rodeo was in town, so I accompanied Dan, Jen, and their boots to Reliant Park on Sunday afternoon, to see some real Cowboys (and some Mutton Busting kids!) in action.

Before leaving College Station, we had been given some Cowboy low-down by A&M student Emily who waited on our table at Fish Daddy’s on Saturday night. Her boyfriend, Sheldon, is a Team Roper, so at least I’d heard of one event when I looked at the program on Sunday! It was a terrific spectacle (I especially loved the Barrel Racing). I can’t really think of an English cultural equivalent, and it was brilliant to throw ourselves in to something so totally different…(“I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it!” Celia Act 2 Sc 4). I now understand that “Mutton Busting” involves small children riding/clinging on to sheep, and ‘Calf Wrestling’ involves catching/tethering/and penning a calf. 

Yours truly (Joannah Tincey) in my new rustler-style birthday suit.

Yours truly (Joannah Tincey) in my new rustler-style birthday suit.

While Dan and Jen looked every bit the part in boots and hats, I was certainly not under-dressed myself. My birthday on Monday provided the perfect excuse for an early celebration and I was duly dressed up in hat, plastic pistols and belt, beard and birthday badge. Just call me Davy Crockett from now on please.

As You Like It – Actors’ Blog #5

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“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed”
 — Neil Armstrong

NASA's Johnson Space Center

NASA’s Johnson Space Center

This week we escaped the cold weather and basked in the balmy climate of Houston, Texas. Rice University is a regular stop on the tour (both Dan and Jen have been before), so I’d been primed to expect a beautiful campus and great facilities and certainly wasn’t disappointed. The Wellness Center would be the envy of most top health clubs and boasted machines we’d never even seen before. It could almost tempt me to join a gym back home, but somehow I think my local leisure centre might pale in comparison. It was surreal to turn up at the airport in all our Indiana winter gear to be met by Christina in Capri pants and sandals. Our hotel even had an outdoor pool. I was too much of a wuss to try it as it was un-heated, but Rob was hardy enough to give it a go.

We had a great week of classes and the students were bright and game enough to try whatever we threw at them. A highlight for us all was Friday’s lunch and afternoon class with Dennis Hutson who kept us entertained for hours. In fact, I had the pleasure twice as I also attended his Wednesday class…where I was slightly taken aback to discover (after a brief discussion about accents and dialect in performance) not one, but two fellow Brits among the students – one was even a fellow Essex girl!

On Thursday, we had tea at Baker Master House with some other fellow Brits, Rose and Ivo and their gorgeous dogs Bronte and Baker (though Bronte’s cute demeanor masks a true huntswoman’s heart, squirrels beware!) There is a large British ex-pat community in Houston, served by ‘British Isles’ a shop in Rice Village selling British goodies (crunchie bars, tea and Bridgewater china) and run by the Uncle of one of Rob’s good friends from home…who is also friends with Rose and Ivo…the world is small really, but we still crave our home comforts.

I was thinking a lot about our relationship to places and objects on Friday morning when I taught a workshop on A Streetcar Named Desire as part of a module exploring the writing of New Orleans. Rob had been in and done some scene study with the students earlier in the week, so I decided to focus the workshop on the senses and the actors’/characters’ response to objects and place. It was a great and thought-provoking session where we journeyed not only to New Orleans but also France, Vermont, El Salvador, Indiana, and Wyoming.

Then, at the end of the week, we journeyed to the moon. Well, okay, not literally, but via a trip to NASA where Christina had kindly put us in touch with fellow actor H.R., who performs in regular shows at the Center (letting us see what life is like on-board the International Space Station – who knew they recycled urine into drinking water!). H.R., in turn, linked us in with Tour Guide Kevin, who gave us a completely amazing private tour of the Center…which included the chance to sit in Mission Control for the Apollo landings! To sit somewhere so steeped in history and stories was truly awe inspiring; there was the red phone to the pentagon, an ‘abort request’ button, and, perhaps most poignantly, a mirror used onboard Apollo 13 and donated to the Control Center by the astronauts onboard, in recognition of the work done to save their lives.

AFTLS actors in Houston's Johnson Space Center

Clockwise from top left: Jennifer Higham, Joannah Tincey, Dan Winter, and Patrick Miller take over NASA.

We rounded the week off sitting outside (in February!), eating Tex Mex, and drinking a Margarita or two before team As You Like It got ready to head to College Station and Texas A&M.

Over and out.

Last Chance — Sign up today to audition tomorrow!

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Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival LogoDear Actors,

With auditions tomorrow, you should be aware of one key difference between last year’s plans for the Young Company and this: this year all actors cast in the Young Company will have roles on stage with the Professional Company in Henry IV.

There are several reasons for this decision.  First and foremost, it’s a larger show, affording us an opportunity to grow.  Secondly, while I still firmly believe there is inestimable value in working on any crew for a professional production taking place right here on our campus at Notre Dame, it’s also clear that the opportunities to be on stage are what draw us as actors.  This summer’s production is tied directly to the history of your predecessors here at Notre Dame—and the play arguably includes some of Shakespeare’s greatest characters and writing.  They are very much worth your time.

Upon arriving in the summer of  2012, the Young Company was the first program of the Festival I was certain needed to continue.  I felt then as now that ND and St Mary’s students are strong, and able to compete with those from elsewhere, even among BFA students.  It has been our goal to increase the participation of our own students in the Festival.  It’s for this reason we recruited (and have engaged) West Hyler, a director with Broadway credits, who has assisted no less an internationally known director as Des MacAnuff (former Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival), and who regularly casts the international productions of Jersey Boys wherever it tours.

West Hyler Headshot

2014 Young Company Director West Hyler

Even if you are unsure about joining the summer Festival, DO NOT MISS THE CHANCE TO AUDITION FOR MR. HYLER.  I guarantee you will see his name again, be it in New York, Las Vegas, or around the world.

There are a few slots remaining, and you should e-mail DEB GASPER (dgasper@nd.edu) by 5pm TODAY to arrange your slot.  Even if your audition piece is not yet up to snuff, heck, even if you’re on book, don’t miss this chance.

See you tomorrow!

-Grant

Grant Mudge, Ryan Producing Artistic Director                                                                  Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival                                                                          Shakespeare at Notre Dame                                                                                              World Class Theatre. | Right Next Door.