2012 SEASON ANNOUNCED
Raymond Caldwell, TSF Artistic Director has announced the 2012 Texas Shakespeare Festival Season.
“Every summer several kind patrons tell me how much they have enjoyed the plays, and fairly often they will say something like “I think this was the best season yet, and every year I say that I don’t think it can get any better!” says Caldwell. “It is always a thrill to hear such complimentary comments; they inspire us to continue trying to make each year at least as good as the last one.”
Choosing the plays for the season is a difficult and time-consuming challenge, partly because TSF has produced most of Shakespeare’s plays, some of them two or three times, and partly because it isn’t easy to find musicals that meet the Festival’s criteria and that can be produced within the Festival’s specific limitations.
Since Shakespeare’s plays are predominantly male, the musical must have no more than 5 – 7 females; one that does not require big dance numbers or a large orchestra; and one with minimal scenery requirements.
Once the two Shakespeare plays and the musical are selected, the attention is turned toward choosing the “non-Shakespearean classic,” usually a comedy. In past seasons TSF has produced masterpieces by Moliere, staged several Restoration comedies, and offered a number of more recent plays.
As for the musicals, TSF has usually produced titles that are familiar or at least “traditional” in form and content, and only occasionally have we offered something relatively unknown or original. Our musicals have almost always been “Broadway Musical Comedies,” in fact.
The normal line-up for this TSF season is two Shakespeare plays, one non-Shakespeare classic comedy, one musical comedy, and a children’s play. This summer will follow the basic pattern, but there are two major differences.
Both of the Shakespeare plays are classified as comedies, even though MEASURE FOR MEASURE might be more accurately described as a drama. No one dies, and it ends happily, so technically it is a comedy. TSF produced it only once before, in 1993. The title may sound familiar since it is inspired by a quote from the Biblical Gospel of Matthew. It is an arresting and emotional story about the lust for power and the power of lust – true Shakespearean melodrama.
The other Shakespeare play will be his only comedy set in Elizabethan England – THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. Last seen at TSF in 1998, MERRY WIVES is a comic romp featuring one of Shakespeare’s most beloved characters, Sir John Falstaff, who gets himself into a heap of trouble while trying to court two women at the same time.
The non-Shakespeare play is a new adaptation by David Ives of a 17th-century farce by French playwright Pierre Corneille, a contemporary of Moliere. It is called THE LIAR, and it is about a swaggering young swain who seems incapable of telling the truth. Mistaken identities, misunderstandings, and hilarious complications ensue.
So far, the 2012 season looks typical, but here are the two major differences:
(1) The musical is not the normal “Broadway Musical Comedy” but a British import instead. In fact, it is the longest-running musical in the history of London’s West End. The title is BLOOD BROTHERS and it has been running continuously since 1988 – more than 22 years! It was written by Willy Russell, the author of EDUCATING RITA and SHIRLEY VALENTINE, and it isn’t just a comedy, but a drama with several comic scenes, loosely based on the 19th century novella The Corsican Brothers by Alexandre Dumas, author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
Since it first appeared on the London stage in 1983, and especially after its revival in 1988, BLOOD BROTHERS has become a phenomenon of British theatre, still playing to sold-out crowds and garnering spontaneous standing ovations at the end of every performance. It isn’t the typical “Rogers and Hammerstein” type of musical. The songs are hauntingly beautiful, but the music has a more “youthful” and popular quality than that found in older, more traditional musicals. It is a unique fusion of genres, actually – part allegory, part melodrama, and both comic and heart-rending. It is a story about twin brothers born to a woman who, because she is poor and already has five children, is persuaded to give one of them to a wealthy family. When they are eight years old, the twins meet each other accidentally and, without knowing that they are related, become best friends in spite of their parents’ efforts to keep them apart. The play follows their parallel but contrasting lives all the way to the inevitable and fateful end. You will fall in love with this unforgettable musical drama just as all of Britain has done, but here is one bit of advice: Bring a packet of Kleenex with you.
(2) There will be a fifth production this summer! We are bringing back THE CMPLT WRKS OF WLLM SHSPR (ABRIDGED) – the three-man, non-stop, outrageous production that presents all 37 Shakespeare plays in less than two hours! TSF produced some year ago as a fundraiser in 1998. It has been done all over the world and recently revised by the authors. It is a guaranteed laugh-a-minute, hyper-kinetic, irreverent race through Shakespeare, almost as if Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, and the Marx Brothers had written the words. The production will be directed by TSF veteran Jason Richards and perform on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings only, beginning July 3.
So that is the 2012 TSF season, MEASURE FOR MEASURE; THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR; THE LIAR; BLOOD BROTHERS, and THE CMPLT WRKS OF WLLM SHSPR (ABRIDGED); except for the children’s show, which hasn’t been selected yet.
Sometime during the five-weeks of performances, Raymond hopes to hear someone say “This is the best one yet!”
