Installation: Tuesday June 12^th through Saturday June 23^rd

Performance:  Saturday June 16^th, 8 pm; Sunday June 17^th 2pm; Friday June 22^nd 8 pm; Saturday June 23^rd 8pm

Tickets and info: www.august-company.com

CONTACT:

Liesel de Boor, producer: lieseldb@verizon.net, 413-230-8688

“Who did the adaptation?!”

The August Company, in residence at the A.P.E. Gallery, creates a living installation of Shakespeare’s First Folio.

The August Company returns to Shakespeare, building on the success of their productions of As You Like it and The Taming of the Shrew at The Pines Theater at Look Park, Santacide, December’s holiday extravaganza at the Academy of Music, and last year’s OnWord: Chekhov at the A.P.E. Gallery.

The phrase First Folio Shakespeare usually elicits images of too long productions, with actors in Renaissance costume striking dramatic poses; the “museum-ification” of Shakespeare.  In fact, First Folio refers to some of the first publications of Shakespeare’s plays, which are riddled with misspellings, made-up words, incorrect punctuation and seemingly senseless capitalizations all over the place.  They are a mess.

In the past twenty years, several Shakespeare companies have discovered that history’s “clean-up” of these texts has taken away both Shakespeare’s direction and much of its meaning.

At the time that Shakespeare wrote, there were no rules for grammar or spelling. In their place was the art of rhetoric, persuasive verbal argument. If people wrote anything at all, they wrote so that it would be clear how it should be spoken. Capitalization meant stress this Word.  An exclamation point meant pause, and take a breath.  A colon meant collect your thoughts and a semicolon meant emotions take over. 

Using First Folio in performance generates some of the most vibrant, fast moving, and clear sounding Shakespeare you’ll ever see.

In our two-week A.P.E. residency, we’ll create an installation that brings Folio to life.  It includes an evolving table of objects and writings, a film about the rules of rhetoric, words on walls with encouragement to speak them out loud, a daily opportunity to mine the text of Twelfth Night at the table with the director, Sheila Siragusa, and the cast, as well as open rehearsals in the evening.

We’ll offer four performances of Twelfth Night, over the two weekends of the residency. Directed by Sheila Siragusa, with Fight Choreography by Steve Angel.  Rachel Braidman as Viola, The Doomsday Ladies’ frontman Tom Shread as Orsino, and Claire Kavanah as Olivia.

Tickets for the performances are $15 for adults and are available at www.august-company.com, as well as at each performance. Seating is limited.

INSTALLATION

Text Mining: Tuesday-Saturday, 1 pm to 4 pm, June 12^th through June 23^rd.

Open Rehearsals: Tuesday-Thursday, 7 pm-10 pm, June 12^th through June 21^st.

TWELFTH NIGHT PERFORMANCES

Saturday June 16^th, 8 pm

Sunday June 17^th 2pm

Friday June 22^nd 8 pm

Saturday June 23^rd 8pm

CONTACT:

Liesel de Boor, producer:  lieseldb@verizon.net, 413-230-8688