Newswise — The 2007 Royal Shakespeare Company at Davidson Residency will include special events, community outreach, workshops, exhibits, and symposia February 8-18, 2007, all in celebration of the RSC repertory productions of "The Winter's Tale" and "Pericles." In addition, "Days of Significance," a new play by Roy Williams, will have its American premier during the residency as part of the RSC repertory offerings, with two performances on the schedule.
The three productions will come to Davidson from Stratford's Swan Theatre, having been presented as part of the RSC's 2006"2007 Complete Works Festival. Featuring an RSC ensemble cast of twenty-six, the productions will be accompanied by an original score performed live by RSC musicians.
"I'm delighted that 'The Winter's Tale,' 'Pericles,' and 'Days of Significance' will form the RSC's fourth residency at Davidson College in February 2006," said RSC Associate Director Dominic Cooke, who is directing the two Shakespeare works. "I was in Davidson when we brought 'Julius Caesar' and 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona' in 2005, so know firsthand the excitement and anticipation that surrounds our trip. Of course, the RSC's presence in Davidson extends far beyond performing plays. As soon as the company arrives, they will take part in an eclectic mix of workshops, talks, and presentations, engaging with students, audiences and the wider community. It is the depth to the residency that makes it so special."
The three productions are staged as "promenade" productions, for which audience members will have the option of being onstage with the actors. This is an unusual concept for theatre-goers, but Cooke and Maria Aberg (who directs "Days of Significance") are enthusiastic about the choice, one that is consistent with the action of the plays.
"There's no question that these shows will be infinitely more exciting and vivid for the promenaders," Cooke said about his staging of "Pericles" and "The Winter's Tale." "Some scenes will be played amongst the audience and other scenes will require the audience to move around the space to see the scenes. "¦Over the course of the performance it will be possible for members of the audience to rest and find a perch if necessary, but they should feel as if they're in Sicilia or Bohemia or Antioch."
Patrons will have the option to choose between promenade and more traditional seating when buying tickets, which will go on sale to the public January 3, 2007. Call the Davidson College Ticket Office at 704-894-2135 from 10"4 weekdays (beginning January 3). Tickets may also be purchased online 24 hours a day at www.davidson.edu/tickets (additional fees apply to Web purchases).
Dana Professor of English Cynthia Lewis says that "The Winter's Tale" and "Pericles" have much in common: tempests, shipwrecks, lost daughters, death-stricken wives, and settings all over the globe. She says, "Both plays were also immensely popular in their own day, despite—or because of—the implausible events and unlikely coincidences that make for romantic fantasy. But because romance mingles with tragedy, the protagonists, Pericles and Leontes, must suffer and be tested before they recover what they have lost and before each play's discord gives way to restored harmony."
Although the several dozen members of the RSC will arrive on February 4, college festivities get an early start on January 18, with the opening of a British sculpture exhibit in the Belk Visual Arts Center on campus. From that point, thirty days of Shakespearean celebration will include a performance of Tiny Ninja "Hamlet," workshops and exhibits, an academic symposium on Shakespeare's late plays, a theatre critics panel, and many other academic and community events.
The symposium, entitled "Like an Old Tale Still: Shakespeare's Late Plays," is scheduled for February 10"11, 2007, and features members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University professor and author of "Will in the World." Other speakers include Joe Haj, Producing Artistic Director, Playmakers Theatre; Maurice Hunt, from Baylor University; and Russ McDonald from Goldsmiths College, University of London. It will also include a panel of theatre critics, who will discuss approaches to the critique of Shakespearean productions, particularly those set in contemporary times. Most symposium events are open to the public.
Synopses of the Plays
"Days of Significance"A new play by Roy Williams, "Days of Significance" will have its American premier during the 2007 RSC at Davidson Residency. Written in response to Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" and performed by a company that includes actors from Dominic Cooke's productions of "Pericles" and "The Winter's Tale," "Days of Significance" is set in market-town England and the deserts of Iraq. Williams is one of the UK's most exciting new playwrights, whose recent work includes Fallout (Royal Court) and Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads (National Theatre).
"Days of Significance" will be directed by Maria Aberg, who is also associate director on Pericles and The Winter's Tale. Days of Significance contains adult language and situations.
"The Winter's Tale" by William ShakespeareFebruary 6-February 17When King Leontes of Sicilia falsely accuses his wife of adultery, his single-minded jealousy results in the destruction of his family, as wife and children are lost to illness, grief, and abandonment. Sixteen years pass before his daughter, lost in the pastoral haven of Bohemia, undertakes a journey that will heal her family's wounds. The updated setting spans the paranoia of the 1950s to 1969 Woodstock. "Pericles" by William ShakespeareFebruary 9"February 18Pericles charts the odyssey of a man driven by love and loss. Combining fairy tale elements and raw human emotions, the story of Pericles' search for his wife becomes an epic and magical journey of discovery. The setting is a war-torn African country and a contemporary European city.
Production Schedule
"The Winter's Tale"Tuesday, February 6 7:30 p.m. Opening /Press nightSaturday, February 10 7:30 p.m.Sunday February 11 1:30 p.m.Wednesday, February 14 7:30 p.m.Friday, February 16 7:30 p.m.Saturday, February 17 1:30 p.m.
"Pericles"Friday, February 9 7:30 p.m. Opening/Press nightSaturday, February 10 1:30 p.m.Sunday February 11 7:30 p.m.Tuesday, February 13 7:30 p.m.Saturday, February 17 7:30 p.m.Sunday, February 18 1:30 p.m.
"Days of Significance"Thursday, February 15 7:30 p.m. Opening/Press nightFriday, February 16 1:30 p.m.
For a complete schedule and more information, visit http://www.davidson.edu/shakespeare
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