The hardest part of performing a Shakespearean tragedy on the road is the blood. How do you present a violent, action-packed play filled with chaos and murder if your actors have to work to avoid slipping in puddles of the gelatinous red goop and spend any profits on laundry to clean costumes? The director and costume designer for the American Shakespeare Center (ASC) have devised a way to keep the blood ever-present, even as the company’s troupe is traveling the country.
To find out how, you’ll have to see a show for yourself.
This weekend, the Academy Center of the Arts will play host to ASC’s production of “Julius Caesar,” which is part of the company’s 2015/16 Dangerous Dreams Tour.
The event was made possible through a grant the Academy received from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, which helped subsidize the cost of bringing the company to Lynchburg.
“Producing theater is really expensive,” says Geoffrey Kershner, the Academy’s executive director. “It’s really exciting for us to have a professional theater company, that number of professional actors and the caliber of work they’re producing … just over the mountain.”
The Staunton-based company has performed in Lynchburg before, as recently as a 2012 production of “As You Like it” at the Academy, says Kershner.
Based on the historical events surrounding the assassination of Roman senator and General Julius Caesar, Shakespeare’s tragedy first hit the stage in 1599 and has been performed countless times since.
“‘Julius Caesar’ is a powerful political powder keg that also explores the relationships between leaders and their spouses,” says Jim Warren, Artistic Director of the American Shakespeare Center.
“In an election year, it’s particularly relevant to delve into this epic saga about what society wants in its leaders. What happens when we invest so much power in our leaders who become our heroes? And how far will we go to tear it all down? Is tearing it all down the ‘right’ thing to do?”
Kershner says the Academy staff has arranged the Warehouse Theatre, where the performance will take place Sunday, into a three-quarter thrust staging setup that has the audience sitting on three sides of the playing space. It’s the same structure the American Shakespeare Center uses at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton.
The Academy also received a grant from Lynchburg City Schools to bring 100 high school English students, 50 from E.C. Glass and 50 from Heritage, to see the performance.
“That text was meant to be performed,” Kershner says. “Shakespeare wasn’t writing it to be read, he was writing [it] to be performed and I think there’s a lot lost for the students when they’re reading it. I think it can make it very difficult to comprehend and to get excited about. Seeing it performed can really make a world of difference for students’ understanding of the text, their appreciation of it and of [it] being something that’s exciting and accessible to them.”
With a production like “Julius Caesar,” which comes packed with blood and sword fights, even students who prefer modern-day television shows like “Games of Thrones” should find something to enjoy.
“Often folks think of Shakespeare like badly cooked vegetables or fish oil: It’s good for you, but tastes pretty nasty. It’s something you have to do,” says Warren. “We think that performing the plays under the same kind of theatrical conditions for which Genius Boy wrote — leaving the lights on, including the audience in the world of the play, playing music before and during the show that’s familiar to the audience — helps the plays come alive and shows how meaningful and fun they are to us today.”
