Just a few weeks ago, Shakespeare tooketh his soliloquies and linguistic flair from 16th-century England to … Hollywood?
On Nov. 6, 7, and 8, Chadwick Upper School students and faculty put on a showing of Ken Ludwig’s 2004 hit play, Shakespeare in Hollywood.
The show was inspired by a true event. In 1935, Austrian director Max Reinhardt filmed a movie based on a classic Shakespearean play: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Reinhardt famously directed a lavish stage adaption of Shakespeare’s in the Hollywood Bowl in 1934, inspiring the movie.
While Shakespeare in Hollywood is rooted in reality, Ludwig added a layer of fantasy, imagining what would happen if the magical creatures from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, like Puck and Oberon, were to magically materialize on the Hollywood movie set.The result is a hilarious romantic comedy that incorporates both history and make-believe, featuring the entertaining complexities of love quadrilaterals and Shakespearean verse.
In the show, Oberon and Puck accidentally land in 1935 on Reinhardt’s Warner Brothers set for the film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Having been mistaken for actors, they are cast in the movie, and Puck’s magical flower of love soon wreaks havoc among the Hollywood stars.
Oberon falls for starlet Olivia Darnell, while studio boss Jack Warner, gossip columnist Louella Parsons, and German director Reinhardt all get caught up in a swirl of misplaced affections and magical confusion.
By mashing up Shakespeare’s enchanted world with real-life figures from 1930s cinema, the play reveals the vanity, ambition, and absurdity of the movie business.
“We saw the play at the California Education Theater Association (CETA) Festival this January, and I fell in love with the humor and story,” said Upper School Theater Director Andi Dëma. “Ken Ludwig is one of my favorite contemporary playwrights, and Shakespeare is my favorite overall, so this is a perfect combination…I decided on this play with the learning goals of teaching my actors Shakespeare scansion and verse, how to do a screwball comedy, and how to create a world from almost 100 years ago. I think we succeeded with our learning goals, and in creating a delightful show.”
A part of shows that is little known outside of theater communities is tech week, where actors and technical crew stay long hours at school, finalizing all parts of production to create a magical product.
“My favorite part of the show was playing around in my scenes with partners in the later stages of production, and the first full costume tech week run-through was one of the most exciting things to be a part of,” said senior Hunter George, who plays American business mogul Jack Warner.
While the actors were the face of the performance, the show’s running crew worked hard to create theater magic. The student-led crew operated lights, sound, projections, and a bustling backstage, helping to create many stage effects ranging from magically appearing actors to flying sunglasses.
Senior Matt Guo, who was responsible for managing microphones during the show, highlighted the sense of belonging many people find with Chadwick theater.
“I like the community aspect of the show, how the cast and crew are super connected. We always have games and meetings before and after runs, and the energy before shows has always been something I rarely find elsewhere,” Guo said.
In addition to the cast and crew, Shakespeare in Hollywood also incorporated an element not often seen in recent Chadwick productions: live music.
During the start of Act Two, the Chadwick orchestra comes onstage and plays a piece that the actors dance to during a lavish post-first-day-of-filming celebration, which was well received by audiences.
“My favorite moment of the play was the party scene at the Warner estate where the orchestra was actually playing live music while the actors danced around,” senior audience member John Eapen said. “The music being conducted live made it so cool.”
Next up, Chadwick Performing Arts will put on showings of the musical Pippin in February, with a largely returning cast and crew. Get excited!
