New Swan 2016: As You Like It

As I discussed in an earlier blog post, in the Forest of Arden is as much a state of mind—a locus of thought, desire, and fancy—as an actual place.  At the same time, the process of staging the play in a particular time and place—giving it “a local habitation and a name,” in the words of Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream—means spending some time thinking about how the real, historical world might interact with the imaginary world of our production. Continue reading “Our Arden”

While the idea of the hobo utopia was a genuine draw to many people during the Great Depresssion, it’s important not to forget that poverty and desperation were the principal motivations for joining the transient populations. Errol Uys, author of Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression (2014), has a wonderful website with hundreds of firsthand stories of young people’s experiences during the period. In particular, they offer a vivid picture of what hopping trains was really like.  Some excerpts follow.

Robert Lloyd:

I was one of those unfortunates who had to ride the rails during the Great Depression, and have many stories to tell of the so-called ‘trials and tribulations’ we kids had to face, some of them quite gruesome.

I once saw as many as one hundred hoboes on one train. Some were whole families with small children. They had no place to go, nor anything to do when the got there. I saw the dead, empty, defeated look in they eyes, when they were told to move on, wherever they tried to stop. Continue reading “Hopping Trains: Firsthand Accounts”

Charles’ longing description of the Forest of Arden has its roots in classical myth, but his desire to “fleet the time carelessly” might also be connected to another mythic tradition: the Land of Cockaigne.  Cockaigne was a medieval peasant utopia, a magical realm of ostentatious gluttony, continual drunkenness, sexual abandon, and complete idleness.  The 14th-century poem “The Land of Cockayne” tells of an abbey where “pies and pastries form the walls,” among other delights, describing how roasted geese “fly to the abbey (believe it or not) / And cry out ‘Geese, all hot, all hot!'” and larks “land in your mouth, well-cooked and tame.”  More than merely an escape from the brutalities of peasant life, Cockaigne was a kind of parodic paradise, devoted to the cares of the flesh instead of the soul.  As the poem observes, “Though paradisal joys are sweet, / There’s nothing there but fruit to eat.”

In 1928, Harry McClintock recorded a modern version of the Land of Cockaigne, based (he claimed) on the tales he heard as a young hobo traveller.  “The Big Rock Candy Mountain” begins with a tramp walking past the campfires of a hobo “jungle,” declaring, “I’m headed for a land that’s far away / Beside the crystal fountain,” and inviting the others to join him in its unique pleasures:

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
There’s a land that’s fair and bright,
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night.

Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains. Continue reading “Big Rock Candy Mountain and the Hobo Utopia”

Karyn Lawrence, lighting designer for our shows this year, asked me to upload her ideas for the locations of As You Like It.  (Lighting is crucially important in the New Swan, and you can see how powerful the effects are going to be in this production.)

Continue reading “Lighting Design Concepts”

Shakespeare takes the principal location of his play from his narrative source, Thomas Lodge’s Rosalynde, which is set in the Ardennes Forest in France. But what kind of place is the Forest of Arden? Our first glimpse comes early, when the wrestler Charles gossips with the courtier LeBeau about the banished Duke Senior:

They say he is already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England: they say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world.

Continue reading “Where is Here?”

During the Great Depression, thousands of people jumped on freight trains in order to seek a better life in an Eden of their imagination, a Forest of Arden, if you will.  This was a time of radical utopian dreaming.  The world was not working for the disenfranchised, many of whom lost their fortunes in the stock market crash of ’29 and were hounded by police, banished, and forgotten.  Those gleaming rails connected them to the hope of a better life, a place where it was possible to live harmoniously and realize your true potential.

Ridin’ the Rails has an aura of fantasy attached to it.   Regular Joes could imagine jumping on a train, and then fleeting the time carelessly outside the brutalities of cruel city life.

For As You Like It, Keith Bangs will transform the New Swan Theater to reflect this world.  The tiring house becomes a freight train that is jumped by the actors who are traveling from Chicago to Arden (between Acts 1 and 2).

 

Orlando is found at the top of the play carrying slabs of meat into Oliver’s Meat Packing Plant, CHI.  The meat will hang inside the stage left inner below.  Later, he knocks out Charles with one of these slabs.

There will be a schematic theme of thrown paper from the balconies surrounding the theater.

At the conclusion of 1.1 – a party on New Year’s Eve – streamers will be launched.

Upon arrival in Arden, snow will be thrown.

When Orlando is posting letters, papers will flutter down.

At the wedding, flower petals will shower from the skies.

Confetti at the curtain call.

 

The costumes are being designed by Katie Wilson.  This is early Depression Era – 1931.  The two worlds of the play reflect the wealthy “royalty” of Chicago, and the sharecroppers in Arden.  Here’s a look at some of Katie’s color sketches.

The play begins in Chicago.  There will be recorded big band jazz at the New Year’s Eve part on the balcony.  Once the action shifts to Arden, the music will be live (more on this below).  Mark Caspary and Matt Glenn are our sound designers.  Here is a sound demo that they put together for the party in Chicago, segueing into the train to Arden, and the winter wind that blows in the forest.

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Alan Terricciano, Professor of Dance, pianist and composer extraordinaire, is writing original folk music for the Forest of Arden.  These songs will fit seamlessly into the Depression Era world of our play.  John Carroll (Amiens)  will be our principal singer/guitarist.  Martin, Thomas, and Adrian also play guitar and will join in.  Kelvin will play washtub bass, Greg will play washboard, Amy and Kelsey will play spoons, and Steph will be featured on harmonica.

Here are the songs that are written thus far:

“Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind”

 

“Under the Greenwood Tree”

 

“In the Magical Forest of Arden”

 

“What Shall He Have”