"The Play's the Thing"
Now in its fourth year, the Nantucket Shakespeare Festival officially kicks off this Sunday, July 13, offering seven days of lectures, performances and children's activities — all free and open to the public, thanks to the organizer, the 35-year-old Nantucket Arts Council and the generous support of the Nantucket community.
This year’s festival features performances from incredible professionally trained stage talents from the island and the Cape, as well as some of the nation's most respected Shakespearean scholars.
"The whole subject of Shakespeare, how it has become almost a national summer pastime, is amazing," said Reggie Levine, president of the Nantucket Arts Council and also chair of its Shakespeare Committee. "I think it has something to do with getting back to certain fundamentals in such a crazy time, and Shakespeare is one of them."
The Nantucket-based Seaside Shakespeare company begins the festival with four outdoor performances (July 13-16) at Children’s Beach of Much Ado About Nothing. The stellar cast includes Laurel Devaney, Susan Burns, Susan Lucier, Chas Libretto, and Susan McGinnis. New York-based director Rusty Owen leads the cast in a show with original music by Kim D. Sherman. With time to kill and high spirits goading them to mischief, young lovers play mettlesom matchmakers in the lives of their friends in this romantic comedy.
Scenes from Twelfth Night performed in a previous year.
"This is the perfect summer show," said McGinnis, the company's founder. "It's family-friendly, frothy fare. It's also easy to follow, because we consider it our business to make it as accessible as possible."
Prolific Harvard Shakespeare scholar and, most recently, the author of Profiling Shakespeare, Marjorie Garber returns this year to lecture on Thursday, July 17. Newsweek chose Garber's 2004 Shakespeare After All one of the 10 best nonfiction books of the year, because she has a knack for rejuvenating what is most universal about the playwright's work for contemporary readers and audiences.
In two special evening performances on July 18 and 19, members of Theatre Workshop of Nantucket's resident company will perform Tom Stoppard's "15 Minute Hamlet," directed by company member Caitlin Wiater.
"There are people who don't like old Shakespearean language, and this reaches them because it is condensed and lets you get right to the funny parts," said Joe Gilmore, who plays Shakespeare, Claudius, Pelonious, and the ghost of Hamlet's father in the piece. "I'm a comedic actor, and this has allowed me to do Shakespeare in one-liners, which is unique and rewarding."
Immediately following “15 Minute Hamlet” on both evenings, the acclaimed company Shakespeare on the Cape will take the stage at Bennett Hall to perform The Tempest. They will also be performing their "Kiddie Shakes" version for children on the morning of Saturday, July 19.
Set on an island, The Tempest sees the children of a magician and his enemy, a usurping king, fall in love after a shipwreck brings them all together.
"Shakespeare on the Cape is pleased and honored to be a part of the fourth annual Nantucket Shakespeare Festival," said the company's executive director Raphael Richter.
"Our staging of The Tempest is a very untraditional staging," said the company's co-artistic director, Elliot Eustis, who also plays the monster Caliban. "This is a magical play to do in a coastal environment. We try to keep it in a real nautical spirit. Also, the show's music is all acoustic, which we make ourselves offstage with instruments or a cappella."
“Kiddie Shakes” uses interactive storytelling to provide its young audience with the opportunity "to see firsthand the magic found within the words of William Shakespeare."
As a grand musical finale, the First Congregational Church of Nantucket's musical director Robert Behrman directs island soloists in an afternoon program of "Music in Shakespeare's Time" to close out the week on Sunday, July 20.
Also throughout the week, classic versions of Shakespeare film adaptations will be shown in Hendrix Hall of the Unitarian Church, 11 Orange Street: Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet," "Looking for Richard," starring Al Pacino, and the 1936 version of "Midsummer Night's Dream." Organizing the film series is Nantucket Arts Council board member Philippe Schreiber.
"The idea of having Shakespeare on Children's Beach, of making all our performances free, I think that's a noble effort," Levine said. "It's our hope that this is becoming a truly serious festival, while also being a lot of fun."
For a complete schedule of Nantucket Shakespeare Festival events, go to www.nantucketartscouncil.org or contact the Nantucket Arts Council at 508-325-8588.
