How I Met
The Hobart Shakespeareans
July 2008
December, 1983:
I was onstage at the Westwood (now the Geffen) Playhouse
with my solo entertainment “Acting Shakespeare. From the nearby UCLA
campus there were students amongst the dedicated theatregoers whom
Shakespeare attracts worldwide. The show had some audience
participation. Early on I would ask the audience to name all of
Shakespeare’s 37 plays, me counting and encouraging from the stage. But
it wasn’t bright English majors or teachers or Shakespeare stalwarts who
shone at the matinee before Christmas. The modestly shouted list of all
the obscure plays came from the front two rows where Rafe Esquith’s kids
sat on a school outing. Nine-or-ten-year-olds piped up: “Timon of
Athens!”, “Two Gentleman of Verona!!”, “Henry 6th part 3!!!”
My
encore was the unfortunate actor playing Henry 5th on the battlefield
who is handed a blank sheet of paper instead of the written list of the
French dead which he is to read aloud. (This happened once in
Stratford-upon-Avon according to the late Tony Church.) I mimed the
actor’s dilemma and then hazarded: “Beaujolais, St Emilion, Pouilly
Fuisse, Nuit St Georges and Beaune etc” This had always gone well, but
that lovely afternoon with the help of The Hobart Shakespeareans I
improvised an improvement which I used thereafter. I invited them to
join me onstage to play the dead soldiers, whose names Henry has trouble
remembering. I whispered instructions and at a signal they all dropped
dead, to the amusement of the audience. When I came to “Chateau Neuf
du Pape” they resurrected for the curtain call.
Afterwards they showed
me a book of hand-painted portraits of Shakespeare characters, each with
its own sonnet written by one of Rafe’s class. I was invited to visit
Room 56. The children mostly speak English as their second language
and the welcome as I climbed the concrete stairs and knocked on the door
was a non-verbal shriek and prolonged squeal of delight. I hadn’t yet
played Gandalf and they knew me only from my show where we had made
friends.
There is a lot of love alongside the disciplined hard work
that Rafe insists on. Maybe 600 square feet of utility classroom has
the forms and little chairs you would expect, but in the corners there
are musical instruments propped and on the walls mementos of Shakespeare
and the performances he inspired. Also there are pennants from the
colleges attended by the alumni of Room 56.
I’ve been fortunate to see
a 12-year-old Hamlet and King Lear. Once I asked Rafe why he was
presenting one of Shakespeare’s more obscure plays Measure for
Measure. “Because,” he said “the play is about injustice and hypocrisy
in high places and these kids live in Los Angeles. It’s a play about
their own lives.”
Each participant, playing the lead, walking on in a
supporting role, singing or playing an instrument, knows every word, so
if an actor stumbles over his part, everyone else can prompt him. This
is a communal exercise, joyful and shared.
Rafe takes his charges on
school trips, once to the Globe theatre in London, after which they came
to my house for tea by the Thames. I have, with
A Knight Out, helped
raise funds for the Shakespeareans’ extra-curricular activities. Hal
Holbrook is another actor who enthuses about his visits to Room 56. Rafe
has attracted the support from on high, including Great Britain where he
is an honorary OBE. If you read his books or visit
www.hobartshakespeareans.org I hope you may want to help too.
Ian McKellen
July 2008
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