Ahira's Hangar

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Saturday, October 21, 2006

Royal Shakespeare Company back in town
On Sunday – thanks to the University Musical Society, an independent, nonprofit performing arts presenter housed at the University of Michigan – the Royal Shakespeare Company is scheduled to arrive in Ann Arbor for its third three-week residency at the University of Michigan.

Company members will participate in educational programs and offer seven performances each of three classic Shakespeare plays: “Antony and Cleopatra,” “Julius Caesar” and “The Tempest.”

Not only that. “Antony” and “The Tempest” will feature Patrick Stewart – of “X-Men” and “Star Trek: Next Generation” fame – in the lead role, making those tickets the hottest in town.

The chance to get them had led to strong sales earlier this year and even inspired hundreds of U-M students to head out to the Power Center in the rainy, wee hours of a recent Saturday morning for a special, limited student ticket sale.

This year, people from 34 different states and Canada plan to come to the Power Center for the only shows that will be seen on this side of the Atlantic from the RSC’s Complete Works Festival.




This is the second largest topic of conversation in these parts after the Tigers.

This is also the first time I was lucky enough to be able to get tickets ~ and ony because I was a subscriber to the jazz concert series from UMS last year. I was not able to renew my tickets this year, as most of the concerts are scheduled to take place on my work nights. But the chance to buy the Shakespeare tickets was a very nice and unexpected bonus coming out of last year.

My husband and younger son and I will be seeing one performance of each of the three plays. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Here is a longer article:

Quote:
The curtain rises again Royal Shakespeare Company back in town
Sunday, October 22, 2006
News Arts Writer
Friends, Ann Arborites, countrymen (and women), lend me your ears.

You won't be sorry. The news is big.

Today - thanks to the University Musical Society, an independent, nonprofit performing arts presenter housed at the University of Michigan - the Royal Shakespeare Company is scheduled to arrive in Ann Arbor for its third three-week residency at the University of Michigan. Company members will participate in educational programs and offer seven performances each of three classic Shakespeare plays: "Antony and Cleopatra,'' "Julius Caesar'' and "The Tempest.''

Not only that. "Antony'' and "The Tempest'' will feature Patrick Stewart - of "X-Men'' and "Star Trek: Next Generation'' fame - in the lead role, making those tickets the hottest in town.

The chance to get them had led to strong sales earlier this year and even inspired hundreds of U-M students to head out to the Power Center in the rainy, wee hours of a recent Saturday morning for a special, limited student ticket sale. One was U-M engineering freshman Adam Higuera of Annapolis, Md., who's excited to see the RSC's rendition of "Caesar.''

"Shakespeare is recognized as the best playwright in the history of English playwriting, and the Royal Shakespeare Company is recognized as one of the best groups to perform Shakespeare, so we figured that this was our opportunity to get some culture, courtesy of the University of Michigan, and see something not many people get to see,'' he said.

Indeed, the RSC's three residencies at U-M - the first happened in 2001, and the second in 2003 - mark the first (and thus far only) such extensive collaboration with an American university. The relationship initially grew out of talks between the RSC, UMS President Ken Fischer and former U-M President Lee Bollinger.

This year, people from 34 different states and Canada plan to come to the Power Center for the only shows that will be seen on this side of the Atlantic from the RSC's Complete Works Festival.

That festival - the ambitious brainchild of RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd - aims to feature all of Shakespeare's works, including his poetry, in the course of a single year. The project kicked off April 23 (the day Shakespeare's birthday is celebrated), and it will conclude in April 2007 with a production of "King Lear,'' starring Stewart's "X-Men'' co-star Ian McKellen.

The RSC is producing 23 plays for the festival, while the rest of Shakespeare's work - as well as Shakespeare-inspired work - will be performed on RSC stages by theater groups from around the globe, America included.

The preparations

Think that bringing shows in from abroad requires a lot of coordination behind the scenes? Just ask Doug Witney, UMS director of production, who has been making sure every RSC set, costume and prop makes it to Ann Arbor. Now, as the full company arrives, he and a crew of workers will be constantly shifting sets for the different shows.

"We only have a few days that all we do is one show, because the goal was to create as many combinations of being able to see three shows in two days,'' said Witney. "So we have a lot of changeovers.''

A tight time frame on the other side of the ocean, meanwhile, determined the building of new sets for the Ann Arbor shows.

"The sets that we're using ... have been built specifically for the run here, because they were doing the productions (in England) up until a week ago,'' said Witney. "There wasn't enough time to ship the sets that they're using in Stratford, so they designed and built three duplicate sets to send for use here.''

This past week, Witney and his crew have been working hard to unload containers and put together sets, some of which contain pieces that literally weigh a ton. In addition, many of the company's air-shipped costumes, props and special effects - because of the RSC's extremely tight production schedule - were scheduled to arrive no sooner than Saturday.

"It keeps us off the streets,'' joked Witney.

Also working hard is UMS residency coordinator Claire Rice, who's been planning RSC events behind the scenes for nearly two years.

"It hasn't been full time, obviously, over those two years, but at this point, it most certainly is,'' said Rice. "Full time plus.''

Rice coordinated the many, many auxiliary events - lectures, exhibits, outreach programs, etc. - planned for the RSC residency. "Because of the broad and really meaningful ... engagement that we're striving for in the education area, some of the most challenging and exciting events have been the ones that we're producing internally, in collaboration with the RSC, in the education realm.''

This includes a program with the Detroit school district called "Playback,'' in which different schools each focus on one section from "Julius Caesar'' and then put the pieces together with the help of an RSC director; and a teen-oriented Sonnet Slam here in Ann Arbor.

Now that the company's arriving, though, Rice's job "just moves into a real execution mode. I've got this 30-page schedule, and a 200-page planning document, and we just get through page by page.''

The anticipation

The community, meanwhile, seems more than ready to get this Bard-party started. The first RSC residency at U-M found Boyd in the director's chair of a War of the Roses tetrology, "Henry VI'' parts I, II, and III and "Richard III'' - a momentous theatrical event that still inspires awed remembrances from locals. In 2003, the company returned to U-M with "Coriolanus,'' "The Merry Wives of Windsor'' and the American premiere of Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children.''

And although the RSC had been struggling just to survive during this period, Boyd became RSC artistic director in 2003, and - by way of grand projects like the Complete Works Festival - has breathed new life into an old company.

"It's nice that there's been this rejuvenation of the company,'' said John Neville-Andrews, a U-M theater professor and the artistic director of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival. "It was in dire straits at one time, ... and it looked like it could collapse very easily. But Michael's a very passionate and very energetic young man, and I think his ideas, and the innovations he brought to the Royal Shakespeare Company have brought a freshness now to it. I think there's an exuberance, and there's a passion for the work that wasn't there a few years ago.''

A native of England, Neville-Andrews appreciates that this beloved bit of home is coming to him in Ann Arbor again. Yet for Ann Arbor's Dave Herzig, each RSC residency at U-M has been a family affair, drawing family members from Ohio, Illinois, and Massachusetts to Ann Arbor.

According to Herzig, the RSC shows are rendered all the more irresistible by "the fact that they can get free room and board without going to London.''

Jenn McKee can be reached at 734-994-6841 or jmckee@annarbornews.com.







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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Here is one on Patrick Stewart's approach to playing Marc Antony:

Quote:Overcoming the view of Antony as a twerp RSC's Patrick Stewart creates sympathy for flawed character
Sunday, October 22, 2006
BY JENN MCKEE
News Arts Writer
Gregory Doran, director of the Royal Shakespeare Company's acclaimed production of "Antony and Cleopatra'' - opening Tuesday in Ann Arbor, as part of the RSC's three-week residency at the University of Michigan - took Shakespeare's play title very much to heart in terms of planning.

"I wasn't going to do it until I'd finally really landed (actors to play) Antony and Cleopatra, because I'm one of those directors that believes what Tyrone Guthrie said when he said, 'Directing is 80 percent good casting,''' said Doran.

With this idea in mind, Doran discussed the role of Antony with Patrick Stewart, a seasoned Shakespearean actor who'd previously played Antony's friend, Enobarbus, and who, in the 1990s, won mainstream fame playing Jean Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation.'' Stewart was initially resistant to Doran's pitch.

"Most of the time, you find that it's really relatively simple to cast Cleopatra, because there are many great actresses who really, really want to play that greatest of all female roles,'' said Doran. "But the blokes seem to regard Antony as being a bit of a twerp - which is, in fact, the word that Lawrence Olivier used to describe him.''

Eventually, Stewart fell in love with the prospect of taking on the character, however, and consequently earned rave reviews for his performance in Britain.

"What (Stewart) has done with Antony is absolutely revolutionary,'' said Doran. "The brilliance, I think, of what Patrick is seeing in the part is that (Antony) is an idiot in many ways. He has ... terrible self-delusion, in a way. But what Patrick has done is he's embraced that and made it (Antony's) fatal flaw, so you feel deeply sorry for this man, as he wades into this terrible situation and flounders, and then sort of loses his own identity. He can't live up to the celebrity status that he has somehow created for himself.''

For the role of Cleopatra, meanwhile, Doran tapped Harriet Walter, who had played Beatrice ("Much Ado About Nothing'') and Lady MacBeth ("MacBeth'') in previous Doran productions. Not surprisingly, given Cleopatra's power and complexity, Walter required much less convincing than her co-star.

"There are very, very few parts for a mature woman in Shakespeare, where you have such a full-rounded person, who has such magnificent lines, and is described as somebody of such infinite variety,'' said Walter.

In the play, Antony is part of a ruling triumvirate in Rome, but he spends most of his days with his exotic, beautiful mistress, Queen Cleopatra, in Egypt. When Antony's wife dies in Rome, and his homeland is threatened, he's forced to return. Soon, Antony is persuaded to marry his co-ruler's sister, Octavia, and thus causes jealousy-fueled arguments and battles to ensue.

In Stratford-on-Avon, England, the production premiered in April at the intimate Swan Theatre - so Doran had originally developed his vision for the show with a small space in mind.

"When you start out thinking of 'Antony and Cleopatra' in a big space ... what tends to happen is this MGM aspect takes over, and people feel that it should be a play about spectacle, and then fill the stage with the equivalent of pyramids and triumphal arches, for Rome and for Egypt,'' said Doran. "The problem with that is that it can prevent the play's fluidity from really being able to flow. Because it's very swift. It's a swift chamber play, really.''

Indeed, "Antony'' changes settings quickly and often, so Doran's deliberate minimalism simplifies the production's logistics, while also, ironically, serving its epic story.

"We've chosen to depict Rome and Egypt sort of sensually rather than pictorially,'' said Doran. "Yes, we have drawn upon what everybody has in their minds as a picture of ancient Egypt, and how ancient Romans looked. So we have Roman armor, and we have soft, sensual gowns for the Egyptians. But I would argue that (minimal sets) allows you to just concentrate on the play.''

Playing in a larger theater, however - the Power Center seats nearly 1,400, while the Swan seats 465 - means that certain elements must necessarily be altered. Walter says that her own acting adjustments will be minimal, since she's already playing a larger-than-life role, but the lack of the audience's physical immediacy will be something to which she and her co-stars must adapt.

"In the Swan space, the audience more or less get gripped from the get-go, because they have people standing two inches away from them, making their entrances and exits in the middle of them,'' said Walter. "So we're going to have to do that work to grab their attention (in a bigger space).''

Ultimately, though, the audience in the Power Center's seats will be a mere extension of the on-stage audience for Antony and Cleopatra's self-consciously grand love affair. "The relationship is so conducted in public ... for their self-aggrandizing,'' said Doran, whose production features only one brief scene in which the lovers are alone. "They're constantly observing themselves being in love, or constantly observing themselves being willful or capricious. You feel that Cleopatra's in control, at the end, of seeing how her relationship with Antony will go down in history.''

Jenn McKee can be reached at 734-994-6841 or jmckee@annarbornews.com.



I have never had a chance to see this particular play on stage before. Should be great! ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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And now for a little bit of trivia on what is involved when a large theater company goes on a major road trip:

Quote:
Bits on the Bard
Sunday, October 22, 2006

The company: About 75 members of the Royal Shakespeare Company will be in Ann Arbor during the next few weeks: 28 performers, approximately 10 musicians and nearly 40 additional people who work as crew members, creative teams and production and administrative staff.


The cost: More than $2 million - which doesn't even include staff, overhead and transportation expenses of the local sponsor, the University Musical Society, or costs incurred by UMS residency partners.


The funding: 60 percent to 65 percent of the price tag is covered by ticket sales. The rest comes from a grant from the University of Michigan, corporate sponsorships, foundation grants, a special grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and individual donors.

The plays: "Julius Caesar,'' "Antony and Cleopatra'' and "The Tempest'' will play at the Power Center, 121 Fletcher St., starting Tuesday with "Antony.''


The tickets: More than 25,000 tickets have been sold. As of Friday afternoon, some performances had limited seats available. Check online at www.ums.org or at the Michigan League Box Office, 911 N. University Ave., 734-764-2538, starting Monday at 9 a.m.


The rest: During the residency, more than 40 public events (and more than 100 others with students) are scheduled. For a complete listing - lectures, exhibits and much more - visit www.ums.org and scroll down to the Latest News section. Or check the calendar listings in The News' Spotlight magazine on Thursdays.

Sources: UMS, News staff research.



These articles have all come from the Ann Arbor News. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Here is more info, including nice synopses of the plays themselves:

www.umich.edu/pres/rsc/plays/antony.html

www.umich.edu/pres/rsc/plays/caesar.html

www.umich.edu/pres/rsc/plays/tempest.html

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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Well, I've now seen two of the three, and they were both excellent productions.

I used to think the good people at Startford, Ontario were the best Shakespeareans in the world. Royal Shakespeare is making me rethink that.

And yes- Patrick Stewart was wonderful as Antony.

On Sunday we will go see the third play, and my all time favorite Shakespeare play - The Tempest. The local newspaper reviewer said that Patrick Stewart is so good as Prospero that when he says the final lines it is so beautiful it makes your heart stop.

Well, I do not want my heart to stop. But I would settle nicely for some shivers up and down my spine. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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