Meet the Director Behind Our Summer Shakespeare Staging

When the lights come up for a Shakespeare production, the audience sees the verse, movement and visual world. Behind that shared moment is a long process of listening, editing, rehearsing and making practical choices. For Northland Words, summer theatre is also a community meeting place: a production shaped by artists, volunteers, families, students and neighbours from Rochester, Minnesota.

This conversation with the director of the summer Shakespeare staging explores how an old play becomes immediate, welcoming and playable outdoors. It also considers what an Australian audience might recognise in the process, from open-air performances in Melbourne and Brisbane to the different school holiday calendars, safety requirements and ticket expectations that shape community theatre across Australia.

Finding the play inside the play

What first drew you to this Shakespeare production?

The starting point was the play’s mixture of public spectacle and private feeling. Shakespeare gives us kings, lovers, clowns, conspirators and citizens, yet the emotional engine is usually intimate. Someone wants to be recognised, forgiven, chosen or heard. That human scale is where we begin.

I am less interested in treating Shakespeare as a museum object than in finding the rhythm that allows an audience to recognise itself. The language may be centuries old, but the questions are familiar. Who has power? Who gets excluded? When does loyalty become pressure? What happens when a community accepts a story without examining who is telling it?

The production keeps the original text at its centre while giving the performers permission to speak plainly and respond truthfully. The audience does not need a university lecture before arriving. They need a clear situation, active characters and a theatrical world they can enter quickly.

Building a shared vision

How does a director turn an early idea into a production?

The first stage is a series of conversations. I talk with designers, performers, stage managers and the producing team about the central tensions of the play. We consider what the audience should feel in the first five minutes, where the story changes direction and which images might stay with people after they leave.

Then the rehearsal room becomes a laboratory. A scene may be staged as a formal court, a noisy gathering or a quiet exchange at the edge of the action. We try possibilities, watch what happens and adjust. Directing is partly vision, but it is also attention. A performer may discover a gesture or pause that changes how an entire scene works.

The production also needs to fit a real venue, a real budget and a real group of people. Community theatre is made through cooperation. A strong idea must be achievable by the available artists and crew, transportable when needed and safe for everyone involved. That practical discipline often makes the storytelling sharper.

Readers interested in the wider value of this work can explore community theatre research, which considers how local performance creates connection, confidence and cultural participation.

Making Shakespeare welcoming

Some people feel nervous about attending Shakespeare. How do you remove that barrier?

We begin by making the room feel hospitable. Clear communication matters before the performance: useful information about location, access, timing and the outdoor setting can make a first-time theatregoer feel more comfortable. Once the audience arrives, the performers carry much of the welcome through energy and directness.

We also resist the idea that the audience must understand every word immediately. Shakespeare’s plays contain jokes, arguments, images and sound patterns that work on several levels. A person may miss a reference and still understand the danger in a scene, the tenderness between two characters or the shock of a betrayal.

Design helps as well. Costumes, music, movement and lighting can clarify relationships before anyone explains them. We look for visual choices that guide attention without becoming decorative clutter. If the world of the play is legible, the language has more room to breathe.

That approach feels especially relevant for audiences in Australia, where outdoor performance is a familiar part of cultural life. A Shakespeare event in a Melbourne park or a summer evening program in Brisbane can feel social and relaxed, particularly when people are used to arriving with a picnic, a water bottle and a light layer for the changing temperature.

Rehearsing for an outdoor audience

What changes when the production is staged outdoors?

An outdoor venue gives the play a larger horizon, but it also introduces variables that a theatre building can control. Wind can carry a line away. A passing aircraft, a barking dog or a sudden shift in light can alter the audience’s attention. Actors must project without forcing, and the design must remain visible as natural light fades.

We rehearse with those conditions in mind. Performers learn to place their voices, sustain eye contact across a wider space and use stillness carefully. A quiet moment has to be clear without becoming exaggerated. The stage manager monitors timing and safety, while the team prepares for weather changes and unexpected interruptions.

The audience has responsibilities too, though we frame them generously. People may whisper, move children to a different spot or arrive after the opening. These are ordinary features of public performance, not signs that the event has failed. Our task is to create enough focus and momentum for the play to absorb the life around it.

Australian audiences know this kind of flexibility. Outdoor cinema, council concerts and community festivals often depend on weather plans, public transport changes and the simple habit of checking conditions before leaving home. Those small acts of preparation can help a park performance remain enjoyable rather than stressful.

Working with a community cast

How do you balance professional standards with community participation?

The answer begins with respect. Community performers bring different levels of experience, but every person deserves serious direction and a meaningful place in the process. We establish a shared vocabulary for movement, voice and rehearsal etiquette, then build skills through repetition and specific feedback.

Casting is not just about finding the person who resembles an imagined character. It is about listening for curiosity, resilience and the ability to work generously with others. Shakespeare asks actors to carry complex thoughts through language, so we spend time identifying what each character wants in every scene. Once the intention is clear, the words become more playable.

A community cast can also change the texture of the production. Different ages, backgrounds and performance histories bring unexpected combinations to the stage. The result may be less uniform than a highly controlled commercial production, yet it can feel more connected to the community watching it.

Access and safeguarding are part of that responsibility. In Australia, organisations involving children and teenagers commonly need to consider state or territory Working With Children Check requirements, which vary between places such as Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Northland Words works within its own local policies and legal obligations, while the broader principle remains constant: participation should be creative, respectful and safe.

Shaping the show for today

How do you decide what to update and what to preserve?

We preserve the play’s language unless there is a strong artistic or access reason to make a change. The text contains its own music, and unnecessary alteration can flatten its character. At the same time, performance always interprets. Casting, pace, design and physical action tell the audience how to understand the world.

The key is to examine assumptions rather than hide them. A historical play may contain ideas about gender, class, race or authority that require thoughtful framing. We do not pretend those tensions are absent. We use them to ask what the play reveals, where it is limited and how contemporary performers can engage with it honestly.

This is also where copyright and permissions become part of responsible production practice. Shakespeare’s original works are in the public domain, but particular translations, adaptations, arrangements, designs and recordings may carry separate rights. Australian arts groups navigate similar questions under the Copyright Act 1968, especially when they adapt a newer version or use recorded material.

The commercial environment matters too. Rising costs affect venue hire, materials, transport, insurance and artist payments in both the United States and Australia. A local audience may be comparing a theatre ticket with a streaming subscription, a restaurant meal or a family day out. Clear pricing and genuine value help people see a community production as a worthwhile cultural experience.

Creating a night people remember

What do you hope audiences take away?

I hope they leave with a question that follows them home. It might concern love, ambition, friendship or the stories a society tells about itself. The strongest response is not always a single interpretation. Sometimes it is a new conversation between two people who watched the same scene differently.

I also hope the event feels like a night out rather than a cultural test. There should be pleasure in the music, laughter in the comedy and room for surprise. A summer staging can be expansive and celebratory, with the audience sharing an open space as dusk settles around the action.

For Australian readers, it is worth noting that Northland Words’ summer season takes place during the northern-hemisphere summer, generally from June to August. That means the experience arrives while much of Australia is in winter. The seasonal contrast can make the event especially appealing: an evening of outdoor Shakespeare in Minnesota offers warmth, long light and a different sense of theatrical season from a July performance in Adelaide or Sydney.

The production also sits within a broader program of theatre, literature and music. That range allows audiences to encounter classic texts beside new voices, workshops and community gatherings. A performance can be a first step into a class, a festival or a conversation that continues long after the final applause.

Joining the summer performance

What would you say to someone considering their first visit?

Come with curiosity rather than preparation. You do not need to read the play in advance, know every character or understand every historical reference. If you want a little context, a short synopsis can help, but the performance is designed to communicate through action, relationships and sound.

Plan for the practical details of an outdoor event. Wear comfortable clothing, bring what the venue permits and allow extra time for parking or public transport. Australian visitors may instinctively think about an evening in a cool-weather city such as Canberra or Hobart, while Rochester’s summer conditions call for a different balance of layers, water and sun protection earlier in the day.

Families, students, experienced theatre patrons and people who have never attended Shakespeare all have a place in the audience. The production is built to reward close attention without demanding specialist knowledge. Laughter is welcome, emotional responses are welcome and a first-time visitor is as important to the life of the event as a regular supporter.

Dates, performance details and other Northland Words programs are available through the season calendar, so audiences can plan around work, school holidays and other community commitments.

A director’s work ends in one sense when the audience arrives. The next stage belongs to the shared encounter: actors offering the story, spectators giving it attention and the whole group discovering what the play can mean in this particular place and moment.

Find a performance that fits your calendar, invite someone who might enjoy an open-air night of theatre, and join Northland Words for Shakespeare, conversation and community under the summer sky.