Summer shakespeare - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival (formerly Summer Shakespeare) at the University of Notre Dame

University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...

is an annual festival that seeks to combine professional productions of the works of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

with community outreach and educational programs. Summer Shakespeare is a part of the University of Notre Dame's Shakespeare initiative entitled "Shakespeare at Notre Dame", a program that recognizes the centrality of the study of Shakespeare in humanistic pedagogy at the University. Its seventh season (summer of 2006) consists of the mainstage production of The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is one of only two of Shakespeare's...

, the Young Company performance of The Brothers Menaechmus, and the annual ShakeScenes shows featuring actors of all ages from South Bend and the surrounding community. Its eighth season (summer of 2007) featured the mainstage production of Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s, and first published in 1598.-Title:...

and the Young Company production of The Learned Ladies. Its ninth season featured Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

and The Witch by Thomas Middleton.

History

The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, the professional theatre in residence at the University of Notre Dame, is a direct outgrowth of an experimental course called "Shakespeare in Performance" that was created in 1989 by Dr. Paul Rathburn, NDSF's founder. The premise of this course was that Shakespeare's works are both theatrical scripts and literary texts and are illuminated best through work in both the theater and in the classroom. It began in the summer of 2000 with the program's innagural production, The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...

, but has since evolved to include guest artists and productions, the ShakeScenes community program, and a Young Company production produced and staffed entirely by Notre Dame and Saint Mary's

Saint Mary's College (Indiana)

Saint Mary's College is a private Catholic liberal arts college founded in 1844 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. It is located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community northeast of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States — as are the University of Notre Dame and Holy...

students. Following the 2005 production of Henry V
Henry V (play)
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...

, Dr. Paul Rathburn retired from his role as Producing Artistic Director. The company has since been helmed by Jay Paul Skelton, Assistant Professor of Shakespeare at Notre Dame.

The Mainstage Production

Arguably the centerpiece of the annual festival, the mainstage production consists of a professionally mounted performance of one of the plays of William Shakespeare. The production is always directed and designed by theatrical professionals, typically from either the Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

theatre world or the University's own faculty and staff. A number of professional actors are also employed, as well as Notre Dame and Saint Mary's students and South Bend community members. The integration of professional actors and designers with students creates a unique opportunity for those students who wish to pursue theatre as a profession following their graduation. In recent years, students and professionals from other universities such as Ball State University

Ball State University

Ball State University is a state-run research university located in Muncie, Indiana. It is also known as Ball State or simply BSU.Located on the northwest side of the city, Ball State's campus spans and includes 106 buildings...

and Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

have participated in NDSF.

Past Mainstage Productions

The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...

, 2000

Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....

, 2001

The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...

, 2002

A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...

, 2003

Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

, 2004 (directed by William Brown)

Henry V
Henry V (play)
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...

, 2005 (directed by William Brown)

The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is one of only two of Shakespeare's...

, 2006 (directed by William Brown)

Love's Labor's Lost, 2007 (directed by Jay Paul Skelton)

Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

, 2008 (directed by Karen Kessler)

Twelfth Night, 2009 (directed by David H. Bell)

The Young Company

Beginning with 2003's production, the student actors and technicians in the mainstage production were given the chance to perform in a production produced entirely by them (though directed by a senior company member). The roles in the Young Company performance are necessarily larger both on and offstage - the mainstage's Assistant to the Technical Director may become the Young Company Technical Director, while a student playing First Soldier may have a chance to play King Richard III. Although in the past Young Company performances have taken place on the same set used for the mainstage performance, 2006 saw the introduction of "green shows", performances in which Young Company members travelled to local parks in South Bend and the surrounding community.

Past Young Company Productions

Shakespeare on Love, adapted by R. John Roberts, 2003

Shakespeare on Comedy: A Vaudeville, adapted by R. John Roberts, 2004

Falstaff's Dream, adapted by Susan Hart, 2005 (directed by Susan Hart)

The Brothers Menaechmus, by Plautus

Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...

, translated by Richard Pryor with further adaptation by Jay Paul Skelton, 2006, (directed by Jay Paul Skelton)

The Learned Ladies, by Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

, directed by Kevin Asselin, 2007

The Witch, by Tho R. Middleton, directed by Kevin Asselin, 2008

The Deceived, by the Academy of the Intronati of Siena (translation by Ken Rea), directed by Kevin Asselin, 2009

ShakeScenes

ShakeScenes is NDSF's community outreach program, employing local theatre troupes and schools to perform selected scenes from Shakespeare's works. ShakeScenes has been headed since its inception by Deborah Girasek-Chudzynski of South Bend's Stanley Clark School. Participants range in age from 7 to 70, and scene directors are usually educators from local grade schools, high schools, colleges and directors of area civic theatres. These individuals cast and direct their respective scenes as well as facilitate costumes, props and choregoraphy. All members of the ShakeScenes company attend acting workshops taught by local and national theatre artists.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.