Monday Night in Tempe: Mary Z. Maher and "Actors Talk About Shakespeare" at Changing Hands Bookstore

On a cool, pleasant evening, we drove over from Apache Junction to our favorite bookstore of all time, Changing Hands in Tempe, for a fascinating talk by Mary Z. Maher on her new book, Actors Talk About Shakespeare.

The book features interviews with Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Zoe Caldwell, Derek Jacobi, Stacy Keach, Nicholas Pennell, Geoff Hutchings and other American, Canadian and British actors talking about acting Shakespearean roles. Maher, who taught acting and Shakespeare at the University of Arizona, worked on BBC's The Shakespeare Plays series and has published over 50 articles and book chapters in her field, and her earlier book Modern Hamlets and Their Soliloquies is a classic in performance studies.

Maher now lives in Ashland, Oregon, home of the famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she lectures on the art of performing Shakespeare. We felt lucky to hear her talk over a wide range of issues related to the subject tonight.

She began by decrying the lack of documentation of acting performances and stage productions in the United States, saying that "when the curtain is struck, not a rack is left behind." Actors' unions make difficult the videotaping of theatrical performances, which with today's technology, wouldn't be that expensive. As a scholar, this lack has made her work difficult and frustrating; there really is no way we can compare Shakespearean acting styles of, say, the 1920s, 1950s and today.

There are some wonderful video resources, Maher said, at a few places, like the Billy Rose Performing Arts Library (near the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham University, where we teach), but it's limited to one-time screenings by scholars, and Maher complained that there were no decent video performances of, say, the Lears of Stacy Keach or Kevin Kline.

So Maher began interviewing actors for her Hamlet soliloquies book and this one as a way of providing a record of some sort of these ephemeral but often historic performances. She began shyly, but actors, Maher said, taught her how to do interviews, and she told a charming story about Ben Kingsley, who'd suggested they do a Saturday morning interview at the Lyric Hammersmith Theater, unaware that a hundred noisy kids would be there for a drama group. The old pro Kingsley showed her how to muffle the sound so her tape recorder would work and proved generous with his time and insights.

Clearly, Maher is smitten with her subjects, some of whom are happy to go over the limited time periods they originally scheduled (Kenneth Branagh offered her only an hour but then said he'd come back for a much longer session once he'd "had a pee") and some of whom, like Kevin Kline, seem to have become her friends.

Aided by photos of some of the actors in their classic Shakespeare roles, Maher told some wonderful stories (and withheld others, like the theatrical gossip about co-stars and directors told to her by the legendary Zoe Caldwell). It's easy to get swept up in Maher's enthusiasm for her subject, and she tells nice stories on herself too, like the time Tom Stoppard startled her at Waterstone's in Stratford-Upon-Avon by coming behind her and putting his hand on her shoulder and praising her theater scholarship.

She called Kenneth Branagh "the king of networking" and described him going into "his little professor persona" as he talked about his work with such precision. Zoe Caldwell explained in painstaking deal how she prepares for a role like Cleopatra. And Derek Jacobi (who we saw in the wonderful Royal Shakespeare production of Much Ado a quarter-century ago) was frank about the shortcomings of some of his directors.

Kevin Kline seems to be Maher's favorite, inviting her to rehearsals of both theatrical productions and his work as a director for TV's PBS version of Hamlet. But it's obvious that Maher loves all the actors who's given her interviews, and she's got a treasure trove of stories about them; during the enlightening Q&A period, Maher proved just as interesting in her opinions of various Shakespeare productions.

Her favorite play? A Midsummer Night's Dream, which "unfolds like magic." She's naturally a partisan of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, but she seems open to all kinds of productions of the Bard's plays, including Henry VIII and perhaps even Two Noble Kinsmen. Her books sound fascinating and we look forward to reading them.

Friday Night in Williamsburg: New Lions Productions presents "Comedie of Errors" at McCarren Park

Just as we did last Saturday, we did a Brooklyn-Shakespeare-in-the-parks double header today, going from the Shakespeare in the Pagoda in Prospect Park to McCarren Park, where the B43 bus waiting for us on Lincoln Road and Ocean Avenue took us quickly enough through Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy and Williamsburg to get us right to Manhattan Avenue and just steps away from the 7 p.m. start of a rollicking, wacky and super-energetic Comedie of Errors on the McCarren Park fieldhouse grass.

This hour-long production, so fast-paced that time flew was presented by New Lions Productions, was an adaptation of Shakespeare's lightest and briefest comedy by Lauren Keating, who also expertly directed the fun. Frankly, we weren't expecting that much, but the show really wowed us with its terrific acting, zestful choreography, and masterly comic timing. Even the costumes (designed by Tristan Raines, assisted by Tara DeVincenzo) were standouts.

A or The Comedy of Errors is generally considered an "apprentice comedy" of Shakespeare's, maybe even his first play (its date is uncertain). Because of its emphasis on broad slapstick and low rather than refined verbal pyrotechnics and sophisticated wit, it's not taught very often, but audiences usually love it. As an early 1960s dramafag, we're old enough to know pretty well the Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse and have always adored the song "Falling in Love with Love" from it.

Actually, the play's not just an air-whipped delight; the threat of Egeon's death hangs over the story and the day's events (as in classical Greek plays, Shakespeare has this all take place during one day) from the first scene. And it makes a lot of points about the inherent problems in unequal relationships: master/slave, husband/wife, ruler/subjects, merchant/customers.

Also, not only is it weirdly Christian for its pre-Christian ancient Greek setting, it's extremely weirdly Roman Catholic (people have worry beads, there's an abbess) for Shakespeare's Protestant England.

Of course, that's just our lit-professor self talking, and like most teachers, we're at risk of making this Comedie of Errors we saw tonight - it will again be at McCarren Park on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. and at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Riverside Park next weekend - sound less hysterically funny and entertaining than it proved to be.

It's really a good show for kids, even little ones. (Some of the inadvertent comedy tonight was provided by a little blonde girl about 3 or 4 who seemed desperate to join the action "onstage," and the actors, being skilled comedians, used this to get a few more well-deserved laughs.) In general, we've probably never laughed so much at a Shakespeare staging.

The promo stuff said, "Half the time! Half the text! Double the girls! Double the fun!" and it certainly delivered on those promises. Lauren Keating's sex switch in making the two sets of twins - the separated-and-unknown-to-each-other men named Antipholus and their slaves named Dromio - are here women: Antiphala of Syracuse, played with high spirits by the dynamic Tina Diaz, who garners most of the audience's sympathy for her confusion;

Antiphala of Ephesus, who finds her life up-ended and is an equally funny but more exasperated Nadia Hullett, expert at the slow burn; and their long-suffering, bumbling and gawky (but actually very graceful in their gawkiness) female slaves, played by Claire Morrison (Dromia of Syracuse) and Joyce Miller (Dromia of Ephesus), who are superb physical comedians in the mode of Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett and Ellen DeGeneres.

The gender reversal takes away a lot of the somewhat annoying sexual attitudes of the play and so the stereotypical shrewish wife Adriana becomes Adriano, who as portrayed by Shane Zeigler, is haplessly inept at establishing male domination of a household that seems to have gone mad.

Matt Lents is very funny indeed as Adriano's clueless, nose-picking brother Luciano (in Shakespeare's text, the sister Luciana) and makes a sympathetic though comically inept Duke. Lents can elicit laughter with a slight gesture, and he also serves well as the door (literally, he plays the role of the door) to his brother's house.

The other actors also are adept in their parts: Anna Marquardt makes a wise-gal Goldsmith (you can only push her so far) and an unhinged Doctor Pinch; Meghan Powe, the most dignified cast member, plays the adapted role of what Shakespeare had as Antipholus of Ephesus's courtesan friend as well as the Abbess, who turns out to be Aemilia, mother of the two Antiphalas;

and Chris Stahl as Egeon, their father, is in some ways the play's moral center, gives a very nuanced performance.

There's amazingly precise and sly choreography (Hannah Bary is credited as dance consultant, Lisa Kopitsky as fight choreography) as well as crucial musical accompaniment by Katie Costello and Amos Fisher, who takes minor roles when necessary.

We're a little tired by now, and it feels like we didn't get across just how entertaining this all was. See it for yourself tomorrow, Sunday or next weekend. Thanks to everyone who made it possible. Oh God, we were going to say something like "It won't be an error to see this," which probably means we're severely tired (it's after midnight as we write this). We really, really liked Comedie of Errors, but we're also exhausted and our eyes are so blurry we can barely see what we're writing.

Thursday Night on the Lower East Side: The Drilling Comany's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot presents "Love's Labour's Lost"

Tonight we were at the municipal parking lot on Broome and Ludlow for an absolutely fantastic Drilling Company Shakespeare in the Parking Lot presentation of Love's Labour's Lost.

Sometimes called Shakespeare's most forgettable comedy, Love's Labour's Lost went for over sixty years (from 1891 to 1953) without a single production in New York. Some call the play a mere exercise in style. Yet Kathy Curtiss's direction of this production shows that the play can be made relevant, sexy, sweet, energetic, thought-provoking, and at times laugh-out-loud funny.

Our main thought going back over the bridge from the Lower East Side to Williamsburg was: How could we have missed eighteen previous seasons of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot? Okay, we weren't in New York except for month-long visits for much of that time, but based on what we'd read, we had a mistaken view of what it was all about.

At least on this night, there were enough chairs for almost all of the audience who showed up (somehow we had the idea that we were going to stand and walk around for two and a half hours). Not comfortable chairs, but we've used them in our own apartments when we were poor, and next time we'll bring a pillow for our back. (Our physical therapist in Phoenix told us: "Sitting is your enemy.")

And although this was a contemporary updating of Shakespeare with genuine royalty and nobility and the usual "lower people" being replaced by rock royalty and nobility and hangers-on, set during a Burning Man Festival. That made the very loud rock music coming from - a nearby rooftop party? a bar? a street concert? - for about half an hour seem like it was a soundtrack.

Mostly, we were surprised at how faithful the play was to Shakespeare's language and wit. With a rudimentary if confusing plot, Love's Labour's Lost's theme, at least to us, is the use and misuse of words and their discontents, the failure of intellectualization and rhetoric in the face of human reality, moving toward its ultimate, surprisingly melancholy realization: "a heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue."

Sammy Condusta's excellent NewsBlaze article explained it well:

"Love's Labour's Lost" is a seemingly lighthearted battle of the sexes, played out in disguises and hidden agendas. For "Fame's sake," the young King of Navarre and his three closest friends vow to study, fast and see no women for three years, only to have their solemn oaths challenged the very next day by the arrival of the Princess of France and three beautiful companions. Ideals of scholarship and dreams of "Fame" are forgotten in the pursuit of the "ideal" woman. The ensuing courtship becomes a shuffle of suitors as the men, in disguise, woo the ladies who, warned of the charade, have disguised themselves as well. With considerable wit, the ladies beat the gents at their own game and manage to teach them a lesson or two. But before the ruses can get sorted out and love's labors can come to fruition, there's a plot twist which stops all love's "proceedings" and leaves us with...a hell of a cliffhanger.

One crtic said this comedy's difficulty comes because it's "strewn with topical allusions and word plays that are beyond even relatively well-prepared audiences." The director gets around this problem with contemporary updating - references to Obama, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, and the oil spill replace now-obscure allusions (or illusions, or pollutions, or whatever, as the well-named Dull, played skillfully by Stephen Drabicki as a thick-headed Southern sheriff's deputy, says in his perpetual incomprehension).

The sizzle in the play comes first of all from Jordan Feltner as a vibrant and sensuous Barowne and his counterpart/verbal sparring partner/true love, Amanda Dillard as a now-fiery, now-flirty Rosaline, and on a slightly higher plane, the slightly too-clever-for-his-own good King of Navarre (here Prince, played ably by Jasper Soffer, and the sophisticated, shrewd and kind Princess of France (Anwen Darcy).

The two other couples in the major romantic plot - Katherine (Nicola Murphy) and Longaville (McKey Carpenter), Maria (Anna Paratore) and Dumaine (Alesssandro Colla) - also add to the sly fun, and they each have the distinct character and lots of funny - and often subtle - stage business.

The cast was uniformly superb. Our weak cellphone pics here, all taken early in the evening so we could take advantage of the light, don't match what we're saying in terms of the characters/actors, but there were also wonderful comic performances by Tim Realbuto, Nick Masson, Jack Herholdt, Michael Gnat, Gabriella Mazza, Paul Guskin, Ureil Menson, and Jasmine Monet, each of whom played a delightfully idiosyncratic character. Since we're incompetent to review anything, there's an acutal review that goes into detail at nytheater.com, though we thought the comic subplots were about as well-integrated as they could ever be.

We tell our students that Shakespeare often messes up: the stuff about Aquitaine - here, cleverly, a dispute about song royalties rather than land, intellectual property today being more important than real property - has never quite made sense. (But we love the inside joke alluding to The Merchant of Venice, which is Shakespeare's own later addition, not a Drilling Company comment on Al Pacino.) This is a hard play to do; the only other production we've ever seen, back in the 1970s at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and directed by the actor Michael Moriarty, was truly dreadful.

As we've said before, we read much of Shakespeare before we got out of high school, and we've been teaching him for the past five years, and going back to the 1970s, on the college level. Although we routinely tell classes that all his comedies end in marriage(s), this one ends with the mere promise of one (uh, four). Anyway, we're familiar with stuff others aren't. Some people might want to read SparkNotes ahead of time. The Drilling Company production is lively and accessible that you don't need to be "fed of the dainties that are bred in a book" (or be an pedantic pseudo-schlolar like us or these guys):

So if you like Shakespeare, we'd say: If you can, go to see Love's Labour's Lost. You have five more chances.

Wednesday Night in Sunnyside: Hip to Hip Theatre Company presents "Taming of the Shrew" in Sunnyside Gardens Park

It's always a pleasure to take the B24 bus to Sunnyside, and tonight was even more enjoyable than usual for we were able to catch a nicely-executed, swift-moving production of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew by the Hip to Hip Theatre Company in the lush confines of the private Sunnyside Gardens Park.

We just missed the B-24 bus at our corner (Metropolitan and Lorimer), but since the route boomerangs eccentrically between Williamsburg and Greenpoint via Sunnyside, we just hopped on the G train two stops north and got the B-24 from the other end, at Manhattan and Greenpoint Avenues, getting a block from Queens Boulevard quickly. (Luckily it wasn't a weekend; as of late June, the MTA has eliminated Saturday and Sunday service, an inconvenience for us and a real hardship for others.)

We walked up 47th Street to 39th Avenue; Sunnyside Gardens, the first planned community in the country, built in the 1920s, is stately and gorgeous on a summer evening. It's also where the concept of the superblock was born, so the blocks are long.

Sunnyside Gardens Park on 39th Avenue, just south of the Long Island Rail Road, is one of New York City's two private parks open to residents. But unlike Gramercy Park, anyone who pays the annual fee and devotes twelve hours of volunteer work, may be a member. We were grateful for the chance to come in for free. The three acres are lovely and there are really good recreational facilities for people of all ages.

Hip to Hip Theatre Company, founded in 2007, has been bringing free Shakespeare to the parks of underserved Queens, since then. Tonight was the opening of their season, and nearly every night between now and August 29, they'll be presenting Macbeth and Taming of the Shrew

at various locations, including Flushing Meadows Park, Forest Park, Totten Park, Queensbridge Park, Gantry Plaza State Park and more, including a stint in Southampton's Agawam Park. They did the same last year with Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Taming of the Shrew is a problematic play due to its seeming endorsement of misogyny and male supremacy, which may have made audiences even in Shakespeare's day uneasy, which accounts for the frame story (Shakespeare calls it an "induction") of the main action being a play put on for a poor tinker being punk'd by a lord into thinking that he too is a noble and given a pageboy in women's clothes and told "she" is his wife.

Here the frame is eliminated, as it is in many productions, but it reinforces both the idea that our environment and the way we are treated by others determines our behavior — an idea that Katherine’s transformation from nasty scold to submissive wife in the main play also illustrates — and that our social status and gender/relationship roles, seen as rigidly determined, are essentially matters of appearance and perception that can be manipulated freely by deception, though never quite escaped.

Although this play ends, like almost all Shakespeare's comedies, with multiple brides and grooms, Katherine and Petruchio have been married for a while, and Taming of the Shrew also observes the post-wedding marital tensions for the two other couples (Bianca and Lucentio, the widow and Hortensio).

Our only previous experience seeing Taming of the Shrew was twenty years ago in Central Park, where we saw A.J. Antoon's unforgettable transposition of the play's action to the Wild West, complete with all the cliches of the American Western. It starred Morgan Freeman and Tracey Ullman in thrilling performances.

The scene where Freeman twirls his lasso and ropes Ullman like she's a runaway calf is indelibly fixed in our memory. (Antoon directed our other favorite Shakespeare productions, the Gay 90s Much Ado About Nothing in 1973 and the breathtaking Bahia-set Midsummer Night's Dream in 1987.)

That experience probably spoiled us a bit. The Hip to Hip Theatre Company's version, though, is a wonderful traditional production of the comedy; it's really old school, with men in tights and other Elizabethean conventions. For the first few scenes, the line readings seemed a bit over the top to us, the gestures slightly hammy, but we've become accustomed to more naturalistic performances rather than the classical version we got tonight.

Many people, including a colleague at one of the colleges where we teach who teaches a Shakespeare course every semester, absolutely despise any production of the Bard's plays not employing Renaissance dress and traditional staging. We're a product of the Sixties, and since our first Shakespeare-in-the-park production forty years ago, a hippie-ish Midsummer Night's Dream in Prospect Park, we've preferred rethinkings of the text and imaginative, radical transformations of the setting.

Anyway, that's our own prejudices, and that said, Elizabeth Carlson's direction of Shrew for Hip to Hip was perfectly delightful. The actors, led by Jason Marr as a buoyant, playful Petruchio and Joy Marr as a somewhat ironic Kate, are actually quite subtle and each of them had at least one moment of brilliant bits of business.

(The audience was asked not to take photographs and we complied, except for the pre-Shrew entertaining recitations of Shakespeare sonnets, songs and some swordplay, to give an idea of the setup and audience at Sunnyside Gardens Park.)

The director and actors avoid the problem of turning the comedy too dark because Petruchio is not played as an uncaring, dominating chauvinist and Kate's submission seems pragmatic and not entirely without tongue in cheek. The way the two principals interact - and we guess their own marriage may inform the way they interpret the roles - is the joy of this production.

Although the play is filled with lots of slapstick and an extraordinary number of deceptions in the subplots of Bianca and her suitors, the Hip to Hip's version of Taming of the Shrew is thoughtful and insightful in its treatment of what we think of as the play's main thrust: how people's happiness in society mostly depends upon adapting, at least in some way, to the social roles assigned to us, and that the smart person ultimately at least appears to accommodate, as Kate does, to social convention.

It was a gorgeous evening and if you can get out to a Queens park, you should see the Hip to Hip Theatre Company's work in the next couple of weeks. We felt lucky to see it, and then we were lucky to just catch (we ran) a speedy B-24 bus on 48th Street and Greenpoint Avenue heading to Williamsburg and got dropped off on our corner (Metropolitan and Leonard) about fifteen minutes later.