Tag Archives: Steven Maler

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s “Shakespeare and Leadership Series” presents RICHARD II

Carling-Sorenson Center for the Arts at Babson College
Wednesday, April 5 at 7:00P

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Founding Artistic Director Steven Maler, is pleased to present its annual Shakespeare and Leadership series, focusing this spring on the historical drama Richard II. The event will take place at the Carling-Sorenson Center for the Arts at Babson College on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.
The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are recommended since space is limited. To reserve a seat log onto https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/967285

 

The series features a script-in-hand reading of one of Shakespeare’s plays performed by renowned business, government, and community leaders alongside actors. The plays are cut down to run about 60 minutes. The reading is followed by a panel discussion by the participants addressing leadership questions and themes raised in the text. This year, the title will be Richard II, Shakespeare’s history play that focuses on disruption and the transition of leadership. Although the struggle for England’s throne was never simple, the kingdom lasted for over three hundred years before the sovereignty passed outside a direct familial line. But when an inept ruler – indecisive, frivolous and vain – angered the established nobility, one man interceded and cast doubt over the legitimacy of England’s leadership for generations to come.

 

Participants in the reading and discussion of Richard II will include Dr. Kerry Healey, President of Babson College; Jeff Gonneville, Chief Operating Officer of MBTA; Jon Abbott, President and CEO of WGBH; Harriet Cross, British Consul General in Boston; Donna Latson Gittens, CEO and Founder of MORE Advertising, Dennis Hong, Founder and CEO of ShawSpring Partners, and Yehuda Yakoov, Consul General of Israel. The event will be directed by CSC Associate Artistic Director Adam Sanders, and moderated by CSC Artistic Director Steven Maler.

 

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC), best known for its annual free performances on Boston Common, is a non-profit theater organization founded in 1996, dedicated to presenting vital and contemporary productions of William Shakespeare and other dramatic works to the people of Greater Boston, and to exploring Shakespeare’s work with youth in innovative and creative ways. CSC’s Free Shakespeare on the Common has served over one million audience members over its 22-year history, and has become a beloved summer tradition enjoyed by nearly 75,000 people annually. In 2013, CSC became the Theatre-in-Residence at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and has been able to expand its offerings beyond the annual Boston Common production. Starting this season, CSC will present fully staged productions in Babson’s Sorenson Center, as well as readings and other events. CSC fulfills its educational mission with actor-training programs for pre-professional and professional actors through the summer Apprentice program and CSC2.

To learn more about these programs, visit commshakes.org.

Review: Our American Hamlet

The Booth Family:
Tragedians On And Off
The Stage

Our American Hamlet
The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company

Reviewed by Bobby Franklin

The world premiere of Our American Hamlet now playing at the Sorenson Center for the Arts at Babson College in Wellesley is a fascinating and intriguing look at a family that would have been remembered more for producing two of the greatest Shakespearean actors of the 19th Century, had it not been for actions of John Wilkes Booth who gained infamy by assassinating Abraham Lincoln. His words “Sic semper tyrannis”, shouted on the stage at Ford’s Theater that  April night would become one of the most remembered lines in theatre history. It would also cast a shadow over the Booth name, one that had survived scandals but nothing compared to this horrible deed. It is against this backdrop the play unfolds, and it is an interesting one.

Our American Hamlet is an evening of wonderful theatre and should not be missed.

In Jake Broder’s play we get to see all of the Booths in their greatness, their near madness, and their rivalries. It is a complicated story that Mr. Broder makes easy to follow by using the character of Adam Badeau, which he plays, as the narrator and as a friend of Edwin’s. He is very effective in keeping everything in perspective.

Jake Broder
Photo Credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

The play opens with Mr. Broder taking the stage next to a ghost light. He sets the action with a speech that is reminiscent of the opening scene of Henry V. We then see Edwin Booth as he is preparing back stage for his first performance since his brother’s infamous deed. Much of the play takes place backstage as the action moves to the past and the family history is told.

Jacob Fishel and Will Lyman
Photo Credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

The Booth story is both fascinating and intriguing, one of great success and much pain. Junius Brutus Booth, the family patriarch, is a man with a love for his liquor who appears to be bordering at times on madness. He is played by Will Lyman who takes the role to the edge without allowing it to slip into caricature. Mr. Lyman, who is one of Boston’s great actors, lives up to his reputation in this role.

Jacob Fishel
Photo Credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

As I watched Jacob Fishel in the role of Edwin Booth I was thinking what a challenge it must be to portray a man who is considered to be one of the greatest actors of all time. Mr. Fishel does not appear to be at all intimidated by this and is a joy to watch. The back and forth between Edwin and Junius is sprinkled with lines from Hamlet that are never overplayed and always appropriate to the action. Edwin spent years dealing with his father’s mood changes and alcoholism as well as verbal abuse. He also spent this time observing his father and learning the craft of acting. When the opportunity arose he was ready. Mr. Fishel and Mr. Lyman are at times intense in their roles opposite each other, an intensity that drives the action.

Joe Fria
Photo Credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

Joe Frias brings us a John Wilkes who has much youthful confidence but is lacking in the talent his brother and father possess. Mr. Frias does a fine job in showing the bitterness that develops as John becomes frustrated and then made to feel inadequate by Edwin who not only overshadows him on the stage but also has a penchant for making him feel inferior. How much all of this played into the madness that drove him to assassinate the president is something we will never know.

Brother June (Kelby Akin), sister Asia (Lucy Davenport), and mother Mary Ann Holmes (Maureen Keiller) are the rest of the family. June owns a theatre in California, Asia marries the owner of a theatre not for love but because it will help advance Edwin’s career, and Mary encourages John in his desires to make a career on the stage while at the same time throwing guilt onto Edwin.

The voices of the actors in this production are like music.

Steven Maler has done a fine job directing this original piece of theatre. It is interesting to have scenes where we, the audience, get to sit backstage looking out at a theater while the actors perform scenes from Shakespeare and watch from behind as they take their bows or have their breakdowns. There is even a bit of Our American Cousin performed. The final scene is a wonderful piece of theatre that overlaps the Hamlets and the Booths. It is very interesting to see.

Our American Hamlet is an evening of wonderful theatre and should not be missed.  You will enjoy, learn much, and leave asking many what if questions. The voices of the actors in this production are like music. They are clear and resonant. A joy to hear.

Putting on a new play is a risk for any theatre company and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company is to be commended for staging this work. I highly recommend Our American Hamlet, you will not be disappointed.

Our American Hamlet
By Jake Border
Directed by Steven Maler
Through April 2nd at the Sorenson Center for the Arts
Babson College, Wellesley, MA
781.239.5660
www.commshakes.org

A note: Wellesley is not on another planet. The Sorenson Theater is very easy to find using GPS. There is plenty of free parking, and the theater is very comfortable with plenty of leg room. The Commonwealth Shakespeare has partnered with Babson College and is now able to stage productions all year long in addition to their free Shakespeare on the Common every summer.