Southern Oregon Shakespeare How to Catch Creation Review
Raphael Massie, most recently an artistic associate at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is Marin Shakespeare Company's new creative director. He succeeds Robert Currier, 74, who retired in Nov from the company he founded in 1989 from the remains of the defunct Marin Shakespeare Festival.
Massie quietly started his new function Monday, Jan. 31, with the San Rafael company officially announcing the transition Fri, February. 4. He had never set foot in the Bay Expanse before his finalist interview; he has also never run a theater company before. Lesley Currier, the managing director and Robert Currier'southward married woman, plans to stay in her role for the foreseeable future.
Speaking to The Relate by phone from Ashland, Ore., from which he plans to relocate in the adjacent calendar month, Massie radiates a passion for Shakespeare, albeit not an uncritical i, and maps out a clear, thoughtful vision for the company.
"Shakespeare was the offset time I encountered language that was total plenty, that was broad enough, that had plenty words to fully tap into and express what I was thinking or feeling," he said of his time as a immature histrion. Massie grew up in New Oasis, Conn., and his time in Oregon followed long stints with Elm Shakespeare Company, Collective Consciousness Theatre, Southern Connecticut Country University and the Regional Center for the Arts — all in Connecticut.
At the same time, he said, Shakespeare "has been put on this pedestal equally if the plays can practise no wrong. I think that has to shift." He takes particular issue with the idea that Shakespeare is universal. "Shakespeare is definitely not for everyone, and nosotros take to be OK with that instead of presenting the work as infallible and in a higher place other work."
At Marin Shakes, Massie is excited to dig deep into the plays' problems — the antisemitism of "The Merchant of Venice," the colonialism of "The Tempest" — as part of presenting them. "I can't simply put something onstage for the sake of entertainment and assume that, merely because it's Shakespeare, everything's fine," he said.
He also thrills to the idea of putting Shakespeare in chat with new writers likewise as classic female person and nonbinary playwrights of color. That philosophy guides his planning of Marin Shakespeare Company's 2022 summertime flavour at Woods Meadows Amphitheatre.
Lesley Currier said Massie specially stood out during the portion of the interview process when Marin Shakes asked applicants to direct local actors in Shakespeare scenes — "the way he asked questions of them and got them to come across things in the text," she recalled.
Robert Currier plans to serve equally "artistic managing director emeritus" in order to oversee the completion of the company'due south 165-seat indoor venue in downtown San Rafael. He estimates that construction is i-third complete, with $1 1000000 left to enhance. He also plans to go on performing his old job's to the lowest degree glamorous duties — taking out trash, unclogging toilets — which he doesn't feel he tin ask Massie to do.
As for his ain conclusion to step down, Currier was to the point. "An inordinate percentage of theaters, opera companies, ballet companies are run past old white guys," he said. "I thought, 'Well, I'1000 going to do something about information technology. I'g going to step bated, and nosotros're going to hope to find some more diverseness in the leadership of our visitor.' And that's merely what has happened."
Source: https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/marin-shakespeares-new-leader-loves-the-bard-but-wont-gloss-over-his-problems
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