Winter('s Tale) Is Coming

Say Hello to the Cast and Crew of The Winter's Tale!

Flatwater Shakespeare will stage The Winter's Tale for the first time ever in the Company's twenty-three-year history, under the direction of Resident Scholar Stephen Buhler. Rehearsals have already begun, so purchase your tickets today!

Tickets can be purchased at https://flatwatershakespearecompany.org/.../tickets...

*Financial support for this production has been provided by the Lancaster County Visitor Promotion Fund and Nebraska Arts Council.*

Give to Lincoln Day 2023 is May 24 and also Online NOW

 

A Letter from Marshall Carby, Executive Artistic Director, Flatwater Shakespeare Company

Greetings, Flatwater Shakespeare Community!

If I haven’t had the opportunity to meet you at one of our productions or educational programs, I would like to introduce myself to you now. My name is Marshall Carby, and I am the Executive Artistic Director for Flatwater Shakespeare Company. I was hired in January of last year, and it has been my honor to continue the rich tradition of bringing high-quality theatrical productions and community-based educational programs to Lincoln, as we have for the past two decades.

Last year, our annual Short Shakespeare Tour kicked off the season with a hilarious and endearing production of Much Ado About Nothing. This production ran for four performances at the historic Wyuka Stables and then we took the show on the road performing at several of Lincoln’s parks bringing FREE performances to families from the surrounding areas. The parks tour brought Shakespeare’s classic story to over 800 people in Lincoln. For me, it was a joy to see families share this classic work together.

Another part of our season that I found thrilling was our Little But Fierce summer camps, serving children from kindergarten age through tenth grade. Taught by several of Lincoln’s leading Shakespeare practitioners, children engage with the Bard’s text and explore the twists and turns of these characters and situations. Taught in three separate sessions, with goals geared towards their respective age groups, each course concluded with a performance showcasing the skills developed during the week. I can tell you, these young people are tremendous!

Our fall production of Julius Caesar was one of my favorite directing experiences to date. The cast was comprised of faces new and old to Flatwater Shakespeare Company. This being my first time directing for Flatwater Shakespeare Company, I quickly learned that previous Artistic Director Bob Hall and Executive Artistic Directors Becky Boesen and Summer Lukasiewicz left very large shoes to fill. What I learned most during the production is the strength of this organization. Flatwater Shakespeare is constantly built and sustained by collaborative artists and a dedicated audience base who make what we do possible. Thank you all for your past support.

Flatwater Shakespeare is one of the best organizations in Lincoln. I am humbled to be a part of Flatwater Shakespeare Company and I look forward to our 2023 season. We have developed an exciting season of shows and programs for the coming year. This season’s plays include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief, and The Winter’s Tale. Please visit our website for show dates and times.

www.flatwatershakespearecompany.org

To help continue our mission and expand our programming, please consider donating to Flatwater Shakespeare Company during the 2023 Give to Lincoln Day fundraising drive. We pride ourselves on being a theatrical organization that believes in paying every member of our production cast and crew, educators, and staff. We also strive to bring affordable and often free programs to ensure Shakespeare’s work is accessible to everyone. If you are in a situation to make a monetary contribution to Flatwater Shakespeare Company, please do! Give to Lincoln Day is May 24, but you can donate online anytime.

https://www.givetolincoln.com/nonprofits/flatwater-shakespeare-company

With gratitude,

Marshall

A Dark Lady's Comedic Revenge in Talene Monahon's *Jane Anger*

 

FSC Resident Scholar Stephen Buhler really wishes he could see this before it closes January 8. That won't happen, but he looks forward to reading the published script and finding connections with other recent Dark Lady texts, such as Caroline Randall Williams's Lucy Negro Redux (recently staged as a ballet, Black Lucy and the Bard) and Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's Emilia. It's a wonderful coincidence that Amelia Workman, the actress playing Jane Anger for this production, shares a name with Aemilia Lanyer, the central character of Malcolm's play (also a historical figure, also a trailblazing woman writer with strong proto-feminist messages to share, also suggested as inspiring the Dark Lady sonnets).

https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/jane-anger-monahon

Photo: Amelia Workman as Jane Anger, Talene Monahon as Ann Hathaway. Photo Credit: DJ Corey.

Early Modern Women Investors in The Fortune Theatre

 

They weren't yet permitted on the stage, but Early Modern women played a vital role in rebuilding the 17th-century Fortune Theatre. Exciting research from Lucy Munro and Clare McManus! h/t our friend A. J. Hartley

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/dec/11/revealed-how-women-bankrolled-rival-to-17th-century-globe-theatre

Billy Collins and "The Bard in Flight"

 

An interview with former Poet Laureate Billy Collins, about keeping Shakespeare and all great writers and poetry itself on a human scale:

https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/billy-collins 

The podcast includes Collins reading this delightful poem about a time-traveling Will --

"The Bard in Flight"

It occurred to me
on a flight from London to Barcelona
that Shakespeare could have written
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England
with more authority had he occupied
the window seat next to me
instead of this businessman from Frankfurt.

Of course, after a couple of drinks
and me loaning him an earbud
he might become so preoccupied
with Miles Davis at the Blackhawk
at 36,000 feet above some realm or other to write a word.

I imagine he'd enjoy playing with my wristwatch,
the one with the tartan band,
and when he wasn't looking out the window,
he would study the ice cubes in his rotating glass.
And he'd take a keen interest
in the various announcements from the flight deck
and the ministrations of the bowing attendants,
all of which would be sadly lost on me
having gotten used to rushing above the clouds,
even though 99% of humanity has never been there.

Yet, I am still fond of the snub-nosed engines,
the straining harmony of the twin jets,
and even that sensation of turbulence
jostled about high above some blessed plot
with the sound of crockery shifting in the galley,
the frenzied eyes of the nervous passengers,
and the Bard reaching for my hand
as we roared with trembling wings
into the towering fortress of a thunderhead.

Armond Is Ariel? *The White Lotus* and *The Tempest*

Our friend Austin Tichenor recently watched the multiple Emmy Award-winning show The White Lotus and "suddenly beheld the wonder of what creator Mike White had accomplished: transforming William Shakespeare’s The Tempest into a darkly funny satire of the hospitality industry."

Of course, he had to share that wonder with the world via the Folger Shakespeare Library's Shakespeare & Beyond blog. Enjoy!

https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/2022/09/30/tempest-the-white-lotus/

Photo: Natasha Rothwell as Belinda, Murray Bartlett as Armond in Season One of The White Lotus.

Photo Credit: Mario Perez / HBO

Julius Caesar and Nelson Mandela

Our production of 𝘑𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘊𝘢𝘦𝘴𝘢𝘳, directed by Marshall Carby, continues tonight, 7:30 p.m., at Wyuka Stables, 3600 "O" Street in Lincoln!

Can't make it tonight? No worries! The show will also be performed September 8-11, Thursday through Sunday, at the same location and time.

So many remarkable performances make this is a show that you don't want to miss. Grab your tickets online at https://flatwatershakespearecompany.org or at the door. Come enjoy some Shakespearean theatre, as he liked it: actor-centered, open-air, big-hearted.

On the theme of big-heartedness, those who resisted South Africa's apartheid policy demonstrated courage and compassion again and again -- including Nelson Mandela, who eventually became the nation's president. Imprisoned on Robben Island for his politics, Mandela became part of a Shakespearean circle. Literature was generally forbidden, but a copy of Shakespeare's Complete Works was ingeniously disguised as a sacred Hindu text by prisoner Sonny Venkatrathnam. The book circulated among the inmates, who eventually signed their names in order to mark favorite passages.

"N. R. Mandela" appears next to these lines from Julius Caesar: “Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant only taste of death but once.” The signature is dated 16 December 1977.

For more about the Robben Island Shakespeare, listen or read (or both) to this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, from the Folger Shakespeare Library --

https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/robben-island-shakespeare