Chicago Shakespeare Theater: Suiting the Action to the Word 9781501756863

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CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER

CHICAGO

Shakespeare

THEATER

Suiting the Action to the Word

Edited by Regina Buccola and Peter Kanelos

NIU PRESS I DeKalb, IL

© 2013, 2015 by Northern Illinois University Press

Published by the Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb, Illinois 60115 First printing in paperback, 2015 All rights reserved Design by Shaun Allshouse Unless otherwise noted, all photos, images, and architectural drawings are courtesy of Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chicago Shakespeare Theater: suiting the action to the word I edited by Regina Buccola and Peter Kanelos. pages

em

ISBN 978 0 87580 467 5 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 87580 685 3 (paperback) ISBN 978 1 60909 070 8 (e book) 1. Chicago Shakespeare Theater. 2. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616-Stage history-IllinoisChicago 3. Theatrical companies-Illinois-Chicago. 4. Theater-Illinois-Chicago-History. I. Buccola, Regina, 1969- II. Kanelos, Peter, 1971-

PR3105.C48 2012 822.3'3-dc23 2012045333

Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction

vii

3

REGINA BUCCOLA AND PETER KANELOS

PART 1 . Chicago First

27

TERRY TEACHOUT

2. Catapulting Shakespeare into the Present

30

The Artistic Vision of Barbara Gaines REGINA BUCCOLA

3. Barbara, Shakespeare, and Me

52

JONATHAN ABARBANEL

4. The Spatial Rhetoric of Chicago Shakespeare Theater

57

JONATHAN WALKER

PART

II

5. This One's for the Girls

77

Millennia[ Ladies in Josie Rourke's Twelfth Night ALICIA TOMASIAN

6. Short Shakespeare! and the Corruption of the Young

95

JEFFREY GORE

7. Doing Things with Words ... and, Sometimes, Swords PETER SAGAL

99

CONTENTS

PART

Ill

8. Chicago Shakespeare

111

SIMON CALLOW

9. Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the Canadians

113

RICHARD OUZOUNIAN

10. The Framing of the Shrew

117

GINA M. DISALVO

1 1. Michael Bogdanov 140 An International Director's The Winter's Tale at Chicago Shakespeare Theater BRADLEY GREENBURG

12. Risky Business 155 Rose Rage at Chicago Shakespeare Theater CLARK HULSE

PART

IV

13. In Defense of Ruffled Feathers

181

MICHAEL BILLINGTON

14. "Never did young man fancy"

186

Troilus and Cressida and Chicago Shakespeare Theater PETER KANELOS

1 5. At Home with Shakespeare

208

Merry Wives on Stage WENDY WALL

16. Two Merchants 229 The Glow of the Roaring Twenties and the Shadow of 9/11 MICHAEL SHAPIRO

17. Gender Blending and Masquerade in As

and Twelfth Night

248

WENDY DONIGER

Notes on Contributors Index 275 VI

271

You Like It

Acknowledgments

As we write this, scarcely a year has passed since the idea for this collection took shape. One does not make so rapid a journey from inception to execution without incurring more debts of gratitude than can readily be repaid in a few paragraphs of prose. To fail in the attempt, however, seems better than to fail to attempt it. First and foremost, we must express our gratitude to Chicago Shakespeare Theater itself, which demonstrated once again its unique position in the cultural landscape by virtue of the unique relationship in which it has stood to us and to our contributors, offering free access to archives, artists, and administrators while at the same time agreeing to have absolutely no editorial control over the resulting essays. While everyone at the theater has been tremendously helpful, particular thanks are due to Barbara Gaines, Criss Henderson, Marilyn Halperin, Alida Szabo, Chris Plevin, Elizabeth Neukirch, Julie Stanton, and Jonathan Baude, who gave very generously of their time and energy during a theater season that taxed those resources to an exceeding degree. Any factual errors or other infelicities that remain in the volume are entirely our responsibility, and none of theirs. Second, all of the contributors to this volume are to be thanked for their strong commitment to the project. The alacrity and goodwill with which everyone assayed the tasks at hand has been remarkable. The tight time line for this project meant that not everyone who was willing to contribute was able; for support, advice, and recommendations of contributors, we are grateful to Will West, Jeff Masten, Garry Wills, Lisa Freeman, Mary Beth

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Rose, Suzanne Gossett, Richard Strier, and Stuart Sherman. Beth Charlebois deserves special mention for her thoughtful and protracted e-mail correspondence with Regina Buccola about the PreAmble lecture series. Finally, thanks are due to our family and friends, who sacrificed a great deal of quality time with us at two major holidays while we wrapped up this project. To all, thanks, and evermore thanks. R.B. and P.K.

VIII

CHICAGO SHAKESPE ARE THEATER

Introduction Regina Buccola and Peter Kanelos

"THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF MANY YEARS"

Overcoming the clank of "L' trains, the thunder of overflying jets and even the occasional odors from a nearby back-yard fish fry, 17 performers enact 45 parts and serve up the heroic sweep of a major chapter in English history. Their tiny platform space plays home to battlefield carnage and coy royal courtship, to knavish fooleries and kingly crises, to senseless bloodshed and to lusty victory, all in a production that's as economic as it is well-spoken and affecting. 1

Sid Smith could scarcely have realized when he wrote his review of the Chicago Shakespeare Workshop's production of Henry V in 1986 that he was witnessing the prologue to a major chapter in Chicago theater history. The muse of fire that inhabited that production's director, Barbara Gaines, had provided only a pub rooftop for a stage, enthusiastic Shakespeare greenhorns to act, and adventurous audiences who spent more on beer than they did on tickets (the production was performed gratis) to behold the swelling scene. By 1999 that unworthy scaffold had become a fond memory to the world-class Chicago Shakespeare Theater. To tell that story, we must jump "o'er times, I Turning the accomplishment of many years I Into an hour-glass: for the which supply, I Admit me Chorus to this historY:' 2

CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER

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