Mary Hosford- Education Tour Guest Blogger

A lot of preparation and work goes into our 2013 Education Tour. Here is the person who oversees the technical aspects of the show…

Mary Hosford (Technical Director)

Where did you grow up? Where do you currently live?

I lived in Mississippi until I was 9 and then we moved to Vermont, and I’ve considered it home ever since. In the past few years I’ve spent time in Missouri, Iowa, and Utah, but I’ll always end up back in Vermont eventually–I’m sure of that.

Have you ever been involved with Romeo and Juliet before? If yes, how many times and in what functions/roles?

My only real experience with Romeo and Juliet is reading it in a high school English class and we took turns reading parts for the scenes. I was never a big fan of that, but I suppose that’s why I’m not an actor. 

What are you looking forward to the most about this tour; why did you want to become involved?

I am most looking forward to figuring out how to adapt the show to each space and solving the problems that arise. Problem solving is probably one of my favorite things to do. I got involved with this tour because I enjoy traveling and seeing places, even if it’s just in a 3 state radius. I’ve always wanted to be a part of a tour of any size.

Have you ever done a similar tour like this before? Tell us about it.

This is my first tour and experience like this.

What do you hope to contribute or give to young audiences during this tour?

I really hope that audiences come out of this show with a new understanding of what theatre can be. This production of Romeo and Juliet is different from your normal R&J because of the cuts and the choices John has made as our director. It’s something pretty wonderful to watch.

What are you hoping to personally learn or achieve?

Personally, I’m hoping to be able to encourage some of the students to pursue working backstage. If they really enjoy working on the technical side of things then they should keep doing it in whatever capacity they can; be it community theatre or perhaps pursuing a degree in Technical Theatre. I hope that I can help someone realize that it is rewarding, even if you don’t necessarily get all the credit that tends to go to the actors.

What are some of your favorite hobbies? pet peeves? guilty pleasures?

Oh gosh, I am kind-of obsessed with British Television. I also love animals. I initially was going  to become an Equine Vet, but changed my mind. I love riding and it’s something I miss quite a lot. Also, after the tour is over, I’m hoping to take a couple of pilot lessons before heading back to Iowa for the summer. “Fly more planes” was indeed my New Year’s resolution.

Why do you think art in general is important?

Art is something that is just a part of being human. People are drawn to art in many different forms and it can be an excellent venue for expression, as well as discussion. Art allows us to think critically about conflict in an abstract way. Meaning that a play or painting that depicts struggles that reflect those currently happening in society can allow you to think and discuss the struggle and a possible remedy.

To learn more or see if the Tour is coming to your city, visit this page on our website-http://bard.org/education/tour.html

(Photos by Karl Hugh. Copyright Utah Shakespeare Festival 2013.)

The set of the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Romeo and Juliet.

Melisa Pereyra (left) as Juliet and Chris Klopatek as Romeo in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Romeo and Juliet.

Tricia Hofacker- Education Tour Guest Blogger

Our 2013 Education Tour is underway, and here is the person who helps with much of the logistical behind-the-scenes preparation…

Tricia Hofacker (Company Manager)

Where did you grow up? Where do you currently live?

I grew up in the village of Casstown, Ohio and I currently live in Cedar City, UT***.***

Have you ever been involved with Romeo and Juliet before? If yes, how many times and in what functions/roles?

Never been involved before, only read it out loud in class.

What are you looking forward to the most about this tour; why did you want to become involved?

I’m looking forward to the reactions of students to the workshop we put on after the show. Some kids get more into the action than the others, but it’s fun to watch the wallflowers shine.

Have you ever done a similar tour like this before? Tell us about it.

I’ve been in a children’s show that toured to schools in Ohio, it was a show that taught children about dealing with responsibility and loss. It was great! The kids were really responsive to it, they loved how interactive it was.

What do you hope to contribute or give to young audiences during this tour?

I really hope that the kids feel free to express themselves, especially the ones who are normally shy.

What are you hoping to personally learn or achieve?

Well, I’ve already learned a lot about booking hotels and transportation for the company. I’ve learned that there are many schools that do not have a lot of theatrical equipment or space, but they are so excited to bring Shakespeare to the kids. 

What are some of your favorite hobbies? pet peeves? guilty pleasures?

I love watching documentaries and Jeopardy, going to art museums and traveling. Pet peeves- chewing with your mouth open, tapping repetitively on the back of either my movie seat or airplane seat. Guilty pleasures: cheesecake, milk chocolate and red wine.

Why do you think art in general is important?

Art is important for so many reasons, but I think primarily it is important to express emotions and life experiences through a story.

To learn more or see if the Tour is coming to your city, visit this page on our website-http://bard.org/education/tour.html

(Photos by Karl Hugh. Copyright Utah Shakespeare Festival 2013.)

The cast and crew of the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Romeo and Juliet.

Melisa Pereyra (left) as Juliet and Chris Klopatek as Romeo in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Romeo**and Juliet.

Josh Innerst- Education Tour Guest Blogger

Josh Innerst (Friar/Tybalt)

Our 2013 Education Tour is almost ready to perform Romeo and Juliet for schools and students in Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. Here is the story of one of our actors…

Where did you grow up? Where do you currently live?

I grew up all over the East Coast. Born in Harrisburg, PA, but moved to NC when I was 8 and then onto the upstate of South Carolina for the rest of my time at home. Since then I’ve been bouncing primarily around the Mid-West and have now settled down in Philadelphia with my wife, Sarah, and our dog. But I’m not getting too comfortable because I’m off to Virginia for a 6 month contract after I’m done here.

Have you ever been involved with Romeo and Juliet before? If yes, how many times and in what functions/roles?

I have been in Romeo and Juliet once before with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival where I played The Prince and Friar John and acted as Fight Captain. In May I’ll be starting rehearsals for another production of the play with the American Shakespeare Company in Staunton, VA in which I will again be playing The Prince, as well as Peter.

Joshua James Innerst (left) as Friar Lawrence and Melisa Pereyra as Juliet in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Romeo and Juliet.

What are you looking forward to the most about this tour? Why did you want to become involved?

To be honest, I’m very excited about the fights. Joe Foust was a great Fight Director and all of us have put a lot of time and effort into making the fights as engaging and flawless as possible. Romeo and Juliet, as a play, is a great opportunity to showcase the hard work that goes into studying, choreographing, and perfecting stage violence. This play, besides being one of the greatest love stories of Western literature, also makes a profound statement about violence begetting violence. It isn’t the disapproval of the rival parents that drives the young lovers apart and to their deaths. It is the consequence of Mercutio’s baiting of Tybalt, Tybalt’s accidental murder of Mercutio, Romeo’s vengeance against Tybalt, and the fallout of all of the above. I think it’s important that it is not the adults who enact the violence in the play. It is the teenagers. When you turn on the news today, you see the story being repeated time and time again. It is the violence that drives our lovers apart. It’s also the violence that will get high-school students to lean forward in their seats and hopefully pay attention to the language.

Have you ever done a similar tour like this before? Tell us about it.

I actually just finished up an Educational Tour with the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in November. I played Lysander and Tom Snout in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and we toured the production in various schools across Pennsylvania, New York, and New Hampshire. I had a blast working with the students and hanging out with my fellow actors. Tours are a great experience. Every actor should do at least one.

What do you hope to contribute or give to young audiences during this tour?

Elyse Edelman (left) as Benvolio, Chris Klopatek as Romeo, Zachary Powell as Mercutio, & Joshua James Innerst as Tybalt in the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Romeo and Juliet.

I would love it if some nervous kid who doesn’t have much of an outlet for creativity finds a medium because of this tour. That would be great. But more than that, my biggest hope is that young audiences have fun. Seriously. Shakespeare, divorced from the classroom, is immensely entertaining. Not many people have had the opportunity to experience that. So. . . I hope that this show helps to breed a future audience both for the Festival and for theatres elsewhere. That would make it a worthwhile endeavor.

What are you hoping to personally learn or achieve?

I’m hoping to learn how to eat clean on the road. My wife and I have really changed the way we eat over the past year and I’m hoping for those habits to not just fly out the window because we’re on tour. I’m also a bookbinder and have an online store where I sell hand-bound journals. I’m trying to keep it up and running while on tour so we’ll see how well that goes.

What are some of your favorite hobbies? pet peeves? guilty pleasures?

I’m an avid reader and writer. I’m currently knee deep in One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Hobbitand am looking forward to long car rides with nothing but a book and the window. I’m a singer song writer as well so this tour would be really long without my guitar. I also love baking. Scones in particular.

Why do you think art in general is important?

I think that the role of art is to communally observe the human condition. We celebrate what can be celebrated and then sit down by Babylon and weep over Zion when we need to. It’s the artist’s role to continually be asking questions that in turn demand answers from the audience. Shakespeare does this perfectly. For Utah audience’s who were here this past season, Titus Andronicus was a perfect example of this. The play ends with a stage filled with dead bodies. The Tribune Marcus turns toward the audience and asks, “Have we done aught amiss?” Have we done well? Was this all worth it? Audience’s who come to see Romeo and Juliet will leave the play with the words “All are punished” ringing in their ears. So was all this worth it? That’s what we exist to do as artists. To ask our audience’s the questions we are often afraid to ask ourselves. 

To learn more or see if the Tour is coming to your city, visit this page on our website-http://bard.org/education/tour.html

(Photos by Karl Hugh. Copyright Utah Shakespeare Festival 2013.)

The Artistic Directors Go Coast to Coast

Vaughn

The Utah Shakespeare Festival continues to gain national recognition as both Artistic Directors, Brian Vaughn and David Ivers, are guest directors on either side of the country this winter at two world-renowned Shakespeare Festivals. Vaughn is directing Othello at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival and Ivers will be directing The Taming of the Shrew at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

“Directing at Orlando Shakes is an incredible honor, and I’m thrilled at the opportunity to expand my directing repertoire, as well as increase the exposure of the Utah Shakespeare Festival,” said Vaughn. “It’s important to David and I that we infuse what we do there with what we do here and keep this artistic synergy going throughout these different Shakespeare Festivals.”

Vaughn said, “I met Jim Helsinger, Orlando’s artistic director, last winter at the Shakespeare Theatre Association conference. We started talking about the play and then I submitted my ideas to him and the rest is history. The play will be set in the traditional Renaissance time period. I didn’t want to do anything too outrageous with it because I wanted to stay true to the story."

Othelloruns at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival from January 23 to March 16, 2013. Othello, a celebrated general, yet an outsider, defies social convention and marries Desdemona, a Venetian aristocrat. Enter Othello’s most trusted lieutenant, the “honest” Iago, who nurses a vengeful hate for his commander. As Iago draws Othello and the audience into a spider web of half-truths, scandal is fueled – families and friendships destroyed – until a “trifle light as air” tragically unravels them all. For more information about the Orlando Shakespeare Festival visit their website at www.orlandoshakes.org.

Ivers

“I’m really excited to return to Ashland and direct The Taming of the Shrew at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,” said Ivers. “I received my B.F.A at Southern Oregon University, and my first acting job was on stage at OSF in 1991, so this is like a homecoming for me."

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is the largest and oldest Shakespeare Festival in the country. Ivers went on to say that, “for the past several years USF and OSF have had a mutual exchange of artists, which keeps the level of quality and professionalism very high between these two theatres.” Actors who have recently worked at both organizations include Danforth Comins, last year’s Hamlet, Elijah Alexander and Christian Barillas. The Taming of the Shrew runs at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from February 15 to November 3, 2013.

Sweet-tempered daddy’s girl Bianca can have her pick of suitors—but not until her sister, the acid-tongued Kate, can be married off. Rising to the challenge is rockabilly musician Petruchio, but can he match Kate jab for jab? A hilarious, delirious tangle of masquerades and misdirection plays out against a backdrop of beach boardwalks and rock ’n’ roll. And in the end, the surprising love story dares to ask what roles we play and, underneath, who we really are. For more information about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival visit their website at www.osfashland.org.

Love at First Sight

Do you believe in love at first sight? John MaClay, the director for this year’s Education Tour, does. This belief will inform his direction of Romeo and Juliet, a 75-minute version complete with sets, costumes, music and theatrical lighting. He believes that Shakespeare continues to be the best describer of the truth of humanity, that while society has changed, what we need as human beings hasn’t.

From January to April, the tour (eight actors, stage manager, company manager and technician) will spend 14 weeks on the road visiting schools, community centers and correctional facilities across Utah, Nevada and Arizona with over 65 performances for 120 schools. Nearly 25,000 students, who may otherwise never see a live theatre production, will be educated and entertained.

The play will be set in modern time and dress with a slight Asian influence. The costumes, designed by Christina Leinicke, use color to delineate the alliances: white for neutral, teal for Montagues and gold for Capulets.

The set, designed by Props Director Ben Hohman, centers on a bridge. Symbolically, each side of the bridge represents the feuding families and the love between Romeo and Juliet eventually bridge the gap and connect the Montagues and Capulets. Practically, the bridge is used for the balcony and fight scenes. Because the tour performs in spaces varying in size from the Randall L. Jones Theatre to a 20 X 20 space it needs to be flexible and adjustable.

Right now, the company is in rehearsal. Over the next few months, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from them, both while here in Cedar City and while they’re on the road. We’ll learn what it’s like to unpack and repack the trucks, perform in a variety of spaces, and conduct workshops in Stage Combat, Performing Shakespeare’s Text, and Developing Character through Improvisation with students who’ve never seen a Shakespeare play before.

The schedule for the tour will soon be posted on the website http://www.bard.org/education/tour.html. There are a few public performances, including one in Cedar City on January 24, 7:30 pm in the Randall L. Jones Theatre. Tickets are only $5 and are available at the Festival ticket office.