From mistaken identities and slapstick comedy to royal intrigue, lost family and one of Shakespeare's most famous bear chases, the Abilene Shakespeare Festival returns to Fulks Theatre this week.
For the last month, ACU Theatre students, community members and directors Adam Hester and Gary Varner have been preparing this summer's productions of The Comedy of Errors and The Winter's Tale.
The directors of both shows have worked to make them easier for modern audiences to follow.
Varner, who has spent 45 years with Shakespeare's plays, says The Comedy of Errors takes a particularly unique approach.
“I wanted to try to make it accessible and simplify it down so it was just the basic story plot. I lucked out and got to see a production of it in London, we saw it at Stratford upon Avon and they played with it so much, they are making it fit the people who are coming to see it. We’ve tried to make it our own and play with the audience. It is a show within a show.”
To help audiences keep up with the story, Varner created a prologue that sets the stage for the action. His version imagines a small theater troupe, the Rockport Shakespeare Company, scrambling to perform The Comedy of Errors despite not having enough actors for all the roles.
“There’s two sets of twins so we decided that they would play each other and it gets confusing so we had to get the audience involved.”
ACU Theatre Junior Nathaniel Reichle portrays one set of twins. Not only does Nathaniel play two roles in the comedy production, he is also part of the cast of Winter’s Tale. He has had to learn both shows’ scripts and blocking, and will perform both shows this week.
"For me at least, it comes in 3 processes, the first is memorizing the words, understanding them in how they flow for this show and a lot more modern and easier for the audience to understand and then Winter’s Tale is very very verse based and in Shakespearean rhythm, and then the third part is just getting it to where it feels natural with the other people on stage.”
And that is important when what you’re doing on stage includes dancing. Kendall West says the cast learned a lot of new choreography for Winter’s Tale.
“It’s different dancing than we’ve ever done. It’s folky which is cool. We had to learn how to adapt our dancing to the different kind of dancing that the show requires.”
Kendall and Nathaniel are part of ACU’s theater department. But the Shakespeare Festival brings together a cast that includes community members, and veterans of the theatre like Victoria Spangler. She is associate professor and department head of theatre at Hardin-Simmons University. Spangler says one of the most rewarding parts of the production has been working with the eclectic mix of actors.
"It’s been a wonderful practice and experience. I love the people that I’ve met the students and non-students and to get to work with Adam, people that I admire."
Another part of the updated approach in this year’s festival is the costuming.
Director Adam Hester says costume designer Catherine Baumgardner had the idea to give The Winter’s Tale a Game of Thrones-inspired look.
"It was a no-brainer. All the elements that go with the play itself just fit perfectly with some of the elements in Game of Thrones. I had already had a series of words that were going to be guiding me and those are all found in Game of Thrones as well. I was going yes, magic, mystery, wonder, all of these are there. This is perfect.”
The festival helps to keep the spirit of Shakespeare’s works alive with fresh interpretations of timeless stories for modern audiences. And the community has three different opportunities to catch each of the shows between now and Sunday.
Kendall West encourages locals to fit both of them into their calendars this week.
"Gary and Adam are so different and the shows are so different. They’re all so different. That’s why you should come see both."
The Shakespeare Festival is free to the public. For showtimes check the ACU theater website.