Date: 7/13/2020

Show: All’s Well that Ends Well

Director: Lauren Carlton

Assistant Director: Esma Eddeb

Dramaturg: Schuyler Gardner

Stage/Zoom Manager: Hillel Finder

Production Manager: Liam Riley

What we did

Hello my fellow Shakespeareans! Today marks the first official day of #SHXcamp, during which Campers were cast and acquainted with their shows. Personally, as a part of the Alls Well crew, I feel that our casting choices couldn’t have been any better. This cast is full of so much talent, from singing their hearts out to balancing eight books on their head (I repeat… EIGHT!!). What more could one ask for? But I digress. During today’s rehearsals, the cast read through the first act of the play and became introduced to their roles and began to develop clear images of their characters and their personalities, along with what future rehearsals will have in store for them. All in all, it was a wonderful start to this new experience and hopefully this energy will continue to persist through the next few weeks.

Quick and Quotable

From the Play: “I follow him not

By any token of presumptuous suit,

Nor would I have him till I do deserve him,

Yet never know how that desert should be.” -Helena

From the Director: “I am the director of the new Marie Antoinette musical, ‘Don’t Lose Your Head.’”

From the Cast/Crew: “Helen has a word of the day calendar.” -Schuyler Gardner

Production Insights

All’s Well is classified as one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays.” It is a play which has a greatly layered, complicated,  somewhat controversial plan to achieve one’s goal and an ending that feels rushed and just ties lose ends for the sake of tying lose ends. I feel that this has lead to All’s Well not being performed often in theaters compared to the likes of Hamlet or The Scottish Play (you know what I’m talking about). But that is also what makes it such an interesting play to do. Because Shakespeare’s text is not really set in stone, there are so many acting and directing choices that can be done to create new and interesting versions of the play. With this new medium we are using for camp, I am interested to see what the All’s Well cast will do, creating not a problem play, but an experience to remember.

Sayonara Shakespeareans,

-Wagner

[This post was written to the sound of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars]