This Green Plot shall be our Stage

I am never bored at our board meetings. We have lively discussions about the direction of the theater company, how to deal with all our challenges, and where to find a safe and secure theater venue for 60 actors and production designers.

In a Midsummer Night's Dream, the amateur actors have the same problem. They have nowhere to rehearse so they go into the woods on a midsummer night and, under the cloak of secrecy, they rehearse between hawthorn bush and green plot of land. That's where Nick Bottom, the overly exuberant actor gets turned into an ass by a spell that Puck hurls upon the foolish man. Once Nick Bottom appears with a donkey head placed squarely on his shoulders, the other actors panic and scatter like pigeons chirping "O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted!" in other words, he's turned into an ass!

In Will Shakespeare's time plays were often performed on the backs of horse drawn carts or in the yards of travel inns. Actors would go from town to town performing for crowds. That's how we think Will may have been exposed to theater when he was a child. But as he matured and became a successful playwright he invested in the Globe Theater on the banks of the Thames River in London.

Even though, at the time, the Globe Theater was a premiere place to perform, it was still open to the outdoors and actors had to endure the elements during rehearsals and performances. Understanding how difficult it was for Will's theater company to survive, I understand why I get no sympathy from him when I sigh in frustration over our own lack of theater venue. During our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, Will's hometown, I attended the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theater. Now that theater is a work of art!

I am a dreamer and can get overly exuberant at times. I hear Will tell me that what we have is good by reminding me softly "Here's a marvellous convenient place for your rehearsals. This green plot shall be your stage, this hawthorn-brake your tiring house." In other words, anywhere will work .

I tell him, I know, I know we somehow always pull through with finding one place for rehearsals and another for performances and we are always grateful for the generosity of other organizations to share their good venues with us but sometimes I get that far-away look in my eyes and I envision a Royal Shakespeare Perform It! Stage Company here in New Hampshire. Kind of like the bazillion dollar Swan Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon and I fantasize that the Queen and her royal court attend our show as the young Perform It! students take the stage and impress the royal heck out of her.

I guess I'm a lot more like Nick Bottom than I'd like to think.

If Music be the Food of Love...

I spent part of yesterday with the composers/musicians for the show. They are talented guys who play a variety of instruments and speak the language of music fluently. Although I can barely speak their language I find we are still able to communicate because they know how to translate emotions into music.

While driving home, I thought about the impact our musicians have on our performances. Good music is like good food, it can sustain a show and leave audiences feeling well-fed long after the final curtain. Through the years the musicians have given every production its own unique soundtrack. We add dances and songs to Shakespeare's plays and sometimes our narrators belt-out part of the plot-line to a lively tune. The musicians, and we have had a number of them over the years, are playful and fun-loving. They are also hard-working and serious. They listen, translate, and compose with heart.

Together our creative spirits turn Shakespeare's scripts into exuberant productions in part, because the music is so lively and full. The human spirit blossoms whenever people join together to create something bigger than themselves. We share a love for Shakespeare, for theater, and for each other. And so... as Will so eloquently wrote, "If music be the food of love, play on!"