Meet Renee Rodriguez, director of Waterside's FREE performance of Midsummer Night's Dream
Free outdoor theater has become such an integral part of our New York City summer, particularly, it seems, of the Shakespearean variety, from the star-studded Public Theater shows in Central Park to the Drilling Company's always-entertaining Shakespeare in the Parking Lot productions just off Delancey Street. Now, after three seasons of touring to parks all over town, add the extremely talented, always innovative crew of the Curious Frog Theater Company to your summertime Shakespeare must-see list.
This summer Curious Frog director Renee Rodriguez and company bring you Shakespeare's most popular comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, performing in, among other places, Astoria Park, Prospect Park, Inwood Hill Park... and right outside your front door, in Waterside Plaza. Twice! Yup, we've been lucky enough to land Lysander and Hermia, Puck and Peaseblossom, Peter Quince and Nick Bottom and all the rest of the love-besotted, often quite ridiculous forest wanderers to our home on both Sunday, August 15, at 6:00 in the afternoon, and then again on Saturday, September 4, also starting at 6:00. And, of course, both shows are absolutely free.
We've always had a soft spot for A Midsummer Night's Dream (such a great love story, and all those silly lines like "Well shone, moon" make us chuckle every time), so we'll definitely be there... but before then, director Renee was nice enough to answer a few questions about the Bard, the Frog, exploding cars, and the challenges and rewards of performing outdoors in New York City. Here, then, is Renee:
1. When did you first fall in love with Shakespeare... what was your "gateway play", if you will, and why?
I've never been asked that question before. Funnily enough, I'd have to say it was A Midsummer Night's Dream. I had already seen enough Shakespeare to know I felt a pull toward it, but when I went to Stratford-upon-Avon I decided to see how it's done by the folks who are widely recognized as doing it better than anyone else--the Royal Shakespeare Company. Midsummer was the only thing they were playing while I was there and while I'd seen it a few times and really disliked it, I figured I would at least see good acting. What I saw was such a smart, conceptualized, passionate show that I have never forgotten it. It showed me that you can take Shakespeare and do anything with it--the important thing is being able to identify with what you are seeing.
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream seems to be one of the most frequently performed plays in history. How do you direct a story that's so familiar to so many, and make it seem fresh and alive again, without losing its core emotional and comedic punch?
I think it's frequently done because it's well-loved. That means our job is to be careful to preserve what it is that people love about it, while introducing a new concept. We changed the show by conceptualizing it in a contemporary way--the lovers are in the woods because they are part of a fraternity/sorority charity scavenger hunt. The other thing we did that you don't often see in a lower-budgeted play is the incredible amount of movement we added. Since we are touring the parks, our soft ground allows our acrobats and combatants to perform an incredible amount of choreography without getting hurt (just bruised and beaten!).
3. Are there any particular challenges, or annoyances, or joys to staging a show outdoors? Ever have surprise "guests" come onto the stage, for example, or unexpected atmospheric conditions?
At our very first performance we had a lady become distraught that we were performing near where her family's picnic had settled, so she walked on our stage area and screamed about it for 10 minutes toward the beginning of this year's opening performance. The cast held up tremendously, as did the audience!
But yes, we do always have folks ride their bikes in the middle of our space, or walk on through. We really use the park as our set, without any additional set pieces, so I think it's hard for them to tell. And then there was our first year, when a car exploded in the background just as Comedy of Errors was wrapping up and singing a tune with a guitar. They kept right on singing, and we have unique photos of our cast joyfully singing and dancing while a car is on fire in the background. Strange humor indeed.
In general, though, we know our biggest challenge comes from not being amplified, which is incredibly expensive to do. Our actors fight ambient noise including ice cream truck generators, planes trains and automobiles, nearby parkgoers playing games, etc. It's always an adventure.
4. Part of the (by the way wholly admirable) Curious Frog Theater Company's mission emphasizes "non-traditional casting." Can you give an example of a Curious Frog production in which this strategy has worked particularly well... or, perhaps, backfired?
It's important to us that we cast with artists of color in mind. We do not believe in "color-blind" casting, since that leaves room for getting in the way of the story or pulling the audience away from believability. We either know what ethnicity we have in mind for the roles, for particular reasons, or (most often with Shakespeare) we are open to whomever shows up--as long as characters in the same "family" are of the same race.
My favorite story is of a 40-something man who came to see our first show, Comedy of Errors, where our twins were African-American. He told me later that it was the first time he had seen his own face on a leading Shakespeare character that was NOT Othello. This was thrilling and important to us.
I would say, however, it didn't work so well when we did The Maids this past spring. We cast the two leading sisters as Indian-American women, and then right off the bat lost one of those actresses. We didn't feel right about firing the other actress (nor did we want to, because she was so good), but then had an impossible time finding an Indian-American actress who was suitable and available for the role. We ended up casting a talented Latina actress since we were so close to opening, but I never felt good about it. And one of our reviewers rightfully criticized the disparate casting with the two sisters.
5. What's next for you personally, Renee, as well as for Curious Frog?
Curious Frog has been trying like hell to get "Curious Bard" off the ground, which would go into schools and perform a 45-minute version of our latest Shakespeare and offer workshops to children and teens of all ages. I'd like to say that we will raise the $25K needed to do that this very fall, since we have all the other elements in place. So, that may be next. Otherwise, we'll just keep on plugging and doing our site-specific, innovative theatre to see what works and learn from what doesn't. But I'd be lying if I didn?t say that I'd really like to take this particular cast and spend all my theatre days working with these same folks--they are the most dynamic cast Curious Frog has had yet!
Thanks Renee. A lot. A Midsummer Night's Dream will be performed at Waterside Plaza on Sunday, August 15, and again on Saturday, September 4, both at 6:00 p.m., both for free. Limited seating will be available, but we encourage you to bring your lawn chairs and blankets and snacks and beverages and friends and family. For lots more information about Curious Frog, please see their website, here.
Posted at 09:55PM Aug 04, 2010 by Scott in Events |