Urban Legends

Something wicked this way comes: Q&As with the heavy hitters of Bristol Riverside Theatre's What You Will

by A.D. Amorosi

City Paper: I love that you chose Twelfth Night as opposed to one of the dramas. How do you, as a director of a modernized vision, keep it uniquely the Bard's while making it uniquely your own?

KB: We chose Twelfth Night because it is inherently musical. Though this production is emphatically not a musical, there are numerous songs by Shakespeare already in the play and many more alluded to. We felt this play has the greatest chance of being utterly charming, delightful and entertaining.

CP: Are you familiar with Flocabulary and their take on Shakespeare?

KB: Flocabulary is fresh and inventive and clearly gets the kids involved. However, they go off into contemporary poetry and original lyrics. We are sticking exactly to the words of the Bard and our production is a real mix of rap and straight Shakespeare.

CP: How does this Shakespeare — this event — speak toward the rest of the series of theater events?

KB: Hopefully it leads us to being able to continue innovative and unusual programming.

CP: How does your musical composer rise to the occasion of making Shakespeare swing?

KB: I'll let him answer that.

CP: What sort of actor-performer-singer-dancer were you looking for to do this? It had to be specific to the meter of the rhyme on both counts — Willie and rap's flow — did it not?

KB: We found we needed actors that were very well-versed in Shakespearean speech. Without that, rapping it was impossible.

CP: If we're going to consider this a modern urban take on William Shakespeare, what's its "clip," its YouTube moment that people should be dazzled by separate and away from all of the rest of the extravaganza?

KB: Maybe the recognition scene at the end of the play.

CP: What was your primary goal behind taking on this brand of Shakespeare?

JE: I think that it is a perfect chance to introduce hip-hop or Shakespeare to those that would not give one or the other a chance simply because of what they assume it is. I hope that with this we can erase the fear of the unknown.

CP: Why Shakespeare as opposed to any other playwright?

JE: Shakespeare really "played" with the language in his time as does the hip-hop generation today, and I thought that it would be interesting to see how much the two worlds were similar.

CP: What was the greatest complication when it came to making Shakespeare swing?

JE: Actually Shakespeare didn't need any assistance in giving the text swing. If anything, it was about the actors and directors NOT forcing the text to make words flow in a more contemporary rhythm; it's already there. For example, in rehearsal we might do a scene with contemporary music as underscore and it was amazing sometimes how, without effort, the dialogue would just ride the beat so perfectly.

CP: What sort of actor-performer-singer-dancer did you need to do this?

JE: We really needed people that were informed by the hip-hop generation, which is not too hard to find given that we all live in it today. So whether or not you came of age in the hip-hop generation, the fact that we are all living in it means that we are all informed in some ways by it. The actors needed to be able to speak and understand Shakespeare's language so that it could remain authentic. Most importantly we needed a cast that was willing to really bring their own knowledge of hip-hop to the process and also willing to learn more about the culture of hip-hop. I think we have the right people in the room and I am thankful for that.

CP: What's your YouTube moment on this?

JE: It's hard to pick one moment in the show because I feel like the people should be dazzled by the fact that they understand something that they didn't before. I have had people that sit in our rehearsals and tell me that certain scenes have so much more meaning because of the way the line is delivered or the way the underscore is used to support the text.

CP: What was your goal behind taking on Shakespeare?

DB: Keith and I were interested in finding the place where Shakespeare's language and the way language is used in hip-hop converge.

CP: How does Bristol differ from Seattle's audiences?

DB: The audiences I deal with in Seattle are primarily dance audiences, but the theater audiences in both cities seem to be similar. Seattle audiences are also primarily Caucasians. The African-American population is only 4 to 5 percent of the total population in Seattle. The work I do is diverse, but it's not so much about diversity from a racial or ethnic perspective, but rather diversity in the subject matter.

CP: What's the most exciting aspect of your Bridges Informance Series bit?

DB: What was interesting about the Informance I presented with my company, Spectrum Dance Theater, was that there were so many people there who had very little exposure to dance. The fact that they responded to it, and that they were excited by it, and also that there was a really nice mix of people — cross-generational as well as ethnically diverse — that was really exciting. And it was also an opportunity for me to talk about what it is that drives me to create the kind of work I do — something I hadn't done in a while — to an audience that had not heard it before.

CP: Making Shakespeare "urban" in 2009. What say you?

DB: It is about communicating human values and the human condition, which are always relevant and eternal, regardless of how a generation chooses to articulate or express them. What we have in common, regardless of race, age, social background, music or literary preferences, etc., is our humanity, and this project will hopefully help us recognize that.

CP: How was it partnering with Keith Baker?

DB: It's been really terrific. Keith and I had been doing the workshops in New York prior to starting rehearsals, so a way of working together has kind of evolved, and it actually has a kind of ease about it. I mean, we just go in and do it. I think we have different strengths and those strengths seem to be complementary. I think a lot of it has to do with what I was talking about before — a kind of operating in the context of respect for other people's ideas and points of view.

CP: Did your musical composer rise to the occasion of making Shakespeare hip to the hop?

DB: I think Justin has done a terrific job. And because he also understands musically the evolution of hip-hop, he's brought an unexpected take on it. He brought something new to it that I didn't know. I think it confronts the stereotypes that people have about what hip-hop really is. It's unexpected, authentic and it's thoughtful, and I think it has added tremendously to what we're doing and in fact, his music has made what we're doing clearer.

CP: What sort of actor-performer-singer-dancer did you need?

DB: What I think was really important was that they be able to manage the language, more so than anything else. Because we're not doing an adaptation of Shakespeare's original language, they really needed to be able to speak the language with clarity and understanding. You can't do the other part of what we're trying to do conceptually without that foundation. Our original concept was actually to cast even younger actors, but they just couldn't manage the language as well.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)