Chris Wood ’03 is in Theatre Fairfield’s spring production, “Henry IV” Pt. 1, which opens on April 17. He shares with us some of the experiences of putting Shakespeare on Fairfield’s stage.
Why Shakespeare? First of all, I am not a theatre major or minor. I am a junior with an English/journalism major who plans on writing for a major publication. I have enjoyed doing school plays and community theater since grade school.
When college came, I wanted to continue this hobby though it wasn’t included in my overall career aspirations. I was cast in the 1999 production of Hair the first week of classes and realized quickly that theater at Fairfield was much more than a hobby.
Theatre Fairfield, our school’s theatre company, is designed on a professional model, and to groom professional actors, directors, and crew members-and in the case of many alumni, has done just that. Being in one of these productions does not only take up the time of a part-time job, but is like being pushed every day at that job, to be the best liquor-bottle-bagger in the state of Connecticut. And how much do you get paid?
The price of two complimentary tickets ($10), and a credit toward your Visual/Performance Art requirement.
So after I learned these interesting details the hard way, why would I ever throw myself back into the butcher’s shop?
I hope that giving an insiders look into the making of this play will show just why it is worth the time, and why bringing Shakespeare to Fairfield is important at this time, to people our age.
The Audition. I honestly wasn’t too excited about being in a play that is 400 years old. I prefer plays and movies that deal with people like us – not kings and princes and crusades.
Yet the fact of the matter is, the writings of Shakespeare have such a grasp on people of any time that you can apply such seemingly irrelevant situations to anything along the road in your own life.
Plus the words of Shakespeare are the best arrangement of print since the Gutenberg Bible, but that’s my last literary aside.
One of the biggest reasons why I went out for a role in “Henry IV” Pt. 1 is because I wanted to win. For me it was like trying out for a varsity team. I wanted to see if I could get in. I wanted to be able to say that I did Shakespeare.
And I wanted to improve the acting skills that I had already learned through other productions here.
At the audition, the director, Fairfield Associate Professor Dr. Martha S. LoMonaco, had us all give monologues and read through scenes, but she started us off with the simplest of all exercises. Like every other audition I’ve endured with Theartre Fairfield, she made us walk.
Oh, it’s easy to walk. Unless you feel eyes glued to you every moment of every step. Dr. L. has seen it a million times, but that’s not who I’m worried about. The others you audition with, though you may know some, are each trying to do their best – they want your role too.
We can’t afford to hesitate or hold back as we each try to walk like a model, or a hobo, and then maybe our favorite vegetable. It’s quite different. And that’s before you even have a line to worry about stumbling over.
After two nights of auditions that could only be described as draining, I took the long walk up to Canisius 2, as all others have before me, and took a look at the cast list.
I made the cut.
I was Westmoreland. Now, all I had to do was find out what a Westmoreland was…
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