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.

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!!