🎭Central Wisconsin Area Community Theater – “The Merry Wives of Windsor”

Welcome to WFHR's Directors Cut, session 50 set.

We made it.

We made it everybody.

And they said that we never get there.

And lots of the namesayers, now I don't know who that was, I said that out of who

did.

You're hosting program director here, James J. Mailoff with my partner in art, our

head up production set, Habhagger set, the Mike Saran, let's roll into our 50th episode

where I finally get to do my Simpsons One Man show.

No, no, no, no.

That was 150.

You promised.

150, dude.

I got to look at our contrast.

I got to look that over.

I'm not sure about that.

Much better show lined up for you, everybody.

We asked the best listeners and radio to welcome to the WFHR stage.

Our friends from Central Wisconsin Community Theatre, we have Susan Engram with us, Amber

Fait, Nick Nuber, here to talk about life in theatre and C-Wax latest production, Williams

Shakespeare's The Mary Wives of Windsor.

I want to let you guys go ahead and introduce yourself so the audience can put a name to

the voice.

So we'll start right down the end here if you don't mind.

Amber, if you don't mind, sir.

I'm Amber.

Well done.

Well done.

Project Amber.

I'm Nick Nuber.

Nice.

That's the way it's done.

I'm Susan Engram.

Thank you so much.

All three of you.

And thank you very much for being here.

Really do appreciate it.

Hope you all are doing good.

It's so good to see all three of your faces.

I want to dive right into the show and kind of a cliff notes version if you mind Susan.

If I could put you on the spot, I mean, ask you, if somebody has not seen or heard of

the Mary Wives of Windsor, what kind of a little like cliff notes synopsis can we give

them of the show?

But no spoilers because we want them to bite again.

Right.

Not difficult at all.

I'm not going to talk about the end.

Yes, yeah.

Okay.

The Mary Wives of Windsor is all about fallstaff.

Now, if you haven't seen, if you're not really familiar with Shakespeare, fallstaff was

a huge character in Shakespeare's history plays Henry four parts one and two and Henry

five.

Now, contrary to popular opinion, Elizabeth I had nothing to do with why he wrote the

Mary Wives of Windsor.

And I can go into that later if you want me to.

But basically, I'm old.

I'm the words of time.

Take your time.

You take your time.

All right.

We got an hour.

Yes, thank you.

You didn't want to say anything, did you?

Now.

Okay.

So, he takes fallstaff, who is a very popular character already in Henry four part one.

The audiences really loved him.

So he took that character and went, hmm, I know, I'll put him in a rom-com.

You know, fallstaff in love, which is really weird, but that he didn't.

So, the story is basically fallstaff, who is, he is a knight, but he's a nared well-night.

And he's also a con man and a sluggard and a thief and a liar and a womanizer.

Well, he is finding himself rather short on money.

So he decides in order to get himself some money.

What do you do?

Money on women.

Of course.

So, personally comes in my mind, you know.

Right, right.

So.

Unless you're really bad at it.

Yeah.

So the Mary Wives, you know, Mrs. Cage and Mrs. Ford, and they're both, this is the first

and only play that Shakespeare ever wrote that involves the middle class.

There is no nobility, there are no royal figures, nothing like that.

It's all middle class and working people.

So he's, the two wives, Mrs. Paige and Mrs. Ford are, you know, pretty well to do upper

middle class wives or husbands are doing quite well.

He knows they have money at their fingertips.

So he decides that he is going to woo them both and seduce them out of money for anything

else that he can get.

Right.

So, this is his plot.

And we have one, both the husbands get told about it and one husband doesn't pay it any

heat because he knows his wife can eat fallstaff up alive if she so chooses.

And but the other one, Mr. Ford, gets very, very jealous.

So there's his plot in trying to catch fallstaff in what he's doing.

There's fallstaff's plot of trying to, you know, get money and whatever, nookie out of

these wives.

And the wives get together because there are no slouches and they decide they are going

to play him, you know, and for all it's worth and punish him, you know.

So that's the main, that's it, you know, and it's a lot of fun.

You have various people trying to plot various things, but it all is tied together and

it, and it finally comes together in the last act that in the forest at her and so can

we aren't going to talk about that.

No, no.

But that was a very nice job.

That was a very nice job.

You know, it's only a, what, 500-year-old play, no spoilers.

Yeah.

Never been done.

Never, never.

Not like this.

Not like this.

And I want to talk about that part of it too, and thank you again, Susan, for that great

synopsis.

When it comes to the roles and the characters that you guys are going to be playing, I want

to get to that for a second, but I do want to start off by thanking Nick and Amber,

who were our first guests on Director's Cut.

That's right.

We didn't plan it this way, but how perfect it works out that our 50th episode we have

you guys back.

That is pretty cool.

I do appreciate you guys literally helping us get the ball rolling in the show.

That's right.

It's an honor.

Yeah, thanks for having us back.

They show how old they are.

Yeah.

That's right.

So let's start, and then we'll go from Amber to Nick here kind of down the line.

Can you tell us about your characters a little bit?

I'll use my Shakespeare voice.

You know, I'm indoors.

Yeah, okay.

You don't have to use that.

Okay.

I appreciate you protecting me.

So I play Mrs. Page, and my husband is not the jealous one.

So we are a little bit more, no, maybe more deeper in our relationship, or we've just

been together for longer, but we have a teenage child.

So for my character, I've seen Mrs. Page played a few different ways, and I wanted to play

her as a little bit more quick-witted, but there's a little bit of a silly side to her as

well.

Okay.

So she's sharp enough to catch onto the quips and the things that are going on with Ball

Staff.

But she never gives in that she is aware.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, nice.

Yeah.

Nick, I play Sir John Fallstaff, and yeah, he's a pretty much laid out, coming out

his deal.

He's come up short on money, and rather than, you know, work, he's going to go swindle

some women.

Which turns out to be like a lot of work, I don't really know, it really does turn out

really good.

Yeah, really does.

How have you guys been enjoying playing these characters?

Oh, I love every opportunity that I get to do Shakespeare.

Not only is it a challenge for myself to transform sentences and use language that I'm

not always using on a regular basis, but to kind of like read between the lines.

So there's a lot of what Shakespeare does is he'll make a point, and then he'll reiterate

the point, and then he'll make a similarly, and it's a metaphor of, and then he'll circle

back, and he'll make the same point over and over again, just in case the audience didn't

pick up on it the third, fourth, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what I really like about it is that you can kind of evolve that more and more through

like your body language.

And so it's not just saying the words and understanding the meaning, but it's to physically embody

what you're trying to portray to the audience, to get them to maybe pick up on it the third

time you're saying it.

Okay.

Yeah.

Nick, have you been enjoying it?

I've actually been loving it.

This one, I didn't know Mary Wives very well until the last couple of years, and I've

absolutely fallen in love with it, and I've done a couple other Shakespeare shows, and

I feel like a lot of Shakespeare's comedies, like it's a really funny for the situations

that are put into place, and a lot of the lines and everything like that are a lot more

aged and cultural references and stuff like that.

I feel like Mary Wives, and maybe it's just because now I'm connecting with them more,

but I feel like just the writing is actually the lines themselves are still funny.

It's not like some reference to something that happened in England 200 years ago, 400

years ago, whatever we were saying.

It's like, it's actually just jokes on the human condition and things like that.

I was watching a George Carlin bit, I think last weekend or something, and it was one

of my favorite bits of his, I've been watching it my whole life, I'm watching it, and I

get a little into it, and I'm like, oh, man, some of this is just really like the references

aren't there, and there's certain things that just comedy doesn't age that well, entertainment

doesn't age that well, to think of how long these plays have been going on, how many

people have put them on, there's no words for it, it's incredible, and we'll never see

anything like it.

There's no piece of work that could compete with something that has been around this

long.

It's so neat that the words don't change, and the meaning doesn't change, but how it's

performed and how people interpret it makes a completely different show, and every iteration

that's performed.

It's one of the most unique things about theater to me is what you were just hitting on their

amber, and the idea that I look at that script and I get a certain perspective, or I get

a certain idea, and my mind goes this direction, and Susan picks it up, and takes it in the

right direction.

I'll talk more about that in a moment, but I do want to get to rehearsals as well.

I always like to let the audience look behind the curtain and understand some of the work

that is put into these shows.

They get to see you guys out there for a couple of hours doing this whole thing.

We all know how much work in hours and hours it can put into doing this otherwise.

Susan, what was the rehearsal process like for the cast?

For you and the cast.

Okay.

Well, I approach this show as I do every show, really, but especially every Shakespeare production.

First of all, it starts with the script, because when you do Shakespeare, which edition do

you want?

Basically, with adaptation, which interpretation do you want?

We have used no fear Shakespeare, which is quite popular in high schools, because you

have on one page, left-sided page, you've got full translations or meanings of, and then

you have the Elizabethan on the other side.

It makes my job as a director much easier, because I don't have to sit every night and

explain every single word.

This, we're using the Arden version out of the Holger Shakespeare Library, which still

does much of the same thing.

It has words and phrases that are basically translated into modern English.

So again, it helps.

Because first of all, the actors need to know what they're saying, because they can't

make you as an audience know what they're saying, if they don't know what they're saying.

So we talk about that.

We talk about what does this word mean?

What does this phrase mean?

We have to cut, because we have to cut every show down to two hours or less, because we

don't have lights, and the sunset kind of comes down on us and then we're done.

So I only let Bill have maybe three reiterations.

And I apologize into all the time, I just say, sorry, sorry, but these we've got to go.

But it makes it, threes are always good, anyway, the magic of three works, so in everything

especially comedy.

So that's one thing.

We make sure that the actors understand what they're saying, and that becomes especially

important.

I have in this cast, I have 16 actors, and about half of them are experienced actors or

end or experience with Shakespeare.

You know, I have people that come back or I have newbies who have been with me before

and Shakespeare have come back finally for something.

But I also this year, I have five newbies.

And not only newbies to Shakespeare, but newbies to acting in general.

Wow.

And you go, I'm always amazed when people decide they've never had any shake in any acting

experience at all.

And they decide their first experience is going to be Shakespeare.

I'm starting to talk, I guess.

But it's especially important that, you know, that they understand, they have to understand

the meter.

Why certain things are said certain ways.

No, don't translate around, don't flip the sentences around, it's written that way for

a purpose.

Because that's what Shakespeare is, that's why audiences come to hear and see Shakespeare

because of the language.

So they have to understand that and they have to understand then what they're saying,

these words, these terminologies.

Sometimes I do change things.

For this show, I've said it in the 1960s.

You know, so we have 1960s music, rock band, rock and roll going on in between scenes

and stuff.

But I got the idea from the RSC, the Royal Shakespeare Company's version.

They changed, the original play has him in a laundry basket that's hauled off.

And on those days, they didn't have any kind of machinery on stage.

They had four guys come and, you know, with poles on their shoulders and haul this basket

off.

No, weren't that doing that.

Did you paint a picture for the audience?

The actor playing John Paulstaff is not a small man.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

And trying to cut down the, to cut down the actor's size, we only have two people.

So, but RSC changed it from a laundry basket to a garbage and what the British call biny,

a garbage biny.

So that's what we have.

But it looks like a laundry basket, but it's a garbage biny.

And it has colorful, because it's the 60s, it's got multi-colored garbage bags in it,

pink, blue, yellow.

Cool.

Oh yeah, fun.

So, so there I would change garbage to biny, you know, that sort of thing.

And every once in a while I would change a word just to, okay, this is really only something

that you have to have been born about four or five hundred years ago to understand.

And there's no way that the actor can make anybody understand what that means.

Right.

Is that, okay, so we're going to put something else in.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

So that helps.

So we go through that.

And then it's, it's diction, really, it's how, you say the words, say the words.

You also have to project, of course.

But it's diction, and you can't have a lazy mouth, because people want to hear these words,

so they need to be able to hear these words.

So not only do you have to speak up, but you have to put all your ending consonants on,

and you can't let your voice scream, or, you know, unless you're just screaming for the

heck of it and exiting something like that.

So it's, it's, it's, uh, elacution, or whatever we want to call it, but it's, it's speaking

clearly, but also with knowledge, so that you know exactly what you're saying, and, and

you can make that known to the audience.

And I have two people here who are just excellent at that.

Yeah.

You know, and I have a few others in there too, but, uh, yeah, they really are.

You sit there, and I know exactly, even though I know what they're saying, but if I didn't

know what they're saying, I know what they were saying.

Yeah.

With, uh, with all of that added context, does that add to the rehearsal time?

Sure.

You know, uh, questions, they're always, my casts are always, uh, open to give me questions.

Sure.

Uh, and suggestions, all those suggestions we try to keep a little, but don't, don't, don't,

don't, don't, don't, don't, but questioning, yes, please do.

So anytime, and especially these newbies, you know, we'll have questions.

We have a couple of them, especially a couple of guys, actually, and it's just because

they care so much.

They want to do such a good job and they've really come a long way, both Peter and Delaney.

Yeah.

Really come a long way, uh, since day one.

But yeah, so the questions and sometimes we have discussions back and forth, sometimes,

uh, I've been doing a lot, even more reading in the last couple of years, books on Shakespeare

and, you know, biographies of as much as people can.

There's Daniel Shapiro, who puts out a lot of books on Shakespeare and he's, you know,

year of 1598, 1599, I just finished 1599, I'm going to move, be moving on to 1600, one of

these days.

But that, those talk about what he, what was happening in England and, and with Shakespeare

and his colleagues, what was happening in the theater scene, when was happening in history,

what was happening in the country, when these plays were coming out.

And so he knows about when, because he knows, uh, because you have the, uh, Royal Commissioner

who had a ledger and would write down when these plays, you know, came out and when they

went to the queen, you know, to be performed and that sort of thing, because queens do

not go to the globe, or the theater, you go to that, yeah.

So there is a, there are sometimes some fun historical facts, you know, about how John

Falstopp became John Falstaff, instead of John Old Castle, for instance, uh, or, you

know, what this, we're in that word, how, how this became, herds up, what happened to

the other wood of the actual herds oak that was, uh, eventually felled by lightning.

Right.

What Elizabeth first did with the wood that, you know, came from that.

So it's fun, but that's okay.

That's why I give us seven to eight weeks, you know, so that we can really go through

it.

And I can't do everything that the professional theaters can because they work all morning

and all afternoon.

Yeah.

And they have a budget.

Our together rehearsal time is kind of fixed, but I will tell you it absolutely adds to rehearsal

time outside of that.

Oh, that's right.

Yes.

That's a great note by the way, Nick.

Yeah, it is.

Anything that can help the actors connect more strongly to their roles or to the play

in general, to the period, whatever, anything that can make them feel more knowledgeable

is vital to the rehearsal process.

I know a little something about this.

I can't help keep smiling.

I'm being reminded of doing Rainmaker and a moment where you took me aside and we talked

and it was, it changed the rest of the show for me.

Yes, it does.

She knows what she's talking about and she's very good at it.

I will get to more of that in a moment when we get done with our first segment here.

But before we wrap up the first half, I didn't want to ask.

I know when I was first starting in acting, there was, uh, there's almost rights of passage

list of things that every actor has to do.

I personally, I don't know if that list still holds up.

I do believe that, I do believe, and I don't know if this is being a pompous or not, and

I apologize if it is.

But I do think that if you really want to do this, you have to be able to do it live.

You have to be able to act on stage.

I think that the truth has to be in the true actor.

If you really want to consider yourself somebody in this game, you've got to be able to do

it live.

You've got to be able to do it on stage.

I do think that's one part of it and I do think that that still holds true.

But I am curious from you guys in the middle of doing a Shakespeare production.

Do you feel that it's still, as an actor, it's a right of passage.

At one point in your career, you've got to do Shakespeare.

I heard that a lot growing up and it's still something that I, when I talk to people

in SAG or I talk to any of my friends that are still out there doing this.

Like, hey, man, you've been doing this for a, you know, a couple years now.

What do you think of this?

And immediately, yes, you have to still do it.

Do you guys feel that way?

Amber will start with you.

Yeah.

I start with the person that's farthest from the line.

No.

So it was, it wasn't until 2017 when we did the, the act fast, the prior to that, sorry,

I didn't like Shakespeare.

I did not.

Yeah.

I did not like Shakespeare.

Just because it, it seemed very pop.

It seemed very full of itself and I feel like every variation or performance I saw,

I had no idea what was going on.

And it wasn't until I went to act fast and the actors physically demonstrated what they

were saying that things started to click and I said, this is how Shakespeare is supposed

to be.

I don't know what I was seeing before and why it didn't work out, but it wasn't until

that that I finally fell in love with with Shakespeare.

So for me, like, as, as somebody who is more of like a physical actor, yes, absolutely,

like Shakespeare is something that is a new level, a new challenge, again, with the language

itself and also understanding the meaning.

So I feel like it's right to passage, but maybe it's more like expert mode at that point.

I would, you know, I wouldn't say it's the first thing you jump into.

So kudos to those people that are.

Nick, how about you?

Yeah.

So I don't know if I'd look at it at the same perspective of like, like you got to do this

in order to, you know, level up or something like that.

For me personally, it's more of a man, you got to do this.

It's such a rich experience when you can get into a room with like the wonderful people

that we're in the room with.

It's just so different because it's just a true experience of 16, 20, 25 people coming

together and building something because, you know, with a lot of modern plays, a lot of

it's all in the book.

The book tells you this is what the character thinks.

This is what they're going to do.

They walk 10 paces to the left and they pick up the glass, almost none of that's there.

And almost none of this language is native to us.

So it's really everybody bringing in their, our combined experiences and knowledge and

feelings to, to build a story and it's, man, you got to do it.

Not so much you better do it or the wise, you're lesser than I think that's, uh, that's

more, that's much better worded way.

I was more intending it is, is in order to not only, uh, not that you can't be considered

good if you haven't done Shakespeare, but if you were an actor, man, you got to do Shakespeare.

You got to experience this.

Uh, if for anything, the, the, not only the skill level that it upgrades you on, because

it is a power up.

It really is.

If we're going to, we, I love the idea of we keep using video game terms, but it's also

something that we're, and I'm just speaking for myself, uh, the first time I really got,

I've done Romeo and Juliet.

I probably Mercutio.

It's one of my favorite characters.

It was, it wasn't until I got done with that, the, the short run that we had that I

realized, um, and that was an honor.

Yeah.

That was an honor to get to do that.

Exactly.

There's something that seems so cool to be a part of something that has been around

so long and that I, I am one of thousands of people that got to do this, but man, I got

to do this.

Like that is a pretty cool thing.

I really appreciate the way you worded that, Nick.

Susan, how about for you, uh, from your perspective?

Oh, gosh.

Well, because I have been an actress in Shakespeare when I was younger, you know, and so I have

had that experience.

I fell in love.

My mother introduced me to Shakespeare when I was 11, you know, she took me, we were

growing up in the, um, in the St. Paul area.

And in St. Paul, there was a movie theater called the Grand Avenue Theater.

And at that time, they would show old movies and historical drama movies and stuff like

that.

So, and she was an opera singer.

And so she knew I was loving all the opera that she was introducing me to.

So she said, I, I know, I know something you're going to like.

And it was, um, Orson Wells, Macbeth, was playing, and she said, come with me, and it was

just me.

She didn't take my sister.

Just me.

Definitely remembered that.

I definitely remember that part.

And who wouldn't read a book at that age, unless it had a dog or a horse in it, you know,

but so we went, so we went to the movie theater and we were sitting down and waiting and she

said, now it's a Shakespeare, you know, it was, and she gave me the, the, it's a, you

know, 1700, 17th century playwright as, and you're going to want to know this, this playwright.

And so now you're not going to understand, you know, what's being said right off the

bat.

She said, but just be patient.

Sit back and listen, she says, I think you'll, you'll catch on.

And she was right.

And not only did I catch on, but by halfway through the movie, I was hooked, absolutely hooked

on the story, but also on Shakespeare.

And so from then on, every year, if it was my birthday, if Shakespeare was playing

anywhere, a college or RSC used to have touring shows that came to the Guthrie in January

in February when they were dark, Guthrie actually went dark for a month at one point in time.

And yeah, so I saw, she introduced me to a lot of Shakespeare.

And then there were movies, you know, and came out and whatever.

And as a person, as a, what I thought, a potential actress, it's the same thing.

I have to do these roles, oh my gosh.

But as, of course, I went through college and when I went into grad school, decided to

be a director, go into MFA directing instead of acting, then it translated to, I have to

direct, you know, if you're going to be a, call yourself a professional director, you

know, you have to direct Shakespeare.

And I got a chance in high school to, you know, high school Shakespeare class, we divided

up into groups for the final and we were, each told, okay, you have to perform in 47 minutes

because you have one class period to one of the place that we read this semester.

And my group, and I talked them into doing 12th night, which is a comedy, which is really

hard to cut.

Everybody else did make bath and athalo, really easy.

But so, yeah, I cut 12th night and played, you know, festie.

And, you know, so I had that, and I had to direct them because I was the only one in the

group that had any theater background at all.

So yeah, that got me started.

And it's just, for me, when I earned my MFA, it was, I stated it as a, my specialty was

classic theater and Shakespeare.

I didn't start out as a far-sour, it just sort of developed.

I love that word.

But yeah, Shakespeare, to me, is just the epitome.

And I've directed Ben Johnson, too, you know, and I know Marlow, I'm very familiar with

those and there are some Thomas Caden, a few others, but Marlow and Johnson are the only

ones to me that come close to Shakespeare.

Marlow Ben is mostly, Johnson is mostly in verse and Vopone was a lot of fun.

That's very no-worthy.

But I had, I have a little story, you all are way too young, I don't know if you remember

Richard Chamberlain.

Oh, yeah.

He was an actor.

Oh, yeah.

Do you remember Dr. Kildare?

You can't because you never saw it.

I know what it is, but I didn't.

Yes.

But I was, what, a preteen, absolutely fell hunky-dory down on my, you know, knees in love with

Dr. Kildare.

And he, you know, sorry Mike, long before Mike, you know, well, he had a lot of other people

in the way too.

We got the mic, but he could have, he had, he went through two seasons, all right.

He was a hit.

He was gorgeous, you know, everyone loved him and he was this doctor and if they wanted

him for a third season, he said, no, because I don't know what I'm doing.

I need to go somewhere where I can actually learn how to act.

And he went to England and went to the Royal Academy, theater.

And the next time I saw him was like five or six years later, and he was on the hallmark

call of fame, PBS special, playing Hamlet.

And he was superior and still gorgeous and with a man of hair like this.

But you know, that's, there you go, it's, he didn't feel, and here he was, even

an American actor who had just done television and who knows what, you know, little bits

before that.

But he said, I have to do stage, first of all.

And then I need to tackle Shakespeare.

So there you go.

You're right, Jay.

Thank you.

Thank you, right.

Two shout outs to what Susan was talking about.

First of all, your first experience with the Orson Wells, he was my hero, by the way,

and I totally love that.

Of course, the only man who really tried to film Shakespeare at a time, I mean, he was

the only one that really, other than like maybe Lawrence Olivier at the time, he was

the only one that tried to do it to bring it to movies.

And second of all, my very first Shakespeare play I saw live was at the Guthrie theater.

I saw McBeth.

Oh, there you go.

That was the very first live I ever saw was there, because I grew up in Minnesota, too.

So yeah, one, I think it was a class trip.

We went down there to watch it.

Right.

So it was great.

Did you also not understand the beginning and then, well, we had studied it.

And that was the reason we went to see it.

That was one of the plays that we had watched.

And so the thing I remember most though about it was the, the actor who played McDuff.

He was great, but he was one of those guys that spit every time he sat alone.

So he was spraying all over the place, but I was, all right.

Yeah.

He got those consonants.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Those P's were really one of the Gallagher situation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We will get to our time out.

We'll come back.

We'll continue talking with the friends of ours from Seawack and their next production

of the Mary Wives of Windsor coming up.

Here at WFHR's Director Scott.

WFHR's Director Scott.

Welcome back, everybody.

We're speaking with the cast of Seawack and Director Susan.

And we're talking about the Mary Wives of Windsor.

I'll give you the details and how you can get tickets for this amazing show coming up.

I do like to, and I should mention this earlier on.

Shame on me for this.

Journalistically, I shouldn't mention Susan is one of my favorite people,

one of my favorite directors and has directed me many, many times.

And I also think very highly of her when it comes to this subject of Shakespeare.

I think of in the gamut of things, I don't know that I've ever seen anybody do what Kenneth

Bragnott does.

I think that he is the essence of Shakespeare.

He is the guy that gets it, that understands it, but also understands the Shakespeare's

for everybody and really wants you.

He's almost like a Neil deGrasse Tyson of Shakespeare where he can explain it to where

others can understand it so well, whether visually or the way he does it.

And he's just so dang good.

He's such a darn good actor.

I think of you as our local Kenneth Bragnott.

I think of you on that level, in part because of the way you understand this and the way

that you are able to get it to the audience.

And I'm curious about that part of it.

And I'll get to that in a second, but Seth, you had a question for Susan that I think

kind of leans into where I wanted to go.

Yeah, yeah, I think it does.

So you know, Shakespeare had a variety of plays, you know, that they've been all categorized

to death kind of the tragedies and the comedies and the histories and then the fantasies,

I guess some of them are considered that, the later ones.

But so within his comedies though, there was a really wide degree of what was considered

comedy back then.

Basically, you know, for those who may not know, if it had to have the ending, I was considered

a comedy basically, you know, but so where does this one fit in the Marywise Windsor in

terms of, you know, because I the one I think of is like measure for measure, which is technically

a comedy because it has a happy ending.

But man, it's dark.

Yeah, it's a weird, it's a weird happy ending.

Right.

Is it really happy for everybody?

We're not sure.

It makes you think too.

It's very, very true.

But for this one, where do you kind of fit this in the spectrum for his comedies?

Okay.

Marywise of Windsor, as I put in my director's notes in the bulletin is, it's silly.

It's not exactly a romcom because, you know, the guy doesn't meet the girl and lose

the girl and all that kind of thing.

But it is close enough, it's an Elizabethan romcom, it's a silly play, you know, it was written

simply to take a favorite character of the audiences and put him in an entirely different

setting.

Right.

A comic setting.

There is comedy in Henry IV.

Most of it, most of it provided by Fallstaff, or as a matter of fact, yes, but then it

is dark.

Oh, at the end, it gives very, very, very gifts.

So this is just strictly like, like, like, give it like, give it like, like, comedy of

errors, you know, silly.

Another one, yeah.

Yeah.

So I might say a little farcical, you know, yes, there are definitely, yeah, when you're

throwing a guy into an outer of a bin here, you know, this guy has moments, right?

Yes, it has its moments very much so.

So it's, yeah, it's in with this interesting, it, I, for my birthday this year, my husband

gave me, he didn't know it, but he approved it once I ordered it.

But last year was the 400th anniversary of the printing of the first folio.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Because I was purchasing, yeah, 1623 was when the first folio came out.

Right.

Okay.

And so the Folger and the British National Library combined and they put out, you know,

a facsimile copy hard one of the best, you know, first folios, you know, they had.

And so I now have one at home.

Oh, how cool is that?

It is really, really, really cool.

I was, yeah, when I saw this and he said, this is what you're getting me for my birthday,

is okay.

It's so good.

And like any smart man take the win.

Take it like, yes, yes, whatever.

I didn't have anything in mind.

Like, he's got like these slippers.

He's got slippers.

Oh, no, no, like, man.

What a way.

Yeah.

So, yeah, so it's fun.

It's really fun.

And that's what I did with Mary Wives and I went back to 12th night because I directed

that last year and just read through them, you know, to see.

And there are discrepancies.

There still are, we were finding one just the other night, you know, where Mr. Page is

introduced for the first time as Mr. Thomas Page.

And then she calls him, his wife calls him George.

So we were wondering much.

And we changed, I said, no, no, it's, it's the meter and let's not, you know, we're not

going to worry about it.

Shakespeare didn't worry about it.

Bill, what were you doing?

Fuck.

We figured it was a middle name or who knows what?

You know.

That Billy shakes.

Yeah.

Well, Shakespeare audiences would understand.

Yeah.

Right.

You know, it's probably Thomas, George, Alexander, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know.

And that's exactly where I wanted to go next, Susan, because you told, you told us in the,

you guys talked a little bit about, you, you know, your cast understanding Shakespeare.

Now, you can't do this with audience members.

You can't, you guys come here an hour early so we can, you know, there will be a tutorial

in a test.

How does it go for you to get to your cast to understand, to make it to the audience understand

Shakespeare?

Do you do anything extra than you would another show or anything or do you think about

that going into directing a show?

Oh, I definitely think about it.

And no, I don't approach it differently than any other show that I direct, but there

is more depth to it because I have to understand everything.

I mean, I look into Shakespeare's life as much as we can, you know, and that's partly

because I'm directing, partly because I just like that.

I'm a nerd that way, so I do, I do that.

And but it really is important to understand when it was written in the context, you know,

in which it was written and what's happening during the day.

But I try to inform myself as much as possible, you know, as to when the play was written.

And then I read through it many, many, many times for all kinds of reasons, of course,

not only blocking and cutting and all that sort of thing, but while I'm reading it again

and again, part of my prep is to make sure I understand.

I can't help them understand if I don't understand, you know, and once in a while I get caught

out, I'm not perfect.

Once in a while and then we say, okay, let's find out together.

There you go.

You know, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Absolutely not.

You know, I'm a captain on my ship, but I do have a first mate, you know, and a couple

of really good, you know, ensigns and so, you know, we just, I just use that, but I have

to be as informed as I can possibly be in order to do it.

Can I jump in?

Yes, you can.

Yeah, so I think, I think Susan, you do a fantastic job.

One of letting the people that have a little bit more experience, letting them play and

try things out.

And if you don't like it, you let us know, which is good because we need to, we need to

make sure that the audience understands it, but for the new people, especially something

as simple as like, well, yeah, or, or just like, turn your head and look, or like, don't

look as sad, right, because again, you're trying to promote the physicality of it.

You're trying to have them express it with their facial expressions or, or their behaviors,

right?

It's, it's one thing to just say a line.

It can mean anything.

It can be interpreted in any way, but you come and help those people understand what the

emotion is behind it, so that way it could be properly portrayed.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because it can be, it just depends on the person.

We have a newbie, a gal Emma, who hasn't actually ever had, I don't think, been

in Shakespeare, but she's been on stage a lot.

And she really, she handled the, you know, language, like that, right?

Nice.

That's cool.

So, that's a different kind of newbie, you know, and she gives us, gives me stuff

all the time and then, yeah, and then I pick and choose, and then we doctor and this

and that and everything.

But I have some others who are so new to acting in general, not just Shakespeare, that

is kind of sometimes, I have an evening where it's like, okay, I'm hoping everyone else

is patient, because it's spoon feeding, you know, it's a lot of spoon feeding and sometimes

they get it and sometimes they don't right away, so we try it in a different way, we try

to use different language or different attack, you know, to try to get them to understand

just what it is I'm going for and what they should be going for.

But as a director, you have to be patient.

Director of Community Theater is also, I've always said, I never became the college professor,

I wanted to be, but I teach all the time, oh yeah, oh yeah, you know, so I'm doing it,

and this is where it's really coming into play, and yes, and I love it when I have actors

like these guys, and a few others where I can just say, yes, show me, just play, okay,

show me, you know, and I'll pick and choose, yes, that was like the song last night, that

was it, you know, or whatever, I'd like to see what directions they go in and I give

them a room to explore in various directions, and if I don't think it's quite right, I

may stop them and say, go back to what you did, you know, yesterday or whatever, or go

on that tap or whatever, so that's part of the joy, that's the collaboration, yeah.

The older I get, the more I realize that's maybe my favorite part of acting is working

with others, collaborating with others, and that's a great note.

We mentioned earlier that Nick and Amber joined us on our first show, and Susan, you wouldn't

know probably, but we kind of like wrap up on certain questions and everything, and I've

already put them on the spot with these, so before we let you guys go, yeah, you guys

got out of this one, you guys already got out of the microphone over.

I do have a question I'd like to ask all of our guests, and I've been dying to ask you

this one, I've been there, I was excited all week for this, if you could have coffee with

any historical figure, who and why, Susan?

Oh, it's a tough one, it is a tough one, oh my gosh, and because it isn't, when you

say historical figure, I mean, because I love history too, any single person, not Bill

Shakespeare, I mean, you know that he's right, he's right, that's awesome, but what I understand

him, that's true, and plus, you know, their cleanliness wasn't great, would I be able to

sit too close to him, I mean, that invented showers yet, you know, that's big, I mean,

we hear a lot of theories, I mean, it could have been multiple people that Shakespeare

was, so I mean, you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

but what someone I would, who actually isn't dead yet, but I look at some British actors

that I feel are at the pinnacle of Shakespeare acting, and one of them is Derek Jacoby.

Oh yes, I would love, I would love to have lunch with Derek Jacoby, that's great, or David

Tennant, I'd laugh a lot with him. David Tennant, yeah, yeah, that's a good one right there,

but Jacoby has done all the roles, you know, he's been in the business so long at RSC,

at the national, other places, I've stolen, when much I do, I gave a line reading to Steve Martin,

who was playing Benedict, that I got from the ardent Shakespeare, and Jacoby had said it this way,

and he was the first one, and then I found an interview where he said, oh, why did you, why did you

break up, you know, Beatrice and love with me, why then I should, it should be required,

well, and he's, you know, one night he just went, Beatrice and love with me, this big pause,

he looked at himself, why? And he was asked, why did you choose? And he says, then he says, well,

it should be required, and he went on, and he says, why did you choose that? And he says,

well, I'm gonna laugh for, I'm gonna laugh forever, I can get it. And I said, so that's a man,

I want to spend some time. Yes, right, right. Well, it can relate to that.

If for people out there that want to check out more Shakespeare, I would recommend in the early 1980s,

the BBC did, I think, every single play on the, on the video type, I think, and they got all

the great actors to do it. One of my favorites is Richard the Second, where Derek Jacket

be plays, Richard the Second, it's a wonderful performance. Oh gosh, and his, yes, his monologues,

his little poise in that are, especially that one, the penultimate one towards the end when he

has to give up the throne, he knows he's going to be, he's going to be taken over it. His,

that monologue is awesome. And that, that is what all Shakespearean actors, what tenant and

Comberbatch and Andrew Scott, and all of them who are coming up now, they've watched that,

maybe not the whole play, but they've watched that moment. They'll see, you can see that,

they're very good, because, that's a master. Not, not to be outdone, I want to sound smart,

like Seth and everything too. I would like to recommend the Hamlet version that Mystery Science

Theatre covered. Oh dear, it's really good. It's really good. It's really good. Oh dear.

Their Hamlet is good. It's Maximilian Schell, who is, you know, a very good actor, but it's

said made for television in the 1960s, dubbed it from the jerk, because it was German.

Oh, it's dreary. It's, it's, it's, it's so German. It's so German. It's so good. Shakespeare can kill you.

Done wrong. Yeah. Yeah. We, we cannot encourage you enough to get your tickets for the

Central Wisconsin Area Community Theatre production of The Mary Bives of Windsor at Premieres

August 15th through the 18th over at Schemeckley Reserve at 2419 North Point Drive and Beautiful

Stevens Point. Find out more at cwack.org. Be sure to follow them on social media, because it's

not just this production. They have things going on all the time. You have your family style in

Provs going on over there, grown up in Prov, so many different ways for you to support local theater.

And that is something that we've said that I like to end on, because as I will mention getting

on my, excuse me, getting on my soapbox for a second, Wisconsin finished last in funding the

arts in this previous year. Let's change that. Let's work on that. We have all seen local theaters

go away since the pandemic. We cannot take any of this lightly. Let us make sure that we keep

theater alive in Central Wisconsin. Attend every single show you can spread the word about these

shows. And it's part of why I encourage you to like their Facebook pages. It's a very good way

to be able to share these things on your page, and you just never know who might see these things

otherwise. And don't forget WRCT. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, never. Never. Additionally, we would like to

thank our sponsors for helping us out with this production. Please. Yeah. Yeah.

Big thank you to them by local support, local support those that support us and support the arts

everybody. And get your tickets for this amazing show. Again, the Mary Wives Windsor premiering

August 15 through the 18th of our Chmeckley Reserve, 24 19 North Point Drive in Stevens Point,

attend these shows and take them in and find out more at cwack.org, cwack.org. Thank you all very

much. Enjoy the run. Break a leg. Have a great time, you guys. Thank you. We'll be back with

another WFHR's director's cut coming up for you.