The Shakespeare Gala Fundraiser: A Labor of Love
"And who can sever love from charity?" (Love's Labours' Lost, Act IV, scene iii)
To say that director Bill Peters adores William Shakespeare might be an understatement. Bill has had a deep devotion to the Bard throughout his career as an actor, director and professor at San Francisco State University where he taught acting, directing, playwriting and Shakespeare in performance.
And now Bill has turned his exceptional talents toward developing and directing The Shakespeare Gala, a fundraiser for Actors’ Theatre, which will take place over three evenings, starting on Wednesday, April 23rd, Shakespeare’s birthday, and continuing on Thursday and Friday, April 24th and 25th. His goal in doing this piece has been to facilitate an intimate relationship between the actors and Shakespeare, and between Shakespeare and the audience.
Bill explains: "When I acted in The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Love’s Labours Lost, and when I was inside the monologues of Prospero, Oberon, Berowne, I had the distinct feeling: 'Oh! This is what it feels like to be really smart! This is what it feels like to be able to say precisely what I am thinking. This is what it feels like to show exactly how I am thinking. This is what it feels like to charm people with language.'"
"Acting Shakespeare involves finding and enacting the tiny details that Shakespeare has given his actors to make their world come alive. For example, Juliet, impatiently waiting for Romeo to come to her, tries to hurry time itself. She sits on her balcony, and calls out to night to hurry up and get here: 'Come night, come gentle night...Give me my Romeo.' An OK performance would run through with a generalized passion that was more or less believable. A great performance would capture the nuanced shift from the command “Come night” to the more inviting “come gentle night.” It would also find the profound shift in the simple word 'my.' It’s the first time in her life that Juliet has claimed this intimacy."
The Gala showcases the work of 32 actors, 5 musicians, and one timeless playwright, who is responsible for the creation of no less than 1,223 characters who have been touching hearts, minds and souls for over 450 years: Hamlet and Prince Hal, Cleopatra and Cassius, Juliet and Julius Caesar, Malvolio and Miranda, Othello, Olivia and Orlando, Rosalind and Romeo, Richards II and III, Beatrice and Benedick, Falstaff, Feste and the Fool... Hear from them all on a evening that will journey through every emotion life has to offer, taken from plays filled with stirring adventures of the human spirt and language that spins, dances, and leaps to the limits of imagination.
We're hoping, naturally, that this linguistic labor of love also proves lucrative. All of our actors and musicians are volunteering their time and talents, as is Bill, so all donations for the fundraiser will go straight to the Actors' Theatre coffers to help pay our rent at the Art Center, fund future productions, and continue to build our programs, such as the workshops in acting, directing and playwriting that we've been offering. (Check out the upcoming Voice of Your Life with Joanna Cazden.)
"If money go before, all ways do lie open" (Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II, scene ii)
We're asking for a $50 donation as admission to the Gala performances on April 23, 24 and 25 at 7 pm. And, because we know that price point may not be within everyone's reach or budget, our cast has agreed to do a second performance on Friday, April 25, at 9 pm that will be a "what you will" donation (minimum $10, please), so that everyone has a chance to experience this magic carpet ride through Shakespeare's soaring words, music and spirit.
The Shakespeare Gala, a fundraiser for Actors’ Theatre, will take place April 23, 24 and 25. Make your donation and get your tickets HERE.
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