Michael Halberstam
I am so happy to be opening our 25th Anniversary Season with Shakespeare. Not only are we celebrating a quarter of a century of bringing you intimate encounters with some of literature’s greatest creators and creations, but we are presenting you our first six-production season in our beautiful new venue.
Julius Caesar
“The purpose of playing,” as Hamlet states in his eponymous play, “is, to hold, as ‘twere, the mirror up to nature; to show her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.” I can think of no better play to reflect this highly unusual election season than the greatest of all political dramas, Julius Caesar. In Shakespeare’s play, which takes place on the world stage and in which the leadership of the known world is at stake, the parallels are all too clear— proving the old adage that the more things change the more they stay the same. But where do the parallels lie? Who today is most like Mark Anthony, Brutus or Cassius or Octavius Caesar? Or are there traits of each in all of the politicians in this play? As usual, Shakespeare offers no clear villain and no clear hero, but he chronicles both the nuances and obvious machinations of political manipulation; and, as should always be the case with great art, he leaves you with many more questions than answers.
Scott Parkinson
Of course the world of Shakespeare’s play is very different from ours, and so I have partnered with Scott Parkinson in adapting the play, focusing it down. Further, as co-directors, we have crafted a world that includes some of the tools of modern politics including social media and video. Furthermore, we have cast a diverse group of brilliant actors who hopefully reflect the greater culture in which we live, and incorporated a design that takes full advantage of the breadth and depth of our new venue. I have dreamt about bringing you a version of this production for well over a decade but it has not been until now, with the superb balance between the intimate and the epic that the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre allows us, that I have been able to realize this vision. Scott has played an immeasurable part in pulling that vision organically from Shakespeare’s text while still imbuing it with a modern vernacular.
You can read about some aspects of the production, but we don’t want to give too much away. We want to surprise you and lift you into an extraordinary theatrical experience that we hope will give you a point of meditation where you can escape from the noise of this vitriolic and contentious election and perhaps find some personal truths to guide you in making the choices that lie in front of us all. ■
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