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.

Once it was clear that Mill Race would need to perform outside this summer, instead of their regular home at Erne Auditorium, I shelved the plan and started to look to other material.  The new show had to accommodate a cast of all ages, lend itself to the constraints of the Custer-Nugent Amphitheatre at Mill Race Park, be somewhat well known, and, most importantly, interest me.  I first went to Godspell, as it was the first show to be done at the amphitheater, but I had little interest in reviving that particular show and concept.

I immediately turned to Jesus Christ Superstar, as that has been a show that has been percolating in mind for 20 years.  It fits all of my criteria, and as an added bonus it would be something the artistic community would respond to and audience would attend heartily.  But, I have famously said that Superstar would be the last show I will ever direct.  I don't know if I've said that because I am sure I will be run out of town on a rail afterward, or my fear that the sheer size of the production would take me down.

I rambled around, thinking about any number of other shows including Oklahoma! (but Mill Race recently had a successful run of that), High School Musical 2 (but that franchise's time has passed) and Carnival! (which almost made it, but I wasn't happy with how I was going to use younger cast members).  After I looked at everything that ended in an exclamation point, I realized that there was no musical that really met all my criteria, especially for an outdoors venue.

Then Kathy McPeek reminded how much she enjoyed a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream down at the Park in 1999.  It really was a magical show, filled with a lot of great talent, and a rousing success for the organization.  It was the first time they had tackled any Shakespeare in nearly 30 years.

Obviously Shakespeare lends itself to outdoors productions, many of his plays are well known and would attract a different audience.  I know several of the artists, myself included, jump at any chance to take on the Bard.  Now, I just had to consider which show.

Midsummer was considered, but I had already directed it once for them, and my artistic partner Julie and I mounted youth production last summer for one of our educational camps.  The young artists wouldn't be challenged, and frankly neither would I.  I also left out any of the Shakespeare shows I have previously directed or teched:  Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and The Winter's Tale.  I'd like to revisit Two Gentlemen again, but not right now.

I then quickly dismissed the tragedies and histories.  Though I want to do most of them, this setting and this juncture for the Mill Race Players seemed inappropriate for them.  That leaves a handful of comedies.  Measure for Measure and All's Well That Ends Well are out because of their adult nature.  I love Comedy of Errors and I have two perfect young men in mind to play the two sets of twins, but I am afraid of the heavy tech elements I would want to use, especially outside.

Taming of the Shrew would be great, and I have been working on that show for several years now.  But there isn't a lot for kids to do in the show, and I feel strongly about including them in the production.  I love As You Like It, but I cannot get the absolutely beautiful HBO production that Kenneth Brannagh did a few years back out of my head.  I need more time from that one.  The one I don't need time from is Much Ado About Nothing.  I hate that show.  Save a few of the Beatrice and Benedict scenes, I hate everything about it.  It is misogynist in a way that cannot be remedied, unlike Two Gentleman.

I'm afraid of Merchant of Venice.  It's all about Shylock, and, as much as I directorally respond to the Jessica-Shylock dynamic, the potential for anti-semitism leaves me cold.  I can admit I am not a brave enough director to tackle it at this time.  I do think I am a brave enough actor, though, if anyone wants to propose it.......

My other "last show" before retirement is The Tempest.  I really strongly considered it for this summer, and in fact had written up a proposal for it.  I have successfully talked myself out of waiting until near retirement to do it, because it is such a powerful story of fathers and daughters.  But it is the power of that parental story that prevents me from doing it right now.  The older my own daughter gets the more powerful the story becomes for me, and if I wait about 6-8 years that production will be tremendous.

So that leaves The Merry Wives of Windsor, and you know what?  It's a perfect fit.  A broad, hysterical comedy that works best with a mixed cast of every age.  There are plenty of principal roles for adults, teens and even speaking roles for children.  It also contains the only chorus of children that Shakespeare wrote, and the kids get to dress up as fairies at the end, and it could be a musical.  Why not propose it?  I am becoming a firm believer in the truth willing out.  I think in this case it did.