American Shakespeare Center

I just got back from a visit to the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia to see a very interesting and unusual production of Timon of Athens. The visit included an hour long behind-the-scenes tour of the playhouse followed by the aforementioned play. In short, it was great, but you probably knew I would say that (I sometimes think that I like things too much, or rather see the merit in things too easily. Oh well. It makes for an entertained life).

The American Shakespeare Center is a playhouse that is an as-faithful-as-possible reproduction of the Blackfriar’s Playhouse active during Shakespeare’s time. It is the only one around today. Some pictures:

First, comments on the tour: It was great (there I go again!), a really first rate affair, mainly because the tour guide was so damn good. She made me realize, moments in, that all tour guides should be working actors. Entertaining, energetic, and informative, it was cool. Trust me.

The tour focused, at points, on the playhouse itself and the life and times of all things Shakespeare: the actors (both historically and in modern times), the facts and figures, the history, and the drama were all covered with equal aplomb. Most intriguingly, the guide described the details involved in staging real, live plays for real, live audiences, in real, live theaters. I found it fascinating, but, as you may have noticed, I’m a bit of a nerd for such things (and definately an outsider to that world). Some specific tour highlights, you ask? Here:

• Shakespeare was a member of the Lord’s Chamberlain’s Men, as you probably know, and by all accounts these guys were the team to beat back in the day. They kicked ass and took names, and when you visit a place such as the Blackfriar’s, you can really feel how amazing and great it must have been (and still is) to see great performances in great spaces.

• A focus at Blackfriar’s is to mimic the staging conditions of the original place so, as such, the productions have no directors, or rather, have lots of directors (everyone kind of directs themselves). This is apparently historically accurate (the concept of a director is only about 100 years old) and, contrary to what you might think, it works, at least in the example I saw. I find this interesting and wonder about its implications in terms of what impact this had on Shakespeare as a writer/actor/director. Again (we have seen this before), the actor seems to reign supreme in Shakespeare’s world.

• A decent bit of time was spent discussing the craft of acting and the life of a modern-day Shakespearean actor. This is no small thing. So much goes into it (not surprising, right?) and the tour guide did a great job describing all of the gory details around this interesting and complex life, from contracts to cue sheets and residencies to troupes, I didn’t expect to get such a comprehensive and informative “inside look." Needless to say, the dedication and work involved in being successful at this is mind boggling (at least to me) and, although I don’t know for sure, I’m going to guess that the pay is not in any way commensurate with the effort involved. Welcome to the Arts.

• The original Blackfriar’s was a Dominican monastery, which explains the “friar” part of the name. Additionally, the original Blackfriar’s was the first indoor theater and a revolution in its day. However, it was a very different experience from the Globe, the other, more familiar theater of Shakespeare’s time. It was a more upscale experience apparently (for example, the Blackfriar’s had no place for Groundlings). It was a place to see a play and to be seen seeing a play (there are seats behind and above the stage, terrible seats to see the action of the play but perfect seats for showing yourself off to the audience).

• The lighting was, in its day, also revolutionary. It consisted of multitudes of candle chandeliers, faithfully copied here using softly glowing electric bulbs (Interestingly, the five act play was integral to these contraptions in that the candles needed to be trimmed periodically. The ideal timing to do this, it turns out, is about five times, i.e., at the end of each act. This fact, as much as any other, contributed to the five act construction so prevalent in Shakespeare’s plays):

So, that’s Blackfriar’s. A great place to see and be. There’s no doubt I’ll be back some day. Concerning the actual play I saw there (this is a blog about plays, not places, after all), I’ll be posting that soon.