So...Who Are The Merry Wives of Windsor?

This took a little bit longer than I expected.  Essentially there are 19 principal roles, with three of them going to children.  Figuring out the relationships and what makes the characters tick is a time consuming process.  Especially when there are 6 principals who do not have a lot of lines but a lot of stage time.

So let's dig right in and get to the cast breakdown. 

How Do I Figure Out Who The Merry Wives of Windsor Are?

When I am picking a show to direct, I pretty much follow the questions as I have been asking them this week.  I read a bunch of scripts and try to figure out why I like a specific script.  I give it another read to find out what it's all about, discovering if it's a story I want to tell.

Then I tackle the big three:  when, who and where.  The answers to these three questions determine if it goes from a story I want to tell to a story I can tell. 

While I normally start with "who", with Shakespeare "when" is the big factor.  I try to find that hook that will help my audience get into the story and first see if the story can be set in modern times.  I've set Two Gentlemen of Verona in a skate park, and Romeo and Juliet at a rave.  I was all set to put Love's Labour's Lost in a fraternity house when I heard some Shakespeare purists in town were upset that I was always updating Shakespeare to the modern era.  So I decided to show them, and I set it in the late 16th century and it was a mistake.  The production had some glorious tech elements and some of the finest performances from my actors, but the audience had a visual hurdle they couldn't overcome in a single viewing.

"Where" is so closely tied to "when" and ideas do formulate right away within the second read, but first I have to determine if I have the personnel to do the show.  And in order to do that, I have to know the job descriptions for each role.  This does not mean that I cast the show this far in advance.  I always wait until the auditions for that.  Instead, I start doing what I call a breakdown of the script, so that I can get to know the characters better.

When is The Merry Wives of Windsor?

When you consider the time of The Merry Wives of Windsor, there are really three things you are considering:

1. The setting of the script;
2. The time we are setting this production;
3. The time the script was written.

With most plays you don't necessarily consider the second point, but because Shakespeare is so "hard to understand" directors sometimes take great strains to translate the story to a setting that will give their audience another "in" to the script.  I wholeheartedly believe that there is nothing wrong with this.

Purists (oh, how I loathe them) cry fowl when directors update a Shakespeare script.  They think that it is a bespoulment of the good works of a master.  I would say to them The Lord Chamberlain's Men and The King's Men did the exact same thing during Shakespeare's time.  They kept their actors in modern, Elizabethan dress, especially for the history plays.  Why should we be any different?

What is The Merry Wives of Windsor?

The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of Shakespeare's middle era comedies which I am going to say was written in 1600.  A far more detailed explanation for my choosing of that date will come in the immediate future.  There is much debate about the actual year of authorship, as there is with most dates for anything Shakespeare related.

I am quite in love the idea that this play was written at the request of Elizabeth I because she enjoyed the character of Falstaff so much and wanted to see a play with him in love. 

The play focuses on the oafish knight Sir John Falstaff and his attempts to woo two married women so that he may be a "kept" man.  A secondary plot revolves around Anne Page, the eldest daughter of one of the women Falstaff is wooing, and the three men that are vying for her affection. 

The comedy is broad, perhaps the broadest of any of the Shakespeare plays, and oftentimes borders on farcical slapstick.  Many contemporary scholars/directors liken it to a sitcom; one of the popular "adapted settings" is that of a 1950's/early 60's sitcom setting. 

Why Merry Wives of Windsor?

I had been planning for a few years to submit a proposal to Mill Race Players to direct a show this summer.  With my other theatre responsibilities and obligations to family and beyond, I can't do it as much as I would  like.  But on the calendar it looked like I would be free this spring for prep and free in the fall for decompression, and so I had already mentally booked the time for Mill Race this summer.

I was going to propose The Sound of Music.  I have been thinking about that show for several years, and had many concepts, and a lot of the script work already in place.  Because I plan on proposing that show in the immediate future, I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag and give any details.  Suffice it to say it should be epic, and it should be indoors.

Shakespeare's Biography

 

We know very little about the man who is named William Shakespeare, and anyone who tells you differently is mad.  Record keeping 400 years ago was inconsistent at best, and very few official documents still exist.  Shakespeare, while a prolific writer for the stage did not keep a journal, letters, or much else in personal writings.  The information that follows comes from Bill Bryson's mercifully brief and soulfully witty biography of Shakespeare, Shakespeare:  The World as Stage.

The facts are these:

--He was baptized on April 26, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.  It is merely a tradition to say that he was born on April 23; birth certificates were not kept, only baptismal records.  April 23 is an important date for a few reasons:  (1) it is St. George's Day and (2) it is the same day Shakepeare died in 1612.  Poets, dramatists and dreamers all love symmetry.

Happy Birthday, Shakespeare!

Welcome to my new blog.  I have been selected to direct a production of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor for Mill Race Players this summer, and I have decided to keep my director's journal on line.  And what better time to launch it than on the day we celebrate Shakespeare's birthday. 

No one knows for sure what day is Shakespeare's birthday but seeing as he is our greatest poet and playwright, we poetically choose to celebrate it on the anniversary of his death.  More details can be found on my post about his biography here.

This blog will be focused around the upcoming production of Merry Wives.  As a director research is very important to me, and I will use this space to consolidate the research that I do.  I will also use the space to reflect on the decision making process that happens long before rehearsals begin.  While casting decisions will be kept confidential (and off-line), I do plan to record my thoughts during the rehearsal process as a record of how the production develops especially after you include those helpful pests the actors.

My hope is that this Abusing of God's Patience and the King's Speech will chronicle a production from conception through gestation, birth, adolescence, maturity and death.  The seven stages of a play if you will.

So, Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare and Happy Conception, Mill Race's Merry Wives of Windsor!!