. . . made glorious summer. . .

I have a few shows I’ve directed in the past that have been extra special to me; they carry an extra-special place in my heart:  The Importance of Being Earnest was the first show where I truly found my voice as a director– an aesthetic and and approach that spoke to me, personally.  The Turn of the Screw challenged that approach with an pair of consummate actors and fostered my love for non-traditional spaces.  And Enchanted April was a beautiful show to run and perform because of the commitment to ensemble work that the cast showed each and every step of the way.

I’ve directed a few shows since then, and while I always enjoy the work and have been lucky enough to have casts I like, I haven’t quite felt the spark of potential that those three shows embody for me.

Until this weekend.  Richard III began its initial rehearsals at WSF a few days ago, and I am absolutely charged up by the specific energy, intelligence, and style this group has to offer this play.  They’re smart.  They’re committed.  They’re up for anything.  They’re also vocal and challenging and fiercely independent which means I’ll have to stay on top of my game– a challenge I’ve probably needed for some time.

I am looking forward to what this cast and this play will teach me in the coming weeks.  At the end of yesterday’s rehearsal I expressed my expectations of them:  to be courageous, to take specific action, to do their homework.  I expect the same of myself as we move forward to craft this story together.

But I know that one other thing will come forth from this process:  love.  Love of the art form, love of the people who commit to it, and love of the way it can move us all in the creating and performing.

Heather Parish
Artistic Director and director of Richard III

The director leads the cast in some warm up strategies.

Richard III First Reading

The (fuzzy) cast at table work.

Jennifer Sampson (text coach) and Jaguar Bennett (Gloucester) sit for some text work.

Bloggerview: WSF actress Gabriela Lawson

by Artistic Director Heather Parish

By now, Gabriela Lawson should be familiar to regular attendees of the Woodward Shakespeare Festival.  In 2006, she donned a scandalous red dress as Lady Macbeth, and then promptly overshadowed it with her vigorous and intense portrayal of Shakespeare’s most ambitious Queen.  Last season, she turned 180 degrees and portrayed Twelfth Night‘s Olivia with a ladylike giddiness.  This year, she graces the Theater in the Glen as the lead Rosalind in As You Like It.

I caught up with Gabriela during the 5th week of rehearsal for As You Like It to find out what makes her tick as a local performer, and what keeps drawing her back to Shakespeare year after year.

1.  In one sentence, what’s going on in your world?

I work full time, rehearse full time, and will sleep when I’m dead.

2.  With no restrictions on content or form, describe the present condition of the Fresno theatre scene?

I feel like there is a real undercurrent of cultural potential in Fresno right now.  With some of the new theatre companies cropping up in Fresno in the last few years that have really managed to make a name for themselves, like WSF and ART, and the expanding popularity of the Rogue festival, it seems as if we are witnessing the dawning of a new era of theatrical diversity, talent, and quality.

3. You’ve done two seasons with WSF before this year (Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, 2006 and Olivia in Twelfth Night, 2008).  What keeps bringing you back to the stage in Woodward Park?

It’s fair to say that I have had some great experiences out at the park working on shows for WSF.  I have met some amazing people and had the honor to play some terrific roles.  But, with all honesty, I am simply a sucker for Shakespeare.  I loved the premise of the company from the moment I heard it:  Make Shakespeare’s wonderful plays accessible to everyone.  With little to no cost to the patrons, a lovely venue in the park, and a company dedicated to providing comprehensive and entertaining performances of the Bard’s works, I feel WSF has laid some promising groundwork to become a powerhouse theatre company as it continues to grow year after year.  I have acted in productions, read plays aloud at the library, hung lights, sewed costumes, and built the set for several WSF shows.  The company is founded on the principles of community, teamwork, and the common goal of keeping Shakespeare’s plays alive and available here in the valley. I am in full support of the company’s dream and feel happy and privileged to participate as we strive to fulfill it.

4.  As an actor, what are you better at now than you were when you played Lady M three years ago?

I still scan my text in the same manner, I still ask questions of myself as I build my character, and I have had the benefit of working with some people who have provided even more in the way of text and performance-based skills, like Janine Christl who has challenged me as a director and Jennifer Sampson who has helped me workshop my role as Rosalind this season, but the way in which I feel that I have grown the most since playing Lady M three years ago has been in living life and growing as an person.  An actor has no greater tool than letting life affect them and applying that experience to the stage.  It adds a realism and an honesty that can simply not be taught.

5.   What makes a great audience for you?

For me, a great audience is listening, attentive, living the action with you.  That is the most satisfying feeling for an actor, to share emotions with an alert and responsive audience.  Of course, I do not kid myself that it is the audience’s job to pay attention.  I am well aware that I am responsible for capturing their attention and holding it.  Knowing that an audience is focused and experiencing the play as it unfolds tells me that I am doing my job.  There is nothing more gratifying than that.

6.  What qualities in actors or directors do you find appealing?

I like it when both actors and directors are dedicated, prompt, inquisitive and creative.  With these four things you can get the job done well almost every time.  In the very specific case of WSF, I feel it is just as imperative that the company, cast and director, be responsible to the text. The goal of offering Shakespeare to the community can only be properly realized if Shakespeare’s words and stories are accurately and truthfully represented.

7.  What do you enjoy the most about playing Rosalind?

She is fun!  I have discovered a very playful and silly side to her that I have really enjoyed exploring; high energy, lots of laughs, she is young and giddy and very spirited.

8.  What have you found to be the most common misconception surrounding theatre in Fresno?

That Fresnans have to travel to San Francisco or L.A. to catch a good show.  With the up and coming theatre companies that I previously mentioned, tried and true venues like Good Company Players, and the consistent quality at both Fresno State and Fresno City, it is past time that locals shed the idea that there is no good theatre in Fresno and start supporting our budding theatre scene to help it grow.

9.  Why Shakespeare?

I love his poetry, his humor, his stories.  I find his plays simple and profound with timeless characters and circumstances.  I also appreciate the challenge of scanning and researching the text.  All those lines that seem confusing are brilliant once our contemporary brains wrap around them.  I find that thought-provoking, interesting, and fun.  And then to perform it and try to use your own knowledge base to help the audience follow the more complicated wording and imagery and to tell a story… It’s all a lovely process to me.

10.  What’s next after As You Like It?

I will be tackling the character of Lord Buckingham in Richard III for WSF’s second show of the season this summer and I am very excited!

Roles for Women. . . of all ages

Let our female stars act their age, McKellen demands

Playwrights accused of failing to create roles for mature women

By Arifa Akbar, Arts correspondent

Saturday, 6 June 2009 from the Independent UK

It is a complaint common among actresses of a certain age: the dearth of meaty roles for women over 40. Now the elder statesman of the theatre, Sir Ian McKellen, has joined the protesting chorus and urged playwrights to start penning interesting roles for older actresses if they want to attract bigger audiences.

In a broadside against the theatre and television industries, Sir Ian cited William Shakespeare as a playwright who knew how to create a captivating “older woman” character.

Sir Ian called for bigger and better roles to be created for mature women on stage and screen. In the light of increasingly “silver” audiences, it would pay to do so, he added in an interview with The Stage newspaper.

“It’s a familiar cry from women friends of my age – or younger,” he said. “It’s not fair that, particularly in the classics, although there are some great parts for older women, there aren’t nearly as many as there are for men in, say, Shakespeare. Judi Dench has really run out of parts to play in Shakespeare.”

Sir Ian said that those playwrights who had used women as prominent leads in their work had attracted huge audiences as a result.

“Look at Calendar Girls and Madame de Sade … Both are so popular – that is very telling. People might have thought ‘Who wants to see plays about older women?’ Well, the general public do. An awful lot of older women and gentleman go to the theatre, and the population is getting older.

“Plays about old age are perhaps going to be more popular than they used to be and that should help playwrights think, well, we can find some fabulous parts for the fabulous actresses there are around.”

Sir Ian said television commissioners are missing a trick if they discourage screenwriters from creating interesting character roles for women in middle age and beyond.

“If [commissioning editors] are just titillated by the stories young people have, they are missing out. If Shakespeare hadn’t been interested in older people and people in their prime, we would not have had Antony and Cleopatra, and many other characters. Everybody wants to see actresses like Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. It’s just up to people to provide them with the material to do so,” he said.

His words follow a campaign by the actors’ union Equity, which launched a petition in March calling on broadcasters to change their attitudes towards casting women in television.

“Over half the viewing public is female, yet in TV drama, for every female character there are two male characters,” the petition said.

“While leading parts are frequently played by male actors over 45, women in this age group start to disappear from our screens. The message this sends to viewers is distorted and distorting. We call on all the major UK television channels to take action to correct this imbalance.”

The petition has so far been signed by over 4,000 people including Simon Callow, Julie Walters and Imelda Staunton. The stage actress Margaret Tyzack, 77, who won the Olivier Award for best actress in March, said the roles offered to older women were “clichéd”.

The National Theatre will host a conference on women in theatre and film on Tuesday, to examine the “equal roles” issue.

In their prime: Or past their time?

*Faye Dunaway, 68, criticised film producers for denying older female actresses the chance to play major lead roles. “Why should I play sisters and mothers, while guys like Jack [Nicholson] and Clint [Eastwood], who are older than me, have on-screen lovers half their age?”

*Alex Kingston, 46, blamed ageism when she learnt five years ago that her seven-year tenure on the US hospital drama ER was about to end. “Apparently, according to the producers and the writers, I am part of the old fogeys who are no longer interesting,” she said.

*A decade ago Sharon Stone, 51, reflected on her attendance at the Academy Awards, saying: “When I went to the Oscars it was like, ‘Oh, there has been an archaeological dig and look what we have found: a 40-year-old’.”

*Demi Moore, 45, has said: “There aren’t that many good roles for women over the age of 40. A lot of them don’t have much substance, other than being someone’s mother or wife.”

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