To produce Shakespeare for the modern world, you got to tell your story for the digital minded. For me that meant creating short little pieces that range widely from sword training, to speaking in original pronunciation to the madman carpenter behind the evolving Globe style stage hidden away in a church outside Hampden. What I liked was the subtle message of  youthful appreciation for Shakespeare, including the embrace of diversity as well as the love of the old text.  This project demonstrated how to artfully tell a story, that is avoid offering accolades for demonstrating your distinction. 

 
  • Embedded video media on Vimeo
    The Baltimore Shakespeare Factory lives a quiet existence in a church outside of Hampden. This was an attempt to reach out to the world.
  • Sword Play
    The unseen world of sword coaching turns about to be a show onto itself. This part of acting is taken for granted but requires a great deal of practice.
  • Shakespeare Screaming.png
    Shakespeare Screaming.png
    Grabbing the casts' warmup proved to be a surreal accent that couldn't be resisted and helped push the coverage away from portraying the production in a conventional way. While this production of Hamlet employed what is known as original pronunciation, costumes came off the contemporary rack. Hamlet looked like an aging club kid.
  • OP with The Founders
    The Baltimore Shakespeare Factory has a reputation for its use of original pronunciation, an educated-guess of what the language would have sounded back in The Bard's day. The trick was to delve into the making of original pronunciation without getting to bogged down into technicalities or theater-speak. As a filmmaker this is an example where not knowing -- I knew nothing of OP -- was an advantage, allowing me to be the advocate for the would be viewer who would have little patients for excess adulteration about the practice.
  • Stage Vr. 4 sent
    Doing the behind the scenes look at the building of the stage speaks to what fires me up as a storyteller. I love stories that are hidden. For example, while the stage is well built, I would imagine many in the audience would take it for granted and never know the personality behind the construction -- an eccentric woodworker who stashes away valuable Shakespeare editions along with his collection of Industrial Revolution-era machines. For me it wasn't enough to have him talk about his work but to go into his shop and follow one of his installation (in this case, a stainless window) being loaded onto a truck and eventually installed onto the stage.
  • Orpheiah's death.png
    Orpheiah's death.png
    Filming rehearsals may have provided better access, but it is tricky weaving the footage with the shots of the performance.
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