A Short History of Short Shakespeare

 

We look forward to our 2021 summer show, Twelfth Night, directed by Kathryn Cover and presented at The Swan Theatre in the Stables at Wyuka and on tour.

Flatwater Shakespeare has, for the last few years, presented “Short Shakespeare” productions in June. This year is no exception and this summer’s play has been edited by our Resident Scholar, Stephen Buhler, for a running time of 75 minutes without intermission. 

We take this approach in order to make the shows as family-friendly as possible and to offer accessible introductions to individual plays, to Shakespeare in general, and perhaps to live theater itself. We trust that experienced playgoers and Bardophiles will also be able to get something out of the productions.

“Short Shakespeare” follows a long and distinguished history of editing the plays for accessibility. We were recently reminded that director Julie Taymor got her start with New York’s Public Theatre with a one-hour touring version of The Taming of the Shrew. And in 1937, two of America’s major radio networks offered series of highly compressed Shakespearean adaptations.

The story of The Battle of the Bard has been told by our friend Michael P. Jensen in his book with that title. He explains how NBC presented Streamlined Shakespeare, with several broadcasts featuring John Barrymore, in competition with the Columbia Shakespeare Cycle on CBS, which featured star performers like Tallulah Bankhead, Burgess Meredith, and Edward G. Robinson. CBS executives were so pleased with the success of the cycle that they commissioned one of the participants, Orson Welles, to produce a series of radio plays and adaptations with his (and John Houseman’s) stage ensemble, the Mercury Theater Company. Mercury Theater on the Air was launched in the summer of 1938 and on the eve of Halloween later that year . . .

Yes, Shakespeare is partly responsible for the panic over The War of the Worlds.

But before that, in September 1938, Welles and company presented a one-hour radio adaptation of their startling stage production of Julius Caesar. Welles directed and appeared as Brutus. Listen to the broadcast and hear how Short / Streamlined / Concentrated Shakespeare can serve both the audience and the author.

And then come see and hear us this summer!

https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu/items/show/2201