Keaton's Dogberry "is funny," "A Piece of Work," and saving Hall's Croft's walls
Keaton's Dogberry "is funny," "A Piece of Work," and saving Hall's Croft's walls
Plus: Polyurethane + pilot light = BOOM. Shakespeare theater.
Playwright Donates £1m to Shakespeare’s Birthplace
American author Ken Ludwig’s donation will go towards restoring Hall’s Croft, the home of Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna. Kudos to Charlotte Scott, one of the Birthplace’s directors, who clearly did some spectacular cultivation pre-ask:
[Ludwig] told the Guardian that, while on a visit to Stratford, he felt he had to help after hearing of the building’s plight while being shown round by Charlotte Scott, one of SBT’s directors: “They were asking themselves: ‘How can we save Hall’s Croft because it’s literally falling over?’ I said to them, ‘What would it cost to save it?’ They told me and, I thought, if there’s any time I can make a difference about the things I care about, this is it. So I just said: ‘I’ll do it.’”
I’m a huge fan of Ken Ludwig. He once invited 100+ theater folk to his house and wandered around with a homemade bottle of limoncello, toasting and chatting with everyone. He is also a hell of a playwright and this is a hell of a thing to do. It goes a way towards redeeming previous American preservation attitudes: PT Barnum wanted to crate the whole thing to New York, Cloisters-style.1
Michael Keaton’s Dogberry: "What the f*ck is this guy doing?"
If you have never availed yourself of the utter insanity that is Michael Keaton as Dogberry in the 1993 Ken Branagh-directed Much Ado, strap in. The general audience consensus is, “…huh.” before returning to more important matters like Keanu Reeves in those pants. However, his (sure, let’s call them) choices seem to have transfixed the film’s Shakespeare scholar:
[Branagh] had this wonderful Shakespeare scholar, sweet little guy. He used to wear really beautiful white linen shirts, and he had this beautiful straw hat…sweat would drip off his face and his little hands would shake, thinking, "What the f*ck is this guy doing?" [chuckles] …The poor man is a scholar and I'm some schmuck from, you know, Pittsburgh who thought it was funny – and it is funny – to pretend like I ride in on a horse.
Thank you to Leah Libresco for bringing this to my attention, and if anyone knows who this linen-clad man is please let me know. “Beleaguered academic” is not a category on IMDB.
What A Piece of Work
Simon Russell Beale’s memoir, A Piece of Work is now on sale. I’m a huge fan of the Shakespearean-actor-autobiography genre – I tore through Judi Dench’s The Man Who Pays the Rent earlier this year – and am looking forward to this one. Beale played Prospero in an incredibly overengineered Tempest at the RSC in 2016 (just because you can mocap doesn’t mean you should) and I would have loved to see him play Ariel in 1993.2 He’s also delightful in Sondheim.
TFANA Founder Jeffrey Horowitz Will Retire in 2025
If you haven’t heard Jeffrey Horowitz’s story about how he started a Shakespeare theater because polyurethane and pilot lights don’t mix, I highly recommend it:
I had just gone into the bathroom and taken off my sneakers and socks when I heard WHOOSH and then the apartment exploded in flames from floor to ceiling… After the hospital and a lawsuit, I won $50,000 — about $225,000 today. I immediately then did what any self-respecting out of work actor passionate about Shakespeare and other new plays would do. I took all that money won in the lawsuit and started this theatre.
I’ve seen some of best theater of my life at TFANA: John Douglas Thompson in Michael Boyd’s Tamburlaine was ungodly levels of excellent and how can you not love a show that brings out wet-vacs at intermission for the blood?
Dakin Matthew’s adaptation of Henry IV is on deck for the coming season. Dakin is a Shakespeare legend and did a spectacular web lecture series called “Sheltering with Shakespeare” during the pandemic. It has been wiped from the interwebs, I hope because it is being turned into a book, but you can still get a taste of his whip-smart and avuncular style. For those keeping track of the NYC-Classical-Theater-Artistic-Director game of thrones, Oskar Eustis plans to retire in 2028.
Quick Links
How to build a bear rug for all your Winter’s needs.
Leslie Malin at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company leads the charge to stage all 10 plays in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle.
Othello starring Martins Imhangbe (Will Mondrich on “Bridgerton”) is available online.3
I’m calling bullsh*t on these Shakespeare socks. The Midsummer is Tinkerbell in a blue wig. There are many excellent gifts out there for the Shakespeare fan in your life,4 this isn’t one of them.
Romeo and Juliet at ART is going for the “hippie Friar Lawrence” look.6 and encouraging friend speed-dating.
Recommendations
Were you an emo kid on MySpace? This museum wants your photos.
I use Freytag’s Pyramid all the time and George Saunders uses it too.
Chukwudi Iwuji was a phenomenal Bajazeth in the aforementioned TFANA Tamburlaine, his Cyrano should be a sight to see.
If you aren’t already subscribed to Lauren Halvorsen’s excellent theater newsletter “Nothing for the Group,” please add it to your life. Lauren was part of a Wingspace salon about pivots after being laid off from her dramaturg job at Studio Theater during the pandemic and has turned “Nothing for the Group” into an essential read. She’s constantly calling out bad behavior – the recurring segment “That’s Not a Living Wage” is both depressing and delightful – and calling in the good. Lincoln Center dramaturg Jenna Clark Embrey runs the newsletter’s anonymous money diaries, this month’s is from a dramaturg and hit home:
In almost every will-they-hire-me freelance dance, there comes a point where someone says, “Why don’t you read the script and let me know your thoughts?” as a kind of precursor to hiring. Therein lies the paradox: “reading a script and sharing thoughts” is what a dramaturg is paid to do — so how do we protect our value and not give away our services for free, while also showing what we are capable of?
Charles Dickens helped raise the money to keep the Birthplace out of Barnum’s clutches, including by playing Shallow in Merry Wives. If Barnum had bought it, there’s an excellent chance it would have burned with the rest of his museum.
This isn’t Imhangbe’s first Shakespearean turn, he played Aumerle in a 100 minute Richard II starring Simon Russell Beale and several buckets of blood in 2018.
The Good Tickle Brain Hamlet for example.
More info on cue scripts in Shakespeare from American Shakespeare Center, the Folger, and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (with Good Tickle Brain illustrations!)
If I see one more Friar Lawrence do this:
O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In herbs… [luxurious bong hit] plants, stones, and their true qualities.
I’m going to throw things. Lawrence has some of the longest speeches in the play and the only thing worse than keeping them is an actor who speaks *incredibly slooowly* because his character choices start and end with “stoned.” Would a high person come up with an elaborate plan involving untested pharmaceuticals in order to fake a death and avoid societal responsibilities? Okay fine, but still. Make better (different) choices.