Guess who ran off to join the circus?

Did you know that our beloved Associate Artist Ron Campbell has joined Cirque du Soleil? It's true. Here's a snippet from his fascinating blog, which you can access from our "Relevant Linkage" list (to the right, further down on this page):

"Among clown circles (rings?) the exacting process of 'finding your clown' is given a lot of lip service. It always struck me as a little touchy-feely but I was wrong.

The clown discipline:

(yes, it is a discipline. Just as much a discipline as the trapeze artists, hand to hand balancers and tumblers that I see every day here at Cirque headquarters practice.)

–requires one to find a nakedness and a naiveté that my traditional theatre work has only rarely asked of me. It is no longer my job to create a character and put him on like a suit of clothes. Indeed I must unlearn everything I know."

Read more at www.roncampbelltempest.blogspot.com.

Pictured: Ron Campbell in Pericles (2008); photo by Jay Yamada.

Listen to Cal Shakes on KCBS.com

In honor of Shakespeare's birthday, Director of Artistic Learning Trish Tillman appeared on KCBS radio Thursday, April 23, at 9:20am, "talking like Shakespeare" and discussing the challenges of keeping Shakespeare relevant to young people. (She ended up pitching a little Shakesperean woo at SF Shakespeare in the Park's Bill Olson!)

You can listen to the segment here.

Celebrating Shakespeare's Birthday

To honor William Shakespeare's birthday tomorrow, Chicago Shakespeare Theater convinced Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to declare April 23 "Talk Like Shakespeare Day." They've created a website, talklikeshakespeare.org, where you can get instruction on how to babble like the Bard, watch videos, take quizzes, and much more.

Back here at home, we haven't managed to get anyone to make a mayoral proclamation on our behalf—it's a little hard when your offices are in one city but you're theater's in another, and the Governor didn't return our email. But we here at California Shakespeare Theater are honoring our titular playwright on April 23: If you're on our email list, you'll receive a very special offer tomorrow. If you're not, click here and get on it before time runs out!

Do you want to be a Cal Shakes Student Ambassador?

We're getting ready to launch our new and improved Ambassador Program, an opportunity for college students to get FREE TICKETS TO CAL SHAKES SHOWS, backstage access, and more.

Join us next Wednesday at Spud's Pizza in Berkeley for an Open House event featuring free pizza, socializing, and more information about this fun way for ages 18-25 to get in on the act at California Shakespeare Theater.

Open House Details:
Wednesday, April 29, 7-8pm
Spud's Pizza, 3290 Adeline St., Berkeley
For a map and directions click here.

More Info: 510.809.3293 or ambassadors@calshakes.org

2009 Season Artist Profile: A Midsummer Night's Dream's Aaron Posner

In the months leading up to our 2009 Main Stage season, we’ve been profiling the creative minds behind the season’s productions—Romeo and Juliet, Private Lives, Happy Days, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream—in our e-newsletters. For the March installment, we profiled director Aaron Posner, director of A Midsummer Night's Dream, who you may remember from this blog entry a few months back. Posner is the Artistic Director at Two River Theatre Company in New Jersey, coproducer of Midsummer. What follows is the complete Q&A for that article. To sign up for our email newsletter, click here.


You’re currently in tech for Melissa Arctic at Two River; what are a few of your most recent projects before that, and one or two coming up?
My adaptation of My Name Is Asher Lev from the novel by Chaim Potok just closed at the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia (of which Posner was a cofounder -ed.). I am very proud of it and am pleased it is going on to other productions around the country, including one in this area in the fall at the Marin Theatre Company. Actually, folks in this area will be able to see both my adaptations of Chaim Potok novels, because Theatreworks in Palo Alto is doing The Chosen next year as well. I have never worked in the Bay Area before, but next year I will be represented three times, which is great. I am looking forward to seeing all of them, and spending some time out here…

In the meantime, I am starting rehearsals in a few weeks for Arcadia by Tom Stopppard at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in DC, and next season I will also be working on a fabulous new adaptation of Euripides’ Orestes by Anne Washburn at the Folger and Two River, and also a new Cole Porter musical revue I am putting together. And more things on other burners as well. So lots of exciting stuff…

What has changed in your thinking and planning for the Cal Shakes’ production of Midsummer since you spoke to the staff here in January?
The core ideas are the same, though they continue to evolve and percolate. The show is very much with me now, in my consciousness all the time, so I see somebody wearing something in a coffee shop and I think “Oh, that could be very Puck” or I see a piece of art in a gallery and it gives me idea for the set. Both of those things have happened recently, by the way. I am just beginning the design process, so that work is really still to come. We shall see where it leads. The other major thing that is happening is that we are getting the show cast, as with each new cast member, I have new ideas. My whole idea of the mechanicals has totally evolved based on the folks I met here at Cal Shakes for the auditions. I was excited and inspired by some of your long time Associate Artists, and I think I am finding fun and playful ways to use them.


What are you looking forward to regarding working in the Bay Area in general, or with Cal Shakes or at the Bruns in particular? This will be the third time I have worked outside, so I am looking forward to that. Though I hear there are foxes and wolves and wild beasts in the area, so I am not so sure about that. I am from the west coast originally, from Eugene, Oregon, so it is always great to be back on the west coast. A lot of folks I grew up with and went to school with and did plays with in school and at the Oregon Repertory Theatre when I was in high school actually live in the area I am finding out (mostly via Facebook and from folks who have seen your season advertised) so that will be fun, too, to re-connect with some folks. And as I said above, I am very excited by the actors I have been meeting from the area, so I am looking forward to that, too. This cast will be a great combination of long-time collaborators that I am bringing with me and a lot of folks that are new to me, so that is usually a good and dynamic combination.


And finally, if you could have directed any play in history, what (and/or where, and/or with who) would it be?
Wow. This is absolutely a question I have never been asked and never really thought about. There are great actors now I would love to work with, and a million stories to tell. I am not sure I can think back that way. I can tell you I would give anything to have been in the audience of one of Shakespeare’s plays back in the day, when they were being advertised as World Premieres. It would just be so fascinating to know what they were really like and how they were viewed. I would love to really be able to see that.

The great thing is, of course, that if there are plays from the past that I love so deeply I would have wanted to do them back then, I can still do them now. That is one of the great gifts of this profession. The plays don’t get used up. Particularly the really great ones. There is always more to explore, more to delve into, and new things keep happening to you and to the world, so there are always new things to inform any production. So, that pretty much entirely dodges the question, but I think it is the best that I have.

Oh, and I would like to have directed the first production of Man and Superman. And Uncle Vanya. And Arcadia. And Orestes. And The Misanthrope. And…

Don't miss a minute of our 2009 Main Stage season; click here to subscribe. Single tickets go on sale May 1!

2009 Season Designer Profile: Happy Days' Todd Rosenthal

In the months leading up to our 2009 Main Stage season, we’ll be profiling the creative minds behind the season’s productions—Romeo and Juliet, Private Lives, Happy Days, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream—in our e-newsletters. For the February installment, we profiled Tony Award-winning scenic artist Todd Rosenthal, who will make his Cal Shakes debut this summer with Samuel Beckett's Happy Days. To sign up for our email newsletter, click here.

What are you working on currently, and what other productions do you have coming up after that?

I am designing Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance for Arena Stage in DC, Magnolia (a new play by Regina Taylor) at the Goodman Theatre, the national tour of August: Osage County (for which he won a Tony in 2008), Much Ado About Nothing at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center (and east coast tour), and a few commercial projects in New York which, considering the economy, I don't want to jinx. I'm also designing a few shows at Steppenwolf.

The biggest question in my mind is, what’s the attraction for a designer to a Beckett play? I saw in your CV that you designed the set for Endgame last year in Milwaukee, and I know that the Beckett estate keeps rather tight reins on how his works are interpreted. In addition, he trafficked in such minimalism. So what excites you about this particular playwright’s work?

I remember reading Endgame as an undergraduate, and never really connecting to it. It seemed so encased in plastic. As something to be revered but not touched. But, when I designed it last year I was so struck by its raw humanity. The struggles of these characters just trying to make it has such relevance for me as I grow older. I was also struck by how funny the play is.

Looking at the images your website, I noticed what seems like a major emphasis on interiors and other architecture. But Happy Days is very much an exterior play, and our theater is an outdoor one. What’s your experience with outdoor venues, and your favored approach to exteriors?

In Happy Days Beckett again explores how we endure amidst great odds. What could be a better setting than a women being swallowed by the earth under the open sky? I tend to favor projects outdoors that are enhanced by being outdoors. I am less enamored by designs that fight being outdoors, like drawing rooms. I did Night of the Iguana outdoors; in that play the main character is constantly challenging god. The dome of the night sky was awesome. I don't think I could ever do that play indoors again.

You won a 2008 Tony for August: Osage County. What was that like, receiving that kind of recognition? Were you at the ceremony? How was that?

Standing in front of 6,000 people was a bit overwhelming. It is great to be part of such a successful play. Some people never get a chance to be part of a history-making Broadway play. I feel very fortunate.

And lastly, if you could have designed sets for any play or production in history, what would it (or they) be?

I wish Martin McDonagh was still working in the theater, and I could design all of his new plays.

New Steinbeck project video

As mentioned on this blog several times late last year, Cal Shakes hosted our third Pastures of Heaven development workshop in December. Now, finally, here's some video to prove it. Click on the screenshot to the right to be taken to the video.