What's Coming Up at Illinois Shakes in 2017

The Illinois Shakespeare Festival has announced plans for its 40th anniversary season, taking place next summer at Ewing Cultural Center in Bloomington. The 2017 summer season will include one bona fide Shakespeare play and two adaptations.

The real-live Shakespeare play will be A Midsummer Night's Dream, always a popular choice. This magical comedy, full of fairies, foolish mortals in love and an amateur acting troupe trying to put on a terrible play, will open the season on June 30, playing till August 11.

An image from the 2009 Midsummer directed by Deb Alley. Photo by Pete Guither.

A Midsummer Night's Dream was first done at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in 1980 and has been well represented here ever since. I have good memories of the hilarious 2002 production directed by Karen Kessler, where Puck looked like a tiny pony, as well as the sultry 2009 Cajun-flavored Midsummer directed by Deb Alley. What will set the next Midsummer apart? Illinois Shakes says:  "Our family-friendly production of Shakespeare's world-famous comedy follows four young lovers into an enchanted forest for an unforgettable journey of trickery, laughter, and love. Featured in this production is a musical Puck, whose original score is sure to cast a spell on you!"

The Illinois Shakespeare Festival has a tendency to offer one comedy, one drama and one "other." This time, there are two contenders for that "other" spot, with Chris Coleman's Shakespeare's Amazing Cymbeline the first. Coleman is the artistic director at Portland Center Stage in Oregon, and his six-actor adaptation of Cymbeline, produced at PCS in 2012, represented the first time Shakespeare was performed by that theater. The image below is from that production.

In Coleman's take on Cymbeline, one of those six performers, a musician, serves as the narrator to keep all of Cymbeline's wandering plot threads together. The important thing to note is that Cymbeline, the King of Britain, isn't that important a character even if he does get the title. It's Imogen, his daughter, whose story you'll need to follow. Dad's evil wife wants to marry Imogen off to her cloddish son, but Imogen is already secretly married to a guy named Posthumus. Because of the marriage, Posthumus is banished, whereafter he makes a stupid bet concerning his wife, is fooled by a bad friend (bed trick alert!) into thinking she's unfaithful, and decides to kill her. But our Imogen is no dummy and she dresses as a boy (cross-dressing girl alert!) and goes on the lam, where she accidentally runs into her brothers, who were kidnapped when they were little. And the clod (his name is Cloten) is on her trail, too. By the time it all gets sorted out, there is a headless body dressed in someone else's clothes (mistaken identity alert!) and an appearance by the god Jupiter to promise everything will turn out OK.

By my count, Cymbeline has only been done twice by the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, making it a rare choice. If you need to check Cymbeline off your bucket Shakespeare list, this is the time, even in its reduced, six-person state. It will be performed between July 1 and August 12, 2017 in the outdoor theater at Ewing.

The last play on the schedule is also an adaptation. The Q Brothers made an appearance in Bloomington in 2015 to offer Q Gents, a hip-hop version of The Two Gentlemen of Verona performed by four actors from the Q Brothers Collective. This time they're performing something called I Heart Juliet, a hip-hop (and comedic) riff on Romeo and Juliet, performed with a cast of ten. We are told: "The Q Brothers Collective is at it again, bringing their incredible energy, humor, and hip-hop verse to Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Romeo and Juliet!" Note that I Heart Juliet will be performed inside, in Illinois State University's Westhoff Theatre, from July 9 to August 8. (The I Heart Juliet image above is from a Connecticut college production.)

Tickets to all three of these Illinois Shakespeare Festival offerings will go on sale later in 2016. Keep an eye on the Illinois Shakes website and Facebook page for details.

ROMEO AND JULIET Bring Their Tale of Love and Woe to Eureka College

It's time for the world's most famous pair of teen lovers to take center stage at Eureka College. No, not the kids from Titanic. Instead, it's Romeo and Juliet, an early work by Shakespeare that invented the concept of star-crossed lovers.

In Shakespeare's tragedy, Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague come from families that don't get along. At all. In fact, it's unthinkable for a Capulet to think she belongs with a Montague in 16th century Verona. It's swelteringly hot in the streets of Verona, passions and anger are running high, and our teen lovers do not want to be thwarted by stuffy oldsters or feuding cousins who think they know what's best. And Shakespeare doesn't pack any punches -- he has his narrator tell us right from the get-go that this story will end in death. When we get to the end, we hear that there "never was a story of more woe....Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

Is it a tale of love that cannot be denied? Of how dangerous it is to ignore what your parents want for you? A cautionary tale about taking rash action or trying to defy fate or trying to keep love alive in a hostile world?

Whatever it is you think Shakespeare was trying to say with his Romeo and Juliet, it has proven to be one of his most popular plays. It's the one that the Victorians revived with a happy ending (as recreated in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby), the one that got a ballet from Prokofiev, the one that shows up in dozens of operas and pop songs, the one Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim turned into a modern musical gang war in West Side Story, the one Joe Calarco set in a boys' school in Shakespeare's R&J, the one Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann both put on film, and the one we see Will Shakespeare working on in Shakespeare in Love.

Professor Marty Lynch directs Romeo + Juliet (note the spelling reminiscent of Lurhmann's movie) for Eureka College with a production set in contemporary America. The rival Montague and Capulet families are now warring political factions. Lynch has indicated he hopes to emphasize the humor in the piece in the early going, with the intention of making the tragedy at the end stand out in sharp relief. Eureka College notes that the production will contain violence and some crude humor.

Lynch's cast includes Coleman Payne and Hattie Standridge as Romeo and Juliet, with Kristen Franz as Mercutio, Jake Geiger as Benvolio, Jason Punke and Veronica Kudulis as Romeo's dad and mom, Belle Grober as Tybalt, Anna Dabrowski as Juliet's nurse, Christopher Tam and Cathy Sutliff as Juliet's parents, Gretchen Schlossler as the friar, and Emmalie Dabrowski, Hannah Lane, Trevor McDaniel, Kirstin Meyers, Jessica Rogers, Ben Schultz and Emily Smith completing the ensemble.

Eureka's Romeo + Juliet begins at 7:30 pm on February 25, 26, 27 and 28 at Pritchard Theatre. Tickets are priced at $10 for general admission and $7 for students. For reservations, contact the box office at 309-467-6363, e-mail tickets@eureka.edu, or go to www.eureka.edu/events to pick a specific performance and purchase online. 

Catching February Theatre Fever

Time to get your February calendar ready!

Along with Oscar-nominated short films, the Art Theater Co-op in Champaign is currently showing M, Fritz Lang's masterpiece of German expressionism. It's a creepy film about a child murderer (played by young Peter Lorre in his third film) on the loose in pre-World War II Berlin, a city of deep shadows and lurking evil. You can read Roger Ebert's take on M here.

Back on the Oscar theme, upcoming at The Art will be Selma, Foxcatcher and Still Alice, all nominated in various categories.

Foxcatcher is also on the bill at the Normal Theater, with this story about multimillionaire John du Pont (played by Steve Carrell), a man obsessed with Olympic wrestling and brothers Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo), on screen on February 7 and 8.

Illinois State University Theatre's year begins with Cabaret, opening February 12 in ISU's Center for the Performing Arts. Duane Boutte directs a cast that includes Paige Brantley as Sally Bowles, the American girl who sings at the seedy Kit Kat Club in Berlin. In fact, the low-rent Kit Kat Club could've been right down the street from the goings-on in M, above. Jimmy Keating will play Cliff, the Englishman who enters Sally's life as the Nazis rise to power around them, and Alex Levy will portray the Emcee, the sardonic, decadent ringmaster at this shady place. Check out the show's Facebook page for more information.

Heroes, based on a French play by Gerald Sibleyras that was translated and adapted by award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard, opens February 12 at Heartland Theatre. A lighter, sweeter piece with nary a trace of physics or politics, Heroes is a bit of a departure for Stoppard. It focuses on three men, all veterans of World War I, who are stuck in a retirement home for old soldiers. Each has his own mental or physical problem, but together, they plot a way out of their confinement. Will they make it off their terrace? Over the wall? To the poplars in the distance? Come out to Heartland to see Joe Penrod, George Peterson-Karlan and Todd Wineburner bring Heroes to life from February 12 to 28, with a panel discussion scheduled after the February 22 performance. The discussion topic is Theatre and War, with historiography scholars Dr. Will Daddario and Dr. Joanne Zerdy offering their take on why theatre artists come back to war as a topic again and again. Check out Heroes showtimes here to make your choice.

Over at Illinois Wesleyan, February kicks off with Where in the World Is Frank Sparrow? by Angela Betzien. Frank Sparrow is described as "a stark urban reality" combined with "a mythic underworld." IWU offers six performances in McPherson Theatre between February 17 and 22. For more information, click here.

ISU is also offering Moliere's classic School for Wives this month. Natalie Kozelka and Kaitlyn Wehr star as thwarted young lovers Agnes and Horace, with Dario Carrion as Arnolphe, the middle-aged man keeping them apart. Agnes is his ward, and Arnolphe wants her for himself. Given that it's Moliere, have no fear -- Arnolphe's plans will come to naught. But it's going to take a lot of plots and counterplots to make that happen. MFA director Jonathan Hunt Sell takes the reins on this gender-bent version of The School for Wives, scheduled for performances in Westhoff Theatre from February 19 to March 6.

February 22 is Oscar night, where Hollywood luminaries gather to celebrate their favorite directors, performers and films from 2014. Will Birdman stave off Boyhood for Best Picture? Can Eddie Redmayne take Best Actor from Michael Keaton? Can anybody stop Julianne Moore? (No, no one can stop Julianne Moore.) See all the gowns, the glamor and the heartbreak starting at 6 Central time on ABC on the 22nd.

Romeo and Juliet is Eureka College's February choice, bringing the Montagues and Capulets into the 21st century as rival political factions instead of warring families. Eureka's R and J begins February 25 in Pritchard Theatre.

The world premiere of Hostage by Kim Pereira opens New Route Theatre's 2015 season. New Route tells us that "[t]his powerful play, a semi-finalist at the Eugene O'Neill Center National Playwrights Conference, is set somewhere in the Middle East against the complicated backdrop of ISIS, the West Bank, and Arab-American relations." Directed by guest director Tom Palmer from Atlanta, Georgia, Hostage features Dan Irvin and Rhys Lovell, two of the best actors you'll find in these parts. Performances are scheduled for February 26 to 28, March 1 and March 5 to 8. New Route's new space is at 814 Jersey Avenue in Normal, and tickets will be available at the door. You can reserve a spot by calling 309-827-7330 or e-mailing new.route.theatre@gmail.com

And that should take you from one end of February to the other with plenty of entertainment...

My Clandestine Affair with "Shakespeare in Love"

I intended to write a proper review of "Shakespeare in Love," which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1999, as a way of celebrating this Academy Award week.

But then a funny thing happened. I watched it again. And I found myself falling in love with "Shakespeare in Love" all over again, to the point where I was dreading writing about it, because I didn't want to share it. I just wanted to luxuriate in this affair for awhile, private and secret and special, and keep the rest of the world outside.

So I'm not going to write a proper review. I'm going to luxuriate instead.

On paper, "Shakespeare in Love" was perfect for me from the beginning. It's got Shakespeare, of course, which definitely pulls me in, and even better, he's shown as a young, impetuous, passionate playwright, spilling over with words even as he's blocked. He's also shown, you know, writing his own plays, so that's a bonus.

Plus Tom Stoppard, another brilliant writer, worked on the script. Stoppard and Marc Norman, the guy who had the idea in the first place, have never said who wrote what, but I choose to believe that everything I love the most in this clever, giddy, achingly romantic movie is Stoppard's work. So sue me. When you're in love, you get to be crazy like that.

And then there's Joseph Fiennes, who is pretty clever and achingly romantic himself. I hope Will Shakespeare was really like Joseph Fiennes. Wouldn't that be lovely? Millions of people have fallen in love with Shakespeare's words, as his characters came alive on the page or on the stage. But Joseph Fiennes and his ink-stained fingers bring it to a whole different level. Okay, fine. It's down a few levels, away from lofty ideas and right down to the earthy, the real, the sexual. I don't care. It works for me. Joseph Fiennes works for me.

I'm not a big fan of Gwyneth Paltrow in general, but she looks beautiful (her hair alone deserved the Oscar) and she has good chemistry with Mr. Fiennes. (Plus, you know, she's way better than Julia Roberts, who was apparently the go-to girl when the script first surfaced ten years earlier. Let us take a moment to give thanks that Julia Roberts and Daniel Day Lewis didn't work out. Because that would've broken my heart.)

And there are tons of other lovely actors to enjoy as they breeze by, with Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson, Simon Callow, Martin Clunes, Antony Sher, Rupert Everett and even Ben Affleck, of all people, each playing a pivotal role. One of my favorite performances comes from an actor named Mark Williams, who plays a stuttering tailor who wants his turn on the stage, showing us (as does Tom Wilkinson) just how each of the players is smitten by the magic and mystery of the theater.

Don't forget Colin Firth as the wrong man, practically twirling his mustache. Or Imelda Staunton and her real-life husband, Jim Clark, playing the real and stage versions of Juliet's nurse. (Clever touch, that one.) And, of course, Dame Judi Dench as what may be the best Queen Elizabeth ever.

So here I am, wishing once again I could time travel. This time I'd choose Shakespeare's world, just for a few hours. Long enough to see "Hamlet," maybe. Or the "Twelfth Night" we see Will starting to write at the end of the movie. I suspect the real one wouldn't be as much like Joseph Fiennes as I'd hoped. So it's probably better to watch the movie again, instead. It's just so hard to leave that world when the movie ends. Can't I stay awhile longer?