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
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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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Hamlet continued from page 1
Twelfth Night continued from page 1
What about this play speaks to us now?
“I came to MSIP as a young actor just starting out and had a life changing, life enhancing, life altering, mind blowing tour.”
MSIP Associate Artistic Director Bill Brown
kind of delicious. I also have to say that when Joel had decided to direct Hamlet for the first time, I knew there could be no other companion play than Twelfth Night. What better season than to feature Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy with Shakespeare’s greatest comedy? Also, the first time I directed this play I used music by an amazing composer, Josh Schmidt, who also did some music for a production of Cymbeline that I directed. But for the past several years now, Andrew Hansen, has become not only my composer but also my artistic partner. From the moment I began talking to Andy about this project, he has been terribly excited about composing music for Twelfth Night because there are four very important songs in this play. Do you have any favorite characters in this play?
I would be honored to play any character in this play. And in all the years that I dreamed about acting in Twelfth Night it was never one specific character. Sometimes I would think about playing Orsino and sometimes Malvolio. Because the characters are all so iconic. They all have such a depth of humanity. I believe above all, they are all connected by desperate longing and are terrified of loneliness. The two women are mourning their dead brother and father and have to fend for themselves in a world that just isn’t particularly friendly to that. But because it is a comedy, it’s so extreme that everyone eventually makes a complete fool of themselves. But don’t you feel kind of sorry for Malvolio?
Well, let’s just say, that Malvolio was a jerk and you want him to get his comeuppance. But the punishment doesn’t really fit the crime, does it? It’s relentless. And perhaps we are left with as many lonely people as there are happy people. You started as an actor with MSIP in 1980. What does the MSIP 40th anniversary season mean to you?
It blows me away. I came to MSIP as a young actor just starting out and had a life changing, life enhancing, life altering, mind blowing tour. For the actor, it will forever change you—and I’ve now heard this from so many former MSIP actors, that I know it is true for everyone. And just as importantly, I think it has changed Montana and the surrounding areas that we have performed for over these 40 years. For many of these towns, I would venture to say most of them, Shakespeare in the Parks is still the day the circus comes to town. It has achieved a kind of legendary status—in my town (Chicago) there are now so many people that have worked for MSIP that are still friends and remain in contact that it is cult-like in the way the MSIP stories live on. Montana Shakespeare in the Parks is a singular experience for both the audience and the actor. And MSIP continues to raise the bar each summer by improving artistic values, the quality of the actors it is able to attract and in making new relationships wherever it goes. As the world becomes more technology driven, there are many that say “Theatre is dead.” No, not here. When I am in Montana, MSIP works on me like a tonic and reminds me why we do what we do. 40 years…it takes my breath away. Your stories are legendary. Will you tell me one of your favorite MSIP moments.
Well, I’m not sure whether this story has already crossed the line where truth becomes myth but here is The Cowboy Story. We were doing The Comedy of Errors and The School for Wives (1983) in Silver Gate. In those days, we would set up right against a giant mountain so you couldn’t really see the weather coming in. Well, we had just finished setting up the set and getting all the costumes and props
This play speaks to us on so many levels and with universal human themes that touch us so deeply, that it kind of speaks to all time and all people. That being said, I want to tell the story of a young man, struggling with becoming an adult, not certain of what his next move should be, driven by passion but unsure whether to act on it. I have three sons, one of which is about Hamlet’s age and I see him in Hamlet and Hamlet in him. It adds a personal touch for me and makes the play even more touching; heart wrenchingly at times. If that’s not a clear voice from the here and now, I don’t know what is. What is this play really about?
ready and just over the mountain comes this big storm. And everyone is running around in the rain trying to get everything covered up and all of the costumes are getting drenched. At the time, we didn’t have an official indoor site but someone said to take everything over to the Range Riders Lodge—I think it was a saloon that used to be an old whorehouse. So we got everything moved inside and it wasn’t very big but everyone went there and in the main room there was a pool table that since we couldn’t move, we decided to just make it part of the set. They told the actors to all go out back to the bunkhouse and that we could change into our costumes out there. We were doing The School for Wives that day, so my character’s costume consisted of a big velvet hat with a gigantic plume on it, a lace shirt, velvet breeches and a velvet jacket. I had just finished changing into all of my velvet and feathers, when in walks a cowboy. From the looks of him, he had no idea that I was in the theatre, or that we were doing a play in the Lodge. I would guess that he had never been to a play and I would say that he had had a few drinks. All he saw was this creature that was not like anything in his experience. As I looked into the mirror and tried to stumble through my words and explain that we were doing a play, he finally just raised his hand stopping me saying “It’s OK buddy, you just do what you need to do.” And turned and walked back out the door. MSIP actors talk a lot about how “taken care of” they feel with you as their director. What are some of the directing principles you use to make your company feel safe?
It’s safe to say that very few of us will get rich working in theatre. So if we are not going to enjoy rehearsing and designing and doing all of the other things that go in to creating a play, why do it at all? The joy of creating theatre is a completely communal event. We are all forced into a society, frequently with people we don’t know. As a director, it is my job to make sure that everyone feels at home. It has been said that I throw a rehearsal like I throw a party and I’ll take that compliment. You are very well known and respected as both and actor and a director. Is there one you like more than another?
I started out first as a journalist, then I wanted to be a singer, then an actor, then directing and now I am playwriting. I have now been an actor for 40 years and I have loved acting- it has been a good life for me. When I began to direct, all of the things that I had done leading up to that, there has been a use for all of them. As an actor, I was very concerned about the character I was playing. Some of the reasons I took joy in acting, not so much the applause for me, but I loved giving voice to a character, telling a story. As a director, I get to do that, harnessing all of the elements. Being a director allows me to use all of those muscles. And I love all of the details that go into producing a play—I even like tech rehearsals. As a director, I feel less helpless and I guess I like that. Being an actor is a very hard life and we should never forget that they are on the frontline, eight times a week, rarely knowing where their next job is coming from. With directing I’ve been able to have a little more control.
Well, the pat answer is revenge of course and inaction in extracting that revenge but as I said it’s really a young person’s story and journey. As such, it’s about the relationships that Hamlet struggles with throughout the play; with his mother, his uncle/stepfather, his girlfriend and her family, his supposed college pals, his trusted friend and the memory of his late father. That’s where the play lives for me; in those interpersonal entanglements that we all grapple with from time to time. The exciting part in this play is he wrestles with it in two hours. That’s awfully exciting and moving theatre in my opinion. What do you find most interesting in this play?
What I do find interesting, even fascinating, is that there are so many ways of looking at this play, each as valid and interesting as the next. Hamlet has been played by men and by women, stars and unknowns, teenagers and actors in their seventies. The play has been set in just about every time period you can think of and directors have looked at it from every imaginable angle and I’ll wager that in almost every go at it there was something that an audience found interesting. You can’t say that about just any play.
in Stratford once that went on for over four. The pubs closed before the curtain call! Now, while that was too long, I do find this play to be so beautifully crafted that each scene builds so perfectly with the one prior and sets us up for the climax to come. I will admit though it’s hard to beat that final scene. So many dead bodies in such a short time? Now there’s some action. Do you feel daunted by this play? How are you dealing with that?
I love to tell this story. I’m not a big fan of doing a lot of outside research but the first time I directed Hamlet, in 1990, I felt I should at least make an effort. It was Hamlet after all. I went to the MSU library and looked up Hamlet in the card catalog… yes, there were real cards, it was that long ago. Had I started reading that very day—just the materials that were available in the MSU library—I would still be reading them now. So I went back to my office and opened one book and in those pages I found everything I needed to know and then some. The book was Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by one William Shakespeare. I haven’t been daunted by this or any play since. The 40th anniversary for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks is this summer? How do you feel about that?
Wow! That about sums it up. If you had told me back in 1980 when I took over as artistic director that I would help celebrate the 40th anniversary I would not have believed you. However, after having worked here all these years and experienced the work of so many talented and committed theatre artists who worked so hard and believed so strongly that what they were doing was right and important and was truly making a difference in the lives of the wonderful people for whom they were performing, I am now not the least bit surprised. I think people can start planning for the 80th. What are three things you’d still like to do before you pass over the reins to a new artistic director?
Do you have a favorite character in the play? A high priority for me is to make the artistic director position into a full time, year Favorite scenes? Favorite quote?
Well, I love Hamlet but I also am drawn to the honest and tangible reality of all the characters. I know them all, it seems, and understand their motives and their emotions. Ophelia breaks my heart, so does Horatio. Claudius is less likeable but you do need a villain after all and he’s a good one. Yet I still understand his world and can almost relate to him… My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go. I feel for him at that moment. Gertrude takes us on quite the ride. It’s difficult not to be drawn into her tragedy as well. Polonius, Laertes, Grave Diggers, Osric, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, a ghost for God’s sake? Those are all my favorite characters in this play. Hard to choose in this one. Heck, I think Bernardo is a cool character. The same can be said of the scenes. The most difficult thing for me has been trying to keep this to two hours. I saw an uncut version
round position instead of one shared with academics. This company is going full tilt, full time and simply cannot continue with part time leadership. The last two years I have been able to arrange for some temporary relief for which I am eternally grateful but the time has come for a permanent long term solution and I hope to find one. I would also like to establish a stable funding source with a focus on long term commitments. This summer we are going to launch what we are calling the Artistic Director’s Circle with that very goal in mind. Anyone who wants more information need only ask me about it. Finally, I would like to really enjoy the last productions I will be directing for this company. I assure you this will be the easiest of these three goals. This company has meant the world to me and I have cherished the opportunities it has provided. I don’t want to waste a single second of the time I have left working and playing here.
Visit www.shakespeareintheparks.org 2012 MSIP Advisory Board
Staff
Rob Freistadt, MSIP Board President, teacher, business owner, Helena
Joel Jahnke, Artistic Director
Debbie and Dave Lyman, Community volunteers, Heron
Kathy Jahnke, Director of Community Relations
Jean Dahlman, Retired Director, Literacy Council, rancher, Forsyth
Susan Dickerson, Director of Educational Programs
Dick Kuntz, Retired Assistant Superintendent of Public Schools 6-12, Great Falls
Lila Michael, Office Manager
Chuck Tooley, Former mayor, business owner, Billings Chuck Jensen, VP, Administration and Finance, Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell Elise Donohue, Rancher, Clyde Park Alex Heyneman, Rancher, Absarokee Art Wittich, attorney, Senator, Bozeman Contessa Birky, Store Team Leader,Target, Bozeman Christian Piper, Store Team Leader, Target, Helena Dave Haas, Retired Associate Dean of U of WY Outreach School, Powell, WY
William Brown, Associate Artistic Director
Stephany Flakker, Business Manager Consultant, Micki Hobson Graphic Design, Robert Rath Website Design, J-Tech Communications
For more information: Montana Shakespeare in the Parks PO Box 174120 Bozeman MT 59717-4120 www.shakespeareintheparks.org
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From 1973...2012 40 years of Free…Every Summer
1974
1975
1973
1976
The Merchant of Venice, MSIP 1974. Poker Jim Butte, Birney, MT.
There’s a time for all things. ~ The Comedy of Errors, Act II, Scene 2. Dr. Bruce Jacobsen has a “thought” over dinner with friends, that an outdoor travelling Shakespearean theater company in Montana might be a great idea!
1980
Founder Bruce Jacobsen in The Devil’s Disciple.
12 performances , 7 cities, Shakespearean Scenes only, 1,300 attendance.
1988
1989
And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. ~Twelfth Night, Act V, Scene 1. Joel Jahnke becomes Artistic Director William Brown’s first season in the acting company. 41 performances, 35 cities, 2 full productions/ 15,000 attendance.
1993
MSIP’s production of The Rivals. Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. ~ Othello, Act II, Scene 3.
1990
MSIP is awarded the Governor’s Award for the Arts (1991) William Brown directs for the first time.
The Miser, MSIP Summer 1989.
Montana Shakespeare in the Schools was founded. MSIP celebrates 1,000th performance in Helena. 58 performances, 44 cities, 22,000 attendance. (1991)
2002
2008
Much Ado About Nothing on the Hannon Hall Lawn.
2004
MSIP’s production of Henry IV, Part 1. Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. ~ Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3. Following a record for attendance and donations in 2007, MSIP struggles along with the rest of the country due to a downturn in the economy. MSIP celebrates 2,000th performance in Plains. Summer tour is increased by one week.
Moliere’s Tartuffe, Summer 2004.
MONTANA SHAKES! elementary schools outreach tour begins with 18 schools. 74 performances, 57 cities, 24,584 attendance.
2011
2012
2010
MSIP’s production of Julius Caesar. Yet do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong, My love shall in my verse ever live young. ~ Sonnet XIX MSIP will celebrate its 40th anniversary producing Hamlet for the 1st time. Associate Artistic Director, William Brown will direct Shakespeare’s classic comedy Twelfth Night.
The Merchant of Venice, directed by Will Dickerson. 76 performances, 5 states, 59 cities, expected attendance 30,000+
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Courtney Jones Mark Kuntz
Tyler Rich
Christopher Peltier
2012 Acting Company Nile Hawver
Carley Cornelius
Jose Nateras
Eliza Stoughton Greg Wall
Steve Peebles
From the Artistic Director Dear Friends, Somewhere early in 1973, a creative seed was planted by Bruce Jacobsen, my predecessor and the founder of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. The idea literally came to him over a dinner conversation. That summer, a rag tag group of students, faculty and community members put together a production featuring Shakespearean scenes and performed it 12 times in seven cities. Their stage was a small wooden platform with a muslin banner that read simply, “Shakespeare in the Parks”. The total audience that summer, which they attracted by walking through town beating a drum, was 1,300. They were brave, they were hardy, no one was paid a dime and not one of them cared. They were bringing Shakespeare directly to people who otherwise would be denied the experience and they were having a ball doing it. That summer the seed blossomed into a beautiful flower, small but full of promise. For the last 39 years, hundreds of actors, directors, designers, technicians, and administrative staff have taken their turn watering, pruning and tending; encouraging that plant to grow and, oh my, look how stunning it has become! Our little flower is now a brilliant, unique, glorious garden with plants and blossoms galore; as beautiful as the land in which it grows and flourishes. This summer we will celebrate our fortieth anniversary season and I do mean celebrate. The season will include Twelfth Night, arguably Shakespeare’s finest comedy, directed by our Associate Artistic Director William Brown and, for the first time in our history, Hamlet, which is, in my humble opinion, Shakespeare’s finest work and maybe the best play ever written. We have
once again assembled a wonderful cast and crew who will work their shift tending the garden and we hope that you will join us for this season’s offering. We are planning many special events to commemorate our anniversary throughout the summer and I hope they will entice you to catch both of these two special productions. If you can, bring a friend, one who hasn’t ever experienced an evening with Shakespeare under the summer sky. And as you watch this summer, take a moment to reflect on what we have all built together. Take time to smell the roses. Celebrate. We have all made a contribution and it feels wonderful to realize what we have grown. I am so proud of this company, of the multitude of talented people who have worked for us over these many years and of all the things it has become. But I think the thing that pleases me the most is that, in spirit, it hasn’t really changed from what it was that first season. At its core, it’s still a group of committed and talented artists, bringing Shakespeare directly to audiences who otherwise wouldn’t have it. They perform in the most beautiful venues you can imagine and have the time of their lives doing it. No one has ever done this tour and walked away unchanged. And we hope that we have changed and enriched your lives with our performances. I think Bruce would have been very proud. See you this summer. Let’s celebrate.
“There’s Rosemary, that’s for Remembrance” -Hamlet
Joel Jahnke Artistic Director
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Shakespeare in the Schools Shakespeare in the Schools 2012 Macbeth “Something wicked this way comes.” Get ready for Macbeth, Shakespeare in the Schools’ 20th Anniversary production. Directed by veteran MSIP actor and Chicago director, Kevin Fox, Macbeth explores what happens when ambition runs amok. Shakespeare in the Schools will tour from October 12–December 21, 2012. Four engaging and relevant workshops will accompany the 75-minute production.
never seen all the students so attentive in an assembly before this!” MONTANA SHAKES! will hit the road again with a brand new play and workshops from March 18 – May 17, 2013, and booking is already underway. For more information on either of the educational programs, or to reserve a date for your school or organization, contact Susan Dickerson at 406.994.3303 or at susan@ montana.edu.
MONTANA SHAKES! And so should you!
Eliza Stoughton in the 2011 fall tour of As You Like It.
MONTANA SHAKES! introduces young people to Shakespeare in a funny and accessible way. In the spring of 2012, 45 elementary schools across Montana and Wyoming received All the West’s a Stage: Good Knight, Sweet Prince, Great King! and workshops, and the response has been tremendous. “MONTANA SHAKES! is awesome! I have
SIS Patron Elise Donohue and MSIP Artistic Director Joel Jahnke at The 2011 Elise Event.
11th Annual Elise Event Mark your calendars for the 11th Annual Elise Event on Thursday, November 8. Named in honor of Shakespeare in the Schools patron, Elise Donohue, the Elise Event supports Shakespeare in the Schools’ efforts to keep Shakespeare alive in Montana and Wyoming schools. Held at the Black Box Theater on MSU’s campus, the Elise Event will feature a 75-minute performance of Macbeth followed by a talk back with the actors, artistic director, and designers. The evening concludes with time for the audience and the artists to mingle during a hosted wine and appetizer reception. Tickets are $40 each and are available by calling 406.994.3310.
Audience participation is a big part of MONTANA SHAKES!
Kids’ Lives in Elizabethan England
If you’re a kid, you know it. Kids’ lives are never easy: you don’t make all your own decisions, you can’t drive a car, and you often don’t even get to choose what you eat! But chances are that if you’re a kid who was born in the last fifteen years and lives in the United States, your life is a whole lot easier than it would be if you were a kid living in England in Shakespeare’s time. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, a time known as the Elizabethan Era. (All Elizabeth’s reading this article, give yourselves a high five. You have an Era.) This period lasted from 1558-1603. To give you an idea of what your life might have been like if you were a middle class child in Elizabethan England, here is a comparison schedule. This is what two kids’ schedules might have looked like on June 20, 2012 in Montana and June 20, 1600 in England. Assume that the Elizabethan kid is a boy, because only boys were allowed to go to school. Girls’ schooling usually took place at home, if at all!
Time
Montana Kid: 6/20/2012
Elizabethan Kid: 6/20/1600
6am
ZZZZ – sleep in! It’s summer vacation after all!
Arrive at school for the days’ lessons. Really.
9am
Good morning! Breakfast time! Eggs, waffles, toast, pop-tarts? The world’s your oyster (Shakespeare made that up)!
Not so many choices. Breakfast was a plain meal, and usually consisted of porridge (like oatmeal) and milk.
11am-1pm
Playtime! Maybe you can meet up with some neighbors, maybe you’re playing outside, maybe it’s time for video games. So many choices, so little time.
Back to your studies. Be careful you do well. Elizabethan teachers didn’t hesitate to beat students when they thought it would help them learn their lessons.
1pm
Lunch! Once again, lots of choices! Grilled cheese, carrots and oranges sounds delicious! You generally eat a pretty balanced diet made up of grains, fruits, vegetables, and meat (unless you’re a vegetarian).You’ve also got every kind of utensil you could ever want.
Lunchtime here is called “dinner”, consisted of bread and, depending on how wealthy your family was, a lot of root vegetables (turnips, carrots, etc.) which were cheap, or possibly some meat. Everyone had their own knife, but forks weren’t introduced to the Elizabethans til later. Spoons weren’t needed, because liquid food, like soup, was drunk from a cup. And watch out for scurvy! Elizabethan English generally did not get enough Vitamin C .
2-5pm
More playtime! Or possibly lessons in swimming, tae kwon do, piano, dance, theatre. Isn’t life wonderful?
Back to school. You’re probably studying Latin and working on arithmetic, et cetera*.
5pm
Dinner with the family where you can tell them about all your adventures today. You might have to follow these rules, depending on your family: • No screens at the table. • Use a napkin. • Use ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. • Don’t chew with your mouth open.
School’s out! Dinner with the family where you must follow these rules, among others: • Sup not loud of thy pottage. • Belch near no man’s face with corrupt fumiosity. • Corrupt not thy lips with eating, as a pig doth. • Blow not your nose in the napkin where ye wipe your hand. ~Book of Nurture, John Rhodes, 1577
6-8pm
Help clean up the dinner table, read a book, watch some TV.
Go to the local tavern courtyard, and catch a performance by the traveling acting group that just came into town. They’re doing Hamlet tonight, that new play by Shakespeare! Leave early because you can’t stay for the three and a half hour uncut version.
8pm
Go see the opening night of Hamlet at the MSU Grove in Bozeman with your family, and meet your friends there.
Go to bed. Elizabethans’ hours were more dictated by daylight so they woke up earlier and went to bed earlier.
*et cetera is Latin for “and other things”. You might know this already, but you definitely would know it if you were an Elizabethan schoolboy!
Students play the ‘Popinjay’ and King from Henry IV, Part I.
The actors and the program were the antithesis of intimidating. They make themselves and Shakespeare very approachable. ~Teacher, Morning Star School
And the winner is...
Congratulations to the winner of our Shakespeare in the Schools “Seven Ages of ___” Contest, Alexis Carrier of Manhattan High School. In As You Like It, Jaques pontificates on the “Seven Ages of Man” in his speech that begins, “All the world’s a stage…”.
We asked middle and high school students across Montana and Wyoming to create a piece of art: written, visual, or performed that reviewed the “Seven Ages of ____”. We were impressed with the variety of entries we received, ranging from “The Seven Ages of Clogging” to the “Seven Ages of a Swan”. But Alexis’ original piano composition entitled “The Seven Ages of Grief I Hold” took the cake. Please make a point to visit: http://www.shakespeareintheparks.org/ montana-shakespeare-in-the-schools.php and give her piece a listen. We think you’ll agree that this is one incredibly talented young lady.
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Rotten in Denmark Hamlet by Mark Robert Blackmon
H
amlet. Almost universally hailed as the greatest play ever written. In any language. By any playwright. In any time period. That’s pretty heady stuff for a play that begins with the straight man’s line from every childhood “Knock, Knock” joke: “Who’s there?” But, with those two little words, Shakespeare sets a tone; creates a mood of anxiety and apprehension that frames the action of the rest of the play. Writing about Hamlet is a bit of an exercise in folly. There’s no profound 1,000-word synopsis of this play. It’s too deep, too profound, too astonishingly human for that. Probably the best quick summary was written by Voltaire, whose assessment I paraphrase here: first we see a ghost, then Hamlet goes a bit mad, then his mistress does the same, then Hamlet kills her father, then she drowns, then there’s a lot more killing and meanwhile, another actor conquers Poland. Another critic, Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, sums up Hamlet this way: “a sad, screwed up type guy.” Here’s one more voice you need to hear. This is from Norrie Epstein, who writes in The Friendly Shakespeare, “Even if you’ve never seen or read the play before, you probably
still have a vague notion of what it’s about. Nevertheless, try to approach it fresh, without interpreting or analyzing it. Don’t try to insist upon any meaning. Let the play contradict and frustrate you; follow it as it unfolds and changes from one scene to the next.” I wish I had thought of that. That’s terrific advice. It’s awfully hard to be rigid about interpreting Hamlet. And while we’ve all heard that horrible onion-peeling metaphor two or three times too many, it’s quite apt when you think about the character of Hamlet. With each scene, with each operatic soliloquy, with each turn of phrase and plot, we peel away another thin layer to reveal a new truth for a character that we may have thought we already knew. And then, we come to those words. Even if you’ve never seen or read Hamlet, you know those famous turns of phrase that pepper practically every page. “To thine own self be true,” “what a piece of work is man,” “the whips and scorns of time,” “the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns,” “there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” “there’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance,” “the cat will mew and dog will have his day,”
“a little more than kin and less than kind,” “the primrose path,” “alas, poor Yorick,” “get thee to a nunnery,” “so runs the world away.” Then, of course, we mustn’t forget what is thought to be the most-quoted passage in the English language: Hamlet, Act I, Scene III, lines 55 through 87. It’s that passage that begins like this: “To be, or not to be — that is the question.” Studying this soliloquy, one realizes that this may well be our language at its zenith. This glover’s son from a small Warwickshire market town hard by the River Avon, has written these soaring words for this melancholy soul as he contemplates his existence, ponders life and death, and “the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” It is singularly about Hamlet, but it also strikes chords so universal that it reflects achingly in every one of us. Hamlet is an intriguing case for those who study this stuff. In Shakespeare’s day, plays were expected to follow Aristotle’s advice in Poetics that drama should focus on action rather than character but in Hamlet, Shakespeare seems to deliberately thumb his nose at that convention and thus it is that through the soliloquies — and not the action — we learn what motivates Hamlet.
After we’ve been gripped by the twists and turns of this drama and we find ourselves hurtling toward the play’s inevitable final tragic scene, we understand that we can do nothing but watch in expectant dread. The die has been cast. There can be only one outcome. Shakespeare ties all of the seemingly errant plotlines and everyone’s fates together in the thrusts and parries of the foils of Hamlet and Laertes. Soon, Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes join Ophelia, Polonius, and Old King Hamlet in death. Hamlet, too, succumbs, speaking those extraordinary words right up until the very moment of death. “Good night, sweet prince,” Horatio so famously says in requiem over Hamlet’s body, “and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” Horatio is left behind to tell Hamlet’s story and we are left with a deep and abiding sadness. So..., Hamlet. The greatest play ever written? In any language? By any playwright? In any time period? Yes. Mark Robert Blackmon is a playwright and Director of Media Relations at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.
Costume Designer Claudia Boddy’s sketches for the Twelfth Night characters.
What You Will
Twelfth Night by Mark Robert Blackmon If music be the food of love, play on.
W
ith that famous opening line, Shakespeare begins this merry, madcap romp through the confounding, perplexing, funny and moving world of love. Played out as a masterful concertato that layers harmonies, changes keys with diabolical cleverness, doubles back, and ends with a flourish, a few surprising arpeggios and a final crowning grace note, Twelfth Night is a delicious, decadent, exquisite feast. Written around 1601, Twelfth Night refers to the sixth of January. You may know that date as the Feast of the Epiphany. For those more interested in partridges and pear trees, it’s also known as the Twelfth Day of Christmas. The Feast of the Epiphany was an extremely important date on the calendars of Shakespeare’s time. During the Renaissance it was often celebrated with a carnival atmosphere and with Twelfth Night festivities where the normal rules of life were abandoned or simply inverted. In fact, during this time the Feast of Fools, a festival in which the lesser clerics dressed as superior clergy to ridicule and mock church practices and where servants parodied masters in a widely accepted burlesque, was closely associated with Twelfth Night. It is in just such a spirit that Shakespeare transforms a shipwrecked young woman, Viola, into the male page, Cesario, and sets in motion
a masquerade wherein social conventions are mocked and flaunted and class lines are breached. Aristocrats fall in love with servants. Servants fall in love with aristocrats. Fraternal twins appear identical. Girls become boys. Love at first sight is the order of the day. And the wisest person around is the Fool. Shakespeare places Twelfth Night in Illyria, an ancient land on the eastern shore of the Adriatic, and transforms it, in Harold Bloom’s brilliant phrase, into “a madcap Elysium” where everything is lovely, no one seems to work, and everyone has marvelously witty – if uninformed and often preposterous – things to say to one another. While there is some suggestion that the play was actually first performed on Twelfth Night, the first performance we have a record of is one in Middle Temple Hall on Candlemas Night — the close of the Epiphany season — on February 2, 1602. A law student, John Manningham, noted in his diary that, “we had a play called Twelve Night, or What You Will, much like The Comedy of Errors or Menaechmi in Plautus … A good practice in it to make the steward believe his lady-widow was in love with him, by counterfeiting a letter as from his lady, in general term telling him what she liked best in him and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparel, etc. and then, when he came to practice, making him believe they took him for mad.” (He really liked the Malvolio story, it seems!)
Manningham also notes the interesting dimension that is added to the play when a male actor, playing a female character, disguises “herself ” as a man. That’s because the innate structure of Elizabethan theatre where women were not allowed on the stage, adds to the curious paradox that occurs when Shakespeare invites the audience to participate in a collective act of imagining then actually never allows his audience to forget that they are, in fact, watching a play. The very nature of Twelfth Night explores sexual attraction and gender identity and other terms that Shakespeare would not have known. Still, having a man play a female role enhanced a sense of androgyny and sexual ambiguity, a dimension that was lost after 1660, when women were allowed on the stages in England. (Though in 2002, at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, artistic director Mark Rylance played Olivia in an “original practices” 400th anniversary production that restored the “double cross-dress” to wild acclaim.) Well, anyway, no sense getting deep and philosophical. Isn’t it the carnival atmosphere and the zany yet idyllic nature of Twelfth Night that inspires us to come back to this show again
and again? After all, within the context of this screwball world, the decisions that the characters make in the moment seem rational and sane to them. They are simply moving their lives forward – by any means necessary, it seems – to achieve a resolution; preferably a happy one. Shakespeare was a sneaky old devil. He brings his audience into the action by allowing them to have information before the characters themselves do; a generous act that allowed the mostly-uneducated Elizabethan audience a fleeting superiority, in the spirit of the Feast of Fools, to the clueless gentlefolk on the stage. Some may tell you that it’s a veritable triumph of dramatic irony, but for those of us less inclined to stuff and nonsense, it simply means that the perpetually dissatisfied Malvolio, the irresponsible Sir Toby Belch, the faint hearted Sir Andrew Aguecheek, the vainglorious Duke Orsino and all the rest are just riotously funny. The Bard seems to be telling us that there is no right or wrong, no black or white. What’s up may be down; what’s long is short. Whatever. Do with that, he’s saying, what you will. Just enjoy the ride. I think Oscar Wilde summed it up best. “Where there is no illusion, there is no Illyria.”
Visit www.shakespeareintheparks.org
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Page 7
2012 Tour Sponsors
Subaru of America Renews its Support of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks
M
ontana Shakespeare in the Parks is proud to announce that Subaru of America has renewed its support of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and will be the official Presenting Sponsor of the 40th Anniversary Summer Season. Zone Director of Subaru’s Northwest Region, Jim Pernas attests, “Subaru is proud of our involvement in Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. Subaru owners LOVE the arts and LOVE the great outdoors, so this is a natural fit for us. Plus, we have a special affection for the Jim Pernas, beautiful state of Montana and its people who have always embraced Subaru of America our vehicles.” MSIP operates through a diverse structure of funding that includes sponsorship fees, grants, individual donations and corporate sponsorships. Each funding source is critical in supporting our mission to bring quality, live theatrical productions of Shakespeare’s plays to communities, with an emphasis on underserved rural areas in a five state region, at no cost to audience members. Subaru was the company’s major corporate sponsor from 1996 – 2004 and we welcome them back and look forward to a rewarding and ongoing partnership.
The
Gilhousen Family Foundation
2012 Tour Coordinators Dillon
Cut Bank
Deborah Henningsen, UM Western
Virginia Harman, Cut Bank Area Chamber of Commerce
Big Timber
Ft. Benton
Kathy Agnew, Community of Big Timber
Karyn Giles, Friends of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks
Hobson
Choteau
Pat Hodge, Hobson-Utica Fine Arts Council
Pamela Wedum, Choteau Community Arts Studio
Lewistown
Deer Lodge
Nadine Robertson, Lewistown Art Center
Julia Brewer, Powell County Museum & Arts Foundation
Forsyth
Boulder
Susan Wolfe, Friends of Shakespeare
Karen Davidson, Boulder Arts Council
Sidney
Helena
Benjamin Clark, MonDak Heritage Center
Mary Lee Larison, Shakespeare in the Parks of Helena
THE ARTS
Beach, ND
Philipsburg
Wade Walworth, Prairie West Development
Janice Gross, Flint Creek Valley Arts Council
Wolf Point
St. Ignatius
Mike MacDonald, Wolf Point Shakespeare in the Park
Ben Ferencz, Community of St. Ignatius
Glendive
Plains
ENRICH OUR LIVES.
Ryan Sokoloski, Makoshika State Park
Louise Lulack, Plains Woman’s Club
Ekalaka
Heron
Carole Carey, Artists of the Prairie
Debbie Lyman, Heron Area Friends of Shakespeare
Miles City
Libby
Karla Elder, American Assoc. of University Women
Cathy Ann Jenkins, Libby Rotary Club
Birney
Denise Wood, Friends of Shakespeare Colstrip
Rick Harbin, Western Energy, PPL Montana and First Interstate Bank Sheridan, WY
Is your portfolio designed to do the same?
Eureka
At Edward Jones, we spend time getting to know your goals so we can help you reach them. To learn why Kalispell Chuck Jensen, FVCC Student Governmentit makes sense to talk with Edward Jones about your savings and investing strategies, schedule a no-cost, and Theater Dept. no-obligation portfolio review. Superior Rita Collins, Sunburst Foundation
Richard Davis, Tandem Productions
Jim Goss, Mineral County Performing Arts Council
Billings
Seeley Lake
Melonie Trang, City of Billings- PRPL
Scott Milner, Alpine Artisans Inc./2 Valleys Stage Liberty Lake, WA
Jim Hamilton
Janie Morissette, Friends of Shakespeare in the Parks
Laura Frank, Friends of Pavillion Park
Financial Advisor .
Worland, WY
Charlo
Cheryl Reichert, Washakie Museum
Caroline Myhre, Ninepipe Arts Group N.A.G.
Roundup
Missoula
1800 W Koch Suite 10 Bozeman, MT 59715 406-587-5457
Bill Milton, Musselshell Valley Com. Foun. A&C Comm.
Mary Lester, The University of Montana, University Center
Sue Logan, Carbon County Arts Guild
Hamilton
Powell, WY
Denise Rose, Hamiton Players
Steve Schrepferman, Park County Arts Council
Salmon, ID
Cody, WY
Mary Hogue-Cerise, Salmon Arts Council
Steve Schrepferman, Park County Arts Council
Butte
Absarokee
George Everett, Mainstreet Uptown Butte
Shirley Schatz, Absaroka Fine Arts
Manhattan
Columbus
Robert M. Smith, Friends of Stillwater County Library
Tammy Machowicz-Olsztyn, Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce
Cooke City/Silver Gate
Anaconda
Heidi Barrett, Residents of Silver Gate & Cooke City Gardiner
John Gribas, Pocatello Arts Council & ISU Summer Programs
Kristi Wilson, Whitehall Chamber of Commerce
Leslie Shinaver, Star Valley Arts Council Driggs, ID
Jennifer Moreland, Teton Arts Council, City of Driggs
Member SIPC
Chico Hot Springs
Ching Ling Coleman, Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa Big Sky
Brian Hurlbut, Arts Council of Big Sky
Leslie Campbell, West Yellowstone Foundation
Laurel
Sweet Pea- Bozeman
Jean Kerr, City of Laurel
Erica Howe Dungan, Sweet Pea Arts Festival
Bozeman
Liz Grant, MSU Family and Graduate Housing
Dick Kuntz, Great Falls Supports Shakespeare in the Parks
JTech Communications “Neighbour, this is a gift very grateful, I am sure of it.” ~ The Taming of the Shrew
F
www.edwardjones.com
Whitehall
West Yellowstone
Great Falls
Double D D Ranch
Townsend
Pocatello, ID
Star Valley Ranch, WY
elise donohue,
Rev. John Toles, Anaconda Friends of Shakespeare Mary Alice Upton, Townsend Area Chamber of Commerce
Laura Williams, Community of Gardiner
W E B S I T E S
Call or visit your local financial advisor today.
Hardin
Red Lodge
A D V A N C E D
or many years, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks has had help from generous volunteers who have donated their time to update and maintain our website. Last year, MSIP decided that the website had now become such a vital source of information for so many of our audience members that we just couldn’t rely on periodic updates anymore. Enter a local website design company, JTech Communications!
Joshua Reynolds, President and Owner, J-Tech Communications
JTech took on the huge job of creating a website that is beautiful, exciting, informative and most importantly — adaptable to daily change. The new website went live in March after 14 months of work and we are so proud of the website and grateful for the expertise of the amazing staff at JTech. Thank you, Josh Reynolds, for your sponsorship and your vision. Check us out at: www.shakespeareintheparks.org
Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 69 Bozeman, MT 59715
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Montana Shakespeare in the Parks PO Box 174120- 258 Black Box Theater Bozeman MT 59717-4120 406.994.3901 www.shakespeareintheparks.org
SEASONS
Introducing the Summer 2012 Season
Montana Shakespeare in the Parks Summer 2012 Tour Schedule JUNE 20 Bozeman 21 Bozeman 22 Bozeman 23 Bozeman 27 Bozeman 28 Bozeman 29 Bozeman 30 Bozeman
Hamlet Hamlet Hamlet Hamlet Night Night Night Night
8:00pm 8:00pm 8:00pm 8:00pm 8:00pm 8:00pm 8:00pm 8:00pm
JULY 2 Dillon Night 6:00pm 3 Big Timber Hamlet 6:00pm 4 Hobson Night 6:30pm 5 Lewistown Hamlet 6:30pm 6 Forsyth Hamlet 6:00pm 7 Sidney Night 6:30pm 8 Beach, ND Night 6:00pm 9 Wolf Point Hamlet 6:30pm 10 Glendive Night 6:00pm 11 Ekalaka Hamlet 6:30pm 12 Miles City Night 6:30pm 13 Birney Hamlet 6:00pm 14 Colstrip Night 6:30pm 15 Sheridan, WY Night 6:30pm 16 Billings Night 6:30pm 17 Billings Hamlet 6:30pm 18 Hardin Hamlet 6:30pm 19 Worland, WY Night 6:00pm 20 Roundup Night 6:00pm 22 Red Lodge Hamlet 6:00pm
MSU-Grove MSU-Grove MSU-Grove MSU-Grove MSU-Grove MSU-Grove MSU-Grove MSU-Grove JayCee Park City Park Utica Clubhouse Lawn Fergus County Fairgrounds-Gazebo Rosebud County Courthouse Lawn- East Lawn Veteran’s Park Beach Swimming Pool Park Bridge Park Makoshika State Park Dahl Memorial Lawn Pumping Plant Park Poker Jim Butte Rye Park Pavilion Kendrick Park Pioneer Park Pioneer Park South Park (Corner of Lewis and Division)
Sanders Park City Park Lions Park
23 Powell, WY Night 6:30pm 24 Cody, WY Hamlet 6:30pm 25 Absarokee Hamlet 6:00pm 26 Columbus Night 6:00pm 27 Cooke City/ Silver Gate Hamlet 6:00pm 28 Gardiner Night 6:00pm 29 Pocatello, ID Night 6:30pm 30 Pocatello, ID Hamlet 6:30pm 31 Star Valley Ranch, WY Hamlet 6:30pm
Washington Park Canal Park Fishtail Family Park Heritage Park Silver Gate Park Arch Park Idaho State University Quad (South end) Idaho State University Quad (South end) Star Valley Ranch
AUGUST 1 Driggs, ID Night 6:30pm Driggs City Park 2 W. Yellowstone Night 6:00pm Union Pacific Building 220 West Yellowstone Ave. 3 Bozeman Night 4:30pm Lindley Park Sweet Pea *Admission is charged to attend the Sweet Pea Festival 5 Bozeman Hamlet 5:00pm Lindley Park Sweet Pea *Admission is charged to attend the Sweet Pea Festival 6 Great Falls Night 6:00pm University of Great Falls 7 Great Falls Hamlet 6:00pm University of Great Falls 8 Cut Bank Night 6:00pm Cut Bank City Park 9 Ft. Benton Hamlet 6:00pm Ft. Benton City Park 10 Choteau Hamlet 6:00pm Lawn at Skyline Lodge 11 Deer Lodge Night 6:00pm Old Montana Prison Yard 12 Boulder Night 6:00pm Jefferson County Fairgrounds 13 Helena Hamlet 6:00pm Pioneer Park next to L&C Library 14 Helena Night 6:00pm Pioneer Park next to L&C Library 15 Philipsburg Hamlet 6:00pm Philipsburg City Park 16 St. Ignatius Night 6:00pm St. Ignatius Amphitheater 17 Plains Hamlet 6:00pm Sanders County Fairgrounds 18 Heron Hamlet 6:00pm Heron Ballfield MT Time
19 Libby Night 6:00pm 20 Eureka Hamlet 6:00pm 21 Kalispell Hamlet 6:00pm 22 Superior Night 6:00pm 24 Seeley Lake Hamlet 6:00pm 25 Liberty Lake, WA Night 5:00pm 26 Charlo Hamlet 6:00pm 27 Missoula Night 6:00pm 28 Missoula Hamlet 6:00pm 29 Hamilton Hamlet 6:00pm 30 Salmon, ID Night 6:00pm 31 Butte Night 6:00pm SEPTEMBER 1 Butte Hamlet 6:00pm 2 Manhattan Night 6:00pm 3 Anaconda Hamlet 6:00pm 4 Townsend Hamlet 6:00pm 5 Whitehall Hamlet 6:00pm 6 Chico Night 6:00pm 7 Big Sky Hamlet 6:00pm 8 Laurel Night 6:00pm 9 Bozeman Hamlet 1:00pm
Middle School Amphitheater Historic Village Flathead Valley Community College Behind High School Double Arrow Lodge Grounds Pavillion Park Palmer Park University of Montana Oval University of Montana Oval Daly Mansion Sacajawea Center Mural Park Mural Park Alterbrand Park Washoe Park Heritage Fun Park Whitehall School Lawn Main Lawn Town Center Laurel Practice Football Field Ellen Theater
Visit us online at: www.shakespeareintheparks.org
All performances are free . . . every summer!