production of 
A much-needed cool breeze flows through the three open sides of a dilapidated German hay barn on a warm Texas night. The barn is miles from city life, far enough from streetlights that the Milky Way can clearly be seen each night, but the inside is packed with a cramped and sweaty audience. The dull hum of the crowd hushes as the lights dim, and a group of young men and women clad in Elizabethan garb take the stage. This is not a conventional theater, nor is it a conventional experience. But Shakespeare at Winedale does not try to be conventional.announces its 42nd Summer Season:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale and Coriolanus
By William Shakespeare
July 19th-August 12th
Shakespeare at Winedale Theater Barn
Winedale Historical Complex, Round Top, TX (click for map)
TICKETS: $10 General Admission; $5 Student/UT ID Holders
Available at www.shakespeare-winedale.org or (512) 471-4726
Click to download the summer schedule in .pdf format
Shakespeare at Winedale’s 2012 summer class takes the stage this summer with performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale, and, for the first time at Winedale, Coriolanus. Performances will begin July 19th and run through August 12th; performances are Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 7:30pm with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $10 for general admission or $5 for students/UT ID holders and may be ordered online through the Shakespeare at Winedale website www.shakespeare-winedale.org.
Shakespeare at Winedale is a University of Texas program in which students study and perform Shakespeare at the Winedale Historical Complex near Round Top. Since its founding by English professor James Ayres in 1970, the program’s unique, hands-on approach has brought Shakespeare’s words to life for hundreds of students and thousands of audience members. University students from many disciplines and backgrounds work together for six weeks at Winedale, ending their summer with four weekends of performances in a converted nineteenth-century hay barn.
For the first time in the program’s history, this summer’s class will perform Shakespeare’s riveting political thriller Coriolanus. “We are very excited to be doing the Winedale premiere of Coriolanus,” said program Director James Loehlin, “one of Shakespeare’s richest explorations of politics-- perfect for an election year! Coriolanus is set in the earliest days of the Roman republic, but still pertinent today.”
Click for additional information at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
presents
Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
Preview Performance by the Shakespeare at Winedale Spring Class Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 7:00 PM, UT Student Activities Center
Winedale barn performances Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28 @ 7:00 PM, near Round Top, Texas
TICKETS: General Admission - $10; Students/UT ID Holders - $5
Available at www.shakespeare-winedale.org or (512) 471-4726.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, the Shakespeare at Winedale Spring Class will give two performances of Julius Caesar at the Winedale Theatre Barn on April 27 and 28 at 7:00 and one preview performance on the UT campus at the Student Activity Center on April 24. These performances will be the culmination of a semester of coursework focusing on ‘Shakespeare and Politics in Performance.’
Perhaps Shakespeare’s most political play, Julius Caesar tells the story of a great military leader who seems destined to rule Rome, but whose assassination by a republican faction led by Brutus plunges the nation into civil war. Shakespeare's focus is on the conspirators and their complex motives, and the way their highest ideals sometimes lead to disaster.
"It is a fascinating story that has lost none of its power in the 400 years since Shakespeare wrote it, or the 2000 since the events depicted actually took place," said Shakespeare at Winedale director James Loehlin. "This tragedy raises timeless questions about competing systems of government, about the ethics of different methods for effecting political change, and above all, about the way rhetoric is employed to get people to act against their own interests. These are all subjects that are sure to come up in the current election year, and it is exciting to explore Shakespeare's views of them."
Shakespeare at Winedale, part of the University of Texas English Department, invites students from all disciplines to learn about Shakespeare through the experience of performing his works. Since 1970, hundreds of students have taken the stage in the Winedale Theater Barn, using all their intelligence, creativity, and passion to bring these plays to life. The spring class is a course on the University campus, where students spend class periods studying plays, exploring their challenges, and working collaboratively to perform scenes. The course also includes three weekends at the Winedale Historic Center, where students immerse themselves in Shakespearean study surrounded by the beauty of the Texas countryside.
Background on Shakespeare in Winedale with an interview of program director Dr. James Loehlin and program coordinator Liz Fisher, republished by permission from
The Bard of Winedale
by Kurt Wilson
Four decades ago, two events added immeasurably to the cultural riches of Fayette County. James Dick held a classical music concert in Round Top (please see our previous issue) that was the genesis of Festival Hill, and Dr. James Ayres founded Shakespeare at Winedale. Both of these projects were encouraged and supported by Miss Ima Hogg. The similarity does not end there. Like Festival Hill, Shakespeare at Winedale has flourished and expanded its mission well beyond its beginnings. In addition to furnishing University of Texas students a chance to learn about Shakespeare through performing some of his plays before an audience, the program now runs Camp Shakespeare, a two week program wherein ten to sixteen year olds get to perform scenes from the plays for their fellows and, finally, for an audience. The emphasis for the children, as with the college-aged students, is on the learning process, not the polishing of a performance. The program, which is part of the College of Liberal Arts, also provides classroom visits and workshops for schoolchildren from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Under the direction of its founder, Shakespeare at Winedale also provides classroom teachers with professional development to enhance their language arts instruction. There is an emphasis on reaching students from lower-income communities.
Recently the Round Top Register met with Dr. James Loehlin, Director, and Liz Fisher, Program Coordinator, for Shakespeare at Winedale to ask them some of the questions that might occur to readers of this magazine.
RTR: Dr. Loehlin, when did you take over from Dr. Ayres as the director of the summer program at Winedale?
JL: My first summer was 2001, so this past summer was my tenth anniversary. Dr. Ayres ran it for the first thirty years, and I have run it for the last ten, but he is still very involved in Camp Shakespeare. He is teaching at UT this semester. Even though he is retired from UT, he comes back from time to time to teach a course.
RTR: Liz, did you start as a student in the program?
LF: I was a student in Dr. Loehlin’s first class in 2001and then came back to do another summer in 2003. I worked with our outreach program for a bit after I graduated and then became the program’s coordinator in the fall of 2008.
RTR: You perform in a barn. Was the barn already on site when you began?
JL: The barn was already there. It was part of the original property purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, renovated, and donated to the university in the 1960s. I believe the original interior structure of the barn goes back to the late Nineteenth Century. It has had significant additions and renovations since then, including many things that happened since Shakespeare at Winedale started forty years ago when Professor James Ayres began taking his students out there to perform. When he started, it was certainly a spare structure with just the hayloft, a dirt floor, and no stage. He made a number of changes to the barn over the years to make it somewhat more of a theatrical space and more along the lines of an Elizabethan theatre, but I think the original structure of the barn gives the suggestion of an Elizabethan playhouse. That was one of the reasons Doc and Miss Ima had the idea of doing Shakespeare in that space.
Received directly:
Shakespeare at Winedale 41st Season’s Summer Tour
presents
Henry VI parts 2 and 3
by William Shakespeare
August 15 - 16, 7:30 p.m.; tickets $15 General Admission, $10 Student/UT ID Holder
Student Activities Center Black Box Theater; University of Texas at Austin (click for map)
Tickets available at www.shakespeare-winedale.org or (512) 471-4726
Hamlet
by Willam Shakespeare
Friday, August 12, 7:30 p.m.
McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas; tickets: $20 General Admission, $10 Student/UT ID Holder
As You Like It
by William Shakespeare
August 22, 7:30 p.m. (free admission)
American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse; Staunton, VA
Like Shakespeare’s occasionally itinerant players, the 2011 Shakespeare at Winedale summer class will take their performances on the road as part of the final piece of their study of Shakespeare through performance. After concluding four weekends of public performances at the Winedale Historic Center near Round Top, TX, the troupe will perform Hamlet in Dallas, Henry VI Parts 1 and 2 at UT in Austin and As You Like It at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia. Tickets for these events may be ordered online through the Shakespeare at Winedale website: www.shakespeare-winedale.org or by contacting Liz Fisher at (512) 471-4726 or lfisher@mail.utexas.edu.
Received directly:
Shakespeare at Winedale Receives Grant from RBC Wealth Management
Shakespeare at Winedale recently received a generous $5,000 grant from the RBC Foundation- USA to fund the program’s Shakespeare Outreach program, which brings Shakespeare into the lives of deserving children in and around central Texas. Shakespeare at Winedale Outreach, housed in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas, is a Language Arts enrichment program that provides opportunities for meaningful learning and academic excellence for Texas schoolchildren in grades K-12, with a special focus on both emerging and advanced readers in grades 3 through 8, and on students in low-income communities.
“We are extremely grateful for the support that RBC has given to our program over several years,” said Shakespeare at Winedale director James Loehlin, “Shakespeare at Winedale Outreach depends on grant support to carry out our educational mission.”
The mission of the RBC Foundation- USA is to improve the quality of life in the communities where RBC Wealth Management has a business presence by supporting non-profit organizations that make a positive difference. The foundation focuses on three core areas: arts and culture, human services and youth education. The culture at RBC Wealth Management is deeply rooted in being a trusted partner of its clients and to communities the firm serves.
Shakespeare at Winedale Outreach Upcoming events include summer workshops with Austin and Gonzales youth, both culminating at Winedale. Students will explore Shakespeare with the help of the Winedale summer class. The students will have the special opportunity to perform on the barn stage as well as enjoy Winedale performances of Hamlet and As You Like It.
About RBC Wealth Management In the United States, RBC Wealth Management operates as a division of RBC Capital Markets Corporation. Founded in 1909, RBC Capital Markets, LLC. is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, and other major securities exchanges. RBC Wealth Management has over $183 billion of assets under administration and nearly 2,100 financial consultants operating in nearly 199 locations in 42 states. Through RBC Foundation – USA grants, charitable sponsorships, civic involvement and employee volunteerism, RBC Wealth Management gave $3.2 million to charitable causes in local communities in 2010.
Found at the Shakespeare at Winedale website:
Winedale Summer Shakespeare
Schedule of Performances, July 14 - August 7
Shakespeare at Winedale, 7:30 p.m. evenings, 2 p.m. matinees
Winedale Complex, Briscoe Historical Center, University of Texas
3738 FM 2714, Round Top, Texas (2 hours from Austin) (click for directions and map)
As You Like It
Hamlet
Henry VI, Parts 1 - 3
Gala tickets for August 6 will be sold separately through the website
Click to view calendar of performances at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .
News about upcoming seasons at Winedale and at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre, just received: Dr. James Loehlin, director of the Shakespeare at Winedale program in the barn near Round Top, has scheduled
The Merchant of Venice on April 30 and May 1, 7 p.m., a presentation of the spring semester performance class.
In addition, on Saturday afternoon, May 1, the barn hosts 150 young players, drawn from third through sixth grade participants in UT's outreach programs, for a spring festival of play, followed by Eeyore's Birthday Party.
The summer program of Shakespeare at Winedale in July and August will present
Sharron Bower as Lady Macbeth sets the intensity and speed of the play. And “speed” it is – this pill-popping, text-messaging, sex-hungry, vital woman is a scarier witch than any of the three weird sisters. She seizes their auguries as guarantees for any bloody business and stampedes Macbeth into the murder of Duncan. She is so hot for her man that their brief discussion of the murder plot is all but lost in embraces before she hauls him offstage by the belt buckle. Lust becomes blood lust.
'tis done, then 'twere well/ It were done quickly”) as a declaration of intent, with moral considerations appended as an executive summary. He does not so much bend to Lady Macbeth’s immediate challenge to his manhood as wrap himself around her. Similarly, he does not dawdle or stop for thought when he sees the imaginary dagger before him – the mid-passage of that soliloquy (“Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going/And such an instrument I was to use”) is the driving theme to the speech, a brief preliminary to bloody action.
The visual design of this show is superb, including both the minimalist setting and the lighting. Costumes for the weird sisters were hallucinatory, suggesting materials scavaged from a dump, patched and worn as deteriorating shrouds. They writhed across the deadly space of the stage. Opening the second half of the play, their dance and the accompanying aria of Hecate were a special treat.
We drove out from Austin on Friday afternoon along route 71 as if we were headed for Houston, but we stopped 70 miles out at La Grange to check in to our undistinguished motel room. Then we ate a fine and inexpensive “early bird” dinner at the Bistro 108, at the southwest corner of Courthouse Square. From there, it was a 16-mile drive through rolling green hills with forest and farmland, a dog-leg right at Round Top, and then five more country miles to the Center for American History, a University of Texas institution set up through the philanthropy of Miss Ima Hogg. Every summer since 1970, following Miss Ima’s suggestion to UT professor “Doc” Ayers, university students have gathered in short-lived summer repertory to study and perform Shakespeare in the converted 1880s hay barn on the 270-acre property. This setting evokes the “green world” of Shakespeare’s middle comedies, where magic was possible and adventures turned out merrily.
The intensity of this engagement must make the six-credit course “Shakespeare at Winedale” one of the most memorable events of an education. This esprit de corps is reflected in the theatre’s vestibule, with a collection of photos from past seasons, as well as in the composition of the audience, where the choicest seats have been reserved for alumni, benefactors, and donors. Those of us who were casual attendees, the equivalent of groundlings, settled in the back rows, along obstructed sightlines, and in rows almost outside the barn itself. The barn’s maximum occupancy is 246, and both of our shows were full. 
Kate Atwell as Juliet in R&J and successively, in brief appearances in A&C, as various spear carriers. 
Kelsey Heaton, immediately remarkable in her language in the very minor clownish role of the servant Peter in R&J; regal, vigorous, precise, articulate and fully realized as Cleopatra.
Cate Blouke, with presence and equal assurance of language seen as Romeo’s supporter Balthazar in R&J and as Cleopatra’s confidante Charmian in A&C. 
Jesse Bertron as Romeo, seen here as he first meets Juliet. His Romeo is intense, inward looking, and at times almost truculent. There is no playfulness to him, much to the disappointment of Mercutio, as he seeks in Juliet a simplicity and purity. 
Colin Bjork as Marc Antony is tall, strong, and self-assured, an actor whose stage presence convinces us that Antony is both the dominant member of Rome’s Triumvirate and an equal to Cleopatra – no modest accomplishment, paired with the impressive Kelsey Heaton.
when disposing the secondary actors about the stage? Several times cast members planted themselves with their backs to the beam, when they might easily have been moved upstage. The most egregious of these occasions was the climax of R&J, as the dead and dying lovers were discovered stage center by their families. The black-caped watchman who had led the search, with nothing further to say, was posted at the post. His figure blocked the sublime finale.
