S2E2: Twelfth Night: New Faces, New Spaces!

BTE kicks off season 46 with Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Aaron joins director Tara Bradway to discuss the production and why BTE is going on the road.

Recorded and Edited by: Amy Rene Byrne
Original Music by: Aaron White

Transcripts of all Season 2 and 3 episodes are available on our Buzzsprout website.

Check out our current season: http://www.bte.org
Ensemble Driven. Professional Theatre. Arts Education. Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone. With Everyone.

Transcript

Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center
Twelfth Night: New Faces, New Spaces!

[INTRO MUSIC]

AARON
Welcome to Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center, a podcast where we focus a spotlight on our company, our people, our art, and our town front and down center. I'm Erin White. I'm a resident actor and ensemble member at BTE, and I'm sitting alongside Tara Bradway. Welcome Tara Bradway. 

TARA
Thank you, Aaron. 

AARON
Hey, why are you on this podcast? 

TARA
I am the guest director for our upcoming production of 12th Night. 

AARON
Oh, that's so exciting. It's going to be such a lot of fun. 

TARA
Excited. 

AARON
I first want to say that we are sitting in the building of the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce, and we want to thank the foundation of the Chamber of Commerce for providing some resources to bring this podcast to your ears. We're really grateful to them. 

TARA
Thank you. 

AARON
So, Tara, we've done a lot of Shakespeare together because I've worked with a company that she ran. 

TARA
Yes. 

AARON
You want to talk a little bit about that? 

TARA
Sure. I would love to. So I actually first met Aaron White in 2008, I believe. My husband Patrick worked with Aaron at Texas Shakespeare Festival. So I saw Aaron perform as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in 12th Night that summer. And I thought he was wonderful and hilarious. And so I remember meeting you at a karaoke night and 

AARON
Being surprised that I had dark hair. I wore a blonde wig.

TARA
Oh, that's right. Yes. You wore a blonde wig and you have, in real life, you have dark hair. 

AARON
I do. 

TARA
And after that summer, Patrick and I have founded a company that came to be Adirondack Shakespeare Company, but at the time we called Shakespeare in the Raw, an experimental process for doing Shakespeare, and we had done one production of the very popular and lovely favorite Henry the sixth part one, and we were about to be producing Henry the sixth, part two. And we invited Aaron to come play with us as King Henry the sixth because–

AARON
He's not a baby in that one. 

TARA
He's not a baby in that one. He’s a

AARON
Grown person 

TARA
In part two. Yeah, he's a grown person in part two. And it was a very fun double of the Meek prayerful King Henry and Jack Cade, who's a wild Rogue 

AARON
Revolutionary. 

TARA
Revolutionary, yes. Very fun. So that was 2008 that we first met and we've worked together ever since. That's insane. So you came and played with us again in Henry the sixth, part three, and then in 2010, our first summer season as Adirondack Shakespeare company, you played Romeo and the Porter in Macbeth, and you wrote music for As You Like It, and played Amiens in that. 

AARON
And we've been brother and sister a couple times. Yes. Ophelia and 

TARA
Laertes

AARON
And Shakespeare in the Raw is after the sugar, not after the state of being if you're not wearing clothes. 

TARA
Correct. Although we do think of it a little bit as naked Shakespeare. So the actors are all wearing clothes, but there's not a lot of overdressing in Shakespeare in the raw. It's very stripped down, very bare bones and unprocessed in the way that sugar in the raw is unprocessed. They get rough around the edges.

AARON
And that has something to do with our production of 12th Night for the opening of BTE’s 46 season. I'm just going to outline real quick why we're doing it this way. We're taking 12th Night Off Center, off Center Street. The Alvina Krause Theatre on Center Street in Bloomsburg is under renovation. We are getting a new HVAC system thanks to the pandemic. We're filtering air so our audiences are safe. And so in case that project ran into our season, we decided we better not produce in our theater. So we are doing dates at Bloomsburg Town Park from September 7th through the 9th at the Williamsport Community Theater League, September 15th through the 17th and River Stage in Lewisburg on September 29th through October 1st. And we're taking this production of 12th Night in a similar form, I think probably a little bit more processed than what we were doing in the raw, but we're taking on the road. And when that project came about, I thought of you because you like taking Shakespeare to different places. 

TARA
I Do. It's actually my favorite way of doing Shakespeare is in found spaces. So with Adirondack Shakespeare company, we did have a home theater space that we would work in New York at Scaroon Manor Amphitheater is like an old ruined amphitheater that has since been somewhat restored by New York State, but featured 

AARON
In Majory Morningstar with Gene 

TARA
Kelly and yes and oh 

AARON
Rats. I can't remember who this, it wasn't Natalie Wood, was it Natalie Wood? Was 

TARA
Natalie Wood? Yes. 

AARON
An old MGM musical shot there.

TARA
Yes. So yep. If you want to check out what Scaroon Manor looked like in the fifties before the entire place burned down, except for the Stone Amphitheater, which was modeled on the Hollywood Bowl, but most of that is gone. So it's like a stone stage, which has been resurfaced in the last many years. But when we were first playing on it, it's pretty rough. It was quite rough. But we would play in parks. We would play in L-shaped theaters that used to be boat houses. We would go into schools, we played in grange halls. We just loved going anywhere that we could bring theater. We played on a farm, which was really delightful. There was a rainstorm and a rainbow after one of those performances was really delightful. So we like to play anywhere and everywhere with Shakespeare. So yeah, this process is a little bit more structured than what I have been used to with Adirondack Shakespeare company. I have designers to play with, which is amazing. We did a lot of things with more found objects and suggestible things to really work our imaginations. And here it's a real luxury to have a scene shop and a costume shop and have those visions be incorporated into the process as well. 

AARON
What was the thinking of having it more stripped down in that way? Was there a purpose or was it just resource oriented? 

TARA
The resource orientation was kind of like a side benefit in a way, but it was really a philosophy. So when Patrick and I first met acting in Shakespeare and also going to see various Shakespeare productions, we often felt like concepts became the thing, and that the play became shoehorned into the concept and that became the focus of those productions. And so we, with Shakespeare in the Raw, wanted to strip all of that away.

AARON
So no Hamlet on Mars?

TARA
Nope, no Hamlet on Mars. No Midsummer Night’s Dream on Giant Beds or set in the Old West or wherever. Shakespeare's company, they embraced anachronism and they wore contemporary clothing, things that they had. So that was kind of what we did too, was like, well, what do we have as performers of Shakespeare? And those things were very simple and we wanted to focus on the text. So we didn't cut hardly anything unless there was something hugely problematic. We kept all the text and that was it. So we didn't focus on costumes. There was no set. We didn't focus on props. They were very simple and suggestive, and everything was in service to the language, and that meant that actors had to speak apace. So we are making some cuts for this production, but I'm encouraging the actors to speak apace trippingly on the tongue as Hamlet reminds us. 

AARON
One of the things that I do remember was an invitation or an invitation to join us in imagination because everything is coming to the audience through their ears. 

TARA
When Shakespeare's audience went to the playhouse, they went to hear a play. They did not go to see a play. Not see a play, and we're very visually oriented. 

AARON
And so there was something that actually I think helped the plays work better because the audience understood that they had to be active parts in it, that they couldn't sit as passive audience members. And that is something that's going to be passed on in through this production because we're doing it in general lighting. So the audience will be very visible. Yeah, they'll be seen. Right. We're not pretending that we're not doing a play. And it's my favorite way to play Shakespeare. Me too. Because then it's a conversation instead of something that you're waiting to happen. 

TARA
Yeah, it's not presentational. Yeah. Yeah, it's very participatory. I really like that too. When I go to see Shakespeare that is played in universal lighting, I also really enjoy the opportunity to be a part of an audience and not to feel like I'm having an isolated experience. That it's a shared experience, not just with the acting company, but also with the other audience members, so that you can have a connection with the person sitting next to you or the person sitting across the theater from you. You can see each other. So there's something sparkly about that I really like. 

AARON
I think about all the folks that say theater is not for them. And I think that oftentimes the things that they do go to see concerts or live sporting events or fairs, that so much of that is that it's communing with other people. So I would say it is not something you're going to get at home if you're going to watch Shakespeare on a TV screen or in a classroom. It's not the same thing at all. It's a very different thing.

TARA
Not at all the same. And we're really, this is a comedy, and we're with the acting company really discovering a lot of great, funny, fun, delightful moments of joy and laughter and live music. Live music, and I'm so excited about sharing it with everybody because of that.

AARON
Well, I'm so excited that you're here with us. And the question that has been written for me, I'm going to ask it because it's just a fun question. Who is Tara and what awesomeness is she bringing to the table? 
TARA
My background is through English literature, and it was one of the ways that I first fell in love with Shakespeare. I saw Hamlet when I was 12, and I loved that. And ever after, I'm a big reader, so I loved reading the plays, but also recognizing that I think they worked better on the stage than on the page. But in college, I pursued English, and then I worked as a professional actor for a number of years before I went back to school to get my master's and my PhD in English literature with a focus in Shakespeare and performance studies. Those are some of my credentials. But I also, I write and I teach writing and I teach literature at several different colleges at universities. The issues of contingent faculty is a whole other podcast, so we'll talk about that another time. But I'm also a content writer and copy editor. I just love language. I really love language. So I think that that's the awesomeness that I'm bringing to this particular production is my love for language and my love for this language specifically. 

AARON
Yeah, I agree. I'm going to throw one in. You also make space for everyone in the room. It's something I remember very fondly about all of our time in the Adirondacks was the community that sprung up because of that. And I think that that has a lot to do with you. Oh, 

TARA
Thank you. You bet. All that's so nice. It's something I think is so important about any theater, but about this production that I really want to highlight is that everybody's bringing something valuable and awesome to the table. And that I don't want to be the kind of director who's imposing a vision on the play. I want to let the play speak for itself, but the play is also the people who are creating it. So I really want to make space in rehearsal and performance for what the actors and the designers are bringing to the table, and then leave room for the audience for what they're bringing to the table, what you are bringing to the table. And I feel like I'm more of a facilitator in that way rather than a dictator. I mean, Shakespeare's company didn't have a director, so I don't feel very comfortable filling that space. I think of myself more as a guide to make sure that we're all forming and gelling that ensemble, but that it's not about what I want for the play. It's about what everybody wants and what everybody's there to create. 

AARON
That's fabulous. So I'm going to take that as an invitation for our listeners to bring themselves to the table. Come out and see 12th Night this September, starting September 7th through the 9th, free in Bloomsburg Town Park right out there in the public. And then September 15th through the 17th, we'll be in Williamsport at the Community Theater League, and we will be in Lewisburg at River Stage September 29th through October 1st. Come out and see it and have a really good time. I'm having a great time with you, Tara. Thanks for joining us. 

TARA
Thank you for having me. 

AARON
This has been Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble, down Center, ensemble driven professional theater, arts education in rural Pennsylvania. For everyone, with everyone, check out our website, www.bte.org for show information and to purchase tickets. And follow us on Facebook and Instagram, all the socials that get the most up-to-date information about what's happening at BTE. 

[OUTRO MUSIC]

TARA
Yay. Any stuff? My name is Tara, and my middle name is Elizabeth. And so I feel a nice kinship with Elizabeth because we have a shared name and I also learned at some point, so I'm Irish and Tara in Irish means tower, but it's also Sanskrit for star, which is really cool. Really? Isn't that cool? So at some point, so my name together is Tower Consecrated to God, but also star consecrated to God. Oh my. Which is cool. And my last name is Bradway, which is Anglicized like Broadway. And that I think is all that I have to say. Was that enough? That was great. Aaron, can I get 

AARON
You to turn just Sure. And my name is Aaron. I think that has something to do with mountains in Aaron, actually. Like the Bible, Aaron. Yeah. Which I guess is not, 

TARA
It's the brother of Moses. 

AARON
That's right. 

TARA
Which I only know from watching the Prince of Egypt. 

AMY
You should be good.

TARA
Yay.