Woodward Shakespeare Festival
Portrait of Shakespeare Unveiled, 399 Years Late – The Lede Blog – NYTimes.com.
After major rounds of tests, it seems as though this portrait is, in fact, a portrait painted of Shakespeare DURING his lifetime and is therefore considered to be a truer representation of what he actually looked like.
We’ve had 4 terrific readings so far this season — Romeo and Juliet, Henry VIII, All’s Well that Ends Well, and Julius Caesar.
Each reading offers a terrific opportunity to become more familiar with the work of William Shakespeare, become more knowledgeable of the plays, cull the scripts for good quotes, monologues and characters in a quick and satisfying way. We pair some of our company’s strongest actors with community members to present the language of Shakespeare clearly and effectively for our audiences. They really are a pleasant and engaging way to spend a Tuesday evening.
Our next Free Library Reading will change things up just a bit. Charles West– the man behind last year’s “Sonnet-chanted Evening” will present “Women of Will”, a collection of monologues and scenes focusing on the women’s voices in Shakespeare. Charles’ presentations at the readings are always among our most well received, so don’t miss it!
“Women of Will”. Tuesday, March 17 at 6:30 p.m. Woodward Park Regional Library, 944 E Perrin at Champlain in Fresno.
And in April, South Valley Director Kristin Lyn Crase will direct Jennifer Hurd-Peterson, Michael Peterson, Faith Sidlow, and others in a reading of William Shakespeare’s ‘romance’, Cymbeline, on April 21st at 6:30 p.m.
~Heather Parish
WSF Artistic Director
Auditions for Woodward Shakespeare Festival’s 2009 Season of Plays, As You Like It and Richard III, will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Monday, March 9th and Tuesday, March 10th at the California Arts Academy, Blackstone in Fresno. By appointment only. Please come prepared to read a monologue 2-3 minutes in length.
Contact Program Manager Laura Vogt– laura.vogt77@gmail.com– to schedule a time. If you cannot appear at the auditions due to a rehearsal schedule or other commitment, please discuss other appointment options with Laura.
Woodward Shakespeare Offers Affordable Workshops for Local Actors:
Classes in Shakespeare’s language, audition techniques at a low cost.
Woodward Shakespeare Festival is pleased to sponsor two day-long acting workshops offered to Fresno area actors interested in improving their audition techniques and their use of Shakespeare’s language.
The first workshop will be Audition Techniques: Choices and Language held on Saturday, February 21st– two weeks prior to WSF’s 2009 season auditions.
The second workshop will take place on Saturday, April 4th and will focus on Shakespeare’s Shapely Language, an approach to speaking the language of Shakespeare developed by renowned voice and text coach Jan Gist at the Old Globe in San Diego.
The cost for a single workshop is $20, $15 for students and goes directly to offset the costs of the workshop.
Both workshops will be taught by Jennifer Sampson, a teaching-artist with an M.F.A. from the University of San Diego and a former student of Gist’s.
Sampson has extensive experience in teaching classical acting techniques having taught and performed with the Old Globe in San Diego, the La Jolla Playhouse and the Summer Theatre Institute of
New York City.
To register for workshops or for more information, click to www.woodwardshakespeare.org and choose ‘WORKSHOPS’.
Last night, another set of volunteers put together another successful reading. In fact, I have to admit that December’s Reading, directed by Erica Riggs Johnston was far more delightful than my own “Henry VIII”. She and her cast have set a very high standard for the spring play readings! The 27 audience members were very enthusiastic and several contributed to an impromptu Q&A immediately following the reading. All in all it was a lovely night.
~Heather Parish
AD
The recording of the Reading can be downloaded here. All’s Well that Ends Well Reading
Featured in this reading were Gabriela Lawson (Helena), Miles Villanueva (Bertram), Jay Parks (Parolles), GJ Thelin (Widow/Clown), Amelia Ryan (Countess), Suzanne Grazyna (Diana), and many other talented actors and community volunteers.
Last night I was in the lobby of the Severance Building, greeting patrons at the Complete Works (Abridged). The house hadn’t opened yet, so patrons were milling about and reading their programs. I overheard a couple comment to each other how “interesting it is that they do a reading every month at a library. What a good idea!”. Another couple pointed out the Readings to each other, and finally a mother and a teenaged boy (who was taking AP English Lit in school) came up to me and asked for more specifics on the Readings.
After the show, a group of older patrons who had attended our shows in the Park asked about the Readings. “Is it new? Did you just begin them?”
After one night of all of these questions, it became clear that the Readings need to be addressed more publicly! They are one of our best, most consistent programs for the community, as well as our longest standing (WSF instituted the Readings with the Fresno County Library during its first year).
So, here’s the skinny:
Every third Tuesday of the month from October to April, Woodward Shakespeare Festival offers a Staged Reading of a play. Most of the plays are Shakespeare, but this year we’re adding one non-Shakespearean classic play to the cycle.
The casts of the Readings are a combination of regular WSF company members and community volunteers. The directors are often artists who want to develop their skills ‘in the room’ with actors and who truly enjoy working on classic texts. The casts meet for only six to eight hours prior to the reading to rehearse and incorporate the most basic of blocking. The emphasis of the Readings is to focus on the language of the scripts and appreciate the story in its own right– independent of formal theatrical staging, directorial concepts, or production values.
WSF maintains a list of volunteers who are interested in participating and we are committed to casting those volunteers at least once during our cycle. They often get cast more than once, though. The Readings have also been an open door for people who have wanted to try acting but don’t yet have the confidence to audition for a show or people interested in becoming involved with the Festival.
The Fresno County Library hosts the evening, usually in Woodward Park Regional Library’s Story Room where refreshments are served and the audience gets a chance to read along with the actors (copies of the scripts are available). It is all very informal and non-threatening. If time permits after a reading, we often hold a 10 minute talk-back Q & A between the actors and the audience
And this year, as our offerings become stronger, the audience participation has grown. Our first two readings welcomed between 30 and 40 patrons, many of whom stayed after to discuss the Readings with the actors and ask how they can become involved.
And, of course, in keeping with WSF’s mission to make the works of Shakespeare accessible to all, there is no admission charge for the Readings. They are completely FREE.
OUR UPCOMING READINGS:
Our December Reading is right around the corner. All’s Well that End’s Well will be presented this Tuesday evening, December 16th at 6:30 p.m. at the Woodward Park Library. A remarkably fresh and insightful comment on journeys, transformation, and female empowerment, the play is about a young woman’s quest to win her reluctant husband’s love, attention, and a very special ring. This Reading is directed by Erica Riggs Johnston and features previous WSF Company Members Gabriela Lawson (Macbeth, Twelfth Night), Jay Parks (Macbeth, Hamlet), and Miles Villanueva (Iago in Othello).
Our Spring, 2009 Readings include Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1775 comedy of manners The Rivals directed by Heather Parish, Julius Caesar directed by Yosef Mahmood (tentative), Charles West’s follow up to his successful 2008 reading “Sonnet-chanted Evening” entitled “Women of Will”, and then Cymbeline directed by Kristin Lyn Crase.
So come by and check out the Library Readings. They’re fun, informal, and a great way to become familiar with the classic plays of the Bard (and others) and with The Woodward Shakespeare Festival.
Heather Parish
Artistic Director, WSF
Our Program Manager, Laura Vogt, made a BIG mistake. HUGE.
She gave me access to our Brown Paper Ticket service.
Brown Paper Tickets is a ticketing service committed to fair trade and community service and all that fun stuff. They also charge far less in terms of ticketing service fees than other online ticketing services. So we like them. You should like them, too.
Anyway. . . it’s the last night of Complete Works (Abridged) down at Severance and so I’m puttering about my kitchen with my laptop open on the table watching the ticket sales numbers go up and up on a fairly regular basis.
I’m now a bit obsessed with checking the numbers, truthfully. I’m supposed to be doing my dishes and making Peppermint Bark, and yet. . . I keep checking that Sales Report button to see the numbers go up.
Finally, I decided that it wasn’t a bad thing. Not obsessive at all. Instead, I tell myself that every time a ticket is sold an actor gets a free meal somewhere.
Keep that in mind when searching for entertainment options this year. Help feed the actors: buy tickets. Donate. Volunteer.
Happy Holidays!
Heather Parish
Artistic Director
What’s in a ring? The Woodward Shakespeare Festival presents a Library Reading of William Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well this Tuesday evening, December 16th. A remarkably fresh and insightful comment on journeys, transformation, and female empowerment, the play is about a young woman’s quest to win her reluctant husband’s love, attention, and a very special ring.
Directed by Erica Riggs Johnston, the reading will feature a cast of WSF actors and community volunteers. It is produced by WSF in association with the Fresno County Libraries and admission is FREE.
All’s Well that Ends Well Reading
Woodward Park Regional Library
944 E Perrin at Champlain, Fresno
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
6:30 p.m.
Free.
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