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washington county arts guide
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June — August
By Nancy Townsley
T
his summer,
Bag&Baggage
Productions of Hillsboro
will continue its tradition of
staging theatrical
presentations with an edge —
this time treating audiences to
a quirky outdoor version of
William Shakespeare’s classic
“The Tragedy of Julius
Caesar.”
We asked director Scott Palmer about
the method to his summertime
Shakespeare madness.
Q:
Scott, last summer Bag&Baggage
staged “Kabuki Titus” in Hillsboro’s
civic plaza, taking a chance that
audiences would resonate to a highly
stylized version of Shakespeare’s first
play. What prompted you to come up
with an all-female cast for “Julius
Caesar”?
A:
“Caesar” is such a testosterone-
driven play, and as it focuses so much on
politics and war, it has this incredibly
“male” feeling to it. The idea of having a
woman play Caesar is not new; in fact,
the Oregon Shakespeare Festival did it a
few years ago, very successfully. The
Donmar Warehouse production in
London last year was an all-female cast
(set in a women’s prison) and was
hugely successful. I am incredibly
interested in what happens when you
ask a woman to think about the
motivations, emotions and thought
processes found in a character like
Brutus or Cassius.
These are complex characters, and
sometimes they are played as being
arrogant, violent, straightforward men.
My hope is that, by having a cast of all
women, there will be some interesting
alchemy produced and that new,
different, unusual or (dare I hope!)
unique interpretations and interactions
between these incredible characters
that Shakespeare created.
Q:
But aren’t you taking a chance that
you’ll alienate some of the men in your
audiences, who’ll be expecting macho
Roman guys on stage?
A:
We are not doing “Julia Caesar.” We
are not having the female actors play
women characters. We are doing the
play, mostly, as written. My hope is that
by having an all-female cast, there will
be something new uncovered,
something different, a unique
perspective brought to the ensemble,
that will illuminate the play and these
characters that we all think we know.
Like all great acting challenges, this
process is really about an actor being
called upon to play someone entirely
different from themselves. Gender, in
this piece, is a part of that, but only one
part of that. For the actors who
auditioned, they so rarely get the chance
to play these kinds of Shakespearean
characters; the closest would be Lady
Macbeth or Queen Margaret, so the
opportunity to sink their teeth into
Brutus, Casca or Cassius ... well, those
kinds of opportunities don’t come along
that often.
Q:
You’ll be performing this play “in the
round” for the first time, with audience
members on all sides as actors move
about during scenes. What will this look
like from the viewer’s point of view?
A:
Performing “in the round” is an
entirely different experience for
everyone. The actors are in constant
motion, and they perform both in front
of the audience and also behind the
audience, creating this incredibly tense
and intimate experience. Many people
know the phrase “the fourth wall,”
meaning the invisible wall that
separates an audience from the actors
on a stage. In the round, there are no
walls at all.
The audience is truly at the very heart
of the action, surrounding and
surrounded by the actors — close
enough to literary reach out and touch
them. It makes a show so much more
immediate, personal and real; rather
than watching from a safe distance, the
audience is suddenly plunged into the
very heart of the action, within just a
few feet of the actors (and, in this show,
their daggers!) making it feel very
powerfully immediate.
Q:
You’ve said you plan to weave in
material from a “completely unknown
play” called “Caesar in Egypt,” written
in 1729 by Colley Cibber, in another
world premiere Scott Palmer adaptation.
How, exactly, will you be incorporating
story lines from that play?
Bag&Baggage’s foray into summertime Shakespeare boasts an all-female cast
Taking the testosterone out of ‘Julius Caesar’
Caesar
continued on page 11
Swords and daggers won’t be strangers in “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” this summer as cast members Cassie Greer (playing Marc
Antony), Theresa Park (playing Octavius) and Arianne Jacques (playing Cassius) mix it up on the outdoor stage in Hillsboro’s Civic
Center Plaza.
courtesy of Bag&baggage productions