Summer 2013 Summer 2013

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival Newsletter • Summer 2013 Summer 2013 Oklahoma! June 12 – June 30 The 39 Steps June 19 – July 14 The Importance of Being Earnest July 10 – August 4 Measure for Measure July 18 – August 4 Henry VIII A Wilde Woman: Lady Bracknell Revealed By Peter E. Danelski July 24 – August 4 I put all my genius into my life, “and only my talent into my works. Children’s Shows: Despite this proclamation, Oscar Wilde created a comic masterpiece” with The Beauty and the Beast Importance of Being Earnest—along with a character truly deserving to be called genius. May 31 – August 3 Lady Bracknell, Wilde’s symbol of the rigid Victorian ethic, embodies much of the play’s humor. She delivers some of Wilde’s most dazzling epigrams—“Thirty-five is a very Shakespeare for Kids attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their July 24 – August 3 own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.” While the play otherwise features cou- ples—Jack pursues Gwendolyn, Algernon loves Cecily, and the Reverend Chasuble woos Miss Prism—Lady Bracknell stands alone. Mother to Gwendolyn, Lady Bracknell seems the head of her household, only occa- 610.282.WILL sionally referencing her husband Lord Bracknell. She makes no apologies in admitting her pashakespeare.org continues on page 5 Notes from the Producing Artistic Director 2013 SPONSORS PSF is like a teach- ing hospital, providing Season Sponsors Dr. & Mrs. Frank J. Szarko unparalleled internship experiences via direct professional interaction Associate Season Sponsors Linda Lapos & Paul Wirth with industry-leading artists. When you take your seat and read the Patrick Mulcahy Season Media program, the profes- Sponsors sional artists’ biographies convey all the extraordinary work they have been doing on Broadway, in film and television, and Production Sponsors at other theatres. In recent years, our com- pany of artists has included winners and nominees of the Tony, Obie, Emmy, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Barrymore (Philadelphia), Helen Hayes (DC), and John & Brenda McGlade Jefferson (Chicago) awards. A fully professional theatre hosted Steve & Jane Auvil by a university provides for wonderful Kathleen Kund Nolan synergies. In the case of PSF and DeSales University, both have a keen interest in the & Timothy E. Nolan power of language and ideas and in the liberal arts. Both exist to enrich the experi- Production Co-Sponsors ence of community and societal living, to make life better. Both organizations hold education as a core value. There are many dimensions to PSF’s education programming. One is the summer internship program for DeSales theatre students. There are other university- professional theatre partnerships nation- Kathleen Kund Nolan Wills Hall Oblate Community wide, though there are none that offer & Timothy E. Nolan the same level of access to undergraduate internships of such high professional value. It’s common for high level professional theatres to have such a relationship with a Actor Sponsors Lee & Dolly Butz master of fine arts program, but not with a bachelor of arts. PSF and DeSales theatre Orchestra Co-Sponsors make each other stronger. PSF provides the high level opportunity; DeSales theatre provides an extraordinary group of students to supplement the professionals who predominate in each cast and in the production shops. Official Lee A. Butz My favorite moments at PSF? When Photographer the creative process has been so enriching and inspiring for all involved, elevating everyone’s game, that I can’t tell the dif- Official Hotel Bethlehem, Pa. ference between the interns and the pros, when the work is universally exquisite. Join us this summer. See today’s leading Festival Host professionals. And glimpse tomorrow’s. 2 • The Quill, Summer 2013 610.282.will Measures, Marriages, and Mirrors: The World of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure By Isabel Smith-Bernstein But now Angelo has taken and Heather Helinsky over temporarily for the Duke and has authorized the demolition of he fame of King James the areas of the city where there are and William Shakespeare brothels. His first measures to clean ascended together. After T up society seek to put Mistress Queen Elizabeth died with no Overdone and her kind out of heir, King James VI of Scotland business. But the sharp-witted, became King James I of England. offending characters see weakness Shakespeare benefited directly from in this new law and declare that James’s coronation as his theater Angelo can do nothing to change troupe became “The King’s Men” the behavior of the city. Instead of a with the new king as their patron. linear world where one measure will Theater was a competitive lead to another, Shakespeare pres- business in 17th century England, ents a world of chaos. and royal patronage positioned Legally, marriage was a Shakespeare’s troupe for increased promise followed by a ritual, but popularity and profit. At the pre- Jacobeans often conflated the two miere of Measure for Measure on by disregarding one or the other. St. Stephen’s Night on December Subjectivity reigned. Claudio, a 26, 1604, Shakespeare, with young lover, believes that he is boundless imagination intact, as good as married to his love, would have also been shrewd Juliet, yet Angelo condemns him enough to use a little flattery to death for fornication. Claudio towards his royal audience. is imprisoned and will be made an Queen Elizabeth I’s death example in Angelo’s new hyper- ended a 44-year period of moral Vienna. It may seem odd monarchial stability, but King to modern audiences that a mar- James I determined it was time unduly harsh, it’s likely that Britons had riage could be so disputed. The for a change. England was still embroiled in similar feelings about the new laws rapidly English marriage laws during this period wars with Spain, the bubonic plague killed changing under James I after the death of were confusing. There were no marriage 30,000 Londoners in 1603, and lax laws led to Queen Elizabeth in 1603. licenses, so marriage could be difficult to conflicting interpretations. One unique early prove. Adding to that confusion was a layer To establish “Vienna” as a city with decree of King James was to standardize the of tension created by the ongoing religious social problems, Shakespeare lets us listen universal English length of a foot—the size of conflict between the Catholic Church and to conversations between members of the his foot. At first glance, the Tudor-established Church of England, Measure for Measure highest and lowest social classes. In Act 1, could be read as a five-act flattery of the new which had differing views on what a mar- Scene 1, the Duke and his trusted advisor King. But the play transcends mere flattery riage ceremony needed to be. are within the safe walls of a monastery dis- to give us a mirror world of King James’s cussing the rampant immorality of the city What constituted a binding marriage London in the Duke Vincentio’s Vienna. and what should be done. Conversely, Act often boiled down to semantics: a promise to The front page of Measure for Measure I, Scene 2 occurs in a public place, where marry someone in the future was not binding states “The setting: Vienna.” However, the we learn the issues of the day from Mistress and a promise to marry someone in the pres- characters, including Vincentio, Angelo, Overdone, a prostitute, and her friends. ent was a legal marriage. What we think of Claudio, Isabella, and Lucio, have Italian- They discuss wars, plague, sensational tri- as a proposal today would be legally binding sounding names. Shakespeare, like many als, and overwhelming poverty—mirrors of as marriage. It was preferred that a marriage of his day, likely never traveled to the Jacobean England with resonance in our European continent, nor do we think of his own time as well. continues on page 4 plays as being focused principally on histori- cal accuracy. Measure for Measure depicts a corrupt city being “reformed” by the Duke It may seem odd to modern audiences that a marriage Vincentio’s chosen replacement: his deputy Angelo, a man of whom the Duke claims, could be so disputed. The English marriage laws during “If any in Vienna be of worth/To undergo this period were confusing. There were no marriage such ample grace and honour/It is Lord licenses, so marriage could be difficult to prove. Angelo.” Yet while Angelo’s new laws seem www.pashakespeare.org The Quill, Summer 2013 • 3 be accepted by the families of the couple as Fontaine Syer, who “Throughout these plays we move well as by their larger community, not only directed PSF’s productions along dim untrodden paths, and because marriage was a social institution, but of King Lear (2008) and at the close our feeling is neither also because it made the marriage easier to Othello (2006), returns to simple joy nor pain; we are excited, prove. Of course, private matters of the heart direct Measure for Measure. fascinated, perplexed, for the issues did not often follow the laws and secret mar- Syer acknowledges that raised preclude a completely satis- riages abounded in England. Clandestine sometimes Shakespeare’s factory outcome, even when, as in nuptials created further drama in that they characters wittily debate All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure Fontaine Syer were legally binding but often impossible to the current events chang- for Measure, the complications are verify. To complicate this further, a 17th cen- ing the social landscape of London with a outwardly adjusted in the fifth act.” tury book on marriage laws declared: “Naked vocabulary different than our own.

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