It’s already August — or as William Shakespeare might say, “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” That line, from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18,” is an all too fitting example of how the 16th-century playwright’s words still resonate today, only in a more artful and elegant manner that satisfies the ear while speaking to the heart.
Shakespeare wrote 39 plays across his lifetime and virtually all of them are performed every year across the globe. Here in Central Wisconsin, two separate local theater companies are performing Shakespeare outdoors later this month.
Wausau’s River & Woods Theatre Company is set to perform “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “The Comedy of Errors” on Aug. 13-15 in Stewart Park. At that same time, Central Wisconsin Area Community Theater is staging “As You Like It” outdoors at Schmeeckle Reserve in Stevens Point Aug. 13-16.
“Two houses, both alike in dignity” performing some of the most well-regarded comedy plays in history, in the sweet summer air.
While sitting in a darkened indoor theater demands quiet reverence, outdoor Shakespeare invites something entirely different: picnics, rustling leaves, birdsong and a casual atmosphere that strips away the centuries of stuffiness often attached to the Bard’s work.
But a lot of people don’t even make it to the theater. Plenty are turned off of Shakespeare at an early age, by being assigned to read his famous plays, like “Romeo and Juliet,” in high school — which is precisely how people shouldn’t be introduced to Shakespeare, River & Woods director Cindi Strobel contends.
“Shakespeare was never designed to be read. That’s why people hate it and they hate the language,” she said. “That’s why when kids get to their junior year in high school and they’re forced to read ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ they hate it. Shakespeare was written to be performed.”
Back in Shakespeare’s day, when many common folk couldn’t read, the plays were not published in full form for general consumption. Even those involved in the production were only given their lines and the few cue words preceding their line.
“It was intended to be performed. They’re written in a way that performance is what it’s about. When you’re sitting in the audience, if the actor does their job, you should have no trouble at all with the language,” Strobel said. “If you are acting that out with the right inflection and the right movement, the audience can easily follow it, whereas just reading it dry on a piece of paper, where it’s kind of like, ‘Huh?’”
It’s one of the reasons Shakespeare plays are so revered by actors. Their emotions, posture, intonation and physical movements color in the words that audiences may not fully understand, so that the production still tells a clear story.
“We do as much as we can through the acting to make it very intelligible to audiences,” said cwACT director Susan Edgren. “Even though there might be a word here and there that they won’t understand, we’re trying. I think we’ve succeeded every year because our audiences seem to be right with us the whole time.”
Originally started in Monk Gardens, River & Woods’ “Shakespeare in the Park” annual series has been a local tradition for nearly 10 years.
“It was the first time Shakespeare was really done outside in Central Wisconsin,” Strobel said.
For the last four years, the annual productions have been held at Stewart Park on Wausau’s east side, where the stone wall provides an authentic, historic backdrop and the canopy of trees keeps audiences comfortable from the heat and overbearing sun.
“The park is a beautiful park. There’s a little built-in amphitheater. There’s a large stage. I think it’s perfect for Shakespeare,” Strobel said. “It’s also very shady ... there are so many trees there. I also love the fact that it’s downtown. It’s like in the middle of the Wausau community. It’s right there.”
The park offers an escape from the traditional theater setting, trading fancy lighting rigs, state-of-the-art tech and sound equipment for a more intimate, serene experience. In some ways, Strobel likens it to the Globe — Shakespeare’s theater in England where his plays debuted. Similarly, the Globe is an open-air theater that invites intimacy by removing many of the barriers between stage and seats.
“There’s just a close connection between the audience and the actors. That first row, usually they’re standing, they don’t sit, and they can just lean on the stage and really have eye contact with the actors, the actors speak right up to them,” Strobel said about the Globe.
On Aug. 13-15, River & Woods will perform two shows daily: “The Merry Wives of Windsor” at 6 p.m. and the children’s production of “The Comedy of Errors” at 2 p.m.
“The Merry Wives of Windsor” is a comedy that follows the impoverished knight Sir John Falstaff as he tries to seduce two married women. Over the course of the show, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page outwit him with pranks, a jealous husband seeks revenge and three suitors vie for young Anne Page’s hand.
“In Shakespeare’s time this must have been very, very unique for the period, because the women were in charge and the men were clueless,” Strobel said.
“The Comedy of Errors” revolves around two sets of identical twins — separated at birth by a shipwreck — who unknowingly end up in the same city years later, leading to a frantic chain of mistaken identities, confusion and escalating chaos. This show features a kids cast and is intended for youth audiences.
“It’s only about an hour long so that if a mom wants to come with her little ones, they can make it through it,” Strobel said. “All the actors are kids — I think the youngest is either 5 or 6, and the oldest is 18.”
Staging a kids production is important for Strobel and River & Woods, if only to give children a better impression of Shakespeare’s work than the traditional path of first encountering the Bard as homework.
“We’re getting to the kids to show how brilliant Shakespeare is before they get to that sophomore, junior year in high school where they go, ‘Ugh, we have to read this?’ So that when they get to that age, they’re like, ‘Oh, I remember Shakespeare! That was really fun that one summer we did that play,’” Strobel said.
To make the most out of the outing, the show also features a craft for kids to work on before the show.
“You can come anytime after 1 p.m. and we’ll have a little table set up so your kids can do a little craft that matches the show. It’s a little extra fun for the kids,” Strobel said.
In the case of rain or bad weather, the show may be delayed for a later date. Strobel said to keep an eye on the River & Woods Facebook page for that information.
But weather isn’t the only thing that can interrupt a show. Live theater is known for its volatility, and when performed outside in the elements, anything can happen. Strobel remembers a previous production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” when two police officers showed up.
“They said that they had gotten a complaint from some neighbors that somebody was getting hurt!” Strobel said. “I realized that we had this scene where this Shakespeare character was pretending to die. The near neighbors heard this and thought somebody was actually getting hurt!”
“I said to my actors, ‘You guys are doing it right!’” Strobel added. “The police officers stayed to see the show, so that’s one of the most funny experiences I’ve had with outdoor theater.”
Central Wisconsin Area Community Theater has been performing Shakespeare outdoors for six years, under their annual “Schmeeckle Shakes” series. The partnership with Schmeeckle Reserve was established after the Friends of Schmeeckle Reserve finished construction on the outdoor stage in September 2019. By the time the pandemic struck in 2020, it was a fortunate resource to keep theater alive and active in Central Wisconsin.
Performed Aug. 13-16, “As You Like It” follows a woman named Rosalind and her cousin as they flee court into the forest and find Orlando, Rosalind’s love. There, Rosalind disguises herself as a young man named Ganymede to test Orlando’s love before a joyful mass wedding resolves all conflicts. Due in large part to its setting, the play is a perfect choice to take advantage of the natural environment.
“When they talk about being in the forest, and they talk about the trees and this and that, it really is there,” Edgren said. “There’s a point where there are tons of love letters that Orlando is posting on every single tree and bush, so we have trees and bushes that he can post things on ... being outside and having a show like this that takes place in a forest, it’s just a perfect match. It really is.”
Edgren also tries to break down the traditional “stuffy” Shakespeare stereotype by directing her actors to engage with the audience.
“There’s a lot of actor-audience interaction,” she said. “I have people, at least one time during the show, run through the rows of the audience and include them or come up to the front and they’re given a little speech — it’s kind of like a soliloquy — well they give it to the audience, you know, and involve them.”
In an effort to better grab audience’s attention and keep the 400-year-old texts fresh, cwACT often sets its Shakespeare productions outside the traditional time period: “Twelfth Night” was set in the Old West and “Merry Wives of Windsor” was set in the 1960s. This year’s “As You Like It” is transported to early 20th century New Orleans, trading the Berkshire Countryside for the French Quarter and jazz music.
Each performance of “As You Like It” opens with musical performance from the local Joyful Little Brass Band, which also provides music during the play.
“They’re extremely talented musicians, including their 16-year-old son Eli who is a piano phenom,” Edgren said. “Now he’s composing it. He’s my arranger. I found old tunes and rearranged some lyrics of the songs that were in the play and put those to jazz music, so all of that kind of thing helps people relate more easily to what’s going on.”
With both productions taking place on the same weekend, it’s a good idea for theatergoers to plan ahead and purchase tickets for their shows in advance.
River & Woods Theatre Company performs “The Merry Wives of Windsor” at 6 p.m. and the kids production of “The Comedy of Errors” at 2 p.m. on Aug. 13, 14 and 15 at Stewart Park in Wausau. Audience members are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or picnic blankets to the show. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for kids/seniors and can be purchased at riverandwoodstheatre.com.
cwACT performs “As You Like It” at 6 p.m. on Aug. 13, 14 and 15 with a 2 p.m. matinee on Aug. 16. Tickets cost $22 for adults, $17 for children/seniors and $11 for veterans. Tickets for the dinner banquet and show on Aug. 14 are $40 total. Tickets can be purchased at cwact.org.
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