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About The Southwest Portland Post. (Portland, Oregon) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2014)
8 • The Southwest Portland Post FEATURES September 2014 Gabriel Park becomes the Bard’s yard in Allard’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’ THEATRE REVIEW By Lee Braymen-Cleary The Southwest Portland Post If you love Shakespeare—or even if Western Civilization’s vaunted poet scares your socks off—you missed something. Actors of the Original Practice Shakespeare Festival per- formed “The Taming of the Shrew” Aug. 9 outdoors at Gabriel Park near the baseball diamond. You have never seen “Shrew” like this! Gone was a long-rehearsed per- fectionist production like you can see in Ashland, Stratford-upon-Avon or other holy Shakespeare stages. Such formal productions can intimi- date those daunted by Early Modern English. So instead, OPSFest’s family- friendly, highly-improvisational per- formance encouraged audience input: laughter, boos, hisses, even the odd wolf whistles. You could say that like Petruchio of “Shrew,” the company’s founding artistic director, Brian Allard, believes “No profit grows where no pleasure ta’en.” And it is all for free! Allard created the OPSFest six years ago. He has performed Shakespeare with an American touring company, the New England Shakespeare Festi- val, the Portland’s Oregon Children’s Theatre, the Northwest Classical Theatre, Post 5 Theatre and the Blue Monkey Theatre. Allard has also traveled beyond Shakespeare’s realm, acting in summer stock, London Theatre productions, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broad- way. Allard made a gutsy choice when starting the OPSFest. He defied standard classical theater guidelines, opt- ing for the sel- dom implement- ed “original practice” meth- od. He wanted his stable of ac- tors—now numbering 50—to perform as a coterie of Shakespearean scholars believe the Bard’s original players did. Allard could not replicate the process exactly because those treading Elizabe- than boards back then rehearsed not at all and performed 20 to 25 plays a month. What memorization skills they had! Instead, OPSFest actors were as- signed their play without knowing which roles they’d perform until the morning before went go on stage. “We do this to compensate for the fact that our actors are only doing nine plays this summer; therefore, actors peruse their play and learn several roles per show,” said Allard. No rehearsals? Well, they do re- hearse fights, dances and songs. But still, if one thes- pian flubs lines, improve can run rampant. No wonder these flexible profes- sionals, donning costumes they supply them- selves, are paid well! “The Taming of the Shrew” occurs in Italy. In this perfor- mance, two ten- foot-by-ten-foot tents and audi- ence suspension of disbelief will transport us sans air ticket. The Shakespearean language is still in tact, but to make things easy the OPSFest program elucidates the plot in 50 words. Baptista’s daughter Bianca is beset with suitors, but can’t marry until after her shrewish sister Katherina. Bianca’s suitors pay the roguish Petruchio to marry Katherina, who works to tame his new wife’s wild tongue. Bianca’s suitors squabble (often in disguise), and Katherina returns to her sister’s wedding a perfect wife. Shakespeare’s players were all men. So the audience was not surprised to see a man playing a female character or even a female playing a male role like Sarah Jane Fridlich did in her role of Tranio. “We’ve even toyed with the idea of casting Kate and Petruchio as both women or as both men,” said Allard. “At this point in time, audiences toler- ate ‘gender bent’ performances. We may still do a gay or lesbian perfor- mance sometime.” Wouldn’t that be interesting? Imagi- nation can barely grasp the spin such a cast would put on the misogynistic aspect of “Shrew.” If the OPSFest approach to play delivery is different, it is even more different for the audience to see one character cast as a prompter. More different still to see actors reading their lines off of scrolls just in case they for- get their unrehearsed lines. Even more different to see the full cast ignore their lines to perform a “plane dance” when overhead a noisy jet blots out the power of their voices. This departure from play norms can raise first amazement, then laughter, in the audience. Kiddies and picnic baskets abounded under a large tree; its generous shade and the wind cooled the 85 degree temperature. If you missed out on “Shrew,” you have another chance to see OPSFest performance at 1:00 p.m. on Sept. 28th. This time, the Bard’s crew performs “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Gabriel Park. Take a lunch and laugh yourself silly. 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