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Meet the cast
Who: Dana Dancho.
Role: Helena in "All's Well That Ends Well."
Hometown: Pittsburgh.
Previous festival appearances: Luciana in "Comedy of Errors" (1996).
Helena is: "Tenacious, strong, independent resourceful, hopeful. ... I think she's very fun-loving as well. She wants to enjoy life and relish everything it has to offer."
How much are you alike?: "A lot. I'm actually pretty feisty like her. Anyone pursuing a career in the arts has to be a lot like Helena. She's an only child, I'm an only child, so I can relate to that parallel, what it's like to be independent and carve your own path."
Preparations: "For this show, I went through the Oxford and Riverside editions to read the footnotes so that I knew what I was saying. A lot I wanted to leave to the process. I didn't want to come in with too many preconceived notions."
Who: Paul Molnar.
Roles: Bertram in "All's Well That Ends Well" and Brutus in "Julius Caesar."
Hometown: Boyne City.
Previous festival appearances: Benedict in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1997), Iago in "Othello" and Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet" (2002), Henry in "Henry V" (2007).
Bertram is: "A relatively eager, naive youth. ... It's a bit of a coming-of-age story for Bertram. He kind of learns the hard way. He makes the mistakes of a youth that come back and haunt him. ... His biggest flaw is he puts a lot of trust in a guy that turns out to be a complete phony."
How much are you alike?: "I can definitely see similarities in my younger days."
Brutus is: "Totally different. His focus is not only on his family but also his allegiance to his country. Rome is the world to Brutus. ... He loves Caesar, but he knows if he gets the crown it's going to be bad for Rome."
How much are you alike?: "I'm not as much of an intellectual, whereas Brutus is."
Preparations: "As an actor, I always approach a role physically first. What does a character walk like? What does a character talk like? Brutus has been different in that I've had to start on the inside to understand his thought process, which is quite complex."
If you go
What: Michigan Shakespeare Festival.
When: July 15 through July 27.
Where: Baughman Theatre, Potter Center, Jackson Community College.
Cost: $27 Friday and Saturday evenings, $24 all other performances, $15 students, free admission to family shows.
Details: 796-8600 or www.michshakefest.org.
"All's Well That Ends Well"
About the show: A romantic comedy, it also has flawed characters and elements of tragedy, leading many to characterize it as one of Shakespeare's "problem plays."
The story: Helena, a servant, is secretly in love with her mistress's son, Bertram. After she cures the king of a sickness, she is given Bertram's hand in marriage as a reward, but Bertram decides he would rather die in battle.
Performances: Preview 7:30 p.m. July 15. Regular performances 7:30 p.m. July 17, 2 p.m. Saturday and July 20, and 7:30 p.m. July 25 and July 26.
"Julius Caesar"
About the show: Widely recognized as one of Shakespeare's great historical tragedies, it is based on the assassination of the Roman military and political leader.
The story: The drama does not focus on Caesar but on his conflicted friend, Marcus Brutus, as he is drawn into a group of conspirators who convince him of Caesar's intentions to turn the republic into a dictatorship.
Performances: Preview 7:30 p.m. July 16. Regular performances 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. July 24 and 2 p.m. July 26 and 27.
"The Mikado"
About the show: Presented in cooperation with the University of Michigan's Gilbert and Sullivan Society and the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, the operetta by the W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan is set in Japan but actually satirizes Victorian Britain.
The story: Nanki-Poo, son of the emperor, has fallen in love with Yum-Yum, but she is betrothed to the town's executioner, who is not keen to cut off his own head.
Performances: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 1 and 2 and 2 p.m. Aug. 3.
"3 Spinning Fairies"
About the show: This year's children's production is based on one of the Brothers Grimm's lesser-known fairy tales. Although it has parallels to "Rumpelstiltskin," they are two different stories.
The story: Before she can marry the Prince, Belinda is locked in a dungeon by the Queen and ordered to spin a room full of flax into linen. Three ugly fairies offer to do the work for Belinda if she will invite them to the wedding.
Performances: 10:30 a.m. Saturday and July 26.
It is a year of firsts for the Michigan Shakespeare Festival.
Working its way through the Shakespearean canon, the festival selected two plays that have never before been presented as part of Jackson’s annual tribute to The Bard: the romantic comedy “All’s Well That Ends Well” and the historical tragedy “Julius Caesar.” Previews were Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, at the Baughman Theatre at Jackson Community College.
For the first time since the Jackson Shakespeare Festival became the Michigan Shakespeare Festival in 1998, the company also is presenting a work for adults by someone other than William Shakespeare. Starting Aug. 1, there will be three performances of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operetta “The Mikado” by the University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society and the Jackson Symphony Orchestra.
While “The Mikado” is on stage at the Potter Center, the Shakespeare productions are hitting the road for four performances at the Peter Martin Wege Theatre in Grand Rapids, the festival’s first foray outside Jackson.
“We’re comfortable with performing in Jackson,” artistic director John Neville-Andrews said. “We love performing there. We have a great audience. Moving the show to another city, we don’t know the area, we’re playing in a totally different theater. It’s rather exciting and challenging for us to be playing to an audience that we don’t know.”
“All’s Well That Ends Well” is something Neville-Andrews has been hoping to do for a long time, he said. While everyone knows the title, the play is rarely performed.
Unlike such popular romantic comedies as “Much Ado About Nothing” or “As You Like It,” it is not a light-hearted affair.
“It’s a real psychological play compared to some of his other (comedies),” said Neville-Andrews, who is directing. “It’s often compared to (Anton) Chekhov or (August) Strindberg.”
The two main characters aren’t exactly sympathetic, either. Neville-Andrews described the male lead, Bertram, as “a bit of an idiot.”As for the female lead, Helena, nowadays “you’d say that she’s stalking him,” Neville-Andrews said. “She’s very persistent.”
Neville-Andrews has set the show during the early 19th century.
“Women are becoming more independent around that time,” he said, “getting rid of corsets and putting on knickers. … That seemed to fit quite nicely with the Regency period.”
“Julius Caesar,” on the other hand, has a strictly traditional production.
“We’re going to give you the full regalia of Rome in all its glory,” Neville-Andrews said. “In doing our research, we found out that, despite what everyone thinks, not everyone wore white in Rome, so we have very colorful togas.”
He said the historical play was chosen so there would be a well-known story to balance out the obscurity of “All’s Well That Ends Well.”
Two weeks before rehearsals started for “Julius Caesar,” director Gillian Eaton had to step down due to health problems.
Neville-Andrews said he was “a bit stumped for a moment” when it came to finding a replacement, since most directors he knew already had commitments for the summer. Then he thought of Tommy Gomez, who played Banquo in “Macbeth” and the Chorus in “Henry V” at last year’s festival.
“He’s very well-versed in Shakespeare,” Neville-Andrews said, “so I asked him to step up and direct the show.”
A recent $25,000 grant from the Jackson County Community Foundation will allow for a few more firsts. In previous years, the festival’s family show was free for children, but adults still had to buy tickets.
This year’s production of “3 Spinning Fairies” will have free admission for everyone. The show also will continue into the fall, as the festival will be arranging for performances of the fairy tale at Jackson County schools once classes are back in session.
Director Sean Harmon, who also helmed last year’s children’s production, said he proposed “3 Spinning Fairies” because it involves lots of audience participation.
He said a few children will be selected to come up on stage and act out parts in the story.
“For me, it’s really important the kids get involved,” he said.
“I want them to see theater can be something they can participate in.”
He also hopes the free admission will entice some local families to give the festival a try for the first time.
Read Bill Chapin’s blog at blog.mlive.com/citpat-pluggedin.
