Clarion Montana Shakespeare in the Parks
SEASONS
Spring/Summer 2012
Introducing the Summer 2012 Season!
“To be, or not to be. That is the question.”
Was not this love indeed?
- Act II, Scene IV
A ct 3 , s c e n e 1
Interview with the Directors
HAMLET
Bill Brown in The School for Wives, MSIP 1983.
Artistic Director Joel Jahnke in 1980.
Bill Brown Twelfth Night
Joel Jahnke Hamlet
Tell me about the period you have chosen to place Twelfth Night this year.
I call it Pirate time. It’s less about a decade and more about a feeling or a description that answers the question “where or what is Illyria?” I think it needs to have a carnival -type atmosphere and yet to be dangerous enough that it justifies Viola feeling the need to hide who she is by disguising herself as a man. It is a male dominated world of course, like most worlds are I guess. But there is a distinct social order…it’s the new world, somewhere in the Caribbean in the 17th or 18th century. And this new world has people in it that have “gone native’ and those who have retained their Englishness. I see Olivia and her father as very proper and on the other side of that, Sir Toby Belch, who is, well, wasting away in Margaritaville. He has relaxed all of his standards. I see Orsino as the Pirate King, Captain Morgan. And then of course, there is Malvolio, who refuses to go native, and becomes ultra-civilized. Think of how the British went to India and yet brought all of their
“civilized” traditions with them. Part of his transformation will be in him letting those tropical breezes blow. I want the audience to feel that here is a place where one senses danger, a risky place.
I was lucky enough to see your production of Twelfth Night produced at APT in Spring Green in 2004. At the time, I thought I would never need to see another production of Twelfth Night and now I am eagerly awaiting your next production this summer. What made you choose Twelfth Night again?
Well, first let me say that it is my favorite playI have always loved this play; and although I have been an actor for many years, I have never acted in it. And it took me a long time to get to directing this play. I had been a director for more than 10 years before I directed Twelfth Night for the first time. No matter how many times you direct a play, I doubt that you would ever get it absolutely right but to get a second shot—with different actors, in a different venue, with different designers and a new audience, is continued on page 2
Why this play for this year?
I wanted to do something special for our fortieth anniversary and what better way than this wonderful play? And after forty years, I thought it was probably time to produce Shakespeare’s greatest and best-known play. But, beyond that, I don’t think I was ready. I have directed it once about twenty years ago with students, many of whom went on to be SIP alumni and I knew even then that I would direct it again and I always hoped it would be for this company. Last summer, I realized that I had matured as a director, that I now could bring more to the table than twenty years ago and that we had matured as a company. I think of this production as marking an anniversary yes, but also a kind of coming of age for the excellent work we are doing at all levels. I also think our audience has earned it and is ready for it. Tell me about the time period for this production.
Well, I started in Denmark and wanted decadence since they keep saying things are so rotten there and that became my home
base. Prior to the play’s beginning, Hamlet is away at college and I had an image of this handsome young man in his prime with the world as his oyster but I hadn’t settled on when… then I saw Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris which is about a young modern writer who falls into a warp in time and is transported to Paris of the 1920’s and I knew I had found my time period. The illustrations of J.C. Leyendecker, which I discovered while conducting my research, sealed the deal. The costumes are gorgeous, stylish and classic in their own way and we will be using art deco elements in the scenery and props along with 20’s music. Like the 20’s, Hamlet starts with a party and things begin to decay pretty quickly. I want to show that visually and I have a wonderful design team ready to take this idea and run with it. Do you feel it is fair to say that Hamlet is arguably Shakespeare’s most famous work?
I don’t think that’s arguable.
Montana Shakespeare in the Parks is a theatrical outreach program of Montana State University-Bozeman. The Company’s mission is to bring quality, live theatre productions of Shakespeare and other classics to as many communities in Montana and vicinity as possible with an emphasis on small, under-served rural areas. All performances are free and open to the public. The Clarion is published annually. MSIP - P.O. Box 174120, Bozeman, MT 59717
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