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Inside Shakespeare’s mind :
Shakespearean Theatre in the USA
 It was Angus L. Bowmer who initiated the idea of a Shakespearian
festival in the United States and founded the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival in 1955. It became such a success that almost every region has
at least one summer Shakespeare festival.
For instance, there is the Berkely Shakespeare Festival, the Theatre
at Monmouth, Shakespeare and Company at Massachusetts, the Shakespeare
Festival of Dallas, the Three Rivers Festival in Pittsburg, the Colarado
Shakespeare Festival, known as the mile-high-Shakespeare Festival. These
plays are all performed indoor to retain quality production but varies
between the highly professional and amateurish theatre.
New York
The New York Shaespeare Festival derived from his small intensive
workshop, Joseph Pepp conceived and nurtured it in 1953. Three years
later, he engaged Stuart Vaughan to direct Julius Caesar with Collen
Dewhurst at the East River Amphitheatre which was followed by the taming
of the shrew. In 1957, he launched a mobile Romeo and Juliet, two
Gentlemen from Verona and Macbeth. The last two plays were performed at
Central Park. Some indoor productions too were mounted at the Public
Theatre in downtown, New York. He continued doing so at New house,
Lincoln Centre. Together, they maintained several Delacotte productions
each summer.
 John Pepp resolved to produce all 38 plays in a six year series
beginning from 1987. It was at the cost of 33 million including book
adaptations and televisions. The first play to be produced was the
Midsummer Night's Dream at the Public Theatre. It was a dream he was not
destined to see because John Pepp died in 1989. The Festival can count
among their leading players were Colleen Dewhurst, Earl Jones, Sam
Waterstone, Barbara Baxley among Others.
Tratford-Connecticut
Strangely, it was in Connecticut that Shakespeare was introduced
through ballet. People were passionate about ballet over theatre. It was
a wise move to handle the Ballet-crazy audience and slowly but steadily
transit them to the art of theatre; and the fever caught on.
The American Shakespeare Festival began in 1954 on a vast indoor
stage when the English director, Denise Carey staged Julius Caesar and
the Tempest with Raymond Massey as Prospero.
The artistic directors were John Houseman and Jack Landan and then
Landan alone. Later Michael Kahn took over and staged a vast number of
plays among which Hamlet stood out not only as a performed production
but as a ballet too. With a long list of thespians from Hollywood
dominating the stage and attracting audiences, film directors started
experimenting their form of art. Here again, Hamlet was the first choice
for the screen.
Actors that included Christopher Plummer and actress, Katherine
Hepburn found their talents at Varying degrees and success. They were to
be followed by mega names such as Sir Laurence Oliver, Michael Redgrave
Orson Wells Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton etc.
Ashland Oregon
Of all places, Oregon and founded by a Professor called Angus Bowmer,
the Oregon Shakespeare Festival began in an explosion of two months
summer season. It became virtually an all-round annual event in
continuity probably becoming the oldest Festival in America.
Presently, the Festival now employees two theatres, the indoor Angus
Bower (built in 1970) and the Elizabethan Outdoor built in 1959 that
looks like the Globe. There is also a small theatre named Black swan.
Both professional and armature players have staged much of Shakespeare
canon and by 1973 the Festival was giving as much as 164 performances
between mid-June and early September.
The original contract was used to constructing the Elizabethan
Theatre. Angus Bowmer and designer, Richard Hay have maintained a long
close relationship with Ashland among other directors.
San Diego-California
Here too Iden payne had left behind a great influence. The Festival
rose from his fifty-minute summarized Shakespeare productions as part of
the California Pacific International Exposition-1935. Before the closure
in the second World War, Sandiago produced major works and later
reconstructed the Old Globe in Balloa Park. This was used for the
National Shakespeare Festival, reaching its 25th anniversary in 1974.
Here again, Hamlet was mounted.
Hamlet
It was this tragedy that pushed the Bard to the forefront and not
Romeo and Juliet as many believe. Staged, filmed, videoed, dialogued,
and presently on tv and tape, Hamlet is still the much sought-after
high-profile play. It is also a school text (I did it as a subject and
portrayed as Opheila in the inter-school drama) and the play was to play
a significant role in my life in adult years.
Not many ballets based on classics have been successful because the
‘plot’ of the ‘story’ cannot be conveyed without dialogue and Hamlet
being such one, unless the audience have an inkling of the play, might
not understand its ballet movements. The beauty of Hamlet rests upon its
power packed dialogue that sent Shakespeare to the top where he is sill
today.
Great thespians like Helpmann and Nureyev had danced as Hamlet and
later, turned choreographers to direct this play.
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