Summer 2002 was the Greenville Shakespeare Festival's first season. We kicked off the season in May with a joint fundraiser with the Greenville Project, where we performed two short scenes and local storyteller Medicine Story told tales from the Wampanoag (also known as Manitonquat) tribe, of which he is a member.

May also heralded our five-week session of night and weekend classes for adults and teens aged 13+. Most popular was our Ballroom Dance class, but the Improvisation and Acting classes were also well-received.

At midnight on July 3, the town of Greenville is the first town in New Hampshire to celebrate Independence day each year. The festivities open with a Pots-and-Pans Parade down Main Street that involves floats, firetrucks and many individuals banging their cookware. Of course, we were right in the middle of everything with our costumes, banner and loud, enthusiastic banging!

On July 4 we performed a short variety show, featuring swing dance, improvisation, a short scene from Two Gentlemen of Verona, and a traditional Scottish set dance to the strains of Chumbawumba, at the town's celebration.

July also saw the first and second of three weekends of performance of Two Gentlemen of Verona, our first production of the season, featuring an equal number of company and community members in its cast. During the last week of July and the first week of August, Scott Kerns, a member of the resident company, led local kids through their first explorations of Shakespeare's text in our children's workshops, aided by a few of our other actors.

Finally, Labor Day Weekend we opened and closed our second production of the summer, Measure for Measure, which was presented in the barn of Merriam Hill Center in Greenville.

Two Gentlemen of Verona

Director's Notes

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays. As such, it is not without problems and is rarely performed. Despite this, I think it has some fascinating characters, a delightful plot involving many twists and turns, and some exquisite poetry.

In particular, Two Gents seems to have been a testing ground for many of Shakespeare's most famous scenes and characters. In Proteus are hints of the two-faced villain Iago from Othello; the interactions between Julia and Lucetta are reminiscent of that friendship of Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It.

One of the reasons I work on Shakespeare is because his portrayal of the human condition is both accurate and transcends time. The idea of the doubtful bride or groom is one we still use today. Love, lust, betrayal, forgiveness and friendship are all dealt with in Two Gents, with all the pain and joy that they create in us.

The Elizabethans had a slightly different concept of friendship and relationships than we do today which is important to understand when viewing this play. To people living in Shakespeare's time, when women had very little power and even fewer rights, the friendship between man and man was all-important, overshadowing the contract between a man and a woman.

If "love" was felt, it was often based on very little knowledge of the other person, as is the love between Proteus and Julia. Much more important, strong, and well-defined is the friendship between Proteus and Valentine, friends for their entire lives, companions in all things. Such a bond was not lightly severed, and certainly not over a mere woman.

A brief note about our location here: it is perfectly plausible that this play takes place entirely outside. The Elizabethans had lovely gardens that they spent much time in. Though the play takes place entirely in Italy, it does switch frequently between Verona, Milan, and a forest somewhere between the two. If you're unsure where we are, just watch our single set piece: the bench will provide some clues.

Finally, I want to thank my cast and crew. This show has been a collaborative effort from start to finish, and it couldn't have happened without the input of every single person invloved. Now, sit back, take a deep breath, and allow the language of Shakespeare to sweep over you.

- Elizabeth Martin, Director

Measure for Measure

Director's Notes

Shakespeare's darkest comedy, Measure for Measure walks a fine line between comedy and tragedy. At any moment the fallibility, perfection, pride or baseness of the characters may drive the play over the edge into a universe of injustice, bloodshed, tyranny, and death. Yet the possibility remains of forgiveness, redemption, beautiful gifts and happy endings. It is in equal parts a play about people and a meditation on the Good Life, and while the personal drama is fascinating, it is the philosophical nature of the piece which I find irresistible.

On the one hand, we have characters devoted to upholding the strict, idealistic laws of this universe: one aspires to government of the state, the other to government of the soul. On the other hand, we have a city overrun with corruption and licentiousness: brothels on every street corner, whores in every street; a place where hangmen are philosophers and prisoners awaiting execution avoid their deaths by remaining too drunk to be confessed. When the Duke of Vienna beholds the growing corruption in his city, he turns over his power to a young and strict politician named Angelo, in an experiment to see what will happen to both Deputy and people when these two extremes come into contact.

In the end, this Duke must teach his people the virtue of the life of moderation. Good and bad co-mingle in the Duke: although he believes in the importance of justice, he is also inclined toward mercy; although he is a man of his word, he indulges in deceptive machinations and plotting; although he yearns for a solitary life, he is compassionate toward individuals. The most mature and contented of the characters, the Duke must teach the others how to balance within themselves their baser needs and higher callings. Passion must be balanced by prudence, austerity by licentiousness, justice by mercy, the Good by the Natural, the base by the divine.

The degree to which the Duke succeeds in his education of the people is never ultimately determined. Can Angelo learn to repent of the stringency of his justice, or accept and therefore temper his overwhelming passion? Can Isabel learn truly that the individual instance must sometimes supersede the austerity of law? Can Claudio come to terms with the inevitability of death and dying, or with the appropriateness of punishment?

To me, Measure for Measure is a comedy uniquely true to life, a story of people fraught with flaws, encountering their weaknesses and striving for perfection, always facing up to their fears and discovering the truth that Lucio shares with us: our doubts are traitors, that make us lose the good we oft might win, in fearing to attempt.

- Melon Wedick, Director