What I’ve Learned. . .
It’s impossible to summarize or write succinctly about what I have learned in my ten seasons as Producing Director of the Great River Shakespeare Festival. Certainly, I have learned much about the plays I’ve directed: several repeats, a couple of first-timers; it’s Shakespeare, so I cannot help but have grown as an artist and craftsperson. But this experience has been about something much larger: the establishment of a new theatre company dedicated to the works of William Shakespeare where nothing of its kind had ever existed. My work on any of these plays would not have been possible had it not been for the vision of city leaders in Winona, Minnesota, and the commitment of hundreds and hundreds of people who believed in the idea of the Festival. In many ways we have made real the unlikeliest of dreams.
Our commitment at Great River is to the written and spoken word, with Shakespeare’s stories at the heart of all we do. But as you can see from the photo galleries, we’re not a historically re-creative company: rather, we believe you can set the plays in any period – ancient to futuristic – as long as concept does not overwhelm or obscure story. We want the neon arrows to point toward the playwright, not toward the director. We’re “text geeks” at Great River, which means we spend the first full week of rehearsals digging into the words with all the usual resources at hand: Variorums, glossaries, dictionaries, myriads of editions of the plays. Our passionate belief is that spoken clearly and specifically, Shakespeare can be understood by any 4th grader. And we’ve got ample testimony supporting that belief.
Beyond the plays, we’re a festival. Weekend concerts, guest speakers, conversations of all kinds, apprenticeships, internships, scholarly symposiums, education and community outreach programs. . . in short, something for everyone, no matter what their background, age, experience, education, or income. The most rewarding part of the adventure has been to see the “Shakespeare light” go on in so many people’s eyes and to sense the pride of an entire community in helping launch this unexpected enterprise. Given the economy, the natural biases and barriers that exist about Shakespeare, and the amount of sheer blood, sweat, and tears that has gone into the making of the Great River Shakespeare Festival, our first ten years have been one of the miracles of my life and my career.
