A Midsummer's Afternoon Student Matinee

Hello everyone!

Today’s Student Discovery Matinee was—yes, you guessed it—awesome. The sun was warm but not unbearable; the chaperones were on their game with their groups; the students (a mix of kids who had been in plays, including Midsummer, and some who had never been to a Shakespeare play) reacted heartily but not out of hand; the actors were in fine form; and the Q&A afterward (with nearly all the actors participating) was full of really good questions. Puck transfixed everyone into complete raptness a couple of times, the audience related to the lovers a lot, the Mechanicals started getting laughs just by walking onstage, and the Pyramus and Thisbe play went over brilliantly. You know that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you know everyone in the room is having a great time together? That was there.

Quotes of the day:
Student #1: (enthusiastically) Man, playing Puck would be the coolest thing ever.
Student #2: (authoritatively) Dude, I played him in 7th grade.

Thanks to everyone who helped today!

Pictured above, L to R: Erin Weaver as Hermia, Doug Hara as Puck (on ladder), Richard Thieriot as Demetrius, and Lindsey Gates as Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream; photo by Kevin Berne.

The Cal Shakes 2010 season has been announced!!

And the lineup is (drum roll, please) ...

WORLD PREMIERE!
John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven
By Octavio Solis
Directed by Jonathan Moscone
JUNE 2–27

Mrs. Warren’s Profession
By George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Timothy Near
JULY 7–AUGUST 1

Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Joel Sass
AUGUST 18–SEPTEMBER 12

Much Ado About Nothing
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Jonathan Moscone
SEPTEMBER 22–OCTOBER 17

Season packages on sale now!

Click here play descriptions.
Click here to read a letter from Jonathan Moscone.

And call 510.548.9666 or click here to pick out your series!

Ask Philippa... and Aaron!

Philippa Kelly, Cal Shakes Resident Dramaturg and production dramaturg for A Midsummer Night's Dream, invites your questions about the show, with the assistance of director Aaron Posner.

Picture by Jay Yamada.

"I am amazed and know not what to do..." So speaks Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Wonder, amazement, the perplexities of love.... Cal Shakes Artistic Director Jon Moscone says that "magic" in the forest is like a sped-up version of human destiny: that the magical events in the forest of Athens are a fast-forward version of what ACTUALLY happens when people fall in and out of love. We humans pride ourselves on being the most rational of all earth's creatures, and yet the strongest compulsion we have—that of love—isn't about reason at all. Love sends us in directions that may make no sense to anyone else (even our beloved) but we go there anyway.

How did it feel to experience love's mystery in the forest with Aaron Posner and his cast? Enter your thoughts and questions in the "comments" section below, and Aaron and I will take turns answering.

Midsummer runs through Oct 11, 2009.

And now, a break from our regularly scheduled program.

The Cupcake Truck came today.


Employees from Cal Shakes and nearby architecture firm Noll & Tam lined up in anticipation.

Three of the five available varieties. Left to right: Red Velvet, Vanilla Vanilla, and Double Chocolate. Not pictured: The Twinkie and S'mores flavors. (I got the S'mores, and highly recommend it.)

Even Managing Directors are indecisive when faced with so many cupcake choices.

Midsummer's Happy Days

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but right now—as the cast and creative team of A Midsummer Night's Dream works overtime during tech rehearsals, in preparation for this Wednesday's first preview—seems like the perfect opportunity.

Here they are: Some of the great minds and hearts behind Midsummer, attending a performance of Happy Days during less stressful times.



Left to right: Richard Thieriot ("Demetrius"), Avery Monsen ("Lysander"), Joan Mankin ("Snug/Philostrate"), Christina Hogan (Production Assistant), Aaron Posner (Director), Keith Randolph Smith ("Oberon/Theseus"), and Kate Jopson (Assistant Director); photo by Jay Yamada.

Ask Philippa!

Philippa Kelly, Resident Dramaturg for Cal Shakes and production dramaturg for Happy Days, shares her thoughts on the current production, and invites your questions. Happy Days runs through Sep 6, 2009.

Samuel Beckett's Winnie, protagonist of Happy Days, is locked in a mound of earth. "And I thought, who would cope with that and go down singing," said Beckett. "Only a woman." Repeatedly Winnie exclaims, "That is what I find so wonderful."

But what's so wonderful about her situation? And what's it supposed to mean?

There are so many ways to see Winnie: as a victim, a heroine, a battler, a hilarious purveyor of humor in the face of life's most depressing truths. No matter how you see her, however, there is one thing you can't contest: Winnie is a talker. It is words through which she seeks to understand her life, and words through which she pries open the mysteries of eternity.

Have a question about the play, the playwright, or the production? Leave it in the comments section below, and I'll do my best to answer it there!

Pictured above: Philippa at the 2008 Pericles Inside Scoop.

One belated HAPPY DAYS blog, or, Jon laughs at a naughty word

The latest and in a fascinating series of dispatches from inside the rehearsal process for Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, written by the show's director (and Cal Shakes' Artistic Director) Jonathan Moscone.

Thursday August 13, 2009

Last night: first preview. I was oddly calm. I’m usually not. Those who know me were a bit stunned by my apparent mellowness. I don’t know why I was like that. But I think it has something to do with the feeling of amazement at this play, this script. Beckett is brilliant. It seems WAY OUT THERE, but in reality it isn’t. It’s very real. Almost painfully real at times. And the poetry of his sparse language is a genuine pleasure to listen to.

But none of this would matter without Patty and Dan who took the play to a whole new level last night. It was full. Of life, humor, passion, love, wit. I was taken aback. I would have expected tentativeness on the part of the performance—after all it’s the first time in front of a group of people. But no. No no. Patty took to like a fish to water. If that is the right phrase. She paced herself beautifully and found new stuff even in performance. Wow. Cannot believe her. She is astounding.

Dan has apparently so little to do in the play, but his effect is devastating, especially in the last scene, which may be one of the great pieces of writing ever. It’s impossible to describe. It needs to be seen to be felt, to be understood, to be affected by.

I look forward to tonight, perhaps a little more nervous than last night cause it went so well. I’m a little “waiting for the other shoe to drop” kind of person. Maybe it’s my Catholicism. Or just my neuroses.

That’s a funny word when you see it written.

Favorite line from the play: “Put a little jizz into it.” Jizz. Ha.

Jon