91制片厂

Banquo falls to the floor, stabbed. A gentleman raises his beer in reverence, and the rest of the bar follows suit. It鈥檚 a toast to the dead, and it鈥檚 not the first one of the evening. Just another Monday night in Portsmouth.

Banquo is the noble general in William Shakespeare鈥檚 "Macbeth" and one of several major characters who will die in this production of 鈥淭he Scottish Play鈥� being staged on the wide pine-planked second floor of The Press Room, a stalwart venue on Portsmouth鈥檚 entertainment scene and the setting for tonight鈥檚 tragedy.

This is ShakesBEERience, the interactive Shakespeare reading series and brainchild of a trio of 91制片厂 grads鈥擟hristine Penney 鈥�99, Dan Beaulieu 鈥�05 and Kevin Condardo 鈥�05鈥攚ho bring the bard to life year-round on Port City stages and beyond. Their Seven Stages Shakespeare Company is the only professional Shakespeare company in the Seacoast region.听

Upstairs at The Press Room is a long, narrow room with brick walls, a bar and tables and chairs. It鈥檚 warm and the lights cast a yellow glow. There is no stage. The actors, all professionals, comingle with the audience and the servers and bartenders who keep the food and beverages flowing throughout the performance.

Condardo says that in Shakespeare鈥檚 early years, 鈥渉is audiences were rowdy.鈥� It was common for the actors to interact with audience members, to sit down next to someone and ask, 鈥楥an you believe this is happening right now? Can you believe we鈥檙e seeing this?鈥� ShakesBEERience actors do the same.

The average age of tonight鈥檚 audience is about 30, thanks at least in part to the company鈥檚 free-for-all or pay-what-you-will听philosophy, which attracts younger patrons who can鈥檛 afford a pricey ticket. The policy helps attract sponsors, too, says Beaulieu. 鈥淚t gives us a sort of credibility to be able to walk into a meeting with a prospective sponsor and say, 鈥榊our sponsorship will give Johnny teenager an experience he won鈥檛 forget. And when he goes to college and has a Shakespeare course, he鈥檒l be glad to take it.鈥欌��

ShakesBEERience takes a hiatus in the summer but the company does not. Shakespeare in Prescott Park, launched by Penney in 2011, a year before Seven Stages came to be, has become a summer ritual, with shows on Sunday afternoons in July and August through a partnership with the Prescott Park Arts Festival.听Productions feature professional actors from New York, Boston, Portland and the greater Portsmouth area.

The trio has included 91制片厂 theatre department grads in almost every one of its productions because they speak the same vocabulary. 鈥淲e were all trained the same way by the same people,鈥� says Penney. Beaulieu agrees: 鈥淵ou can look at them and say, 鈥榃e need you to go beyond the shoe.鈥欌�� 鈥淎nd they鈥檒l know what that means!鈥� Condardo interjects.

91制片厂 theatre professor David Kaye explains what it means to "go beyond the shoe鈥�

But why Shakespeare, and why now?听

鈥淭here was a gaping hole in Portsmouth,鈥� says Beaulieu, a Hampton native. 鈥淪o many great cities have resident Shakespeare or classic theatre companies; it seemed like something we could be doing here.鈥� Beaulieu and Penney had been working together on Shakespearean productions since 2009, when she was directing "Julius Caesar" and he auditioned. 鈥淒an and I spent a lot of time talking about Shakespeare,鈥� says Penney. 鈥淥ne evening a few years after we met we were chilling at my place and thought, 'This work seems to be going very well. What if we actually made this a company?鈥欌�� They launched it shortly thereafter.

Penney says advice she once received from a 91制片厂 theatre professor was foundational to the decision to launch. 鈥淒avid Richman told us, 鈥楧on鈥檛 wait for work to come to you. Create the work you want to do.鈥� That has stuck with me to this day and it has been the basis for everything artistic I鈥檝e wanted to do,鈥� says Penney.听鈥淲e want to do Shakespeare? So let鈥檚 do Shakespeare; we鈥檙e not going to wait around for someone else to do it.鈥�

Condardo, who by day is budget manager for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, joined Seven Stages in 2013 as the third leg of the stool. The company, whose mission is to illuminate the works of William Shakespeare through 鈥渁rtistically excellent and financially accessible productions and programs鈥︹�� has produced "The Comedy of Errors," "Romeo and Juliet," "Much Ado About Nothing," "A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "King John," "Twelfth Night," "King Lear"听and a host of other works. In 2013, they staged "Richard III"听just after archaeologists discovered the bones of the king under a parking lot in England. (See 鈥�.鈥�) The company also brings theatre education into schools.听

No Starving Artists

No, the work doesn鈥檛 pay the bills, at least not today. But that was never the impetus for starting the company.

鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing,鈥� says Beaulieu, who works for the Fireman Hospitality Group in Manhattan during the week, returning to New Hampshire on weekends for his work as artistic director at Seven Stages. 鈥淭o be able to have this sort of life is very much living the dream.鈥�

Social Animals

鈥淧lease take your devices out and make sure they are turned ON鈥� are words you typically don鈥檛 hear before a show begins, but before every Seven Stages production, the founders encourage the audience to snap, post and Tweet their way through the experience.

鈥淵ou see all the teenagers literally perk up when we announce it,鈥� says Seven Stages managing director Kevin Condardo.

For a 2013 production of 鈥淩omeo and Juliet鈥� at Prescott Park in Portsmouth, they even created a Verona News syndicate that tweeted out reports of the events happening onstage, and the characters Tweeted throughout the show (鈥�#party at the capulets,鈥� 鈥淍ladyCAPs Mama Cap is not pleased鈥�). Audience members could watch the actors tweeting in character鈥攍ike when a gigantic ship wound its way up the Piscataqua River right next to the park and Sampsonia Capulet, as @BGirlSampsonia, tweeted 鈥淧sssshhhhhhh. Upstaging fiend.鈥�

鈥淲e made it 鈥榬ight now,鈥欌�� says Seven Stages artistic director Dan Beaulieu. Which is exactly what William Shakespeare was doing in his day鈥攖aking poems and stories that existed hundereds of years yearlier and adapting them for Elizabethan England. 鈥淔or contemporary audiences in the age of the device鈥攖he 鈥榤e鈥� generation鈥攊t鈥檚 all about 鈥楬ow do I experience this? How do I feel this? How do I become a part of it?鈥� says Beaulieu. 鈥淧eople want to be part of the equation. Then there was this whole period where theatre became a thing at a distance鈥攖he so-called proscenium wall鈥攜ou observed from afar. But now we鈥檙e coming back to where it was in Shakespearean times.鈥�

Condardo describes the group鈥檚 embrace of social media more pragmatically. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not going to change, so we鈥檙e trying to lean into it,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f the audience is going to have their heads down texting, we have two options: We can be talking to them on their device, or we can, at ShakesBEERience, walk over to them, knock on their table and say 鈥楬ey, I鈥檓 right here.鈥� We鈥檙e in a unique place. When they鈥檙e not paying attention, we can bring them back.鈥�

The company found a clever way of making sure devices were stowed for one of the most important scenes in 鈥淩omeo and Juliet,鈥� however. 鈥淲e set the balcony scene during a rainstorm, so we had water guns going,鈥� explains Beaulieu. 鈥淭hey put their phones away so they wouldn鈥檛 get wet. It was out way of saying, 鈥楩or the next five minutes, just watch the play.鈥欌��

The trio believes the good health of humanity depends upon artists and the arts. So this summer, when citizens of Portsmouth found themselves locked in debate over noise and how much is too much when it comes to live performances, and when one letter-to-the-editor writer suggested that art belonged in a gallery behind closed doors, they responded in the way they knew best, staging a hushed production of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus" under the street lights of Market Square on a misty Sunday evening.

鈥�'Coriolanus' is all about the importance of leadership listening, the idea of the people having a voice,鈥� says Penney. 鈥淭hat was at the heart of what was going on, so we decided to shine a light on it.鈥� So they did, literally, shine their flashlights on the scripts that night, with actors whispering the lines. It was hard to hear them, and that was the point. Seven Stages posted and Tweeted the script so the audience could follow along.

Shakespeare Everywhere

What鈥檚 next for Seven Stages? More Shakespeare.听ShakesBEERience made its west-coast debut in 2013 and is now staged quarterly in San Jose. Soon the company will announce a spring 2015 production and reveal its pick for the summer show at Prescott Park. Two other full-scale productions are in the planning stages.

But how much longer can an old bard stay relevant in the snippets and soundbites culture we live in? As long as the bones of Richard III, they say. 鈥�There鈥檚 a movement happening right now with Shakespeare,鈥� says Beaulieu. 鈥淢odern culture is heading very much toward the instant, the immediate, but there鈥檚 a whole subculture that鈥檚 saying 鈥楲et鈥檚 take a look at the past. How do we take that past and ask what鈥檚 important that we may be losing or forgetting, and how do we bring that past into the present and start to create whatever the future looks like?鈥� I see it happening with Shakespeare all over the world.鈥�

Outtakes

There was a point in time, in the days before 鈥渇ollow your heart鈥� became acceptable advice for high-schoolers, that many parents and even some guidance counselors discouraged all but the most obviously gifted college-bound seniors from majoring in theatre, deeming it 鈥渋mpractical.鈥� Luckily, that was not the case for the founders of Seven Stages. We asked each of them what brought them to the 91制片厂 theatre department.

听

Christine Penney:
I was a communications major all the way through junior year, then I took Acting I and felt something 鈥渨aking up.鈥� I sat down with my parents and said, 鈥業 think I want to declare a second major and I know it鈥檚 really late, but I think I really want to do it.鈥� So I stayed a fifth year and did the whole theatre major in one year, which was such a gift because it made me feel as if I was in a conservatory. It was incredible鈥攖he highlight of my 91制片厂 experience.鈥澨�听

听

听

听

Kevin Condardo:
Kevin Condardo says he 鈥渓ucked out like crazy walking into the amazing 91制片厂 theatre department that really forces you to learn everything.鈥� He recalls a story one of his graduate school classmates told about her graduation from NYU. 鈥淪he was a theatre major, but graduation was her first time on NYU鈥檚 gigantic main stage, and she and the other actors couldn鈥檛 find their light because they鈥檇 never been on a big stage before then. I remember thinking, 鈥楴ot only do I know how to find that light, I know how to hang that light, I know how to build the set, and I know how to create a poster and market that show.鈥�

听

听

Dan Beaulieu:
Beaulieu credits his high-school guidance counselor with giving him the push to major in theatre at a time when he was feeling conflicted. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e into theatre, especially at an early age, it feels so good it almost feels selfish. You can easily lose site of the fact that it affects other people and that the arts are critical for people to experience. She told me, 鈥榊ou have thousands of lives to touch. Do theatre,鈥欌�� Beaulieu recalls.听

听

听

听

Catch ShakesBEERience in action at this winter
January 26 - Troilus & Cressida
February 23 鈥� Hamlet

Just in time for the playoffs ...

Learn more:

听