Bard Radio 004 episode with special guest Bryan Freeman (Click Here)

Show Highlights:

Runtime: 15:30

• Intro
• Shakespeare About town (aka Shady news)
• Interview with Bryan Freeman
• Interview with Witch One from Macbeth (Angie Higgins)
• Outro
  

Bard Radio 003 episode with special guest Ross Harkness (Click Here)

Show Highlights:

Runtime: 19:34

• Intro
• Shady News
• Shakespeare Idol (skit)
• Interview with Ross Harkness
  
• Outro
  

Help Shady Shakespeare win $50,000!

See that block over to the right with the tiny picture of Oberon and Puck? That’s my personal Charity Badge for Shady Shakespeare. This badge is a chance for Shady Shakespeare to win $50,0000.00! You read that right! $50,000.00. To succeed at the Challenge, I have to get as many people as I can to donate to Shady Shakespeare. The eight individuals whose charity badges attract the most unique donors through the America’s Giving Challenge will get $50,000 for their cause. The 100 nonprofits with the greatest number of total donations made to them through America’s Giving Challenge will each get $1,000. And that ain’t half bad either! But we only have until January 31st, 2008! So donate just $10 right this minute before you forget! Do it. Do it now. Go on. Stop reading. I mean it. Seriously... Go!

Dinna Myers

Bard Radio 002 episode with special guests Dinna Myers, Rose Steele, and Larry Barrott (Click Here)

This is a very special podcast for all our patrons attending Shady Shakespeare's 4th annual poker tournament.

Show Highlights

• Intro
• Shady News (what's happening around town)
• The Top 10 tips to make you a better player (by about.com)
• Top 10 best and worst hole cards
• Guest interview with special guests Dinna Myers, Rose Steele, and Larry Barrott
• Outro
  

Bard Radio 001 episode with special guest Angie Higgins (Click Here)

Please enjoy the first Shady Shakespeare Podcast. We've dubbed our creation Bard Radio and we hope you enjoy it. If you have any comments on what you'd like to hear, please feel free to leave a comment.

Show Highlights:

• Introduction
• What is Bard Radio
• What is Shady Shakespeare
• Commercial
• Theatre news
• Guest interview with Angie Higgins
• Sign off
  

The "Ups" and "Downs" of Technical Direction

In theatre, the combined endeavors of all the artists work to create a separate world outside of reality. It is a many-faceted project that involves the actors, directors, technical operators and designers. The designers strive to create the world, the technicians build the world, the operators keep the world going and the actors bring the world to life. I will be focusing on the Set Design and Construction aspect of the procedure as it relates to the Shady Shakespeare season.

The Ups:

1. Design process. Months before auditions happen, all the designers meet with the directors of the show to discuss treatment, themes, moods and precise set needs. From the initial meetings, the designers go to their drawing boards and return weeks later, with the rough drawings of what they felt accommodated the directors vision. At this point, the directors, blinded by the artistic creativity of the designers, usually say, "ooooo" and "ahhhhhh". Then reality sets in, and the changes begin. Many things can influence changes to the initial design. Functionality, mood and thematic issues and of course, budget all play a part. The next few meetings consist of hammering out these possibilities until the designs are finalized by the directors.

2. The build process. Shady has two different types of set builds. There is the superstructure, which is the two story framework, and the artistic set, which sits on the framework and creates the world the actors bring to life. Usually, both are built independently of each other. The superstructure is basically the same each year and so each piece is saved from year to year, stored and numbered. Around the middle of July, the actors and technicians are called to help erect the superstructure. It involves long, hot, dirty days of sweaty toiling....I love it! The actors are each assigned one day of set build. It not only gives many new actors a taste of what goes into set construction, but it also builds camaraderie and a proud, earnest feeling that you have helped create the world you live in. Plus, it couldn't be done without them, so lunch is provided. The superstructure serves not only as a structure to hang art on, but also forms the dressing rooms, backstage areas, lighting trusses, and costume and prop storage.

3. After the superstructure goes up, the designers / TD's (technical directors), begin to place their artistic pieces. Some of them are borrowed/rented from other theatres, some pieces are rebuilt before hand, and others (because of the stage not being level) are built on site. This is when the actors really begin to see the transformation, like watching a Caterpillar change into a butterfly...just on a much larger scale.

4. Right before opening, any touch up painting is done, and any detail work is added. The audience area is cleaned and set up. The sound and lighting operators are taught their cues, concessions are brought in, and the show opens.

The Downs:

1. Change over - Since Shady Shakespeare does two shows in Repertory fashion, and each show has its own identity and virtually its own set. Once a weekend (starting on the 3rd weekend), a predesignated crew of actors change the set from one show to the other. The set is painstakingly designed to do this. And much thought goes into how each piece will be stored and moved. The change over teams are fast, efficient, dedicated and extremely fun to work with, and once a week we change our worlds.

2. Strike is the term we use for deconstructing the set. Basically tearing everything down. Where as the "Ups" process takes months to plan and weeks to build, the "Down" process happens all in one week. And the set comes down in two days. The superstructure is packed away for another year (like an artificial christmas tree...but again, much larger). and everything else is either tossed or sent to storage. It is a joyful and sad time. It is the end of another show, it is the closure, the point when we know it is all over and time to move on to the next project. Some of the people with whom we have spent the last 4 months we will not see again, if ever, or for a long time. We become a family who love and laugh together, and the set coming down is the symbol of that all ending. Even if we are cast again in a different show, this momment has ended, this small piece of history is gone. The actors are once again called to work one of these days. As before, they are long, hot days of sweaty toiling, so lunch is provided.

In closing. I have never worked as hard as I have when building a set, literal blood and tears, go into each one. It is a long process that never seems to end...then all the sudden, as if you tossed a jigsaw puzzle into the air and all the pieces fell to earth in their exact right location, everything seems to come together, as improbable as it seems. This year both of Shady's shows deal with magic, but the magic in the plays, cannot compare to the real magic we create while building the sets and creating a world to play in.

R. Michael Price

Technical Theatre Intern

Lines, Lines, Lines

It’s the key ingredient to most theatre performances. Audiences love them; actors adore saying them, but most hate the process of memorizing. And with the complex language of Shakespeare, you have to know what you’re saying before you memorize it, which makes it a doubly difficult task. No pressure, you’re an actor right?

Some actors learn their lines through repetition. By saying the line repeatedly, they start to adhere to your mind. You can relate this to seeing your favorite movie a dozen times. After a while, you start saying the lines with your favorite character.

Others use recording devices to assist in the memorization. The way this is done is by recording all your lines on tape then playing them back. Once you have your lines down then you record the lines just before yours (called pick-up lines) and play those back. The trick to this is the stop-and-start. Hit play to hear the pick-up line and then press stop. Say your line and then hit play again. Rinse and repeat until you’ve got it down cold.

Finally you have the kinesthetic method. With this method, you learn you lines after you’ve been given your blocking. Then you use the action to help you remember the line. For those who are unfamiliar with the term blocking, I’ll explain - blocking is a stage direction give by a director to the actor. An example would be: “Timmy on your line I want you to come downstage and say it right here. Then I need you to head upstairs and say your next line.”

All three of these methods work equally well so it boils down to personal preference. “Since I’ve got my lines memorized that should be enough right?” Think again, it’s one thing to memorize Shakespeare and repeat it on stage; it’s an entirely different thing to know exactly what you’re saying and why you’re saying it. Everyone’s heard of Hamlet’s speech “To be, or not to be…” but how many really know what he’s saying and why? Ah… you see, acting is harder than it looks.

Now mix that with rehearsals three hours a night and five days a week, a Saturday fight or dance call (4 hours), a 40 hour work week, then find time to memorize your lines and you too can be an actor. “What, are you crazy?” you might ask, and the answer is yes. But with anything you love to do, you make time. And there are a lot of us that share the same passion.

Till next time…