On Theater: UCI bringing Shakespeare into modern age
Shakespeare under the stars has become a summer fixture at UC Irvine, where the university’s New Swan Shakespeare Festival is gearing up for its fourth season.
This year’s schedule, opening next Friday, features a tragedy and a comedy, “Macbeth” and “Much Ado About Nothing,” running alternately through Aug. 30, as well as a series of musical offerings under the umbrella Mozart Monday.
The festival is under the direction of its founder and artistic director, Eli Simon, a chancellor’s professor of acting in UCI’s drama department. Simon, who’s been teaching at UCI for 26 years, will direct “Macbeth,” which features professional Shakespearean actor Jack Greenman in the title role.
“Much Ado” will be staged by Beth Lopes, a Los Angeles-based theater director and teacher who received her master of fine arts degree in directing from UCI. She’s a founding company member of the New Swan festival who directed “The Comedy of Errors” in 2012 and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 2013.
“New Swan Shakespeare Festival is dedicated to the investigation and production of Shakespearean plays and relevant theatrical works,” Simon explained. “Shakespeare’s theater was of and for the people, rather than an elite cultural event. Similarly, we wish to share our work with the widest possible cross-section of our community.”
Simon is steeped in the Bard’s works, having directed over 100 productions at major Shakespearean festivals, regional theaters and international theaters.
According to the director, Shakespeare’s connection with his audience — “a direct, egalitarian relationship between actors and audience” — is what the Irvine productions strive for.
“We want our audience to feel the emotions, actions and texts as deeply as do New Swan actors, directors, designers and creative and production teams,” Simon said.
“While we honor the history and classicism of Shakespeare’s works, we have no intention of producing them as museum pieces. Rather, we are committed to recreating the immediacy of Shakespeare’s work and examining it through the lens of its relevance to the 21st century.”
Simon’s previous directorial projects for the New Swan Festival include “The Merchant of Venice,” “King Lear” and “Twelfth Night.”
“This is our strongest company yet,” he said. “We can’t wait to share ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Much Ado’ with you.”
The two plays will be running in repertory on the university’s 16-ton, 130-seat modular mini-Elizabethan theater, with Mozart Monday programs being offered Aug. 3, 17 and 24. For further information and ticket reservations, call (949) 824-2787 or visit newswanshakespeare.com
TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the daily Pilot, Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent.
