American Globe Center (AGC) Continued Conversations: August 2024
Hello AGC Friends,
American Globe Center Founding Artistic Director Jim Warren here, sending you greetings from Norwich, CT. It’s been a while since our last (and first!) newsletter, so we’ve got a lot of stuff to share. This time, however, you get to hear from more voices on the AGC team.
In this month’s missive:
- What’s happening with the AGC and Stratford? ~ by AGC Executive Director Tom Evans
- Free for a good home ~ by AGC Working Advisory Board Member Kent Spellman
- Creating AGC’s first show SHAKESPEARE’S VILLAINS & CLOWNS @ THE GLOBE ~ by AGC Director of Outreach and Engagement Jason Young, AGC Interim Education Director Sarah Young, and AGC Founding Artistic Director Jim Warren
- VILLAINS AND CLOWNS at Two Roads ~ by AGC Working Advisory Board Member Elizabeth Saint
- VILLAINS AND CLOWNS at Bunnell High School ~ by AGC Working Advisory Board Member Megan Bonneau McCool
- MUSE OF FIRE: a podcast of the American Globe Center
- 501(c)3 status, spread the word, donate if you can
- We’ve packed a lot of info into this communique. Think of it like the Rolling Stones giving you the double album Exile on Main Street, or Taylor Swift sharing all those songs on The Tortured Poets Department (The Anthology), or Stevie Wonder opening the vaults with a thirty-six-disc box set! (Ok, maybe this newsletter isn’t that long, but you get the idea.)
“What’s happening with the AGC and Stratford?”
In our last newsletter, we shared that we were about to meet with the town leadership of Stratford, to gain some clarity concerning our plans and how they may or may not dovetail with Stratford’s goals. In the long lead-up to that meeting, the AGC team has invested nearly five years in building a relationship with the town, people, and leadership of Stratford. We’ve had countless meetings, public forums, and presentations sharing our vision for what the AGC could do in terms of economic development and educational growth for the town and surrounding communities. And, while the grounds of the old American Shakespeare Festival Theatre would seem to be the perfect home for our project, and provided us great inspiration for our mission, Stratford has finally closed the door on us moving forward with them. At the tail end of February, Jim and Tom met with town leaders, and straight up asked, “Does Stratford want the American Globe Center?” The response was equally straightforward – the town leadership felt that the project was larger in scale than what the people of Stratford wanted to see on that site.
With that door firmly closed, we found ourselves in uncharted territory. But the new frontier quickly became some of the most exciting times in our journey. We connected with a multidisciplinary group of state officials and they immediately saw the tremendous potential of the AGC for Connecticut and the country as a whole. In turn, that group referred us to the offices of Senators Blumenthal and Murphy, as well as to a host of municipal leaders and economic development professionals. In a flurry of activity, we soon had multiple meetings with a number of excited towns and cities – each eager to explore the possibilities of being the new home of the AGC. In our next newsletter we’ll provide a full update on which municipalities are working to bring us to their community, and next steps as we find our home. ~~~Tom Evans, AGC Executive Director
SHAKESPEARE – FREE TO A GOOD HOME
It has been over five years since the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre (ASFT) in Stratford burned to the ground due to arson after being vacant for several decades.
In the time since, a group of Shakespeare professionals, aficionados, and community builders formed the American Globe Center (AGC) with plans to build a historic re-creation of Shakespeare’s 1614 Globe theatre on the site of the ASFT. Our plans included additional theatrical spaces in a performance and education center as well as a park-like setting on the grounds.
The Town of Stratford, however, has other plans for that site and as a result, the American Globe Center is currently without a home. But rather than being left out in the cold, the AGC has been aggressively exploring other, more welcoming homes.
In late March and early April, the AGC team visited several communities to research possible sites. These included a last stab at Stratford, as well as tours of Stamford, Norwalk, Westport, Bridgeport, Milford, and Norwich.
I grew up in Connecticut, and saw several Shakespeare plays at the ASFT with school trips and with my grandmother. I now live in West Virginia, and have for more than 50 years, so it was a treat to spend some time in those lovely Connecticut communities. And while there were many similarities among them, there were also striking differences — in the levels of industrialization; gentrification; eagerness for, or fear of, growth; and long-term vision. These differences were often reflected in the responsiveness of community leaders to our inquiries about locating in their communities. As a retired community and economic development professional, it was easy for me to read which communities we were likely to gain traction in.
The AGC is a $100+ million project with a projected annual economic impact exceeding $50 million. And its current funding model relies on NO taxpayer funds. So indeed, the AGC is offering Shakespeare free to a good home.
So, what does a good home look like?
It would be a community that:
- Realizes and values the economic impact of the arts.
- Is willing and anxious to use arts and culture as a springboard for transformational change in their community.
- Is welcoming to visitors and seeks to increase its tourism base.
- Has appropriate sites that fit the criteria for the project.
- Has adequate transportation connectivity.
- Has, or is willing and able to develop, the amenities needed to support
the AGC.
And perhaps most important:
- Has elected leadership, economic and community development professionals, a business community, and a diverse cross section of
citizens, who share the vision necessary to unite the community in
backing and making this audacious project a reality.
On our tour of communities, we saw numerous enticing sites with diverse assets and advantages. We were impressed with the attractiveness of the communities and their potential. But if you look at the list above, you’ll see that some of the most important attributes of the home we are looking for are those we won’t find by just looking at real estate.
The American Globe Center wants to bring Shakespeare free to a good home that will love this project. ~~~Kent Spellman, AGC Working Advisory Board Member
CREATING AGC’S FIRST SHOW
SHAKESPEARE’S VILLAINS & CLOWNS @ THE GLOBE is a two-actor mix tape of scenes, songs, and improv that playfully showcases how Shakespeare’s Staging Conditions fuel the AGC style to entertain the socks off audiences of all ages and backgrounds. If you already love Shakespeare, or if you are not yet a fan, this one-hour event will turn you into a true believer in the AGC.
This is a chance to get in on the ground floor of the AGC’s grand plan to build the world’s only timber-frame re-creation of Shakespeare’s 1614 Globe theatre along with a state-of-the-art performing arts and education center. We’ll show you how we are turning the state of Connecticut into Shakespeare Central for the region and nation, all while you enjoy an hour filled with fun.
~~~Jason Young, AGC Director of Outreach and Engagement; Sarah Young, AGC Interim Education Director; Jim Warren, AGC Founding Artistic Director
JIM
In our last newsletter, we told you about this show. Now that we’ve already performed it at various venues in CT, WV, and Pittsburgh, this month we thought we’d take you behind the scenes and tell you a little bit about putting it together.
The two major inspirations for creating V&C were:
—our need to demonstrate our AGC style when pitching the project because it’s unlike anything most audiences have ever experienced
—Goblin Macbeth at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, originally produced by The Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Productions
A key ingredient in talking about the Globe+ project is conveying how dynamic, engaging, and fun Shakespeare can be when you perform his plays using the same four-hundred-year-old staging conditions for which he wrote. We call this phenomenon going “back to the future” where the audience becomes part of the world of the play and Theatre of the Imagination allows the shows to be plays again rather then trying to be movies.
At some of our awareness-raising events in Stratford, we performed a couple of scenes from Shakespeare plays two ways: first as proscenium drama with the audience seated in the dark and in front of the actors – what we might call “traditional” modern theatre. Then we did the scenes with the audience seated around a thrust playing area, sharing the same light as the actors, and becoming part of the world of the play as the characters spoke to and interacted with them – which is the kind of theatrical environment for which Shakespeare wrote. From my 35+ years of doing Shakespeare in this style, I knew first-hand how viscerally effective this demonstration could be.
Then I saw a show while scouting the town, theatres, and overall vibe at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. This show, called Goblin Macbeth featured three actors in full-goblin latex head masks/makeup greeting the audience with improvised interaction as we filed in and then performing the whole story of Macbeth with mostly two actors playing all of the roles while they also jumped in and out of the Scottish Play to do more improv with the audience, critique each others’ performances, and explain elements of the script.
This show’s irreverent mix of Shakespeare, improv, and music inspired me to create a full-length performance piece where two actors would go in and out of scenes from various plays while they also explained/demonstrated Shakespeare’s Staging Conditions and the entire Globe+ project. That’s how we began our journey to create Shakespeare’s Villains & Clowns @ the Globe.
JASON
The process of creating V&C was one of the most exciting experiences I’ve ever had as a theatremaker because it married two things that I really love:
1) doing Shakespeare the way that we do Shakespeare and
2) improv.
When we entered into the idea, none of us were totally sure of what the outcome would be. We just knew that we were going to start and that we’d have a show at the end. Jim laid out a nice framework of how we could move forward step by step and eat the elephant one bite at a time, focusing our attention on doing the Shakespeare scenes first and making sure we had that at the heart. We then crafted the transitions, information, and improv around that core. This progression path gave us time to think ahead as we put each piece together.
It was a fun challenge as an actor, not only to perform seven Shakespeare scenes and bounce around from clowns to villains to singing, but also to go back and forth between Shakespeare characters and the version of myself I was playing and improvising between those scenes.
The show is easier experienced than explained.
It is equal parts celebration, explanation, demonstration of how we do Shakespeare, and why the way we do Shakespeare rocks.
The show is a delightful and surprising mix of information, and improv wrapped up in the package of an entertaining show that has an arc with a beginning, middle, and end.
Jim doesn’t like the term “edu-tainment,” but that’s the term that’s always in my head about V&C.
Each audience is receptive in different ways.
SARAH
What keeps me on my toes is how each member of the audience interacts with us. I had a theatre professor who would often say, “Half of acting is reacting.” Getting to use Shakespeare’s lines (and our improv) to “react” to how my new scene partner (the audience) “reacts” forces me to listen and focus, which brings new meaning to these words that have been said millions of times. (Also, don’t tell Jason, but the audience is my favorite scene partner.)
The piece of information that seems to have the largest impact on audiences is that they are a character in the plays. When people realize that Shakespeare intentionally wrote for his characters to talk directly to someone because he knew his actors would be able to see the audience, these plays that seem to some to be in another language suddenly become understandable. Also, the fact that the number of speaking characters in his plays ranges from 17 to 60 is pretty interesting and mindblowing.
JASON
Performing V&C at Two Roads Brewing Company in Stratford:
I felt the most pressure at this one because every other performance in CT was leading up to this punctuation on our Stratford chapter. The space was awesome: packed, tight, and hot – all the things you want it to be with people right on top of each other.
(more on this performance later in the newsletter)
Performing V&C at the Chestnut Street Playhouse in Norwich:
Chestnut Street Playhouse is a wonderful small thrust stage with the audience surrounding the stage on slightly elevated platforms.
The show felt like a cool first date; it was a blast to meet and play with a wide variety of people from town government, a guy who performed at old Stratford theatre, as well as Chestnut St. Playhouse fans and actors.
Performing V&C at various venues around West Virginia:
Audience members in CT are more interested in the Globe+ project, in WV it’s more about Shakespeare’s Staging Conditions.
SARAH
When asked “what’s a moment of interaction with the audience that you either look forward to at every show OR that was particularly memorable at a single performance?”:
Each time Jason has to ask for the crown back when we are doing a couple of scenes from Richard III accomplishes both of those. It is a moment when I wonder what the audience will do and each one is memorable. We have had a child force him to say please, we have had a grown man pout and wait to be bribed, we have had a man wear the crown himself, we have had a woman tell Jason he should be ashamed of himself, the list goes on.
JASON
Shakespeare’s Staging Conditions work anywhere.
Like what Denzel Washington’s character says in the film Remember the Titans: “I run six plays…like novocaine: just give it time, it always works.” The show works anywhere because the show is always about that audience in that moment and collaborating on an experience together. So whether it’s a WV audience, a CT audience, or a PA audience, because it’s done in our style it works, it’s a positive experience that every audience enjoys.
SARAH
We are performing high quality Shakespeare in jeans and with things we bought from Amazon. You don’t need expensive things to create great art. You the audience can influence the show: boldly share your opinion on your face and/or express what you think about a character and what they’re saying and a particular moment. We as performers thrive off that and it guarantees you a unique experience as we act with you and not just for you.
Why should folks want to see the show when we perform it again?
JASON
It kind of feels like American Gladiators and American Ninja Warrior: something different in every moment; not like playing tennis for three hours. It’s like first I gotta run over here and do three laps in the swimming pool, then go jump on the trampoline, then I gotta go skeet shooting, then do some golf, then I gotta downhill ski – it’s always changing, which makes it challenging and exciting to perform and a blast for the audiences who help create the experience every night.
Anything else you’d like to vomit here for the Newsletter?
SARAH
The word “duke” rhymes with “puke.” (See what I did there?) I don’t ever want to perform with a fourth wall nor see a live show that uses a fourth wall ever again.
VILLAINS & CLOWNS AT TWO ROADS BREWING COMPANY IN STRATFORD, CT
I pull into the Two Roads parking lot. It is pouring rain. “We’ll lose even more attendance.” I think. If people are on the fence about an event, too hot, too cold, too rainy will easily make up their minds to stay home.
I go upstairs to the Vault Room – a beautifully rustic space with exposed brick and windows facing three sides. Great buffet spread, bartender getting ready, the faces of people I have known for years and new friends, my fellow American Globe Center members are there. We have spent so much time on Zoom they feel like friends but in some cases we have never been in the same room together. We are wearing lanyards, with our logo & names. A large screen mounted on the wall silently alternates dozens of photos of Shakespeare’s Globe in London at various stages of construction. (Shakespeare’s Globe is a worldwide destination for tourists, theatre enthusiasts, history buffs, the Shakespeare obsessed.) And gorgeous architectural drafts of our 1614 Globe – what we see coming to The U.S., the Northeast, Connecticut.
We are ready. Us and a large empty room. And rain, a lot of rain.
As time approaches I opt to station myself downstairs as greeter and direction giver.
I have spent so much time since 2019 telling people about “the vision.” A Globe. A real Globe theatre. Just like in London. That draws HUGE numbers of people to see Shakespeare performed in an interactive, boisterous way. (A way that is, obviously, hard to envision by many.) The AGC project is not “just” the Globe and not “just” Shakespeare. Our theatre campus will also have a performance and education center with multiple spaces that can host concerts, from rock to orchestra to single performer. Unique spaces that can be used by the local school chorus, maybe even high school graduations and weddings. I (and my teammates) also understand that it must pay for itself. But the Globe+ campus we envision is unique and alive enough to inspire all kinds of events. We will only be limited by our own vision and creativity.
It will also bring opportunities to our host location. Hotels, farmer’s markets, restaurants, souvenirs…
I and all of my team members can see it so clearly. Some listeners get very excited. Some smile and nod politely. Some people can only say “does anyone like Shakespeare anymore?” I think it will be amazing.
But today, staring at a gray parking lot: would they come? I see cars pull in and park. The inevitable pause as drivers grab cell phones and wallets, make sure windows are up. Some came with umbrellas, most not.
I open the door for them. Put on my best smile. The smile I used at Shakesbeer, and at The Family Day Farmers Market and other local Stratford events.
Are you here for the Globe Center Event? – fully expecting “No.”
“Yes.” — Wait, what?
“Oh, yes, know all about it. Upstairs?” They nod toward the staircase.
Yes, yes it is. And they head up. More people. More people come and more people calmly know that “yes” they are there for the Globe Center event. They know about it. They are excited, they are curious. And they keep coming. Some faces I recognize. Many I don’t. And I realize that is how it will be when we finally open the doors on the Globe itself. People. People, quite confidently coming to the theatre. It doesn’t seem remarkable to them. They trust what we say and they come. It is almost surreal. I honestly think the sheer joy of watching people walk in the door was one of the best parts of the night for me.
People order beers. Stand and talk. Get introduced to new/old friends from West Virginia. Our professional photographer in residence, Megan McCool, circulates, photographs.
Men, women, and children, put veggies, hummus, pulled pork tacos on their plates and prepare to settle in. It feels so completely normal and yet, we know that even this was just a dream a few years ago.
Finally, it is time. My family has arrived separately and are in the audience. My husband has an MFA in lighting design so he brings a technical eye. My children are 12 and 13. They bring a doubtful tweenager’s eye.
Jason and Sarah begin. They weave facts about Shakespeare, history, inclusivity, and vision into assorted Shakespeare plays. The audience follows. They interact. When it is over everyone applauds. A little girl (5? 6yrs old?) in the second row stands on her mother’s lap and applauds with delight. SHE gets it, Jason tells her. And her response alone it is all worth it.
When the event is over it is the strangest sensation. This is a huge step forward for the American Globe Center. It is proof we know how to do an event. It was professional, smooth, thoughtful, informed. For me, personally, to see concrete proof of what we are capable of filled me with a renewed sense of optimism. To see people that I respect believe our vision and come to share in our dream was awe inspiring.
~~~Elizabeth Saint, AGC Working Advisory Board Member
VILLAINS & CLOWNS AT BUNNELL HIGH SCHOOL
For me personally & professionally, one of the most exciting aspects of the AGC’s existence within any community is the invaluable connections it will make with school systems and the students in them. From the general student to the aspiring actor, my hope is that through educator workshops, performances, and visits on and off the campus, AGC’s team will inspire multitudes of different students throughout their educational years in a variety of ways, from exposure to artistic and technical aspects of theatre, to exposure to the historically accurate re-creation of the Globe. With the AGC’s spring visit to Bunnell High School to perform Shakespeare’s Villains & Clowns @ the Globe, I got to see a glimpse of the potential in these connections with Bunnell High School’s drama students.
These drama students were in the middle of a rehearsal season for the contemporary musical 9 to 5, and the special visit was met with both relief for a break in the process (choreography day) and also a bit of skepticism. Once things began, though, and we were seated on stage in the “U-shaped” seating arrangement mimicking a thrust stage that brought the student audience right near the actors, I was happy to see what I’d hoped for – a myriad of responses – confusion, surprise, enjoyment, belly laughter, interaction, and most of all connection with Sarah and Jason as performers. No student remained unengaged with the small scenes of Shakespeare that they were performing and expertly weaving into their overall story, even the most skeptical. Coupled with a conversation after their AGC-style performance where Jason, Sarah, and Jim talked to the students about their own high school histories with acting, they succeeded in a short amount of time to create a positive and enjoyably engaging educational experience.
To me, that was an illustration of the kind of effect the AGC’s performing style and commitment to consistent education could bring to students individually and to entire districts. It was inspiring for me as I watched, to imagine what it would be like to have students introduced to the many facets of theatre production and Shakespeare from elementary school onward through a connection with the many different kinds of professionals at the AGC. And it was exciting to envision how that could only grow over the years to result in a truly unique long-term educational experience within the community at large. What a lucky community that will be. And with high school educational tours coming onto the campus from all around, it’s truly thrilling to visualize the educational impact the AGC will have. ~~~Megan Bonneau McCool, AGC Working Advisory Board Member
A Muse of Fire: a podcast of the American Globe Center
We now have a podcast!
Our debut episode features Tom Evans, AGC Executive Director, Jim Warren, AGC Artistic Director, and Jason A Young, AGC Director of Outreach and Engagement. The trio discusses their lives, connections, and the journey that brought them together in Connecticut to build the world’s only timber-frame re-creation of William Shakespeare’s 1614 Globe theatre.
Click HERE to listen to this loooong episode (remember, think long like the Stones’ Exile, Taylor’s Tortured Poets, and StevieW’s career-spanning box set!) Our second episode features a chat with Shakespeare scholar Dr. Ralph Alan Cohen, Jim’s friend and decades-long dreaming partner in building the American Shakespeare Center and Blackfriars Playhouse. Click HERE to listen to this episode.
The AGC is now recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 entity!
Achieving this nonprofit status was an important step for the AGC because we are still in our early start-up phase and now folks like you can help us with tax-deductible donations. While we are not yet officially raising money for bricks and mortar (as well as waddle and daub!), we do need your help on a smaller scale to help us pay for gas, lodging, and travel expenses as we book more performances of VILLAINS & CLOWNS and keep looking for the right place to plant our flag to build the Globe+.
You can make a one-time donation by clicking HERE.
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