IN THIS ISSUE:

• 2008 Shakespeare Festival
  
  • Artistic Director Statement
  • "It Takes A Village" By Dakin Matthews
  • All's Well That Ends Well
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • Shakespeare Festival Sponsors
  • 2008 Festival Welcomes 8 Associate Artists
  • Shakespeare in the Garden Talks
  • Globe and UCSD-TV Create New “Backstage at the Globe” Program
• 2008-09 Season Announced
• Education Update: Summer Shakespeare Intensive
• Upcoming Productions & Events
• Campaign Update: Granite Pavers
• Shiley Artist-in-Residence
• Construction Update
• Globe Receives Major Grant from Irvine Foundation

GLOBE'S 2008 SUMMER SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
NOW PLAYING!

Photos L-R: Kimberly Parker Green, James R. Winker and Graham Hamilton from All's Well That Ends Well; Graham Hamilton and Heather Wood from Romeo and Juliet; Katie MacNichol, Eric Hoffmann and Celeste Ciulla from The Merry Wives of Windsor. Photos by Craig Schwartz.

A MESSAGE FROM OLD GLOBE RESIDENT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
DARKO TRESNJAK

Our themes this summer are love and family:
Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor and All’s Well That Ends Well.

Three plays that look at love from a tragic, comic and bittersweet perspective. Three plays about the often loving, often thorny relationships between parents and children.

Romeo and Juliet, Anne Page and Fenton, and Helena and Bertram are all headstrong youth who defy the older generation. Their often rebellious but undeniably infectious spirits propel the plots of these great plays.

And they present their parents with considerable challenges: When does guidance become tyranny? How and when to let go, especially knowing that certain lessons in life can only be learned through experience?

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” especially when young love collides with family expectations.

And speaking of families, I am thrilled that eight of our wonderful Associate Artists — Kandis Chappell, Ralph Funicello, Charles Janasz, Dakin Matthews, Jonathan McMurtry, Steve Rankin, Deborah Taylor and James R. Winker — are all with us for the 2008 Shakespeare Festival. They, too, will provide their gentle guidance for the younger members of our company throughout the summer.

So join us for the summer of love and the exploration — and celebration — of family.

Darko Tresnjak, Resident Artistic Director

For a complete schedule of the Shakespeare Festival, please click here.

Subscribe to the Summer Season
Buy Tickets All's Well That Ends Well
Buy Tickets Romeo and Juliet
Buy Tickets The Merry Wives of Windsor

Check out interviews with Shakespeare Actors and Directors!

PROGRAM NOTES: 2008 SHAKESPEARE REPERTORY SEASON

IT TAKES A VILLAGE...
By Dakin Matthews, Dramaturge

Costume sketch by Linda Cho "King's Attendant" from All's Well That Ends Well.

There is an Elizabethan expression “to go to the world,” which, oddly enough, means to “to get married.” The clown Lavatch in All’s Well That Ends Well uses it in his first conversation with the Countess, asking her permission to wed: “If I may have your ladyship’s good will to go to the world, Isbel the woman and I will do as we may” (AW 1.3.17-19). Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing also uses it to lament (not altogether seriously) her spinsterhood:

Good Lord, for alliance! Thus goes everyone to the world but I, and I am sunburnt. I may sit in a corner and cry, “Heigh-ho, for a husband!” (MA 2.1.318-320)

I do not know the origin of the expression, and can only guess at its initial meaning, which I suspect glanced at the difference between the cloistered, religious (and therefore virginal) life and the open, secular (and usually marital) life. “To go to the world” may have meant simply to accept one’s destiny as lay person (no pun intended), and therefore to obey the command of Genesis and become a this-worldly, sexual, and ultimately procreative creature. To join (and thereby continue) the human race, as it were. For as Much Ado’s Benedick says, “The world must be peopled!”

Shakespeare’s companion piece to All’s Well, Measure for Measure, presents the contrast even more starkly — even allegorically; its heroine Isabella (“beautiful island”) begins as an actual postulant of the Poor Clares, seeking an even more rigorous regimen of physical self-denial in a city notorious for sexual license, and ends up on the receiving end of a proposal from the Duke himself to “go to the world.” (That she does not respond to the offer is one thing that makes the play so engaging.)

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PROGRAM NOTES: All's Well That Ends Well

Photo:Kimberly Parker Green as "Helena"; James R. Winker as the "King of France" and Graham Hamilton as "Bertram" in All's Well That Ends Well. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

"Bertram does not want to marry and ‘settle down,’ but to become a soldier and have dashing affairs: and even if he did marry, he wouldn’t want someone he had previously thought of as something between a kid sister and a family retainer. He resents (though in his society he would have had to suppress this anyway) the fact that both his mother and the King think that marriage would be good for him. More important than any of this, the King is fulfilling a promise made to Helena about which he [Bertram] was never consulted, and is making his life and interests only the means of doing so. However benevolent everyone’s intentions may be, Bertram sees the whole pattern of his life snatched away from him just at the moment that he is about to enter on it.”
— Northrop Frye, The Myth of Deliverance, 1983

"Bertram's conversion must be reckoned among Helena’s miracles. What is well ended is her struggle for recognition which he concedes to her. Her devotion, tinged for the first time with bitterness, requires another mode of expression than the last dozen lines allow. She has been acknowledged by her lord: That her personal happiness is simply irrelevant, and the ending therefore neither hypocritical nor cynical, can be granted only if the play is seen as a study of the question of ‘Wherein lies true honor and nobility?’”
— M.C. Bradbrook, Virtue is the True Nobility: A Study of the Structure of
All’s Well That Ends Well, 1950

"Both Helena and the Countess are brilliant, complicated, strong women who, finding themselves in impossible situations, emerge not only whole but triumphant. Helena is at least as ingenious as Rosalind, a much more crowd-pleasing heroine. And if Bertram seems like a cad compared to the smitten Orlando, he is not more so than Much Ado About Nothing’s Claudio.”
— Marjorie Garber, Shakespeare After All, 2004

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together. Our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not, and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues.”
— All’s Well That Ends Well, Act. 4, Scene 3

"Shakespeare's bitter play with a bitter title, All’s Well That Ends Well, anticipates Ibsen.”
— George Bernard Shaw

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PROGRAM NOTES: Romeo and Juliet

Q & A with Director Richard Seer
By Victoria Hayne

Graham Hamilton as "Romeo" and Heather Wood as "Juliet." Photo by Craig Schwartz.

VH: Romeo and Juliet is a familiar story to many people. Approaching it as a director, did anything surprise you or stand out in a way that you hadn’t seen before?

RS: I realized that we think we know Romeo and Juliet, but what we remember most is the first half — Romeo and Juliet’s meeting, the dancing, the swordfights, and especially the balcony scene. Those are the romantic parts that we love so much. But they set up the plot; they are not the story. The story really happens in the second half, which is much darker. And faster. Once the action begins, the dynamic of the play really drives relentlessly towards the ending.

VH: Critics and directors have viewed Romeo and Juliet in various ways, sometimes as the victims of fate, sometimes as passionate young people whose own rashness dooms them. How do you see them?

RS: Romeo and Juliet are often seen as impetuous, even reckless. But I don’t see them that way. In fact, I think they are the most consistent characters in the play. Once they have made a commitment to one another, that decision guides their behavior without wavering to the end. They have a purity of intent that I find so beautiful. Perhaps only in first love can that purity exist.

On the other hand, seeing Romeo and Juliet as fated to die takes away the punch of the story. A whole series of missteps by many characters pushes them into the position they reach at the end. Practically every character in the play is somehow culpable for the tragedy. And the tragedy is, every character was acting for the best as he or she saw it.

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PROGRAM NOTES: The Merry Wives of Windsor

Katie MacNichol, Eric Hoffmann and Celeste Ciulla , Photo by Craig Schwartz.

When director Paul Mullins addressed the cast on the first day of rehearsals, he summed up the significance of The Merry Wives of Windsor in one word: FUN!

While critics debate its meaning and react in contrasting ways to its farcical humor, Mullins sees The Merry Wives of Windsor as a delightful domestic comedy, anchored by the wit of two smart women. “What draws me to the play,” he says, “is its uniqueness in Shakespeare’s repertoire, his only ‘middle class’ play. It is full of vivid characters who are not aristocrats, but ordinary people living in an ordinary town.”

“Windsor is a tight-knit, self-contained community and the play is very much focused on that place, with its one doctor, one parson, and a few leading citizens.” He elected, though, not to set it in the actual English town of Windsor. “Setting Shakespeare’s plays in different time periods is, after all, what Shakespeare himself did. His plays were mostly performed in Elizabethan dress, which was ‘modern dress’ for his audiences. For today’s audiences, a time and place that is meaningful to us can help tell the story.”

“Windsor was a very specific place to Shakespeare’s audiences, a small town not far from London. In choosing a setting for our production, I was looking for a time and place we are familiar with — the same kind of small town, before things got too big. So I chose a Western setting around 1870, the end of the ‘old West’ when the pioneer communities were well-established, but still isolated and self-sufficient. A Western town managing its own affairs and taking on trouble-making outsiders is a potent image for us. This is the comic version of that.”

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THE OLD GLOBE IS PROUD TO RECOGNIZE QUALCOMM AS THE
2008 SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL SPONSOR

2008 Shakespeare Festival is sponsored in part by:

Karen and Donald Cohn Production Sponsor for All’s Well That Ends Well Karen and Donald Cohn have attended Globe productions for the past 27 years and have been actively involved with the Theatre in leadership roles for 16 of those years. Karen currently serves as Co-Chair of the Globe’s Capital and Endowment Campaign – Securing A San Diego Landmark. She and Don helped launch the Campaign in 2006 by making a significant gift, and in recognition, the new education center complex will be named The Karen and Donald Cohn Education Center. Karen first joined the Globe’s Board of Directors in 1992, has served two terms as Board President (1996-1998), has co-chaired four of the Globe’s most successful Galas, and will be continuing in that important role once more for the 2008 Gala. Don has been a long-time member of the Globe’s Board of Directors, and in January, assumed the position of Chair of the Board. As Production Sponsors, the Cohns have generously supported Othello, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, Blue/Orange, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Doctor is Out, Wonderful Tennessee and Restoration Comedy.

Joan and Irwin Jacobs Production Sponsor for The Merry Wives of Windsor Joan and Irwin Jacobs have been enthusiastic supporters and loyal subscribers of The Old Globe for more than 20 years, during which time the Theatre and San Diego community have greatly benefited from their generosity and involvement. Previous Globe productions sponsored by Joan and Irwin include George Gershwin Alone, Macbeth, Resurrection Blues, Smash, Julius Caesar and Avenue Q. The couple has been active philanthropically throughout the San Diego community, supporting numerous organizations, including the University of California, San Diego; the Museum of Contemporary Art; San Diego Opera; La Jolla Playhouse; Museum of Photographic Arts; San Diego Repertory Theatre and the San Diego Symphony.

Conrad Prebys Production Sponsor for Romeo and Juliet A native of South Bend, Indiana and a resident of San Diego since 1965, Conrad Prebys has always enjoyed sharing his business success with worthy San Diego non-profits and his adopted community. Conrad is CEO of Progress Construction, a company he formed when he arrived in San Diego more than 40 years ago. In 2005, Conrad made an extraordinary gift of $10 million in support of the Globe’s Capital and Endowment Campaign – Securing A San Diego Landmark. In recognition of his generosity, the Globe’s new facility will be named The Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. He also takes an active role in helping others in the San Diego community through his generous support of the San Diego Zoo, Scripps Mercy Hospital and the Boys & Girls Club of East County. Conrad became a Globe Season Sponsor in 2004 helping to underwrite Jack O’Brien’s wildly successful production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, serves on the Globe’s Board of Directors, and has been a generous Production Sponsor for Ace and this year’s Shakespeare Festival production of Romeo and Juliet.

Supervisor Pam Slater-Price and the County of San Diego Board of Supervisors Production Sponsor for Romeo and Juliet Supervisor Pam Slater-Price has allocated Community Projects Funds to support quality theatrical productions at the Globe, including the annual Shakespeare Festival, which attracted attendees from throughout the region as well as from 47 states and 14 countries in 2007. This funding also helps sustain the Globe’s education and outreach programs serving more than 50,000 students and adults each year. She provides this support because, “The Old Globe provides first-class performing arts for the San Diego community and I am grateful for their ability to foster young minds through their educational programs and annual Shakespeare Festival.” The County of San Diego’s Community Projects program provides grants to non-profit community organizations that enhance the quality of life, promote tourism and provide economic benefits. Grants are awarded by Supervisor Pam Slater-Price at the regional and community levels in San Diego County.

John A. Berol Production Sponsor for The Merry Wives of Windsor Having previously enjoyed Shakespeare at school and on stage, John Berol was delighted to discover San Diego’s enthusiasm for Shakespeare in Balboa Park upon moving to the city in 1977. Aware of the fragile dependence of artistically-driven theatre upon charitable support from individuals, John joyfully joined in with contributions including sponsorship of Dancing at Lughnasa, Voir Dire, Labor Day, Twelfth Night, Pericles, Much Ado About Nothing, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Winter’s Tale, Titus Andronicus and Measure for Measure.

Kathryn Hattox Production Sponsor for All’s Well That Ends Well In 1997 Kathryn joined The Old Globe Board of Directors and currently serves as Immediate Past Chair and as a continuing member of the Capital and Endowment Campaign Committee. In recognition of her leadership gift to the Campaign, the multi-purpose performance and training space located in the new Education Center will carry the name of Hattox Hall. Kathryn has generously supported the Globe each year as a Production Sponsor for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, Lucky Duck, Rough Crossing, All My Sons, The Boswell Sisters, As You Like It,Thunder Knocking on the Door and Measure for Measure.

GLOBE WELCOMES BACK EIGHT ASSOCIATE ARTISTS

This summer’s Shakespeare Festival features eight Associate Artists, working both on stage and backstage. We’re thrilled to welcome back Kandis Chappell, (recent Globe productions include The Winter’s Tale, The Constant Wife and Collected Stories); Jonathan McMurtry (SD Critics’ Circle winner for his performances in the 2007 Shakespeare Festival, Trying, Da); Deborah Taylor (recently seen in Bell, Book and Candle, As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra); and James R. Winker ( A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Da, Neville’s Island). We’re also delighted to announce Charles Janasz as the Globe’s newest Associate Artist, who was just named to this esteemed group at the first rehearsal for the 2008 Festival in April. Additionally, Associate Artist Ralph Funicello serves as the set designer for the Festival for the fifth year in a row; Dakin Matthews, dramaturge for All’s Well That Ends Well and The Merry Wives of Windsor; and Steve Rankin is the Festival’s Fight Director. Chosen in recognition of their talents and unique contribution to the growth of the Globe, Associate Artists are actors, directors, designers and administrators who have repeatedly demonstrated by their active presence on stage and back-stage a commitment to excellence and a dedication to their craft. Wherever else their careers take them, Associate Artists remain at the heart of the Globe institution. Photos top left - bottom: Kandis Chappell (The Winter's Tale); Charles Janasz (The Comedy of Errors); Dakin Matthews (The Prince of LA). Photos top right - bottom: Jonathan McMurtry (The Two Gentlemen of Verona); Deborah Taylor (The Merry Wives of Windsor); James R. Winker (Romeo and Juliet). Photos by Craig Schwartz

SHAKESPEARE IN THE GARDEN

Join us in the Lower Plaza Garden for our pre-show lectures on the 2008 Shakespeare Festival productions. Globe artistic staff and prominent local Shakespeare scholars will present a series of pre-show talks before selected Festival performances.

• Free and open to the public
• Time: 7:15pm - 7:35pm
• Location: Globe’s Lower Plaza Garden, next to the Museum of Man

For a schedule of our "Shakespeare in the Garden" preview lectures, click here.

Old Globe and UCSD-TV Create New “Backstage at the Globe” Program on 2008 Summer Shakespeare Festival

The Old Globe and UCSD-TV have once again teamed up to create the latest “Backstage at the Globe” program featuring the 2008 Summer Shakespeare Festival. This fascinating 30-minute program focuses on the process of mounting the three Shakespeare Festival productions, including Romeo and Juliet, All’s Well That Ends Well and The Merry Wives of Windsor, which run in nightly rotation in the Globe’s Lowell Davies Festival Theatre June 14 – September 28. Viewers will get a taste of the rehearsal process and hear insights about the play from Executive Producer Lou Spisto, Resident Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, actors and designers.
 
The Old Globe and UCSD-TV have worked in partnership to create the “Backstage at the Globe” television series since 1999, bringing the creative process to life and taking viewers behind the scenes at one of the nation’s premiere regional theaters.
 
The program will air on UCSD-TV on July 8 at 8pm; July 10 at 10pm; July 18 at 8pm; July 21 at 6pm; July 23 at 10pm; July 29 at 9:30pm; July 31 at 11:30pm; August 8 at 9:30pm; August 11 at 7:30pm; August 13 at 11:30pm; August 19 at 8pm; August 21 at 10pm; August 29 at 8pm;  September 1 at 6pm; September 3 at 10pm; September 9 at 9:30pm; September 11 at 11:30pm; September 19 at 9:30pm; September 22 at 7:30pm and September 24 at 10pm. UCSD-TV airs on Cox and Time Warner Ch. 135; Time Warner North County channel 18; AT&T channel 99; and UHF (no cable) channel 35.  For more information, program schedules and more, visit www.ucsd.tv.

The Old Globe Announces a Musical
To Complete the 2008-2009 Season!

Subscribe Now and Save!
Save Even More When You Purchase an 8-play Subscription!
Click here for more information

Working
A Musical
From the book by Studs Terkel
Adapted by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso
Directed by Gordon Greenberg
March 7 – April 12, 2009

Stephen Schwartz, the man behind the curtain of the global sensation Wicked, has re-imagined his musical vision of the American dream for the 21st Century.  With songs by Schwartz, folk-rock legend James Taylor, and new songs by Broadway’s hottest young musical sensation Lin-Manuel Miranda (2008 Tony Winner for In The Heights), WORKING will light up the Globe stage as it heads to Broadway.  WORKING is an unforgettable musical that creates a vivid tapestry of how we work in America – woven from the funny and poignant stories of 26 everyday Americans – a fireman, a housewife, a publicist, a business executive, a stone mason, and more.  Based on the bestselling book by Pulitzer Prize-winner Studs Terkel, WORKING is another in a long line of Old Globe must-see musicals that will keep audiences cheering!  Contains strong language.

The 2008-2009 Season also includes:

TWO WORLD PREMIERES:

Back Back  Back
September 19 – October 26, 2008
This explosive new play from Itamar Moses (The Four of Us, Bach at Leipzig) takes you behind the headlines into the locker room.

TWO EXCITING NEW PLAYS:

Opus
March 21 – April 26, 2009
The offstage travails of five extraordinary musicians prove to be as complex and compelling as the Master’s Grand Fugue, in a world where harmony is easier in the spotlight than offstage.

Since Africa
January 24 – March 8, 2009
Mia McCullough’s delightful and moving story of a recently widowed socialite who wants to make a difference, and a “Lost Boy of the Sudan” you won’t soon forget.

THREE STUNNING REVIVALS:

The Women
September 13 – October 26, 2008
Clare Boothe Luce’s dishy, decadent classic comes to drop-dead-gorgeous life in a stunning large-scale production.

Six Degrees of Separation
January 10 – February 15, 2009
John Guare’s intriguing, insightful exploration of celebrity, and the games we play to elevate our own significance.

The Price
May 9 – June 14, 2009
The Old Globe’s acclaimed “Classics Up Close” series continues with this moving drama by one of our greatest American playwrights, Arthur Miller (All My Sons, Death of a Salesman).

Illustrations by Tracy Sabin

Subscribe to the 2008/09 Season!

EDUCATION EXPERIENCES

The Old Globe Summer Shakespeare Intensive:
Immersing Students in the Bard’s Work

Student production of Romeo y Julieta in 2005

Summer at The Old Globe is synonymous with Shakespeare. The San Diego community has embraced this annual feast for the Shakespeare-starved for many years. In addition to our local fans of the Bard, last year’s Summer Shakespeare Festival was enjoyed by people from 47 states and 14 countries around the world.

The Old Globe knows classical theatre and it is part of our mission to provide “an environment for the growth and education of theatre professionals, audiences and the community at large.” This summer we continue building that environment for growth with an amazing Summer Shakespeare Intensive for high school students. This four week classical theatre training program will serve up to 40 students who auditioned in early March.

During this summer’s Intensive, a core faculty of our Master of Fine Arts students will put those teens through some of the same challenging lessons they have learned in their graduate studies here. They study movement, learning to express emotions and meaning through their bodies. They practice stage combat, learning how to make theatrical fisticuffs look real for an audience without injuring themselves in the process. They study Shakespeare’s text to fathom the meaning of the words, the mysteries of the punctuation, and the rhythms of the speeches. They focus on speech, learning how to speak clearly and distinctly and to project their voices for audiences in our own Lowell Davies Festival theatre. This project provides an amazing opportunity for serious students to really explore the craft of acting with talented and well-trained mentors and to prepare themselves for the college or professional theatre world.

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BEHIND THE SCENES AND FOLLOW THE BARD TOURS

What are you doing this Summer?  Come to The Old Globe for an entertaining and informative tour!
 
Take a Behind the Scenes tour with one of our knowledgeable docents and visit parts of the theatre that most people never see.  Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30. Weekdays by appointment. Call 619-238-0043 x2143
 
The Follow the Bard tour is a fun way to learn more about Shakespeare and his plays.  Bring your group for an entertaining 90 minute tour.  Call to schedule a date.  619-238-0043 x2141
 
Check our website for more information: http://www.theoldglobe.org/education/public/tours.aspx

UPCOMING PRODUCTIONS & EVENTS

THE PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY
By Samuel Taylor, with Cornelia Otis Skinner
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
JULY 12 - AUGUST 10
Old Globe Theatre

Top-Bottom: Ellen Karas, Patrick Page, Erin Chambers. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Young Jessica Poole is about to marry a dashing young rancher. As the family makes final wedding preparations, her long-lost playboy father unexpectedly returns from abroad to walk her down the aisle, throwing the entire household into disarray.  A delightful rediscovery by Resident Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, and starring Broadway’s Patrick Page (Dancing in the Dark, The Lion King) as the irresistible Biddeford Poole, this stylish and endearing comedy is sure to delight and amuse.

The cast for The Pleasure of His Company features Patrick Page, Broadway veteran and hilarious star of the Globe’s recent hit musical Dancing in the Dark, as “Biddeford 'Pogo” Poole,' Jim Abele as “Jim Dougherty,” Erin Chambers as “Jessica Poole,” Ellen Karas as “Katharine Dougherty,” Ned Schmidtke (Sea of Tranquility, A Body of Water, Blue/Orange) as "Mackenzie Savage,” Sab Shimono as “Toi” and Old Globe/USD MFA graduate Matt Biedel as “Roger Henderson.”

Buy Tickets

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SIGHT UNSEEN
By Donald Margulies
Directed by Esther Emery
AUGUST 2 - SEPTEMBER 7
The Old Globe Arena Stage
at James S. Copley Auditorium
(San Diego Museum of Art)

This award-winning play by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies is already considered a modern classic. American artist Jonathan Waxman is in England for his first European exhibition. A friendly visit to a former lover and her archaeologist husband becomes a journey of self-discovery, in the process opening up a gripping exploration of art, commerce, Jewish identity, relationships, and the interplay between the present and the past. The New York Times called SIGHT UNSEEN “absorbing,” noting that “you can tell when a play has gripped its audience, for no one seems to breathe, let alone shift in his seat. The scenes crackle with biting dialogue and unexpected psychological complexities.”

Acclaimed local director Esther Emery will helm this exciting production. Emery was recently named the first recipient of the “Jack O’Brien Excellence in Directing” Award, given by the San Diego Critics Circle at their 2007 ceremony in January. In 2007 she directed three notably different productions at Cynet (Yellowman, which won the Critics Circle “Best Play” Award Communicating Doors) and MOXIE (Devil Dog Six) Theatres. She has also won three Patte Awards for her direction of Yellowman, Communicating Doors and Chrysalis: Rapechild. Emery has long been associated with The Old Globe, having served as stage manager for many productions, most recently Pig Farm and Trying. An Artistic Associate at MOXIE Theatre, her work was named three times on the 2007 San Diego Union-Tribune ten best list. Additional directing credits include Dancing at Lughnasa at New Village Arts, Limonade Tous Les Jours at MOXIE Theatre, Bunbury at Diversionary, Hecuba  at 6th@Penn, Soul Fire  for Playwrights Project, Tongue of a Bird and Love’s Fire  at Stone Soup), as well as one-acts for Playwrights Project Plays by Young Writers and play readings for Diversionary, Moonlight, Mo'olelo and others. Emery has taught acting and playwriting, and her first full length play, Rhubarb, was produced by MOXIE this spring.

The cast of Sight Unseen includes Tony Crane as “Jonathan,” Katie Fabel as “Grete,” Michael
Haworth as “Nick” and Kelly McAndrew as “Patricia.” For Mature Audiences.

Buy Tickets

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INSIGHTS SEMINARS & POST-SHOW FORUMS

The Insights Seminars are a Monday night series provides Old Globe patrons with an opportunity to be more closely connected to the work on stage and backstage at our three theatres. A panel selected from the artistic company of each production (playwrights, actors, directors, designers, and/or technicians) engages patrons in an informal and illuminating presentation of ideas and insights to enhance the theatre-going experience. Each Insights Seminar takes place in the theatre where the production is performed and includes an informal champagne reception starting at 6:30pm, seminar starts at 7pm. No reservations or advance payment necessary. Patrons may pay at the door.

Insights Seminars are Free to all donors and subscribers. For those not in either category, single seminars are $5. Teachers, students and seniors $3. Age appropriateness: Teens and adults.

For more information, please phone Roberta Wells-Famula (619) 231-1941 X2144 or e-mail at rwells-famula@theoldglobe.org.

2008 Insights Seminar Dates

Insights Seminars are made possible with the generous support of the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, and the County of San Diego.

POST SHOW FORUMS

Join us after the show for an informal and enlightening question-and-answer session with cast members who will share with you the “inside story” of creating a character and putting together a production. Post-show forums are scheduled after selected Tuesday and Wednesday evening performances. Age appropriateness: Adults and high school/college student groups.
For more information, please contact the Box Office at (619) 23-GLOBE (234-5623).

2008 Post-Show Forum Dates

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CELEBRATE SUMMER WITH US!

Photos by J. Katarzyna Woronowicz

Wine Lover's Night
July 18 - All's Well That Ends Well and The Pleasure of His Company
August 15 - Romeo and Juliet and Sight Unseen
6:30pm- 7:45pm

Out at the Globe
Thursday, July 31 - The Merry Wives of Windsor and Sight Unseen
6:30pm- 7:45pm

An evening for gay and lesbian theatre lovers and the whole GLBT community. This event includes a hosted wine and martini bar, delicious appetizers, prizes and a pre-show mixer. Everyone is welcome.

TGIF (Thank Globe It's Friday)
August 8 - The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Pleasure of His Company and Sight Unseen
6:30pm- 7:45pm

Kick off the weekend in style with friends at TGIF Martini Night, our music-filled pre-show bash! Includes a hosted wine and martini bar, delicious appetizers and dessert, and live music from a local San Diego artist.

Coming This Summer - One Night Only!
JERRY HERMAN'S BROADWAY
Saturday, August 23, 2008, 7:30 pm

Tickets are currently on sale to Old Globe Subscribers.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, July 7 at noon.

Hello Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles are some of the most popular, most-often performed and most successful musicals of all time, and have given Jerry Herman the distinction of being the only composer-lyricist in history to have had three musicals that ran more than 1,500 consecutive performances on Broadway.  His string of awards and honors includes multiple Tonys, Grammys, Drama Desk Awards, the Johnny Mercer Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, the Oscar Hammerstein Award, the Frederick Loewe Award, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Venues from the Kennedy Center to the Hollywood Bowl have featured tributes to Jerry Herman.  Now, for one night only, San Diego audiences can experience the magic of Jerry Herman in the intimacy of the Old Globe Theatre.  Herman will be center stage for an unforgettable evening of music and memories, with some of Broadway’s best singer/actors, including Jason Graae, Debbie Gravitte, Ron Raines and Karen Morrow, performing Herman’s most beloved songs, led by acclaimed conductor Don Pippin.

Michael A. Kerker, head of musical theatre for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), will also be on hand as emcee, as he chats with Herman about his extraordinary life and career.

Tickets for this exciting special event are $49 and $79.  There are also 50 special VIP tickets at $139, which include VIP seating, and an exclusive “meet and greet” event with Jerry Herman after the performance.

CAMPAIGN NEWS

GLOBE RECEIVES MAJOR GRANT FROM IRVINE FOUNDATION

Earlier this month, the prestigious James Irvine Foundation awarded the Globe a $750,000 grant over three years to foster the Globe’s programming efforts in the redeveloping communities of southeastern San Diego. With the advent of the Globe’s 35,000 square foot Technical Center in this vibrant neighborhood (5335 Market Street), the institution will serve as an artistic hub in the community through the development and implementation of innovative play development and performance and training programs for area students and residents.

The grant will help fund several projects, including a play development series, where the Globe will pilot a series of workshops of new plays and musicals geared toward younger, more diverse audiences. The Globe will involve southeastern San Diego community members in the workshop process and develop complementary education programs to support each project. The Globe also plans to create a series of short plays over the next several years, in collaboration with southeastern San Diego residents, to tell stories engendered by the multiple cultures represented in the community. Additional plans include establishing internships and training opportunities at the Globe Technical Center for recent high school graduates and young adults from southeastern San Diego; producing three plays or musicals (one per year) for Globe mainstage seasons with subject matter reflecting the area’s diverse population, including expanded access to the Globe through five free student matinees and two community access performances for each of these three productions; building and expanding partnerships with schools and community organizations in southeastern San Diego to establish a meaningful connection between community members and the Globe.
 
The Globe is one of only four arts organizations to receive a grant through The Irvine Foundation’s prestigious Artistic Innovation Fun “to support the state’s premiere cultural institutions as they advance their artistic vision and deliver innovative, aspirational programming.” The grants allow the organizations to experiment with new forms of arts production, engage audiences in interactive ways through more dynamic, fresh and relevant programming, and develop models for their specific discipline and the broader arts field.

SHILEY ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE 2008: PATRICK PAGE

Darlene and Donald Shiley

Established in 2002 with the magnanimous gift from Donald and Darlene Shiley, the Shiley Artist-in-Residence program furthers the Globe’s commitment to bringing artists of the highest caliber, drawn from a national and international pool of talent, to work at the Theatre.

Donald and Darlene Shiley have been dedicated supporters of The Old Globe for more than two decades. Their lead gift of $20 million to the Globe’s current capital and endowment campaign, Securing a San Diego Landmark, marked the largest individual contribution in the Globe’s history. The Shileys have served as sponsors for dozens of productions and have been Season Sponsors since 1995. In addition, they have helped to fund many Globe projects, including the Shiley Terrace Apartments, which provides much-needed local housing for Globe artists, as well as underwriting two full scholarships in The Old Globe/University of San Diego Master of Fine Arts Program. In honor of their enduring support, the stage of the Old Globe Theatre was named the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage. The Shiley Artist-in-Residence marks one more way in which the Shileys support the creativity and quality of the work on the Globe’s stages.

Patrick Page in “Dancing in the Dark.” Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Actor/Playwright Patrick Page has been acclaimed on Broadway for his roles as the “Grinch” in Dr.Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, “Scar” in The Lion King and “Lumière” in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Other Broadway credits include The Kentucky Cycle and Julius Caesar. Off-Broadway he has appeared in Richard II at the Public Theatre and Rex at the York Theater Company. At The Shakespeare Theatre Company he played the title role in Macbeth and “Iago” in Othello. Additional regional theater credits include the Long Wharf Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Missouri Repertory Theatre and Utah Shakespeare Festival, among others. In 2006 his play Swansong was among those featured at the Summer Play Festival in New York City.

As Shiley Artist-in-Residence, Page recently received rave reviews for his performance as the hilarious “Jeffrey Cordova” in the Globe’s world-premiere musical Dancing in the Dark and currently stars as “Biddeford Poole” in The Pleasure of His Company.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

The Old Globe has officially begun its exciting facilities project to rejuvenate its Balboa Park Campus. The project is highlighted by the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, which will encompass the Old Globe Theatre, a new second stage theatre complex, and a new education center, along with a complete redesign of the Copley Plaza. The Globe is scheduled to break ground on the new Theatre Center in July, and construction is targeted to be complete by the Globe’s 75th anniversary in 2010.
 
While construction takes place, Lady Carolyn’s Pub, the Globe’s refreshment area, will be temporarily relocated across the plaza. We’ve created a short-term hard-scape adjacent to the pub area, which had contained the large eucalyptus tree removed by the City, as it posed a safety hazard to the public. Once construction is complete, the temporary pub trailer will be removed and the entire area will be returned to a green space with a new tree replacing the one removed. The new Copley Plaza will include a beautiful new dining pavilion in the 14,000-square-foot gathering area, which serves as the scenic “outdoor lobby” welcoming the community to the Globe’s three performance venues, box office, pub, education center and administrative offices. Designed for optimal flexibility and multiple uses for the public, the new Plaza will more easily accommodate Globe programs, such as outdoor pre-performance lectures, receptions, and special events, as well as such major public celebrations as San Diego’s annual “December Nights” community festival, the Globe’s Grinch Tree Lighting ceremony, and the Summer Shakespeare Festival.

In August, the Globe will present its first production, Sight Unseen (August 2 – September 7) in the interim arena stage located next door at the San Diego Museum of Art’s James S. Copley Auditorium. This temporary space will retain the similar intimate and engaging theatrical environment of the former Cassius Carter Centre Stage. Our second stage productions will continue in this space throughout the construction period, with plans to inaugurate the new Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in January 2010.

Stay tuned for more construction updates!

It Takes A Village (continued)

Costume sketch by Anna R. Oliver "Tybalt" from Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare touched on this socio-sexual divide in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well. When Hermia’s father offers her only two choices — marry Demetrius or die! — Theseus adds a third option, the celibate life of a nun:

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires.
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,
For aye to be in shady cloister mewed,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice blessèd they that master so their blood
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distilled
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.
(MND 1.1.67-78)

The key phrase here is, I think, “Earthlier happy is the rose distilled,” which essentially captures the double, admittedly worldly, happiness inherent in the married life: first, the channeling of youthful, sexual urges into lawful means of expression; and second, the joy of offspring by “distilling the rose”— that is, in an image recognizable from the sonnets, by the continuance of youth and beauty into the next generation by preserving and passing on, through the act of sex, the potent essence of the current one.

Here, it might be helpful to remember that one of the things the Protestant Reformation and the Anglican Separation achieved was the disestablishment of the cult of celibacy so powerfully preached (even when it was not so powerfully practiced) in the Roman Church. Luther and Henry VIII favored, with a slightly different emphasis, a married clergy; and in England, though its motive was primarily economic, the dissolution of the monasteries (and convents) had the effect of closing down the main centers of celibacy. [I was going to say “hotbeds of celibacy,” but the phrase seemed wildly inappropriate.]

Clearly sounding in Shakespeare’s treatment of the subject are echoes of the Anglican marriage service: specifically, of two of the purposes why matrimony was established: procreation and the avoidance of fornication (as Lavatch insolently implies and the Countess instantly infers, both echoing St. Paul’s “Better to marry than to burn”):

Lavatch: Faith, madam, I have other holy reasons, such as they are.
Countess: May the world know them?
Lavatch: I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and all flesh and blood are, and indeed I do marry that I may repent.
Countess: Thy marriage, sooner than thy wickedness.
(AW 1.3.32-38)

But there is yet another purpose listed in the Book of Common Prayer and that is “society” or “companionship.” It is usually listed third and has not always had an easy time being included in Anglican or indeed other theologies, let alone fighting its way towards the top of the list, in spite of (ironically) its apparent primacy in Genesis: “It is not good for man to be alone, let us make him a helpmate.”

Though the “society” referred to in the service means the companionship between the spouses, I think Shakespeare —who seems to have been very conservative in his opinions on marital sexuality (if not always in his life) — is working, in the three plays in this summer’s repertory, toward a larger meaning of the “society” created by marriage. I think his “sociology” — if he may be said to have possessed one — included a vision of a “society” formed not primarily of individuals, but of marital units, of couples and families. Yes, difficult as it may be for some (maybe even for me) to accept, Shakespeare seems to have been a “family values” kind of guy, who viewed “traditional” marriage as the essential building block of the larger society.

Costume sketch by Denitsa Bliznakova "Falstaff" from The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Unmarried individuals, whether by youth or age, by choice or chance, are of course welcome in that society — “There’s place and means for every man alive,” says Parolles; and even Falstaff is reincorporated into Windsor society after his humiliation — but the essential cement holding it together is the marital bond. His “village” is an association of families, not of individuals; and one becomes a part of that world — one “goes to that world”— by marrying. Indeed the society seems to be created and re-created by the marriages of its members. And comedy seems to be the celebration of that moment when a new marriage renews that society; see all his early comedies, most of which end with re-integrating multiple marriages of the young.

Yet Shakespeare’s exploration of that theme in this summer’s plays is particularly challenging — on the edge as it were.

Only in the subplot of Merry Wives do we get the traditional comic structure of a love match between the young (Fenton/Anne) having to overcome the opposition of the old to build a new family unit. The societal reintegration that is hoped for, and perhaps begun, at the end of Romeo and Juliet is at the expense of their marriage, indeed of their very lives. And the love match in All’s Well is wildly eccentric (for a comedy) in that the older generation (King, Countess, LaFew) wholeheartedly support it — even to the point of overthrowing traditional class barriers; but the groom, in rejecting marital society, is recalcitrant, unworthy, and unlikable; and the bride uncommonly aggressive, in a patriarchal society, about getting her way — and cunning (one might even say unethical, for since when did the ends justify the means?) in finding the way to achieve it.

And finally, in the main plot of Merry Wives, we get a comedy not about getting married but about staying married. Yet even here, while it is primarily the solidity and tranquility of the Fords’ marital bond that needs to be recemented, one cannot escape the feeling that Falstaff’s predations and Ford’s jealousies threaten the social fabric of the whole town, that the (imagined) infidelities are not just marital injuries but social lesions, and it is not just the spouses, but the whole village, that must put itself back together and assert its moral health through a ritual of re-integration, in which everyone, young and old, married and unmarried, must participate.

So perhaps it not only takes a marriage to make a village, it may take a village to make a marriage.

— Dakin Matthews, Dramaturge

Romeo and Juliet Q&A (continued)

"Madonna Del Magnificat" 1480 -81, By Botticelli.

VH: Productions of Romeo and Juliet tend to be set in one of two periods, the Renaissance or modern day. You’ve chosen to set the play in the time and place of the original story, the Italian Renaissance. Why did this seem to be the right choice?
RS: Modern day productions of Shakespeare can be very illuminating, but with Romeo and Juliet, I think you run the risk of losing what’s at stake for the characters, stakes that are relevant to that time period. Romeo and Juliet exist in a world where religion is central; ideas of sin, of heaven and hell play a large role in the characters’ motivations.

It’s a world where the family is the social structure. Romeo and Juliet can’t just run away together. There’s nowhere to run, no huge cities to become anonymous in and hide. Juliet’s father could find her and bring her back, with the full weight of the law behind him. It’s a world where arranged marriage for someone of Juliet’s station was a normal, expected thing. In that context, her parents are doing a grand thing for her, finding her an eligible and attractive husband like Paris. If she’d never met Romeo, Juliet might well have been delighted at her family’s choice.

If you look at West Side Story as a modern adaptation, there are no parents, no priest, no prince. None of that context seems essential in a modern version. But it is exactly that social structure that creates the world in which Romeo and Juliet’s actions make a kind of terrible sense, that defines their options so that what they do is the only thing they can do.

"Narcissus," 1598-99, By Caravaggio.

VH: Did any specific aspects of the Renaissance influence your design of the production?
RS: By a happy accident, I had already planned a trip to Italy last summer when I was asked to direct the play. So I went to Verona; I looked at Renaissance art with the play in mind. I was struck by two painters in particular, Botticelli and Caravaggio, especially the contrasting ways they used color and light. In the earlier painter, Botticelli, you see lots of light, bright colors, lovely but somewhat one-dimensional people. Caravaggio, coming later in the Renaissance, is completely different—much less color, scenes where a brightly lit center is surrounded by darkness, much more realistic, sensual bodies.

Romeo and Juliet is a play of light and dark. The first half of the play is light, festive; it could be the beginning of a romantic comedy. If the image of the first half is the party, the image of the second half is the tomb, much, much darker. Romeo and Juliet partakes of both worlds, the light and the dark. So we have drawn our costumes from Botticelli, using his colors and the styles of clothing he painted. On the other hand, the lighting references Caravaggio, the contrast of light and dark, of vivid central images surrounded by darkness.

The Merry Wives of Windsor (continued)

The universality of Shakespeare’s plays allows them to come alive in many different ways. They can wear many different outfits, and of course, different time periods provide plenty of costuming and scenic choices. I see that variety as especially important when doing the plays in repertory, as we are. People who see all three plays this summer can enjoy the great visual contrasts our scenic and costume designers have developed for the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.”

The emphasis in this production may be on the play as a wonderful interlude of just plain fun. But that doesn’t mean that Mullins sees the play as simply frivolous. “It is,” he believes, “about love in many forms, about family, fidelity, jealousy, forgiveness, and reconciliation. It is about living in a community.”

So tonight, join the Shakespeare Festival community and welcome to the Windsor of the Old West. Have fun!

— Victoria Hayne

Summer Shakespeare Intensive (continued)

Students from Summer Shakespeare Intensive program.

The Intensive is unique in that it explores Shakespeare’s work in English and in Spanish! Two years ago, the theatre presented a bilingual production, Romeo y Julieta, performed by high school students from schools in San Diego and Tijuana and presented in both cities. The project was exciting and challenging and provided an opportunity for students to build friendships and language skills.

This year, we are using a beautiful translation of Romeo and Juliet by Pablo Neruda, Chile’s great poet, which was performed by The Public Theater in New York in 1965. It is rare to find a quality verse translation, but Neruda created a work of art that reflects Shakespeare’s language, imagery and rhythm. This summer’s Intensive combines Shakespeare’s original text with Neruda’s translation to create a version that tells the story in both languages.

San Diego is a diverse community and many of our neighbors speak English and Spanish. The combination of languages and cultures is a part of what makes this city so beguiling. The Old Globe Summer Shakespeare Intensive embraces the community’s rich languages and cultures and explores them through classic theatre. It is an honor and pleasure to work with these talented young actors and to further their training with this empowering program.

The Old Globe shows its commitment to these students in a particularly remarkable way. In recognition of the fact that talented people come from all walks of life and that all students willing to devote themselves to a challenging artistic endeavor deserve the opportunity to do so, our generous donors have made it possible for all students participating in this program to receive a full scholarship. This kind of farsighted commitment makes our donors stand out as supporters not just of the Globe but of the very future of theatre in San Diego and the nation. Their support of the Intensive is exemplary and we are grateful to each and every one of them.

The students will take to the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre on Monday, August 11 at 8:00 p.m. Please join us as we showcase their work.

For more information on The Old Globe’s Education programs please contact Roberta Wells-Famula, Director of Education (619) 238-0043 x2144