TWELFTH NIGHT by Shakespeare and THE DUCHESS OF MALFI by John Webster, American Shakespeare Center 'Tempt Me Further' Tour, University of Texas, February 12 and 13, 2013

and its 'Tempt Me Further' touring troupe peform,
presented at the University of Texas, Hogg Memorial Auditorium, near 24th and Guadalupe (click for map)  by the University of Texas at Austin’s English Department, Shakespeare at Winedale, SHOUT, the Mary Lu Joynes Endowment in the Plan II Honors Program, the Center for European Studies, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and the Department of Theatre and Dance,

Twelfth Night

by William Shakespeare

Tuesday, February 12, 2013, pre-show at 7 p.m. (There will be a post-show discussion with members of the company immediately after Twelfth Night.)

Why, this is very midsummer madness. - III.iv

Writing at the height of his powers, Shakespeare provides a feast of language and songs — and a stage full of memorable characters — from the lovesick Orsino and Viola to the alesick Toby Belch, from the acquiescent Sir Andrew Aguecheek to the pompous Malvolio. Sublime and subversive, Twelfth Night breaks rules and bends gender to show love in all its guises and disguises.


and


The Duchess of Malfi

by John Webster

Wednesday, February 13, 2013, pre-show at 7 p.m.

We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and bandied which way please them. - V.iv


John Webster’s brutal and astonishing play tells the story of one of the stage’s greatest women and two of its greatest villains. The widowed Duchess of Malfi tragically defies her two powerful brothers by secretly marrying her household steward. When they uncover her deception, the brothers plot a series of horrific events that leads them all to destruction in this dark tapestry of sibling rivalry, forbidden love, unquenchable ambition, and ensuing madness.

On each evening the theatre will open for seating at 7:00 pm. At this time, live pre-show music will also begin. The performance will begin at 7:30 pm. Seats for the performances are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so audience members are encouraged to arrive early, take their seats, and enjoy the music.


- - - - - - - - - -

The American Shakespeare Center will return to Austin for its fourth annual visit to the University of Texas campus. Direct from the stage of the American Shakespeare Center's celebrated Blackfriars Playhouse, the world's only re-creation of Shakespeare's indoor theatre, the ASC touring troupe brings Renaissance drama to life in exciting and accessible performances. On February 12 and 13, at 7:00 pm in Hogg Auditorium, the ASC's touring troupe will perform Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi.


Special Lecture, February 7. Kicking off the ASC residency, the Mary Lu Joynes Endowment in the Plan II Honors Program, the English Department and Shakespeare at Winedale will be presenting a special lecture on The Duchess of Malfi. The Duchess of Malfi is considered by many to be the greatest Renaissance tragedy not written by Shakespeare. For those interested in learning more about the play, English Professor Frank Whigham will be giving a free lecture in the Joynes Reading Room in the Honors quad on UT campus on Thursday, February 7 at 7:00 pm.


Professor Whigham is one of the world's experts on the play. His article "Sexual and Social Mobility in The Duchess of Malfi," originally published in PMLA and reprinted multiple times, is one of the most important works of recent criticism on the play, which is also discussed in his book, Seizures of the Will in Early Modern English Drama (Cambridge University Press, 1996). He will introduce some of the play's key ideas and answer questions from the audience.


The American Shakespeare Center\ (formerly the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express) has gained a national reputation by performing according to the principles of the Renaissance stage. Careful attention to the language, a fast and fluid performance style, and a creative use of music and dance are hallmarks of ASC productions. Actors and audience share the same lighting, as they would have in Shakespeare’s playhouse, encouraging an intimate and festive atmosphere.

Click  to view additional images from the 'Tempt Me Further' Tour at AustnLiveTheatre.com. . .

Reviews from Elsewhere: James Shapiro's 'Contested Will' reviewed by Cass Morris for the American Shakespeare Center

Coincidentally just before the March 22 lecture at the Harry Ransom Center by Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro, the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia, publishes in the ASC blog a lengthy but entertaining view of his Contested Will (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), a history and rebuttal of those who have asserted that someone other than William Shakespeare wrote the plays:

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Book Review:

'Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?' by James Shapiro

by Cass Morris, American Shakespeare Center, Staunton , Virginia

One of the greatest challenges for a modern historian is to remove the filter of Romanticism and Victoriana when we look backwards through time. Modern society has inherited a lot of inaccurate notions about the pre-Industrial world from our more immediate forebears, creating an assumption that the medieval and early modern worlds shared the same values, the same culture, the same societal structures, the same goals as the Victorian world – an assumption that is, in many ways, far off the mark. To achieve greater understanding of anything early modern, a historian – professional or recreational – must first clear her eyes of the haze which the nineteenth century imposed on them.

Lifting this veil is, to my reading of it, the major triumph of James Shapiro's Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?. Both history and historiography, this book examines the case both for and against Shakespeare as the author of the works attributed to his name – and comes down, quite definitively, on the side of Shakespeare. Shapiro notes, in the opening pages of the book, his interest, which lies "not in what people think – which has been stated again and again in unambiguous terms – so much as why thy think it. No doubt my attitude derives from living in a world in which truth is too often seen as relative and in which mainstream media are committed to showing both sides of every story."

[image from cover of the hardback edition, © Simon & Schuster, via the American Shakespeare Center blog]

Read full text (3,058 words) at the blog of the American Shakespeare Center

Extra: read the Economist's anonymous review of the book, March 25, 2010 (614 words)

Images by Michael Bailey for the American Shakespeare Center TOur of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Feb. 22) and 'Tis Pity She's A Whore (Feb. 23)

Received directly:

presents

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM by William Shakespeare

and

‘TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE by John Ford

Presented by the University of Texas at Austin’s English Department, Shakespeare at Winedale, SHOUT, the Mary Lu Joynes Endowment in the Plan II Honors Program, the School of Undergraduate Studies, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the study of Core Texts and Ideas, the Center for European Studies, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and the Department of Theatre and Dance.

February 22 & 23, 2012.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Wednesday @ 7:30 PM; ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore on Thursday @ 7:30 PM. Pre-show for both performances begin at 7 pm.

Student Activity Center’s Black Box Theater, Rm. 2.304, 2100 Speedway on the UT campus.

TICKETS: General Admission - $15

Available at www.shakespeare-winedale.org or (512) 471-4726.

Click for director Jim Warren's notes on 'Tis Pity She's A Whore

Click to view additional images from the 'Almost Blasphemy' tour at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: 'Tis Pity She's A Whore by John Ford, American Shakespeare Center 'Almost Blasphemy' Tour at the University of Texas, February 23

Presented by the University of Texas at Austin’s English Department, Shakespeare at Winedale, SHOUT, the Mary Lu Joynes Endowment in the Plan II Honors Program, the School of Undergraduate Studies, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the study of Core Texts and Ideas, the Center for European Studies, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and the Department of Theatre and Dance.

'Almost Blasphemy' tour performs

by John Ford

UT Student Activity Center Black Box Theater, Rm 2.304, 2001 Speedway (click for map)

Thursday, February 23, 7 p.m.

General Admission - $15 - tickets available at www.shakespeare-winedale.org or (512) 471-4726.

The theatre will open for seating at 7:00 pm. At this time, live pre-show music will also begin. The performance will begin at 7:30 pm. Seats for the performances are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so audience members are encouraged to arrive early, take their seats, and enjoy the music.

John Ford’s brilliant re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet leads audiences deep into a story of passion, lust, vengeance, greed, incest, and murder. After almost 400 years, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’s tale of forbidden love remains controversial, shocking, and theatrically spellbinding.

Click for an undated review by Adrian, "The Mid-Atlantic Traveler"

NOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR : This Is Not a Dark Ride

(edited notes I sent the actors before we started rehearsals)

It ought to be easy, it ought to be simple enough:

Man meets woman and they fall in love.

But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough

You’ve got to learn to live with what you can’t rise above

If you want to ride on down in through this tunnel of love

Bruce Springsteen

— I believe that seeing humanity (warts and all) allows us tochoose paths toward being our best selves. The Sopranos, Oedipus Rex, Pulp Fiction, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Scarface, The Duchess of Malfi are (at least in part) twisted tales that reveal the nasty, ugly, darkness of the soul. With a few laughs along the way.

— We need art that explores the dark sides of humanity because that darkness is part of the human experience.

— We need to see the things we DON’T want to be to help us know what we DO want to be.

— ‘Tis Pity is worth doing because it is a shocking exploration of these darker parts of humanity, because these characters and their journeys are remarkably “modern,” because of the multiple hopeless love stories intertwined with bad luck, villainy, and a rotting society are too fascinating not to watch with an on-the-edge-of-your-seat horror and with the hope for redemption and that something will happen to “make everything turn out all right.”

— What is love?

— What is sin?

— What is marriage?

— What should marriage be?

— The incest at the center of the play is not glorified or glamorized, but it is explored and dissected and judged.

— Giovanni pursues Annabella like Romeo goes after Juliet; she later repents, but it’s a big hot mess from beginning to end.

— This play starts like it could be Romeo and Juliet; except for the fact that this star-crossed couple is a brother and his sister.

— The secret love/consummation of the Giovanni/Annabella relationship implodes and splatters body parts all over the place.

— Each of the stories within the story are framed by a society that blasphemes the sacred and feeds the profane in ways only hinted at by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet.

— (spoiler alert for those who don’t want to know that “Rosebud” is the sled) The buddy relationship of Bergetto and Poggio combined with the love of Philotis and the death of Bergetto should be funny, beautiful, and heartbreaking.

— Hippolita’s attempted revenge, Soranzo’s outrage, Richardetto’s secret voyeurism, and Vasques as the in-the-shadows puppetmaster wannabe are all amazing pieces of this masterful play filled with complex characters, relationships, twists, and turns.

— AND, there’s some darn funny stuff in this play too. The tragedy is deepened by the lightness (one of Shakespeare’s favorite secret weapons). Bergetto’s death should matter more because the banter between Bergetto and Poggio makes us fall in love with them. That banter should make us fall in love with them because their appearances in the play often provide a great relief/release from the suffocating tragedies unfolding in front of us.

— But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough as we pray for love to save the day.

I’m here without a name

In the palace of my shame

The ruins to the right of me

Will soon have lost sight of me

Love rescue me

U2

JIM WARREN

ASC Artistic Director and Co-Founder

STUFF THAT HAPPENS IN THE PLAY

Stuff that happens BEFORE the play

Giovanni and his tutor, Friar Bonaventura, return home to Parma after many years away at university.

Stuff that happens IN the play

Giovanni reveals his incestuous love for his sister, Annabella, to Friar Bonaventura. The Friar urges Giovanni to repent.

Annabella and her tutor, Putana, discuss the numerous suitors attempting to woo Annabella, including the foolish Bergetto, the Lord Soranzo, and a Roman soldier, Grimaldi.

Giovanni tells Annabella of his “hidden flames” for her; she reciprocates his passion by saying, “love me, or kill me, brother.” Giovanni replies, “let’s learn to court in smiles, to kiss, and sleep.”

Florio (Giovanni and Annabella’s father) encourages his friend Donado that Bergetto may still win Annabella, “if she like your nephew, let him have her.”

Annabella reveals her consummated incest to Putana, who calmly replies, “if a young wench feel the fit upon her, let her take anybody, father or brother, all is one.”

Soranzo’s mistress, Hippolita, refuses to accept his rejection and vows, “my vengeance shall give comfort to this woe.” Vasques, Soranzo’s servant, pretends to help Hippolita with her revenge.

Hippolita’s supposed-dead husband, Richardetto, returns to Parma disguised as a doctor while his niece, Philotis, meets Annabella and befriends Bergetto.

Annabella rejects Donado’s proposal that she marry Bergetto.

Soranzo comes to court Annabella and she falls ill. Putana realizes that Annabella is pregnant with her brother’s child. Giovanni confesses to the Friar, who advises Annabella to marry Soranzo. Annabella agrees.

Wedding plans, murderous plots, and broken hearts ensue.

SERIOUS SHOCK.

Cast

Florio, a citizen of Parma Daniel Abraham Stevens†

Giovanni, Florio's son Patrick Earl

Annabella, Florio's daughter Denice Mahler

Putana, Annabella's tutor Bridget Rue

Friar Bonaventura, Giovanni's tutor Kevin Hauver

Soranzo, a nobleman Jake Mahler

Vasques, his servant Eugene Douglas

Grimaldi, a Roman gentleman and soldier Michael Amendola

Donado, a citizen of Parma Kevin Hauver

Bergetto, his nephew Rick Blunt

Poggio, Bergetto's servant Stephanie Holladay Earl

Richardetto, a disguised nobleman Ronald Peet†

Hippolita, his wife Stephanie Holladay Earl

Philotis, his niece Bridget Rue

Cardinal, envoy to the Pope Rick Blunt

Banditti Michael Amendola, Stephanie Holladay Earl

DIRECTOR Jim Warren

Costume Designer Erin M. West

Assistant Director Glenn Schudel

Fight Director Colleen Kelly

Dramaturg Clara Giebel††

Production Interns Asae Dean††, Alicia Hynes, Mika Nesbit,

Grace Trapnell, Monica Tedder

†ASC professional acting-apprentice.

††Mary Baldwin College MLitt/MFA intern.

Upcoming: A Midsummer Night's Dream, American Shakespeare Center at University of Texas Student Activity Center, February 22

Presented by the University of Texas at Austin’s English Department, Shakespeare at Winedale, SHOUT, the Mary Lu Joynes Endowment in the Plan II Honors Program, the School of Undergraduate Studies, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the study of Core Texts and Ideas, the Center for European Studies, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and the Department of Theatre and Dance.

'Almost Blasphemy' tour performs

Serious Mischief by William Shakespeare

UT Student Activity Center Black Box Theater, Rm 2.304, 2001 Speedway (click for map)

Wednesday, February 22, 7 p.m.

General Admission - $15 - tickets available at www.shakespeare-winedale.org or (512) 471-4726.

The theatre will open for seating at 7:00 pm. At this time, live pre-show music will also begin. The performance will begin at 7:30 pm. Seats for the performances are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so audience members are encouraged to arrive early, take their seats, and enjoy the music.

There will be a post-show discussion with members of the company immediately after A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

What angel wakes me from my flowery bed? -- III.iA Midsummer Night’s Dream’s theatrical spell is powerful enough to make audiences of all ages believe in anything. Shakespeare’s mischievous comedy of lovers, heroes, fairies, and rude mechanicals is his tribute to humankind’s power of imagination.

Click for review of a December, 2011 performance at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, VA

Arts Reporting from the Blackfriars Shakespeare Conference: Beth Burns and cast on the original Practices Taming of the Shrew

Notes from Cass Morris at the Blackfriars Shakespeare Conference in Staunton, Virgina, October 27:

Beth Burns, Hidden Room Theatre:

"Original Practices at Hidden Room"

Beth Burns introduces her support team from Hidden Room, noting that she met her dramaturg for The Taming of the Shrew at a previous conference. She positions herself clearly on the side of practitioners as opposed to strict academics, but states that she tries to make her practice as well-grounded in scholarship as she can. She thanks the scholarly crowd for "letting me steal your work, as I do do and will do today."

Burns discusses her experiences with Original Practices and notes that, while different companies and scholars have different views on what that means, they all come down to: "let's not fight the text; let's go with it." She's curious about the idea of "male playing female, and what that does to the text," particularly what it does to jokes -- which she doesn't like to cut just because the reference isn't relevant. She wondered if the idea of men playing women would balance out the gender issues in Shrew. "What I found instead was, actually, a love story. A really sexy love story." It also produced a theme of identity.

She noted two challenges: 1) to get the audience to believe the man playing a woman as a female character, and 2) to make the audience perceive the relationship displayed as a heterosexual one, not a homosexual one. Her actors from Hidden Room then present the introduction between Kate and Petruchio (2.1), in (as in her production), late-sixteenth-century costumes and (lead-free) makeup. The scene is fast-paced and full of action, with a Kate visibly enjoying the challenge of sparring with Petruchio, and a Petruchio utterly unwilling to part company with her. Kate also seems moved (though somewhat uncomfortable) by a Petruchio speaking to her sexually -- as, this staging seems to suggest, no other man has ever done.

Burns notes that the scene is "a veritable cornucopia" of the techniques they use. She notes that, to make the steaminess palpable, they don't just go for the obvious sexual jokes, but also those words that "sound sexual" by virtue of their sonic qualities or the face-shapes the sounds cause. They also explored "non-standard touch", to break the expectation of the usual courtship interactions. She moves to the next scene, which she hopes will cause us to look at gender role and power.

In the "sun and moon" scene, 4.5, Kate's concession to Petruchio's declarations comes with more than a light touch of sarcasm -- but she laughs when Petruchio address Vincentio (an impromptu substitution of Matt Davies) as a fair mistress. When Kate gets the joke and flirts with Vincentio, Petruchio intervenes a bit hastily, to cut off a kiss -- which represents, as Burns points out, that she's now playing on an even field with him. They move to the final scene: 5.1, on the street -- the "kiss me, Kate" moment. Their frenetic energy slows to tender regard, but loses none of its passion.

Burns brings her actors out and first asks Ryan (Kate) about building the character. He talks about placing her "center" low, to ground her and also give her grace. Burns and Judd (Petruchio) talk about building the "uber-macho" Petruchio, who Judd describes as "the archetypal alpha male" who goes beyond the typical plateau of gentlemanly behavior.

Matt Davies opens up to questions from the audience for either presenter.

Click for notes on Q&A session at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Kickstarter Appeal: Hidden Room's 'Original Practices' Taming of the Shrew Travels to the American Shakespeare Center

Received notice on line of the following

appeal for $3250 by October 21:

The Hidden Room has been invited to present a staging session at the world famous American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Conference. We will be performing scenes from last year's Taming of the Shrew - Original Practices and discussing Original Practices techniques. This is our big chance to have our amazing Austin actors perform for some of the world's most renowned Shakesperean scholars.

But, first we need to get to Staunton, VA.

And preferably survive while we're there.

Plus it would be nice to return to Austin when we're done. We're fond of it.

Your donation of any amount will help fly our Hidden Room team to Staunton and provide accommodations while we are there. All our folks have already taken care of their own conference fees, but additional moneys raised will go to reimbursing those and other costs incurred on the road. Like food and other such niceties.

Throughout our week in Staunton, the Hidden Room will have the opportunity to learn from and meet with some real academic heroes in the world of Renaissance Drama. Then on Thursday October 27th, we will perform and present on the Blackfriars stage - an exquisite recreation of Shakespeare's original indoor playing house. You can help make a dream come true for our band of players, and allow us the chance to bring Austin to the American Shakespeare Center.

Take us to the ASC. They're waiting for us.

We are grateful for your support - more than you know.

[image by Kimberly Mead: Judd Farris as Petrucio, Ryan Crowder as Kate]

Click for details, FAQ, enticements and to donate at Kickstarter.com. . . .

As You Like It, American Shakespeare Center's 'Restless Ecstacy' Tour, UT

"Restless Ecstacy," the title of the 2010-2011 tour by American Shakespeare Center players, comes from the Scottish play, III, 2, in which the grim thane uses the phrase to describe his tormented sleeplessness after killing King Duncan. The ASC troupe didn't do their Macbeth at the University of Texas in Austin this week, but their staging of As You Like It corresponded fully to both promises of the tour title.

Noise, music, performance and joviality greeted the audience as soon as the house was opened. Big, round Rick Blunt beckoned everyone forward with the huge friendliness of a carnival barker as cast members moved freely around the shallow stage at the UT Union. Blunt kept up a cheerful patter about the troupe, about their dedication to staging in the style of Shakespeare's touring companies, about maintaining available light and engaging the audience. He quickly recruited eight audience members for the seats placed at either side of the stage, and one suspects that if there had been room for groundlings he would have enticed students into those roles.

For the half hour before starting the play, cast members strummed guitars, tapped rhythms on wooden boxes and an African djembeli drum, fingered a weathered accordian, sang pop songs and carried on like buskers as if only by chance had they arrived one week late for the restlessness of Austin's epic South by Southwest music festival. At the interval the cast stays on stage to play and sing for the full fifteen minutes, maintaining an easy companionship with the audience.

The ecstasy of their staging of As You Like It is that of infatuation, the hypnotic attraction of love.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Measure for Measure & As You Like It, American Shakespeare Center, UT, March 21-22

Received directly:

The touring troupe of the

presents

AS YOU LIKE IT

and

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

by William Shakespeare
presented by the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of English, Plan II, Undergraduate Studies, Harry Ransom Center, and Shakespeare at Winedale.
March 21 & 22
As You Like It on Monday at 7:30 p.m.; Measure for Measure on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Texas Union Theatre, located on UT Campus
General Admission - $15; Students/UT ID Holders - $10
Available on-line through Shakespeare at Winedale, via www.shakespeare-winedale.org or by calling (512) 471-4726.

The American Shakespeare Center’s touring troupe will give two performances in Austin, on March 21 and 22 at 7:30 pm in the Texas Union Theatre. Performing Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Measure for Measure, the ASC will give Austinites a taste of their energetic performance style, in a visit sponsored by the Department of English, Plan II, the College of Undergraduate Studies, the Harry Ransom Center, and Shakespeare at Winedale. Tickets are $15 and $10 for UT ID-holders (ID will be required to enter the performance with this ticket) and are available through the Shakespeare at Winedale website. Audience members are encouraged to come early, as there will be pre-show music and entertainment beginning at 7:00 pm both nights.

The American Shakespeare Center (formerly the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express) has gained a national reputation by performing according to the principles of the Renaissance stage. Careful attention to the language, a fast and fluid performance style, and a creative use of music and dance are hallmarks of ASC productions. Actors and audience share the same lighting, as they would have in Shakespeare’s playhouse, encouraging an intimate and festive atmosphere.

On Monday night the company will perform one of Shakespeare's great comedies, As You Like It. To escape death, the extraordinary Rosalind, her brave cousin Celia, and one of Shakespeare’s funniest fools flee into the woods. There, in the bewitching Forest of Arden, they discover shepherds and aristocrats, country folk and lovers—and, ultimately, life, love, joy, and freedom. Shakespeare’s glorious and wise comedy reminds us of everything it is to be alive.

The Tuesday performance will be Shakespeare's "problem comedy", Measure for Measure. Shakespeare’s electrifying exploration of the arrogance of power hovers tantalizingly between comedy and tragedy. Measure stares unblinkingly into the way we confuse lust and love, goodness and self-righteousness; and it manages an unforgettably ironic look at who sins most in a congregation of murderers, pimps, politicians, whores, nuns, and dukes.

The ASC touring troupe last appeared in Austin early in this decade, under its previous name of the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express. The company now has a permanent home at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Virginia. The “Restless Ecstasy” tour will conclude in April, when the troupe will return to Staunton to present the spring season at the Blackfriars Playhouse through the middle of June.

“We scour the country for the right 10-12 actors to perform all these roles,” said ASC Artistic Director Jim Warren. “Not only are we looking for the right talent to do these shows in true rotating repertory (a great lost joy in today’s theatre world), but we’re also looking for personalities we think will gel into a dynamic, well-balanced ensemble on and off the stage. On top of all of that, we’re also looking for singers and musicians because we perform all of our music live and unplugged; join us for our pre-show a half-hour before show time for some musical treats.”

Click 'Read more' for cast lists, director's notes and links to rehearsal photographs