The Beginning was this: somewhere in spring of 2008 a group of IFA students decided to stage William Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing. The first organizational meeting was held on April 25th, 2008. This is how the Shakespeers at IFA came into being. The initial rehearsals were quite clueless: where and when to stage the play? will it be staged at all? what costumes and props to use? who should play whom? There were too few actors for all characters. It was done on a shoestring, in great uncertainty, and against unknown odds. With incredible optimism and great amounts of good will, the Shakespeers pushed on its initial, quite unknown advantage. Over July and August 2008, the Shakespeers learnt their roles. In September, the brave new arrivals alleviated the situation which seemed desperate: there finally actors for all characters! In October 2008, with an inspired piece of advice from the Head of the School, prof. Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, the Shakespeers found a place which was more like theatre. The dark but hospitable space of Ośrodek Teatralny “Maski” eventually contributed to the success of the enterprise. The first play was staged on November 6th, without a major disaster, and with some success. The audience showed great interest, with many people standing all the time through the two-hour performance. There were so many people in the audience, that several persons were actually unable to enter the crowded room! The performance was a great challenge, and gave great satisfaction to all persons involved, and hopefully gave joy to the audience, too. The Shakespeers staged Much Ado about Nothing again, on January 17th in the same venue at Maski. The Next Project of the Shakespeers was to stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Bollywood costume, music and dance. Inasmuch as Much Ado about Nothing was a fit of enthusiasm and improvisation, the second play was a feat of foresight, premeditation, careful planning, and coordinated creative effort. Rehearsals did not begin until winter, because they were preceded by an intensive course of physical exercises and acting workshops led by Agnieszka Marciniak, who was soon identified as the director and person in charge. While actors were getting fit, she developed the script which adjusted Shakespeare's play to Bollywood conventions, and to the general theme of the production: a story of opening out, emerging from confined spaces into the open world of magic, and then returning, cyclically, to the mundane world. Meantime, dancing and acting routines were prepared in an atmosphere of anticipation and surprise; on many occasions actors had to guess and find solutions that the director declined to explain directly. Some dancing routines were prepared by Monika Pachciarz, a trained dancer, English philologist, and indologist; all routines included symbolic movements and gestures which corresponded to specific passages of the play. The staging concept was a well kept secret, disclosed only several weeks before the first night, when Adrianna Hertman's impressive poster gave the game away, and provoked sighs of delight and eager anticipation from our future audiences. First night was scheduled for April 16th, 2009, in the spacious stage room of Apollo cinema. There were some optimistic estimates about how many people would come to see the play, but reality surpassed them all, when more than 400 viewers filled the stalls, and terrified Mechanics (who became ushers and usherettes) counted till 425, when they would have to turn newcomers away (the flow of vieweres stopped less than ten persons short of this limit). The performance was very successful technically, no missed lines, next to no confusion, smooth dancing routines, and a very responsive audience who clearly enjoyed it as much as the cast did. It was a successful conclusion of months of hard work. In terms of publicity and prestige, MND was a great success, too. The Shakespeers became a recognized and cherished part of the School of English, an admired showcase and (perhaps) a cherished pet project, which represented the School on several occasions in May: at the Library Day, and the grand celebration of the University's 90th jubilee. On both occasions, however, it was not possible to stage the entire play, which happened only on June the 14th, at Park Wilsona. The performance in the park was an attempt to blend the stage with nature, so that elves and fairies could feint in the greenery and among the audience (watch the gallery!). By now, it is the most recent show by the Shakespeers. The next occasion to see us will probably be The Tempest, to be staged somewhere in winter 2009/2010. |