#Tina Packer Playhouse

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REVIEW: "Macbeth" at Shakespeare & Company

REVIEW: “Macbeth” at Shakespeare & Company

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Molly Noble

Hometown?  

San Francisco. 

Where are you now?  

Just north of SF in Marin County.

What's your current project?

You Can’t Take It With You”at CTE (Conservatory Ensemble Theatre) at Tamalpais High School (guest artist)  and David Copperfield at College of Marin (where I teach).

Why and how did you get into theatre?

I saw Peter Brook’s Midsummer Night Dream at ACT's Geary Theatre when I was 13.  I was completely enchanted and amazed. I jumped into training at A.C.T's Young Conservatory and I knew I had found my passion.  Those were the magical days of Bill Ball. The company ran in repertory. The regional theatre movement was filled with possibility and Bill’s vision was positive and filled with a kind of pageantry and truth that influenced my life.

What is your directing dream project?

I am in preparation for an ensemble adaptation by Alistair Cording of David Copperfield. So that's my dream project and I am sure my next project will be my dream too!

What kind of theatre excites you?  

Theatre in Nature.  Ensemble Theatre. Physical Theatre. Three Ring Theatre. Surprises Galore Theatre. Theatre that has the unmistakeable scent of MAGIC.  I love Annie Baker, Sarah Ruhl, Moss and Hart, Wilder, Sheila Callaghan, Anton Chekhov, Shaw, Cheek by Jowl, Knee High and Complicite. I LOVE new plays and the brave playwrights of PlayGround SF. I adore Shotgun Players, Berkeley Rep, The Aurora, the Sandbox at SF Playhouse, and Cutting Ball. I just saw a great site specific adaptation of Lear at WE Players . We have wonderfully smart people here in the Bay Area . There is a lot of hope and possibility in the smaller theatre scene….even in these challenging times.  I am also really excited by high school drama programs like CTE at Tam High School. It is a student run, student designed company with mentorship by amazing teachers.

What do you want to change about theatre today?  

I’d like to be a part of promoting more arts funding thru fed, state and local governments. I am starting to see more women in leadership positions and that’s awesome. Women have meant so much to my growth as an actor, teacher, director and as a leader. I hope that trend continues.  

What is your opinion on getting a directing MFA?  

I think it’s fabulous  to have a focused place for ongoing practice, pedagogy, reading and learning ones craft.  But if it doesn’t happen, its instructive to make your own work and offer yourself up to any theatre in any capacity.

Who are your theatrical heroes?

Oh my gosh I have so many!!! Are you sorry you asked?   Right now I am thinking of my brave students at College of Marin, the Men in Blue in SQ (I worked in San Quentin State Prison on a collaborative project called Till You Know My Story), my department head, Lisa Morse, who seems to always strikes right balance between practicality and creativity. Actor/Creators: Meow Meow, Nigel Richards, Peter Donat, Sydney Walker, Lucy Owen, Carol Mayo Jenkins, Cathleen Rust, Frances McDormand, Julia Brothers, Craig Neibaur, Cathleen Riddley, Bernadette Quigley, Henry Woronicz.  Directors: Peter Brook, Susannah Martin, Grey Johnson,  Randall Stuart,  Elizabeth Craven, Margo Hall, Tina Packer, Kristin Linklater David Cromer, Jon Tracy, Mark Jackson, Jennifer King, Declan Donnelan and Emma Rice…the list goes on…. and on….

Any advice for directors just starting out?  

Read everything.  Write.  See loads of plays. Get bored. Act in plays. Train with actors. Dance. Draw and Paint. Stage manage plays. Travel if that is possible for you. Have coffee with inspiring people. Observe observe observe life. Work with high school kids. Try to be quiet. Get frustrated and stuck. Be disciplined. Ask questions. Figure out what interests you. Pay attention to what interests you. Visit museums, cities, countrysides, listen to family conversations, listen to strangers, meditate if you can, watch odd gestures that everyday people make and note them down…. notice, observe, practice, and seek ways to infuse all that into inspiration for the work you love. Expand your definition of beauty. Direct your friends. Start a theatre. Stay hopeful.

Plugs!

I am affiliated with PlayGround SF,  and Shotgun Players in Berkeley. I love them very much. And as ever I invite you to take classes and take part in shows at our amazing Drama Department at the College of Marin.  And if you come to David Copperfield in March, introduce yourself to me. I’ll be there every night.

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Shakespeare and Company's Fall Festival

Shakespeare and Company’s Fall Festival

              Kevin Coleman and students

This year marks the 30th year of Shakespeare and Company’s Fall Festival. Education artists from Shakespeare and Company work with ten high schools in Massachusetts and New York to mount  90 minute productions of Shakespeare’s plays. First the productions are presented at the participating schools. Then all the schools present at The Tina Packer Playhouse…

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REVIEW: "Heisenberg" at Shakespeare & Company

REVIEW: “Heisenberg” at Shakespeare & Company

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REVIEW: Topdog/Underdog" at Shakespeare & Company

REVIEW: Topdog/Underdog” at Shakespeare & Company

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Shakespeare & Company Announces Shakespeare Lineup for the 2020 Summer Seaso

Shakespeare & Company Announces Shakespeare Lineup for the 2020 Summer Seaso

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company is delighted to announce its Shakespeare lineup for the 2020 summer season. Under the direction of Artistic Director Allyn Burrows and Managing Director Adam Davis, the season will include three Shakespeare plays: King Lear directed by Nicole Ricciardi featuring the Drama Desk and Emmy Award-winning actor Christopher Lloyd (Taxi, Back to the Future trilogy) in…

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Finn Wittrock Joins John Douglas Thompson in Reading of "Julius Caesar"

Finn Wittrock Joins John Douglas Thompson in Reading of “Julius Caesar”

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company presents a one-time-only performance of Julius Caesar directed by Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, who was recently honored by a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Shakespeare Theatre Association. The special staged reading features the Obie Award-winning John Douglas Thompson as Brutus and Finn Wittrock as Mark Antony, along with a cast of returning…

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by Roseann Cane

  I lived in Manhattan for many years, and, particularly downtown and in other neighborhoods heavily populated with tourists, fast-talking young men enticing naive people to bet on a game of three-card monte were a familiar sight. Standing behind makeshift tables made of a few crates and topped with a large piece of cardboard, the scammer rapidly moves three face-down playing cards, two of which are similar, all the while talking nonstop about how easy it is to win a bet by choosing the different card. A man will usually emerge from the onlookers, make a wager, and select the correct card, winning money. Inevitably, someone else will want to make some quick cash, and lays down some bills. But nobody wins three-card monte; the first “winner” was a ringer, in on the scam, and the marks who lose may be otherwise intelligent and sophisticated, but greed overrides their skepticism, and when they see someone whom they perceive to be just another passerby make an easy profit, they easily fall into the trap.

  Now playing at Shakespeare & Company, Suzan-Lori Parks’s 2002 Pulitzer Prize winning play, Topdog/Underdog, tells the story of two African-American brothers who live together in an SRO (single-room occupancy hotel or building, typically gritty, with a shared bathroom on every floor). Named Lincoln (Bryce Michael Wood) and Booth (Deaon Griffin-Pressley) by their parents as a joke, we soon learn that their names foretell lives laced with sibling rivalry and resentment.

  Nimbly directed by Regge Life, Wood and Griffin-Pressley grace the stage with what may well be the most dynamic, artful, affecting performances I’ve seen this season. The relationship between the brothers is complex. Abandoned by their parents early in their lives, the slightly older Lincoln, called Link, stepped in at age 16 as a parent to Booth. Booth, impulsive, quick to anger, brags about his sexual conquests and his plans to make a fortune as a three-card monte hustler. He is both in awe and jealous of Link, who had been highly successful in making money from three-card monte. But Link is much more subdued, mourning the end of his marriage, and giving up the scam to earn an honest living. Link has an unusual job: playing Abraham Lincoln in an arcade, wearing a fake beard and a top hat, and slathered in whiteface at his employer’s insistence to make him appear more authentically like the president. The effect is, of course, rather grotesque. At the arcade, he reenacts the final moments of the president’s life, sitting in a display as customers shoot him in the back of the head with a cap gun.

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When Link loses his job at the arcade, Booth lures him back to his former life as a player of three-card monte. Link’s self-confidence and remarkable skill brings Booth’s resentment of his brother to a volcanic eruption, and he confronts his brother with a bitter history of betrayal.

  It is a testament to Life’s masterly direction and to Griffin-Pressley and Wood’s splendid acting that, although we can easily imagine what’s coming, we are utterly shocked at the play’s climactic moment. I heard myself gasping and shrieking involuntarily with the rest of the audience. It is also a tribute to Parks’s playwriting genius.

  It’s no small thing that I gained insight into my own preconceptions–indeed, prejudices–through experiencing this work. I think of the hundreds of times in Manhattan when I walked away whenever I spotted a three-card monte player in my path. I wanted to physically distance myself from what I perceived to be an unredeemable thief. I wanted to display to the curious onlookers, the potential marks, that they were being set up for a con. It’s much easier to deplore a one-dimensional stereotype than it is to try to understand another vulnerable human being, a human being damaged by an environment that, by an accident of birth, you escaped. With Topdog/Underdog, Suzan-Lori Parks has achieved something monumental. Theater, at its best, is transformative, and this production certainly is theater at its best. 

Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Regge Life runs from August 13 to September 8 in the Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. Set design by Cristina Todesco, costume design by Stella Schwartz, lighting design by Matthew Miller, sound design by Brendan Doyle, weapons master Bob Lohbauer, stage manager Hope Rose Kelly, assistant stage manager Maegan A. Conroy, wardrobe/assistant stage manager Melissa Ziccardi, associate technical director Caleb Harris. CAST: Deaon Griffin-Pressley as Booth and Bryce Michael Wood as Lincoln. 

Tickets for Topdog/Underdog are available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company’s box office at (413) 637-3353. The Tina Packer Playhouse is indoors, air-conditioned, and wheelchair accessible. Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble St. in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Join the Company for a free pre-show talk on August 20 at 6:45 pm for insight into the plot and characters of the play to enhance your experience. Additionally, Director Regge Life and cast members host a Director’s Panel on Saturday, August 17 at 11:00 am. Tickets for the Panel can be purchased at shakespeare.org.

REVIEW: Topdog/Underdog” at Shakespeare & Company by Roseann Cane I lived in Manhattan for many years, and, particularly downtown and in other neighborhoods heavily populated with tourists, fast-talking young men enticing naive people to bet on a game of three-card monte were a familiar sight.

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Shakespeare & Company Presents Reading of "Julius Caesar" with John Douglas Thompson

Shakespeare & Company Presents Reading of “Julius Caesar” with John Douglas Thompson

“Let slip the dogs of war”

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company presents a one-time-only performance of Julius Caesar directed by Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, who was recently honored by a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Shakespeare Theatre Association. The special staged reading features the Obie Award-winning John Douglas Thompson as Brutus along with a cast of returning Company…

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(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company presents MacArthur “Genius” Award recipient Suzan-Lori Parks‘ pulitzer prize-winning play, Topdog/Underdog directed by the distinguished Regge Life, who helmed the Company’s acclaimed razor sharp comedy God of Carnage in 2017. Topdog/Underdog is a dynamic comedic drama running from August 13 to September 8 in the Tina Packer Playhouse.

“Topdog/Underdog is one of the most powerful and moving plays from the theater; and in my opinion it’s Suzan-Lori Parks’ greatest work,” said Director Regge Life. “What makes the play so special and important is in the way she has chosen to show what it means to be an African-American man in the U.S. today. Like Ralph Ellison did with Invisible Man in the 1950’s, peeling away the outer layer of the African-American man, the surface that you encounter day to day, to reveal the core that existentially faces the traps of an uncertain and precarious life in the American experience, Topdog/Underdog updates this story with flair and honesty through the lives of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers who, like the historical characters they were named after, are predestined by their history.”

Named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Innovators for the Next New Wave,” in 2002, Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog. This darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity is Parks’ original riff on the way we are defined by history. The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.

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With her trademark explosive language, Suzan-Lori Parks explores the deepest of connections, and what it means to be a family man. Shakespeare & Company’s production of Topdog/Underdog stars Bryce Michael Wood (Lincoln) and Deaon Griffin-Pressley (Booth). Led by Director Regge Life the creative team includes Hope Rose Kelly (Stage Manager), Maegan A. Conroy (Assistant Sage Manager), Cindy Wade (Tech Week Assistant Stage Manager), Cristina Todesco (Set Designer), Stella Schwartz (Costume Designer), Matthew Miller (Lighting Designer), Brendan Doyle (Sound Designer), Melissa Ziccardi (Wardrobe/Assistant Stage Manager), Bob Lohbauer (Weapons Master), and Caleb Harris (Associate Technical Director).

“Suzan-Lori is a piercingly brilliant writer, whose recent production of White Noise Off-Broadway proved once again that her imperative of challenging norms and perspectives is critical in furthering conversation about who were are in this country,” said Artistic Director Allyn Burrows. “Topdog/Underdog established her unequivocally as a voice to be heard and reckoned with, and we’re proud to present it in these times.”

Tickets for Topdog/Underdog are available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company’s box office at (413) 637-3353. The show runs from August 13 to September 8. The Tina Packer Playhouse is indoors, air-conditioned, and wheelchair accessible. Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble St. in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Join the Company for a free pre-show talk on August 20 at 6:45 pm for insight into the plot and characters of the play to enhance your experience. Additionally, Director Regge Life and cast members host a Director’s Panel on Saturday, August 17 at 11:00 am. Tickets for the Panel can be purchased at shakespeare.org.

The Company’s 2019 Summer Season also includes Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and a special workshop production ofCoriolanus; plus Tony Award nominees The Children by Lucy Kirkwood, and Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies.

AT A GLANCE: PRODUCTION: Topdog/Underdog PLAYWRIGHT: Suzan-Lori Parks DIRECTOR: Regge Life STAGE MANAGER: Hope Rose Kelly ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: Maegan A. Conroy TECH WEEK ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: Cindy Wade SET DESIGNER: Cristina Todesco COSTUME DESIGNER: Stella Schwartz LIGHTING DESIGNER: Matthew Miller SOUND DESIGNER: Brendan Doyle WARDROBE/ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: Melissa Ziccardi WEAPONS MASTER: Bob Lohbauer ASSOCIATE TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Caleb Harris

CAST MEMBERS: BOOTH: Deaon Griffin-Pressley LINCOLN: Bryce Michael Wood

SCHEDULE: AUGUST Tuesday, August 13 – 8:00 pm (Preview) Wednesday, August 14 – 8:00 pm (Preview) Thursday, August 15 – 2:00 pm (Preview) Friday, August 16 – 8:00 pm (Opening) Saturday, August 17 – 2:00 & 8:00 pm Sunday, August 18 – 8:00 pm Tuesday, August 20 – 8:00 pm Wednesday, August 21 – 2:00 pm (Press Night) Thursday, August 22 – 2:00 pm Friday, August 23 – 8:00 pm Saturday, August 24 – 2:00 pm & 8:00 pm Sunday, August 25 – 8:00 pm Tuesday, August 27 – 8:00 pm Wednesday, August 28 – 8:00 pm Thursday, August 29 – 2:00 pm Friday, August 30 – 8:00 pm Saturday, August 31 – 2:00 & 8:00 pm

SEPTEMBER Sunday, September 1 – 8:00 pm Friday, September 6 – 8:00 pm Saturday, September 7 – 2:00 & 8:00 pm Sunday, September 8 – 2:00 pm (Closing)

About Suzan-Lori Parks First Season (Playwright, Topdog/Underdog) A playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and songwriter, Suzan-Lori’s play Topdog/Underdog won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 2001 she received a MacArthur Fellows “Genius” Grant, and she holds Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Spelman College. Her work is the subject of the PBS film “The Topdog/Underdog Diaries,” and her plays are published by Theatre Communications Group and Dramatists Play Service, Inc. Her first feature-length screenplay was “girl 6,” for Spike Lee. She has also written screenplays for Jodie Foster, Danny Glover, and Oprah Winfrey. Other screenplays include adaptations of Toni Morrison’s novel “Paradise,” Zora Neale Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” and screenplays for Miramax and Brad Pitt. Her plays include In The Blood (2000 Pulitzer nominee), Venus (1996 Obie Award), Fucking A, The America Play, Imperceptible Mutabilities In The Third Kingdom, (1990 Obie Award), The Death Of The Last Black Man In The Whole Entire World, and 365 Days/365 Plays. Topdog/Underdog (2002 Tony nominee) has had successful runs on Broadway, in cities throughout the United States, and in London at the Royal Court Theatre. Additional recognition includes two NEA playwriting fellowships, a W. Alton Jones Grant, a grant from The Kennedy Center Fund For New American Plays, the Whiting Writer’s Award, and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the CalArts/Alpert Award, the PEW Charitable Trusts, and The Guggenheim Foundation. Suzan-Lori is a professor at the California Institute for the Arts where she heads the Dramatic Writing Program. Her first novel, “Getting Mother’s Body,” is published by Random House. www.suzanloriparks.com

About Regge Life Fourth season (Topdog/Underdog, Director) At Shakespeare & Company, Regge Life directed the wildly acclaimed Morning After Grace last season, God of Carnage in 2017 and Kaufman’s Barbershop in 2013. He has directed across the country with credits such as Cross That River at 59E59th and for the Aspen Theater, I Just Stopped by to See the Man for Milwaukee Rep, Yellowman and Gem of the Ocean for Pittsburgh Public Theater, Ghosts for the Pearl Theater, Piano Lesson for Virginia Stage Company, A Walk in the Woods at Capital Rep, Rebel Armies into Deep Chad, Laurence Fishburne’s Riff Raff and Arthur Miller’s The American Clock for the Juilliard School and Living in the Wind and Do Lord Remember Me at The American Place Theatre.

About Shakespeare & Company Located in the beautiful Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company is one of the leading Shakespeare festivals of the world. Founded in 1978, the organization attracts over 40,000 patrons annually. The Company is also home to an internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and award-winning Education Program. More information is available at www.shakespeare.org.

Shakespeare & Company Presents Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog” (Lenox, MA) - Shakespeare & Company presents MacArthur “Genius” Award recipient Suzan-Lori Parks' pulitzer prize-winning play, 

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Shakespeare & Company Presents Presents “Twelfth Night,” Directed by Allyn Burrows

Shakespeare & Company Presents Presents “Twelfth Night,” Directed by Allyn Burrows

Performances Run July 2 – August 4, 2019

“What relish is in this? How runs the stream? Or I am mad, or else this is a dream!” – Twelfth Night: Act IV, Scene I

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company presents William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, directed by Company Artistic Director, Allyn Burrows. This classic showcases a rich, affecting, and deeply funny story of longing, love, and laughter which…

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Shakespeare & Company Announces their 2019 Season Gala

Shakespeare & Company Announces their 2019 Season Gala

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company celebrates its 42nd Season, Saturday, June 29th with its annual summer Gala. This year, Artistic Director Allyn Burrows has invited Academy Award-winning filmmaker and visual effects pioneer, Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, Star Trek: The Motion Picture), to share with us his vision and invention of cutting edge film technology through Ha…

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(Lenox, MA) – Honoring beloved Founder and Director of Training Dennis Krausnick, Shakespeare & Company hosts a special memorial program open to the public. On Monday, June 24, 2019, at 1:00pm the Company welcomes community members and fellow artists to gather for the Dennis Krausnick Celebration of Life, held in the Tina Packer Playhouse Tent on the Shakespeare & Company campus, at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, MA.

“Dennis’ contribution to my life and to the company’s life is immeasurable,” said Tina Packer, “in part because we were passionate about the same things, but also because he had the knack of filling in whenever and wherever rifts were seen and difficulties encountered. For instance, when we first arrived at the Mount in 1978, Dennis went two days early to organize the house and decide how the 20 people moving in would all share it. Or the times he stepped in as Managing Director during the first 20 years. He was integral to forming the Company and keeping us together, creating structures, listening to aspirations and disappointments, never once wavering in his own commitment.  In year two, he organized us as two non-profits—Shakespeare & Company and Edith Wharton Restoration, Inc. When we needed plays about Edith Wharton, or adapting her work, Dennis wrote them. Dennis held us together.  He held me together.  And I hope this day can offer some small glimpse into the life he lived, as an artist, as a partner, and as a friend.”

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It was with deep sadness that Shakespeare & Company announced the passing of beloved Founder and Director of Training Dennis Krausnick this past November. Dennis was a leader of the Company since its inception in 1978.  He was the cherished husband of Tina Packer, Founding Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company; and step-father to Martin Jason Asprey, Actor and fellow Company Member. Dennis also left behind many loving friends, artistic collaborators, students, and fellow Shakespeare & Company supporters. The Company’s 2019 Season is dedicated to his legacy.

‘Dennis was my first teacher here, and my last,” said Artistic Director Allyn Burrows. “Missing him is surpassed only by how much we appreciate his dedication and enrichment of this Company.”

Shakespeare & Company now invites their extended community to gather as the summer season begins, to celebrate the life and legacy of Dennis. The day includes: a memorial program with stories and sentiments from Dennis’ life, a curation of his artistic work, and afternoon tea. Throughout the day Dennis’ recently published book of poetry, White Flash, will be available for purchase, with 100% of the purchase price going to the recently established Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund. The Fund, initiated by Dennis, supports scholarships to increase diversity within the Shakespeare & Company’s Center For Actor Training.

Much of what Shakespeare & Company strives to be in the world can be traced to Dennis,” said friend, fellow Founder, and Director of Education, Kevin G. Coleman. “The theatre artists he inspired and encouraged over the years can hardly be counted. His insight as a writer and director, and his courage as a teacher and performer can hardly be measured. But for me, it was always his friendship.”

“Over the last few months, I have been more and more amazed by the outpouring of love and appreciation for Dennis,” said Company Member and Committee Chair MaConnia Chesser. “It is almost overwhelming to understand that the impact he had on my life is echoed in the thousands of lives he has reached through this teaching, directing, writing, acting and community service.  It is truly an honor for me to be part of creating this day for my friend, and I hope it gives his family, students, colleagues and friends an opportunity to participate in our celebration of a truly exceptional man and artist.

The Company kindly requests all individuals interested in attending to please RSVP by Friday, June 14. To RSVP now please click here or for more information, please call 413-637-1199. In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to the Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund here.

The Dennis Krausnick Celebration of Life Committee includes: Steve Ball, Ariel Bock, Allyn Burrows, MaConnia Chesser, Adam Davis, Allie Galen, Kristen Moriarty, Tina Packer, Kirsten Peacock, Tom Rindge, and Kristin Wold.

Dennis Krausnick Celebration of Life:

1:00pm – 1:30pm: White Flash books for sale and bar open at Josie’s Place in the Tina Packer Playhouse

1:30pm – 3:00pm: Special Memorial Program in the Tina Packer Playhouse Tent

3:00pm – 4:30pm: Celebrating Dennis’ Artistic Legacy though performances and poetry in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre  Studios.

4:30pm –  5:30pm: Afternoon Tea and Tree Planting Ceremony outside of the Tina Packer Playhouse.

About The Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund The Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund was established by Shakespeare & Company co-founder Dennis Krausnick in 2018 to provide scholarships for under-represented people of color to become Shakespeare actors, as well as resources for promising artists of color to become teachers of the Company’s work. The Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund also supports periodic retreats, bringing teachers and trainees together to brainstorm about the direction of the work, to strengthen the Center for Actor Training programs, and explore how to collaborate and celebrate more deeply. Lastly, the Fund may be used to support artists from war torn countries to participate in Shakespeare & Company’s Center for Actor Training programs. To donate to the Dennis Krausnick Fellowship Fund, visit shakespeare.org/actor-training.

About Shakespeare & Company Located in the beautiful Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company is one of the leading Shakespeare festivals of the world. Founded in 1978, the organization attracts over 40,000 patrons annually. The Company is also home to an internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and award-winning Education Program. More information is available at www.shakespeare.org.

Shakespeare & Company Hosts Celebration of Life in Honor of Dennis Krausnick (Lenox, MA) – Honoring beloved Founder and Director of Training Dennis Krausnick, Shakespeare & Company hosts a special memorial program open to the public.

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Shakespeare & Company's Northeast Regional Tour Hits The Road

Shakespeare & Company’s Northeast Regional Tour Hits The Road

“Sit by my side, and let the world slip: we shall ne’er be younger.” – The Taming of the Shrew

(Lenox, MA) –  Shakespeare & Company‘s Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare is now on the road, performing for schools and community centers throughout the Northeast. This year, the Company’s Tour brings two Shakespeare productions, Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew, to over 20,000 students. The Tour…

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Shakespeare & Company Announces 2019 Shakespeare Plays

Shakespeare & Company Announces 2019 Shakespeare Plays

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company is thrilled to announce its Shakespeare lineup for the 2019 summer season. Under the direction of Artistic Director Allyn Burrows and Managing Director Adam Davis, the season will include three Shakespeare plays: Twelfth Night directed by Burrows, The Merry Wives of Windsor directed by Kevin G. Coleman, and The Taming of the Shrew directed by Kelly Galvin.…

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by Roseann Cane

In 1927 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg posited what is often referred to as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: it is not possible to measure simultaneously the position and the velocity of an object, even in theory. Playwright Simon Stephens has said that this quantum theory seems to define the way in which people live: unless we are seen by or engaged with other people, we barely exist.

The setup of Stephens’s play Heisenberg is a familiar one: an extroverted, eccentric woman “meets cute” with an older, introverted, conventional man; they clash, sparks fly, and they walk into the sunset together. Stephens asks that we take this setup and examine it through the lens of the Uncertainty Principle, applying it to human relationships.

The couple in question, an American woman named Georgie Burns (Tamara Hickey) and an Englishman of Irish descent named Alex Priest (Malcolm Ingram), meet in a London railway station. The fortyish Georgie strikes up a conversation with 75-year-old Alex, who is sitting quietly on a nearby bench.

Hickey, all frantic gesticulation and shrieking verbalization, homes in on Ingram with such delirium that even a marginally sane person would flee into the night. She moves in sometimes sweeping, other times jerking fashion, arms and legs jutting in multiple directions, and lights on Ingram’s bench. Buttoned-up Ingram, though nonplussed, submits to her questions and the two have something of a conversation.

Almost exactly one year ago, I had the great pleasure of seeing Hickey play Ariel in the company’s Roman Garden production of The Tempest. Hers was one of my favorite performances of the entire season, and she was the main reason why I’d looked forward to seeing Heisenberg. It grieves me to say that her portrayal of Alex was so abrasive and unnatural that I squirmed throughout the very long, intermissionless 90-minute play. Alex, we learn, comes from New Jersey. Hickey’s relentless screeching in an accent that swayed between working-class New York and Boston, with an occasional dash of the Queen’s English thrown in for good measure, distracted mightily from everything else, including Ingram, in the play.

Ingram was well cast, and gave a sensitive, substantive performance, but he may as well have been in another play. I wish director Tina Packer had reined in Hickey, and given her more guidance. Because Hickey presented a caricature rather than a real human being, there was, for me, no transmission of feeling, and that’s deadly for a theater audience.

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Packer did a neat job of directing the transitions between each of the six scenes, where the actors managed to dress and undress on stage as well as to help move pieces of Juliana von Haubrich’s elegantly minimalist set. Charlotte Palmer-Lane’s costumes expertly intensified Georgie and Alex’s characters. I did find Amy Altadonna’s sound design rather peculiar at times; for example, during a scene where Alex is reminiscing about his 10-year-old sister, I was certain I’d heard a baby cooing and gurgling from somewhere in the audience, but when that cooing and gurgling emerged a second and third time, I realized it was a sound effect. It make no sense to me. Dan Kotlowitz’s lighting was beautifully designed and brilliantly enhanced the action.

Despite the familiar setup of Heisenberg, the subjects of human connection and isolation can’t be overexplored. While I wouldn’t call Stephens’s play masterly, I think there is so much potential for transformative poignance in the two characters he created, and I wish that potential had been mined in this production.

Heisenberg by Simon Stephens, directed by Tina Packer, runs August 11-September 2, 2018 in the Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company. Set Designer: Juliana von Haubrich. Lighting Designer: Dan Kotlowitz. Costume Designer: Charlotte Palmer-Lane. Sound Designer: Amy Altadonna. Stage Manager: Hope Rose Kelly. CAST: Tamara Hickey as Georgie and Malcolm Ingram as Alex.

Tickets for Heisenberg are available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company’s box office at (413) 637-3353. The Tina Packer Playhouse is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible. Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble St. in Lenox, Massachusetts.

REVIEW: “Heisenberg” at Shakespeare & Company by Roseann Cane In 1927 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg posited what is often referred to as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: it is not possible to measure simultaneously the position and the velocity of an object, even in theory.