Sandra Holt, of The Stratford Herald, recently praised the Shakespeare Institute Players in her latest review of the RSC’s As
You Like It. It seems the Institute’s production of As You Like It turned some heads in Stratford-upon-Avon. In her mention she praised our production as “beautifully performed” and named this year’s RSC production as a “runner-up in the Stratford staging stakes”. Of course I am not delusional enough to believe that the greater theatrical community found our production more intriguing than that of the Royal Shakespeare Company (Pippa Nixon is my all-time favorite RSC actress afterall), but I am certainly glad that we made an impression and are still being talked about nearly a year later. I feel so blessed and honored to have played Rosalind with the Shakespeare Institute Players and I am so proud of everyone involved.
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Today's performance of As You Like It by The Shakespeare Institute Players was a great success. The UK Summer Camp 2012 and beneficiaries of the 9/11 Scholarship Fund seemed excited to be there and eager to learn about Shakespeare. Here is a picture of the Camp Members and the Players together for the first time. Enjoy! On Thursday, 16 August 2012, As You Like It will be remounted by The Shakespeare Institute Players. We will perform an edited version for UK Summer Camp 2012. The summer camp will be visiting The Shakespeare Institute to experience their very first Shakespeare production. The camp is close to my heart because it benefits children who were directly affected by the events of 9/11. The 9/11 Scholarship Fund was established by the British Council to award scholarships to the dependents of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the U.S. I am excited to give these kids a piece of Shakespeare, a good laugh, and a touch of hope for their futures. We'll make Shakespeare scholars out of them yet! ;)
As You Like It had a fantastic run. I enjoyed every minute I had in Rosalind's shoes - An experience I shall never forget. Unfortunately I was lacking my two biggest fans - my folks! Thank you Mom and Dad for always believing in me - even when you are thousands of miles away. Thank you to Beth Roznowski for your direction, encouragement, and dedication to this project. This has been a dream come true.
Here are some of the rehearsal photos for your enjoyment! CLICK the image to enlarge. A very studious photo of me is now featured at the top of the Research Page of the Shakespeare Institute (Birmingham University) website! Check out the screen shot below, or click HERE to see the page in action.
I was invited along to a cast reading of Love's Cure, or The Martial Maid by John Fletcher - a gem of a play my friend José A. Pérez Díez has been editing as part of his PhD research at the Shakespeare Institute. Robert Ball is directing a staged reading of the newly edited script in original practice with an all male cast. Luckily, despite my womanly figure, a key cast member was missing from the rehearsal and I was afforded the opportunity to read a part. I am looking forward to seeing the final performance later this summer.
Read A Bit About the Play and follow The Love's Cure Blog. Last night we had our first read through for As You Like It. We have a large energetic cast, ripe with talent. I find the play very challenging both in language and intent. Rosalind is such a multifaceted character that I can scarcely keep up with her. It was a pleasure to sit around last night and have a good laugh with everyone - something that Institute Players have not done up to this point, with so many tragedies in the season thus far. I am looking forward to blocking rehearsals next week.
Yesterday evening we had our first performance of The Spicer’s The Annunciation and Visitation of Mary from the 15th century York cycle plays. Jason invited his supervisor and fellows to the event. We listened to a phenomenal 20 minute seminar on performance modernization of medieval drama, given by our lovely director. We then performed the piece two ways: once in original practice and once in modern practice. The audience filled out forms to document their experience of the performance. Hopefully Jason received adequate feedback for the performance.
Our final and most important performance will take place on May 18th to finalize Jason's project. I am looking forward to returning to the rehearsal room to make changes based on the feedback that was received. I have been having a great time working on this small piece of medieval drama. If you are here in Stratford, please join us on May 18th in the Shakespeare Institute Hall for the final performance, time TBA.
The bad news – The Fuimus Troes (The True Trojans) project has been put on hold until further notice (hopefully not indefinitely).
The good news – I will be playing the Virgin Mary in The Spicer’s play The Annunciation and Visitation of Mary from the 15th century York cycle plays. A dear friend of mine is exploring the various production practices of medieval English drama, and has invited me to take part in his research. The production will rehearse through April and go up May 18th. |
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