By Marlo Ihler

Director Kate Buckley is back. Having directed Much Ado about Nothing in 2003, Romeo and Juliet in 2005, and The Merry Wives of Windsor in 2006, she returns to direct a modernized version of Julius Caesar for the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s fall 2008 season.

Buckley currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she is a theatre professor at the University of Tennessee. She has also taught at DePaul and Northwestern Universities, as well as doing Shakespeare workshops across the country and in Europe. Her directing experience began years ago in Chicago. While there she was a founding member of and taught in the professional training program for the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, which this year won the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. She was also the artistic director of The Next Theatre in Chicago.

With political fascinations running high here in the United States and abroad, Julius Caesar could scarcely be presented at a better time. Updating this play to the current day provides an opportunity for audiences to explore such issues as power, idealism, and responsibility through a dateless lens. Buckley hopes her production will be “timely as well as timeless.”

The Utah Shakespearean Festival caught up with Buckley to visit about this upcoming production.

The Festival: How did the opportunity to direct Julius Caesar this fall come about and what are your feelings about updating it to modern times?

Buckley: I was approached about directing this play well over a year ago. I’ve never directed it before, but did do coaching on a production in Chicago. [Festival Executive Director] Scott [Phillips] brought up the subject of a modern production. I thought it would work quite well. Of course, it is not without its challenges. However, other issues, like the possession of power and what it does to man, unfortunately haven’t changed over the centuries.

The Festival: The current political atmosphere continues to be at a fever pitch here in the U.S. What ties, if any, do you hope to create with the political themes that exist in Julius Caesar?

Buckley: Every play one does should relate to the times we live in on some level. But it’s up to the audience to make those connections. I don’t presume to tell the audience what to think or how to make correlations to the current political climate in the U.S. The play is the play,
no matter where we set it, and the brilliant Shakespeare made his themes universal and for all times and all people.

The Festival: Perhaps you could give us a little insight into your directing style and preparation process.

Buckley: I like to consider myself a text-based director. That is, rather than thinking my ideas or concepts as paramount, I consider the text as the most important tool . . . at my disposal. I’m keen on making sure the text is accessible to the audience. If they don’t understand Shakespeare’s words and intent, then I’m not doing my job. One of the wonderful things about directing is that we are able, in fact we must, immerse ourselves in many different subjects. Once I begin work on a play, I study the subject matter for months. I not only study the play, all its facets, . . . I do a fairly hefty amount of research on location, myths, archaic meanings of words and delve into the emotional life of each character by paying attention to the language Shakespeare chose to use. Once I have a reasonable amount of information I start speaking with my designers about the . . . physical world we will attempt to create.

The Festival: In an essay by Katharine Eisaman Maus, she says commentators throughout the ages have viewed Caesar’s assassination as an act of “heroism, expediency, or villainy and celebrated, excused, or denounced its perpetrators accordingly.” What thoughts can you share about the actions of these heroes/perpetrators?

Buckley: What defines a tragic hero? A seemingly good man makes an error in judgment and the actions associated with that error result in death. In this play, it could be said there are many tragic heroes—Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, conspirators. All are motivated by what they believe is right for Rome. They may be misled or misguided, but they are striving for a higher ideal, a better way. Shakespeare not only explores this desire, but he masterfully expresses their self-realization of failure. The irony is, that through their actions to make Rome a better place, they created a path for . . . one of the most famous rulers the world has ever known— Augustus Caesar.

The Festival: This will be the Festival’s fifth staging of Julius Caesar in its forty-seven year history. What are you most excited about with this production?

Buckley: What I am most excited about in this production are the actors and what they will bring to the stage in terms of clarity and honesty. [They are] all fine, fine actors, with enormous amounts of talent.

The Festival: And finally, what attracted you to theatre?

Buckley: In thinking about my first experience as a child, seeing a high school production of Bye Bye Birdie, I was transported. I think that’s what attracted me to theatre. It has the power to transport us emotionally, physically, and spiritually.