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A dozen
actors, some in Renaissance dress, others in sweat or street
clothes, were practicing the funeral procession which opens
their production of the comedy, All's Well That Ends Well.
Singing, the actors marched around to the beat of
choreographer Liz Shipman's makeshift drum, a red wooden stool
she appropriated after a cardboard box proved too flimsy.
In its
fifth annual series of free summer park performances, the
company is performing All's Well That Ends Well.
Their opening scene is not the traditional one. The
company added it as part of a revision of the work, trimmed to
run just two hours. "Ours is an eye-oriented society,
not ear-oriented," artistic director Deborah Wright Houston
said. "We try to keep it moving." Houston said
that such revision "is making Shakespeare live. He's not
pickled, you know." Houston said the company does strive
to maintain the intimacy of the Elizabethan theater.
"Classical theater has gotten blown way out of proportion.
You either mike, or you scream. Both are atrocious."
Most of the company's performances will be in small venues.
"I'd like
people to come from all over the country to see Shakespeare in
Brooklyn," Houston said. "There's so much richness in
Shakespeare —
for me it's like eating
chocolate mousse."
— Craig A. Bloom
New York Newsday |
