What play has been produced the most at Cal Shakes since 1974? A Midsummer Night’s Dream, eight

What plays come in second? As You Like It, Twelfth Night and The Tempest, seven productions each

What plays by Shakespeare have not been done at Cal Shakes? Henry VI parts 1, 2, 3 and Henry VIII

How many plays have been produced at Cal Shakes since 1974? 156

How many people have/will have directed plays at Cal Shakes since we began in 1974? 63

How many different plays have/will have been produced at Cal Shakes since 1974? 60

How many plays has Jonathan Moscone directed at Cal Shakes? 16

After Jon, who has/will have directed the most plays at Cal Shakes? A.C.T. Associate Artistic Director Mark Rucker, five

How many people have/will have directed plays during Jon’s tenure (2000-now)? 19

How many women have/will have directed plays during Jon’s tenure (2000-now)? Nine

Of all the directors who have directed more than one play at Cal Shakes during Jon’s tenure (2000-now), who have only directed Shakespeare plays? Joel Sass and Daniel Fish, three each

Cal Shakes’ full production history can be found here; more details about our 39-year history can be found here.

Show art by Ilsa Brink

Cal Shakes recently revealed the upcoming Tempest production’s alluring show art designed by the fabulous Ilsa Brink. The poster art is surreal and provocative.

But enough about what we think. We’d rather know what YOU think.

What comes to mind when you think of Shakespeare’s The Tempest? Share a copyright-free image (your own or one found through Flickr’s publicly-held image archive The Commons) by either uploading it to our Facebook wall; tagging it “cal shakes tempest” on Flickr; tweeting a link to your image with the hash tag #calshakestempest; or emailing it to skalem@calshakes.org. Be sure and include your name and, if you like, why this image says “The Tempest” to you, and we may publish it in our Tempest show program! DEADLINE: 5/9

-Marketing Intern Katie McGee

I went to bed Monday night eagerly awaiting my return to Northern Light for another dose of middle school Hamlet adventuring. I woke up Tuesday morning to a gloomy sky and the wrong side of the bed.  Never fear, however; I threw on my most brightly-colored shirt in a pathetic attempt to lighten my spirits and dashed to my car with lukewarm coffee spilling in hand.

My mood began brightening as I pulled into the parking lot and scurried to meet up with the Director of Artistic Learning, Trish Tillman, for the day’s rundown: Start identifying action and clarifying textual meaning within each group’s assigned scene.

As class began, we warmed up our actor’s toolkit and made sure the group was functioning as a solid team.  Hallway, lunchroom, recess conflicts checked at the door, then ready, set, go, Hamlet.

We began digging through the textual trenches Shakespeare dug for his performers long ago.  As students tried on their lines for the first time, young voices began to grow louder and braver around the room.  The entirety of Hamlet was being voiced in a matter of minutes.  Questions were raised: What is my character doing in this moment? What motivated my character to do this? What the heck is a fishmonger?

By the end of the period students were feeling a smidge overwhelmed, but a dash relieved as they realized they were beginning to grasp each line’s meaning.

* * * *

Now let’s step back and get real here.  Artists and scholars have taken Hamlet and forced it under that lens, interpreted it this direction, argued it from the east to the west and reread it a kabillion times.  Now all of these efforts may have uncovered some revealing truths or spicy fresh takes, but are some of the story’s fundamentals lost in the process?  Watching the students at Northern Light find meaning in their lines for the very first time reminded me that Hamlet is often overcomplicated and the story’s bare bones alone dish up some titillating entertainment—keep it simple stupid.

Sometimes in life we just need to step back and stop ourselves from getting caught up in the dreary skies of Denmark (or the Bay), the coffee spilling over our hand as we hustle off for the day, and look at the greatness of our overall stories.

A Northern Lights student stepping into character before the show.

The final installment by Marketing Intern Katie McGee, documenting her participation in a Cal Shakes classroom residency.

“Ummm…where’s my costume?” “What if I forget my lines?” Ahhh. The sounds of final performance day have arrived. Eager jitters spreading around the performance space. Despite the exclamations of nervous dismay, these students are ready.

Why do I like the idea of youth performing Shakespeare? All the subliminal lessons that come with the experience, like a parent disguising servings of vegetables in delicious fruit juices. Some of these hidden lessons include: teamwork, stage presence, public speaking, and storytelling as a form of expression.

OK, but why Shakespeare? All of these lessons could be learned in a musical production of The Hobbit. Shakespeare, however, presents a seemingly greater challenge, thanks to the text’s richness and density. Shakespeare is often misperceived as literature for stuffy academics. This ridiculous notion, however, intensifies the empowerment a young student experiences once they have mastered the language and discovered the script’s meaning. Shakespeare is for everyone, not just your local, literary members-only club.  Shakespeare wrote for the masses—jokes and tragedies for all to relate to.  Shakespeare is for sharing.

Of all the lessons these students gained, sharing seemed the most evident. They shared costumes, props, space, stage, responsibility, characters, and, perhaps most importantly, they fearlessly shared what they had learned throughout the program. It was deeply apparent that the knowledge Cal Shakes’ Trish Tillman had shared had lit a fire under their desire for Shakespeare and storytelling. I enjoyed watching this flame grow steadily throughout my observation. One young performer, Avi’tal Wilson-Perteete, was especially frank about her new found hunger for the Bard, “I am 100 percent sure I will do Shakespeare again in the near future!”

A Northern Lights student portraying Ophelia shares flowers with the audience.

I am so tickled to have been given even a fragment of this experience with these young and passionate actors and academics.  I am hopeful and my fingers are quadruple-crossed that these students remember Shakespeare is for sharing, and continue to share and develop their love for his work. Maybe at the Bruns this summer? Heck yes to that.

The evening will include a tribute to the playwrights of PlayGround; a “fireside chat” with 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park) and Moscone, reception and silent auction, dinner, and the presentation of the 2012 PlayGround Emerging Playwright Awards, June Anne Baker Prize, and PlayGround Fellowship.

Click here for all the details, including information on purchasing tickets.

Quiroga in auctioneering action.

Marketing Intern Katie McGee gets to know our One Great Party auctioneer extraordinaire.

“I’d be lying if I said I really don’t enjoy being an auctioneer. I really do enjoy getting a crowd whipped up into a frenzy to support a place like Cal Shakes or whatever charity I work with. I love being an auctioneer that helps make good things happen in the world.” —Greg Quiroga, auctioneer for Cal Shakes’ gala.

Auctioneering is more than just a breathless, speedy-speaking production.  The role of an auctioneer, especially one in fundraising, is much like the role of an actor.  Each performance has strategy, a clear message, and is meant to evoke audience emotion.  Greg Quiroga has been in the business for a solid decade.  It is clear that he excels at his profession, because he takes a sincere interest in each client’s story and purpose.  Quiroga spends hours getting to know his clients and planning and strategizing his performance.

Quiroga is constantly working on perfecting his stage presence and performance technique.  For instance, he took improv classes for years to strengthen and fine-tune his ability to “keep everything positive react and live in the moment.”  His hard work and dedication has paid off immensely.

Quiroga is currently working for Reynolds & Buckley and works on average 50 or more fundraising events each year.  Over the years he has auctioned a wide array of items, ranging from extravagant world touring cruises to a day in the recording studio with Will.i.am.  Once he even sold cuts in an event’s food line for $2,500 a pop.

Quiroga looks forward to Cal Shakes’ gala for many reasons. “Cal Shakes’ event bridges all of the gaps between visceral, social, and emotional experiences… it always manages to be one of the most visually demanding events you can see. I mean, it’s just beautiful. It’s a good crowd of supporters. The event is always very on-message and extremely emotionally rewarding.”  Quiroga has been working Cal Shakes’ gala’s live auction for the last five years and he is always awed with how the “crowd consistently comes together to support Cal Shakes’ education outreach programs.” Thanks to the efforts of Quiroga, the Cal Shakes staff and ever-supportive patrons of Cal Shakes continue to be pivotal players in the effort to bring the arts to the stage, to classrooms, and to communities.

The 2012 gala is just about sold out, but the auction catalog will be online shortly. Click calshakes.org/gala for updates.

McGee working with students on tableaux creation.

Part One in a new series by Marketing Intern Katie McGee as she participates in a Cal Shakes classroom residency.

What does Hamlet have in common with a group of middle schoolers? MAJOR angst and uncertainty about their futures. Right? Except the middle schoolers (5th-8th grade) at Northern Light School in Oakland seem unbelievably unangst-ified, thoughtful, and quite sure of themselves. They ask provoking questions, make bold plot predictions, and are willing to take risks.

Guided by their fearless leader, Cal Shakes Director of Artistic Learning Trish Tillman, these bright young tweens are beginning a 12-week journey into the depths of Hamlet. At the end of their journey, they will perform an abridged version of the classic Shakespearean tragedy. Lucky for me they eagerly invited me to join their exploration.

To start, we studied a word cloud compiled from the play’s text. From this, we made plot predictions: “Hamlet gets married!,” “The clown kills Hamlet!,” “There will be madness everywhere!,” etc. While predictions shot around the group, I was reminded of how gratifying the unknown can be. Where will life take us? What role will I play? What will be the stakes? Our imaginations were revving up and we were raring to get on our feet.

To warm up our bodies and to practice connecting text with movement, we physically expressed nouns, verbs and adjectives.  My partner Isabel and I had some shining moments portraying a “waterfall” and the color “blue”.

With our actors’ tool kits (body, voice, imagination, focus, and collaboration) in tune, we were ready to dive into some intense tableau creation. Each tableau was inspired by a key plot point and paired with a pertinent quote from the show. Together these tableaux formed an abridged and highly entertaining Hamlet. Students confidently portrayed anything from a queen doomed by poison to a curtain veiling truth.

After the last tableau performed, we were 15 minutes over on time. Students were wiggling in their seats, not because they were ready to leave, but because they were eager to continue the activities and exploration.  Who can blame them? I mean, Hamlet speaks to the ghost, escapes on a pirate ship, stabs his girlfriend’s dad, murders his uncle to avenge his father… Need I say more?

I am truly looking forward to observing the artistic wonder and creation generated by these students over the next few months.  “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. These students are not fearing to attempt new things on this project and marvelous educational growth is already appearing.

Trish Tillman with students from Oakland's Northern Lights Academy; photo by Jay Yamada.

I love the first day of class. I relish it. Kids are fresh to the work, unencumbered with expectations, hopeful, fearful, usually eager for something new. At the very least, their antennae are raised for something different.

I am lucky enough to teach Shakespeare to children in the Bay Area. Today I have two classes back-to-back, a mix of fifth and sixth grade for the first hour, followed by an hour with seventh and eighth grades.

The classroom teacher is usually excited on the first day, too—glad for both a chance to learn new material and to experience what we mean by “arts-integration,” and also grateful for a bit of a break from the incredibly hard work of leading, disciplining, helping—all the giving that he or she must do every day.

So everyone files into the “multipurpose room” or, as many teachers I know call it, “the cafegymatorium.” The kids are looking around, looking at me, looking at their shoes. They are out of a routine. And that is exactly what art wants—it wants us slightly off-center, slightly unfamiliar, more aware, more in a state of wondering. We’ve already taken a step into possibility.

As we start, I try to hold the energy like a seal balancing on a ball—delicately, purposefully, playfully. Here are the rules of our space, I say, easily, simply. Here’s the way we work together. They listen. They tacitly agree. OK for now; their antennae still waving. I start to play warm-up games, like the “Keep the Ball in the Air” game. These games are innocuous and tons of fun, but they are also subversive. They strengthen trust and build specific skills of social interaction, all the while allowing me to size up the group’s personality, its ability to listen and respond, and any potential behavioral red flags.

My lesson plan might change instantly in these moments—from substituting entire sections to little tweaks of timing, or just changing how I will present an upcoming exercise. This is really the fun part. I ask myself: What’s the best and most interesting way for us to meet, teacher and student, student and student, student and self. I ask myself this over and over again in the space of one 45-minute class.

It doesn’t matter that it’s a theater class on Shakespeare. It’s what any class should bring to us. I took a cooking class that put me up against myself in a million little ways (hello, therapist, my childhood is calling) and I gained an understanding of myself and that world that I would never have had if my teacher hadn’t had patience, ease, charm, and an understanding that it’s not necessarily the subject—it’s the You that you might find there.

We end with a small ritual. A clap together. An unplanned group jump. Perhaps everyone says one sentence about something they learned today. We acknowledge the time that we have been in this space was well used together.

So go out and take a class. Or teach one, with heart and fire and fun. Allow the antennae to wave around. Keep having beginnings.

 Click here to learn about Cal Shakes teaching artists in Bay Area classrooms.

Last August, I was invited by Jonathan Moscone and Deborah Cullinan (executive director of Intersection for the Arts) to help develop the partnership they had formed. After a successful collaboration some years ago on Hamlet: Blood in the Brain, Cal Shakes and Intersection wanted to work together on something larger than creating one new play;  with a generous grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation in-hand, the staff from both organizations had been meeting for some time to determine what this partnership would look like. They had some goals and projects in mind but it was proving harder than they had expected to get started: The two organizations worked in very different ways, both staffs were tremendously busy with their regular work, and little things like different calendar systems and big things like different approaches to season planning were all adding up to insurmountable.

With so much conviction from the leaders of both organizations, and so much talent on the two staffs, I knew it wouldn’t take much to unlock the potential of this partnership, but one thing was puzzling me: I didn’t know what to call the project. What started out as a minor administrative question—what should I write on my file folder? What should I name the folder in my computer?—quickly emerged as a key issue we needed to address. As Shakespeare can tell you, the names of things matter very much, and if you can’t name something, you may not know yet what it is.

Many meetings later, while deep in discussion of the kind of community relationships we wanted to create, I found myself drawing a triangle, showing the connections between a theater, artists, and community members. “That’s it!,”  Jonathan exclaimed. ”That’s the name!”  Thus was born the Triangle Lab. A lab (because we’re experimenting) and a triangle because we are examining the triangular relationship between artists, institutions, and communities. We want to find ways to strengthen each side of the triangle and to make sure we are putting equal value on each of the corners. This name proposes that we always consider the community that a play might engage as much as we consider what artists we’re working with, and that we carefully work to connect artists to communities at every stage of the process.

The goal of the Triangle Lab—now a program run jointly by Cal Shakes and Intersection for the Arts—is to learn how to “make new plays together,” that is to say, how to make new plays with theater institutions, artists, and community members working in close collaboration, as equal partners. We’re aiming to expand who participates in theater-making and how they participate.

Our first experiments will invite people, in many different ways, to tell the stories of their places (their homes, the places they come from, the journeys that have brought them to the place they now call home). These experiments will surround and enrich two productions of work by artists who deeply explore place. Spunk (the second show in Cal Shakes’ 2012 season) showcases Zora Neale Hurston’s intricate stories of African-American life during the Harlem Renaissance while Allelulia (to be produced at Intersection in 2013 with Jonathan Moscone directing), by distinguished playwright Luis Alfaro, traces a journey up Highway 99 from Disneyland to San Francisco. Though these plays are stories by renowned artists, in the Triangle Lab we believe that everyone is a storyteller—we want to invite as many people as we can to tell stories about their places. Stay tuned for more information on how you can participate in this exploration.