How I Will (Not) Be Spending My Summer Vacation

Currently making plans for my follow-up visit to New York. I have tickets for a show Saturday night, intend to revisit the Performing Arts Library on Saturday, and make make plans to attend NY Fringe shows on Sunday before flying out late. One thing I will not be doing, if only because it doesn't mesh with my current agenda, is to catch Julius Caesar, as part of the Drilling Company's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot.

This is a pity, because I love outdoor Shakespeare, I love performers who are willing to risk performing Shakespeare absolutely anywhere, I love actors who can execute this tricky piece of work without a mic. And I love women who pop their blouses open in the name of art.

While I have not missed being the producer of a small theater company, I have missed the freedom of producing whatever the hell I wanted to, whenever I wanted to. I had a dream the other night (after reading a review for this production of JC) where I was an artistic director again, and the mission was to produce outdoor Shakespeare. In this dream I was reminded of the 32-minute adaptation of The Comedy of Errors produced at the Expo (which, in waking life, I have an actual script for) and started concentrating on which other dramas I might rip down to under an hour.

Because, you see, I've never really done that. We mounted Bromley's The American Revolution outdoors, but other than that I've never had a successful go with the Bard al fresco. I do think there is something wildly attractive about that kind of urban, guerrilla Shakespeare that involves few props, no costume changes, a tiny cast, no sound system or lights, and a set based on wherever the show takes place - ideally somewhere with lots of walking traffic where unknowing passersby might even walk through your staging area, or even better, stop for a while to watch and listen.

Of course, we not have such thoroughfares in Cleveland. Not really. Not at all.

The Comedy of Errors

When two twin brothers and their two twin servants are unexpectedly reunited after three decades apart, the unsuspecting port of Syracuse is torn apart at its seams. With a zany cast of unforgettable characters and a myriad of mistaken identities, Shakespeare’s greatest comedy delivers triumphantly on its famous title. - Great Lakes Theater Festival synopsis of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" (2009)

"The Blackfriars Company" performing at the Old Globe Theatre at the Great Lakes Exposition presented six abbreviated adaptations of Shakespeare's work in the summer of 1936. Their production of The Comedy of Errors clocked in at "a mind-blurring thirty-six minutes" (Vacha)

The eighteen member company included the young Sam Wanamaker. You would think that such a small company for a Shakespearean comedy would afford plenty of opportunities for the 17 year-old Chicagoan actor to have at least an interesting supporting role. Alas, the program lists him double-cast as "a guard" and "attendant." In Julius Caesar he is Second Citizen ("Peace, silence! Brutus speaks.").

I believe that is him pictured above, center, trying to be seen amongst all the hats.

Source: Showtime In Cleveland