Wednesday, August 15, 2012

It’s Shakespeare and you’ll know it

But ‘Twelfth Night’ production will engage all styles

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By JENNIFER LIEBRUM
Express Staff Writer

A New York director has helped polish this summer’s “Twelfth Night.” Courtesy photo nexStage Theatre

Most contemporary theater need not worry about relevance. Either the story appeals, or the actors or the newness draws a crowd.

And then there is Shakespeare. You have the die-hards and you have the uninitiated and the intimidated. The challenge for any theater putting on a performance of Shakespeare is how to overcome the fearful and engage the new. Add the challenge of outdoor theater, which allows the opportunity to entice passers-by, and you have a full-on directorial gauntlet.

Tracy Bersley, a freelance director and choreographer from New York City, has come to town to make it happen for actors from the nexStage Theatre with this summer's Shakespeare in the Park performance of "Twelfth Night" starting Thursday, Aug. 16, at Forest Service Park in Ketchum.

Bersley met local actress and theater coach Patsy Wygle who plays Olivia, in a directing class years ago and has long tried to coordinate a time to come out. Turns out for Bersely, slowing down to have 1-year-old daughter, ZuZu, afforded that opportunity.

"The stars aligned," the director said last week.

She's happy with the level of talent she's had to work with, and looks forward to sharing with the audience a show that is "human and honest and vulnerable and ridiculous and poignant." All that's required is a suspension of disbelief and a spirit of frivolity, she said.

This story's summation, she said, "is about redemption, finding your true self and having a personal epiphany. Somebody really changes someone else and that is really a beautiful thought.

"The stories are universal, even if the language is antiquated," she said.

Bersley said she has had the opportunity to spend intimate time with each of the company's actors, who include Keith Moore, Gina Allure, Scott Creighton, Jamie Wygle, Dawson Howard, Jamey Reynolds, Erich von Tagen and Beth Hilles.

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"It's really helpful to be able to talk through a character's trajectory," she explained.

While being outside is an added challenge, because lighting can have a large influence on guiding an audience's emphasis, the crowd will have a narrator as "a lens" on where the action is and to help create an everyman perspective.

Physical action will serve to accommodate those who aren't always following the language.

Above all, it's important that people gather, Bersley said.

"Coming to the theater in general is the most important thing you can do to bring the community together in a live place when we live in such a wired world."

The show runs Thursday-Sunday, Aug. 16-19, and Thursday and Friday, AUg. 23-24 and ASunday, Aug. 26. Tickets are $20. Call 726-4TKS or stop by nexStage Theatre on Main Street, Ketchum.

In related theater nearby:

The nexStage Theatre's Sun Valley Shakespeare Festival kicked off its 13th year Sunday with an uproarious new production of "The Bible," starring thespian/bartenders Matt Gorby, Will Hemmings and Steve D'Smith. From fig leaves to final judgment, this is an affectionate and irreverent roller coaster ride as three comic actors tackle the great theological questions: Did Adam and Eve have navels? Did Moses really look like Charlton Heston? And why isn't the word phonetic spelled the way it sounds?

The show will play at the theater on Main Street in Ketchum, Sunday, Aug. 12, through Wednesday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 19, through Tuesday, Aug. 21, with a final performance Saturday, Aug. 25, at 7 p.m. Sundays and Mondays are at 7 p.m. and Tuesdays and Wednesdays are at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 and available from the box office of the nexStage Theatre or by calling 726-4TKS.

Shakespeare in the Park

What: Twelfth Night.

When: 6 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, Aug. 16-19, and Thursday, Friday, Aug. 23-24 and Sunday, Aug. 26.

Where: Forest Service Park in Ketchum.

Tickets: $20 at 726-4TKS, at the door or at nexStage Theatre on Main Street, Ketchum.

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