The Colorado Shakespeare Festival has been producing theater classics in Boulder for more than 60 seasons. This is a milestone year for the festival. After a year of major renovations, CSF's indoor venue reopened this season as the Roe Green Theatre. The university will begin a large-scale renovation of its buildings surrounding the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre after this season.
Producing artistic director Tim Orr says there will be major improvements, but it will retain the same magic.
“The magical experience of listening to Shakespeare under the stars can't be missed. It just can't be missed this summer,” Orr said, adding that’s the reason he chose the works for this season, which he calls Shakespeare’s most towering.
The format also features sets of actors, each performing two plays.
“And it's one of the things I get most excited about when it comes time for casting and producing these plays: What are the two most opposite, bizarre pairing couplings of plays that we could put the same cast into?” Orr said.
At the Roe Green Theatre, he chose "The Winter’s Tale" by William Shakespeare and "One Man, Two Guvnors" by Richard Bean, which Orr also directs. The cast on the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre stage rotates between Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing" and "King Lear."
This is the fifth season with the festival for faculty member and Director Kevin Rich, who helms “Much Ado About Nothing.” He sets the comedy in 1920’s Paris.
“It's the Roaring Twenties, the time when we're coming out of the Great War. And I just think that time period gives us so much to draw from, like the jazz, the, it's the jazz age,” Rich said. “It's the fashion, the art and the music, and there's also this counterculture, right? The Lost Generation.”
Shunte’ Lofton, who plays Hero in “Much Ado About Nothing,” and Cordelia in “King Lear,” said she never played Hero before but always wanted to.
“I never had a chance until now,” Lofton said.
Lofton said something about the wedding scene and Hero’s forgiveness was what she found intriguing.
“I love exploring questions that are really hard to answer, and especially like looking at those scenes now, you know, through a contemporary lens,” Lofton said
Anastasia Davidson plays Margaret and George Seacole in “Much Ado About Nothing” and Regan in “King Lear.”
Davidson said it's a long summer season for the actors.
“But the rehearsal process is very quick and fast. And so when you get to be with a group of people, that all come here ready to work and ready to be a team player, it makes a huge difference in the whole season.”
Though Carolyn Howarth has worked with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival for 13 seasons, she had a strong reaction when Tim Orr called and asked her to direct King Lear.
“My reaction was panic because it feels like one of those plays. I mean, it's the play, right? …. And I've already done hard ones. I've done Hamlet, I've done the histories, I've done those, and they are hard in their own right. But Lear feels a little bit like the Everest of Shakespeare,” Howarth said.
Howarth says helping an actor with that title role feels like an important task. This time, Ellen McLaughlin is the actor who plays Friar Francis and Verges in “Much Ado About Nothing” before climbing the Everest that is “King Lear.”
“I mean, actors like nothing more than a real workout and boy, oh boy,” McLaughlin said. “And getting a workout and, um, really enjoying the contrast, really enjoying the work.”
McLaughlin taking on King Lear isn’t a surprise when looking at her body of work, ranging from the original production of “Angels in America” to her adaptations of Greek plays like “Antigone.”
She notes this isn't a gender-bent King Lear, as that would not have interested her.
“I wouldn't have done it if it was Queen Lear, because I don't think that's true to the play. It's not possible in the world that Shakespeare is writing about, which is a patriarchy,” McLaughlin said. “It's about a father and his daughters. It's about a father and his sons. And I think that the misogyny is just … baked in and there is no way that a female character would have the kind of power that Lear has.”
McLaughlin says she feels like she has been preparing for this part all of her acting life.
“You don't get to play this part until you're a seasoned actor and had done a few things. And even so, it's the greatest challenge you could ever have,” McLaughlin said.
While this is the final season before renovations begin on the outdoor venue, Artistic Director Orr says the Colorado Shakespeare Festival will continue its important work.
“We're incredibly grateful to be able to do what we do, where we do it here in this beautiful part of the country and in this beautiful theater. It's really magical to come together as a community and tell each other's stories,” Orr said. “It's what keeps bringing me back to the theater every year. It's what brings me into work every day. And I want to share it with everybody.”
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s four shows run through mid-August.
