July 19 – September 19, 2014 World-class theatre. Right next door. Henry IV • The Merry Wives of Windsor • ShakeScenes • Much Ado About Nothing program_cover_art2014.indd 1 6/30/14 1:36 PM Laura & Jack B. Smith, Jr. are proud sponsors of NOTRE DAME SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL Giving Back to the Community TABLE OF CONTENTS 2–4 About Shakespeare at Notre Dame and the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival 5 A Note from the Ryan Producing Artistic Director 6 Festival Events and Ticket Information 8–10 Welcome to the 2014 Season 12–15 Professional Company: HENRY IV 17–19 Young Company: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR 21–22 ShakeScenes 25–26 Actors From The London Stage: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING 29–39 Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival Cast and Company Profiles 40 Sponsors, Endowments, and Benefactors INSIDE BACK COVER Acknowledgments Festival Production Photographer — Peter Ringenberg LEFT: Robert Jenista, Tim Hanson, Ross Henry, and Kyle CENTER: Young Company Director West Hyler and RIGHT: Cheryl Turski instructs the Young Company in a Techentin work on the HENRY IV set. Stage Manager Nellie Petlick lead a rehearsal of THE movement class. MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. SHAKESPEARE AT NOTRE DAME Dear Friends: Dear Friends: Here we are again: summer at Notre Welcome to the 2014 season of the Dame and that means the Notre Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. It’s Dame Shakespeare Festival. a year of celebrations for all things Shakespeare here on campus. 2014 As always, there are the rich and var- marks not only Shakespeare’s 450th ied delights of local groups perform- birthday, but also the 150th anni- ing in ShakeScenes. versary of the first full production of Shakespeare on the Notre Dame At the centre of our work this year is one of Shakespeare’s most campus, and—most significantly for us—the 15th season of the extraordinary creations: Sir John Falstaff. Ever since he first Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. appeared on stage he has fascinated audiences. Shakespeare put him front and centre in three plays and reneged on his promise The Shakespeare presence on campus has grown exponentially to include him in Henry V as well, where, instead, we hear of his since “Summer Shakespeare” was born with a staging The Taming death but never see him. of the Shrew in 2000. The visionary leadership of Dr. Paul Rathburn and the tireless dedication of his incredible group of students, A man of huge size and equally huge imagination, a soldier and a alumni, and community leaders that comprise what is now col- coward, a source of energy and of riot, a figure living in a city strik- lectively known as the Shakespeare at Notre Dame Advisory Board ingly like Elizabethan London but forced to be part of the world charted a course for the future of Shakespeare-related program- of war and diplomacy and treason and succession that makes up ming at Notre Dame on which we journey to this very day. an earlier phase of history, Sir John cannot help but dominate the two parts of Henry IV. Yet these two plays are also a story of the As many who were involved in the early days of the company education of a Prince, the future Henry V, a man with three names: will attest, a “dream” was born in 2000, a dream to build a Henry as King, Harry to his father (Henry IV), and Hal to Falstaff. Shakespeare program at Notre Dame that was internationally How does a young man prepare for the responsibilities of kingship? recognized and celebrated. And how does a king cope with the burdens of office? Across the rich panorama of a nation that Shakespeare so memorably created Who could have envisioned back in 1864—when students staged here, Falstaff, Henry IV and Prince Henry have to find their own Henry IV at the height of the Civil War—that a theatre company at paths. Like many productions before, since the early 17th century, Notre Dame would become a player on the world stage? we have decided to combine the two plays into one, completing the story rather than leaving you waiting to see the sequel. Not only have we become a training ground for aspiring theatre artists as the University’s professional theatre in residence, we serve Our Young Company performs The Merry Wives of Windsor. Alas, as the American base for Actors From The London Stage (one of it’s probably not true that this was a commission from Queen the oldest touring Shakespeare companies in the world), engage Elizabeth I who wanted to see “Sir John in love,” as an old story one of the world’s foremost Shakespeareans, Peter Holland, as said. But this is a brilliant comedy of small-town life, a place where the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies, and develop Falstaff, supremely confident as usual, proves to be completely out programming that actively engages Notre Dame’s social justice of his depth. But it is also a comedy of marriage: the word “merry” mission through the performing arts. could mean “promiscuous” — are these middle-class wives out to have respectable fun or will they be adulterous? And what will their So where do we go from here? Perhaps in looking to the future we husbands make of their behavior? Wait and see! would be wise to consult those outstanding visionaries from our past. It was their foresight, tenacity, and desire that literally “willed” Enjoy our season’s riches, have fun — and join us again in 2015. this organization into being. Without them—and without you—we could not have reached the heights where we are today. For this, we Sincerely, “can no other answer make but thanks—and thanks.” Happy anniversary! Peter Holland McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies Associate Dean for the Arts, College of Arts and Letters Scott Jackson Executive Director, 2 Shakespeare at Notre Dame SHAKESPEARE AT NOTRE DAME Shakespeare at Notre Dame is a program that recognizes the perform Shakespeare both independent of and in collaboration centrality of the study of Shakespeare in humanistic pedagogy at with professional performers and directors, in order to provide the University of Notre Dame. Shakespeare is the world’s great- students with a full range of experience of amateur and profes- est dramatist, his work profoundly informed by Christianity, and sional production in the course of the academic year; (c) educate therefore forms a part of the mission of Notre Dame as a Catholic students in the pleasures of watching Shakespeare (on stage and university, bringing together humanist study and the performing on film) so as to instill a lifetime habit of seeing Shakespeare in arts in the exploration of drama in a Christian context. performance; (d) provide courses at an undergraduate level and beyond, for students in all years of study and from the widest Shakespeare at Notre Dame consists of the McMeel Family Chair possible range of disciplines, to explore Shakespeare in perfor- in Shakespeare Studies, Actors From The London Stage, and the mance; (e) support the full range of courses studying Shakespeare Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. throughout the University; (f) provide at a master’s and doctoral level, through M.A./M.F.A. and Ph.D. courses, the opportunity The mission of Shakespeare at Notre Dame is to establish Notre for students to train both as scholar-critics and as theatre-workers Dame both nationally and internationally as a center for the study through the study of Shakespeare in performance; and (g) sup- of Shakespeare in performance. The program seeks to: (a) provide port collection development in the University Library to support its undergraduates and graduates, the local community of South both doctoral work and advanced research by permanent and Bend, and the wider region with opportunities to see Shakespeare visiting faculty. productions, both professional and student, of the highest pos- sible quality; (b) provide students with regular opportunities to ABOUT THE NOTRE DAME SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL Enjoying its fifteenth season, the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festi- ShakeScenes was created specifically to give area actors and direc- val (NDSF), is the professional theatre in residence at the Univer- tors of all ages the opportunity to immerse themselves in “play- sity of Notre Dame. The Festival traces its current structure to an ing” Shakespeare. NDSF believes that providing an active and experimental course called “Shakespeare in Performance” created immediate experience around some of the greatest plays in the in 1989 by Dr. Paul Rathburn. The premise of this popular course English language can help foster a love of Shakespeare that will was that Shakespeare’s works are both theatrical “scripts” and last a lifetime. literary “texts” and are best illuminated through work in both the theatre and in the classroom. The Professional Company production is the crown jewel of our mission as it brings professional artists to Notre Dame to work NDSF began producing in 2000, and each season now includes side by side with members of the Young Company and the performances by the Professional Company, traveling Young Michiana community to create world-class performances, Company, our community-oriented ShakeScenes program, and even as it provides educational opportunities and practical Actors From The London Stage, together with special events experiences to emerging artists. including guest artists, lectures, and presentations. Founded in 1975 by Homer “Murph” Swander and Sir Patrick The Young Company is a direct outgrowth of our charge to pro- Stewart, Actors From The London Stage (AFTLS) now ranks as vide exceptional and unparalleled educational opportunities in a one of the world’s oldest and most celebrated touring Shake- theatrical setting to gifted students from the University of Notre speare companies.