Shakespeare In Our Time
September 26 – November 5, 2011
Westport Country Playhouse is partnering with numerous artists, scholars, and local organizations in a celebration of William Shakespeare and our production of his delightful romantic comedy Twelfth Night, or What You Will. With panel discussions, talkbacks, a master class, a film screening, an art exhibit, and so much more, Shakespeare In Our Time invites you to explore and discover just how fresh, exciting and accessible the plays of this universal genius are. Whether you have already cultivated a lifelong love of Shakespeare or are just beginning, these are events that you will not want to miss.
Shakespeare In Our Time has been made possible through the generous funding of The Devlin Foundation, The Graham Foundation of Connecticut, The Leon Levy Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lucille Lortel Foundation.
FAMILY
SPEAKERS, PANELS AND DISCUSSIONS
LOVE Night: a social mixer at Westport Arts Center
a collaboration between Westport Country Playhouse and Westport Arts Center
Thursday, October 6, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Westport Arts Center
51 Riverside Avenue, Westport
Admission Fee: $25; $20 for WAC Members & Westport Country Playhouse Subscribers
Shakespeare's most beguiling and enjoyable masterpiece, Twelfth Night, is a story of passionate intensity and the flowering of romantic love. Led by WAC Director of Visual Arts, Helen Klisser During and WCP Associate Artistic Director, David Kennedy, we will explore the common languages of the visual arts and theater. Actors reading scenes from Twelfth Night will help us to weave together our conversations and to make powerful connections between Shakespeare’s words and the art in the gallery.
Sunday Symposium: a conversation with Milla Riggio and Mark Lamos
Sunday, October 16, after the 3:00 p.m. matinee performance
WCP Jason Robards Theatre
Free and open to the public
Renowned Shakespearean scholar Milla Riggio, author of Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance, and Mark Lamos, WCP Artistic Director and director of Twelfth Night, or What You Will, offer their insights into the Playhouse production of Shakespeare’s most beguiling comedy.
From Actor to Director: personal reflections on Shakespeare in Connecticut
Tuesday, October 18, 7:00 p.m.
The Lucille Lortel White Barn Center at Westport Country Playhouse, Sheffer Studio
Join us for an informal gathering, some light refreshments, and reminiscences with WCP Artistic Director Mark Lamos. In conjunction with Bravo!, the Fairfield Museum and History Center’s autumn exhibit chronicling a hundred years of theater history in Fairfield County, Mark will reflect on his participation in Connecticut’s rich history of Shakespearean performance, beginning with his 1978 performance as Feste at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford. This event will be accompanied by archival photos from the Festival Theatre.
Play On: Sharing a Passion for the World’s Most Essential Playwright
Produced in collaboration with the Shakespeare Society
Sunday, October 23, after the 3:00 p.m. matinee
WCP Jason Robards Theatre
Free and open to the public
Michael Sexton, Director of the Shakespeare Society, and Arin Arbus, Associate Artistic Director of Theater for a New Audience, are passionate advocates of accessible Shakespeare for all. Join a conversation in which they discuss their work.
Master Class: Acting and Directing Shakespeare, with Mark Lamos, WCP Artistic Director
Monday, October 24, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
WCP Jason Robards Theatre
Free and open to the public
WCP Artistic Director Mark Lamos will guide actors through scenes from Shakespeare, exploring all the facets of bringing his extraordinary words to life. This is your chance at a behind-the-scenes look at the nuts and bolts of directing Shakespeare by one of his foremost American interpreters.
The Director’s Vision: Interpreting Shakespeare for the Stage
Sunday, October 30, after the 3:00 p.m. matinee performance
WCP Jason Robards Theatre
Free and open to the public
Liz Diamond of the Yale School of Drama, Joanna Settle, Artistic Director of Shakespeare on the Sound, and newly appointed Artistic Director of Hartford Stage Darko Tresnjak join in conversation with WCP Associate Artistic Director David Kennedy on the art of interpreting Shakespeare for performance, from the myriad of interpretive decisions preceding working with a cast, to collaborating with designers to create a Shakespearean world on the stage.
Talkback with the Actors
Thursday, November 3, after the 8:00 p.m. performance
WCP Jason Robards Theatre
Free and open to the public
Join the cast of Twelfth Night, or What You Will as they discuss the creative process and the challenges inherent in bringing a Shakespeare play to life on the stage.
WORKSHOPS
Shakespeare Set Free: a professional development workshop for educators presented by Folger Shakespeare Library
Monday, September 26, 4:00 to 7:30 p.m.
The Lucille Lortel White Barn Center at Westport Country Playhouse, Sheffer Studio
Free and open to all educators
Folger Shakespeare Library, repository of the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's works, will present a half-day workshop based on its innovative Shakespeare Set Free book series. It will offer an interdisciplinary, text and performance-based approach to teaching Shakespeare to students of all abilities in grades 3 to 12. The Folger's approach maintains that the study of Shakespeare is possible and rewarding for all students, and that the best way for students to understand Shakespeare is to engage with the texts by performing scenes from the plays. The Folger's practical and active approach to teaching Shakespeare gives teachers the means to help students own the language; the performance aspect provides a structure of collaboration that allows students own the play.
Shakespeare for Teachers: a professional development workshop for educators presented by The Acting Company
Wednesday, October 5, 3:30 to 7:00 p.m.
The Lucille Lortel White Barn Center at Westport Country Playhouse, Sheffer Studio
Free and open to all educators
The Acting Company, America's foremost touring company for Shakespeare, will present a half-day workshop for teachers based on their 'Shakespeare for Teachers' program. The Acting Company's educational approach mirrors the approach of the company itself: to celebrate language and to deepen creative exploration. This workshop will use Twelfth Night, or What You Will as a starting point in an exploration of role-playing, text analysis, writing-in-role and other drama-based techniques. The workshop aims to provide teachers with a repertoire of exercises designed to give students new entry-points to literature.
Film
Shakespeare In Love: a film screening
Produced in collaboration with Westport Arts Center
Friday, October 28, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Westport Arts Center
51 Riverside Avenue, Westport
Admission Fee: $10/person
The plays of William Shakespeare have inspired innumerable film adaptations, but in John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love, it is the writer’s life that is re-imagined. With a screenplay by noted playwright Tom Stoppard, this delightful concoction – full of heroes, villains, backstage intrigue, and, like Twelfth Night, even a loveable heroine disguised in male garb – won seven Academy Awards. David Kennedy, Associate Artistic Director of Westport Country Playhouse, will introduce the screening and provide context to the themes explored in the film. This film is rated “R.”
FAMILY
Together at the Table Family Dinner
Wednesday, October 19, 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, October 26, 6:30 p.m.
The Lucille Lortel White Barn Center at Westport Country Playhouse, Sheffer Studio
Discounted ticket price of $10 includes dinner and the show; must attend as a family group
During the run of Twelfth Night, or What You Will, the Playhouse will host two Family Nights as part of our Together at the Table Family Dinner program. These Family Nights allow families to enjoy a communal dinner in our rehearsal barn and a casual conversation about the show before attending a performance. This program aims to make live theater accessible to more families, and to introduce young audience members to the Westport Country Playhouse in a warm and informal atmosphere.
ART
LOVE: In the Eye of the Beholder
a members exhibition juried by David Kiehl, Curator of Prints and Special Collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Westport Arts Center
51 Riverside Avenue, Westport
September 16 - November 6
The Westport Arts Center, inspired by Westport Country Playhouse’s fall production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will, presents work by WAC members meditating on the subject of Love, a force that challenges every emotion, transforms reality, marries imagination with projection, and inspires artists to depict its complexity through color, light, texture, and form. It is at any moment the beholder’s vision.
Shakespeare at Housatonic: Student Interpretations of Twelfth Night
On Display from October 11 – November 5
WCP Lobby
In conjunction with our production of Twelfth Night, or What You Will, the Playhouse will display artworks created by students in classes across the arts program at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport. The works, in a variety of media, will be inspired by students’ interpretation of Shakespeare’s text and their creative reimagining of it in the present day.
PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
The Acting Company
Fairfield Museum and History Center
Folger Shakespeare Library
Housatonic Community College Art and Theater Programs
Shakespeare on the Sound
The Shakespeare Society
Westport Arts Center
