The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0333 Tuesday, 15 May 2007
From: John F. Andrews <
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Date: Friday, 11 May 2007 14:11:23 -0400
Subject: May Highlights from ESU Washington
We're pleased to call your attention to several upcoming events, among
them (a) an ESU Washington gathering on Sunday afternoon, May 20, at which
Lord Watson of Richmond will talk about connections between the 400th
anniversary of Jamestown and the global proliferation of a language that
was introduced to this "brave New World" in 1607, and (b) a British
Embassy reception on Monday evening, May 21, at which Sir David and Lady
Manning will join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and other notables in a
salute to Artistic Director Michael Kahn of the Shakespeare Theatre
Company.
We're also happy to provide links to several online attractions, among
them (a) a C-SPAN presentation by journalist Walter Isaacson about the
Einstein biography that now tops the best-seller list for nonfiction
books, (b) a three-part public-radio documentary from the Folger about
Shakespeare in American Life, (c) a Tea with Heather feature on Maryland
Public Television that offers vignettes about such performers as Dame Judi
Dench, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Dame Diana Rigg, and (d) a
Lincoln Center presentation by Gracie Terzian, a sophomore from Oakton
High School who made it to the finals of this year's National Shakespeare
Competition in New York.
Please feel free to share this information with others who might find if
of interest.
With best wishes,
John Andrews
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Shakespearean Films at AFI's Silver Theatre
AFI SILVER THEATRE AND CULTURAL CENTER
8633 Colesville Road in Silver Spring
Admission $9.25 ($7.50 for ESU and Shakespeare Guild Members)
In one of its contributions to a January-June 2007Shakespeare in
Washington festival, the AFI Silver Theatre and Culture Center is
presenting features with Bardic themes. On April 21-22, for example, you
could have seen Akira Kurosawa's Ran, an acclaimed Japanese adaptation of
King Lear. Meanwhile on Saturday, April 28, and Sunday, April 29, you had
a chance to watch Shakespeare Behind Bars, an moving and prize-winning PBS
documentary about the work a director named Curt Tofteland has been
undertaking with convicts in a maximum-security prison in Kentucky. Coming
soon are My Own Private Idaho (May 12-13), Laurence Olivier's 1948 Hamlet
(May 19, 20, 22), and Tom Stoppard's film version of Rosencrantz &
Guildenstern Are Dead (June 23, 25, 27). The AFI has kindly extended a
$1.75 discount on these attractions to those who identify themselves as
constituents of either the English-Speaking Union or the Shakespeare
Guild. For details about these and other movies at the American Film
Institute's beautiful Silver Spring facility, please see
www.esuwdc.org/calendar.html for a link to the cinema's Shakespeare page.
Those who love Shakespeare on film will also be pleased to hear that
another institution, the Library of Congress, is now exhibiting Bardic
material and showing classics from its vast archive of cinematic
treasures. Visit www.loc.org and navigate from there for information about
a series that runs April through August in the Mary Pickford Theatre.
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ESU Washington's Annual General Meeting
SUNDAY, MAY 20
1:30-3:00 p.m.
THE WESTCHESTER - Dining Room
4000 Cathedral Avenue NW
$20 Donation Suggested to Cover the Costs of Light Refreshments
Thanks to the hospitality of Graham Down, an ESU board member who resides
in a lovely apartment at the Westchester, we'll hold our Annual General
Meeting for 2007 in a dining room at that stately complex's Main Building,
the third entrance on the right. The primary purpose of this get-together
will be to review the ESU's activities and achievements over the last
twelve months, discuss objectives for the year ahead, and elect officers
to fill several important positions. Those who join us will have the
pleasure of hearing and meeting recent recipients of the branch's Helene
Gladstone Williams Award. They'll also meet Gracie Terzian, the winner of
our annual Shakespeare Competition for the National Capital Region and a
finalist at the National Shakespeare Competition, which took place Monday,
April 23, at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater in New York's Lincoln Center. The
highlight of the gathering, however, will be an address by Lord Watson of
Richmond, an international ambassador for the English-Speaking Union and a
leader of the Jamestown 2007 commission that has been making arrangements
for this month's state visit to the United States by Her Majesty the
Queen. We're delighted that Alan Watson will be joining us, and we look
forward to remarks about his new book on the connections between the first
permanent English colony in the New World and the proliferation of a
language that has become increasingly global in its influence. This event
was originally announced for Saturday, May 19, at 10:30 a.m.; it was
rescheduled to take advantage of a trip that Lord Watson was taking in
order to participate in the Jamestown anniversary festivities.
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A British Embassy Toast to Director Michael Kahn
MONDAY, MAY 21
Reception 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW
$125 per Attendee
As the centerpiece of its participation in a broad-ranging celebration of
Shakespeare in Washington, the English-Speaking Union and the Shakespeare
Guild are pleased to join Sir David and Lady Manning in a British Embassy
salute to the director and producer who, more perhaps than anyone else in
the last two decades, has positioned our metropolis as a major center for
the performance of classical drama.
Michael Kahn had garnered accolades on Broadway, and had overseen such
artistic institutions as the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford,
Connecticut, and the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, before he
came to Capitol Hill in 1986 to rescue an embattled troupe which was on
the verge of extinction. Benefiting from his experience not only as an
artist but as a gifted teacher (he'd helped establish the Drama Division
at Lincoln Center's prestigious Juilliard School, and he had collaborated
with John Houseman and Margot Harley to create an itinerant Acting Company
to launch the careers of such students as Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone),
Mr. Kahn transformed what had begun in 1969 as the Folger Theatre Group
into what is now regarded as one of the foremost classical ensembles in
the world.
To recognize Mr. Kahn's accomplishments and thank him for all he's
contributed to the cultural life not only of our region but of our nation,
we're pleased to announce that such notables as Landon Butler (chairman of
the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and a leader who has overseen a campaign
to augment the organization's range and expand its operations into a
spectacular new Harman Center for the Arts), Supreme Court Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg (a fervent supporter of all that Mr. Butler and his
colleagues have done), award-winning actors Helen Carey and Ted van
Griethuysen (one of the many dedicated performers who've helped Mr. Kahn
realize his lofty aspirations for the STC) will take part in a ceremony at
which this indefatigable visionary becomes the first non-actor to receive
a laurel that has been bestowed upon such previous honorees as Kenneth
Branagh, Zoe Caldwell, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Kevin Kline, Ian
McKellen, Christopher Plummer, and Lynn Redgrave. Also on hand for the
festivities will be Lord Watson of Richmond, a distinguished London
broadcaster who is now an international envoy for the English-Speaking
Union. Alan Watson has been a U.K. leader in the Jamestown 400
celebration, and he'll remind us of the significance of a venture that
introduced the language of Shakespeare to what The Tempest was soon to
immortalize as a "brave New World."
Past winners of the Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts will
be represented at this gathering by means of messages to be shared with
Mr. Kahn and his admirers. And every attendee at what promises to be a
sparkling revel will have a chance to talk both with the awardee and with
those who'll bestow the accolade he accepts. As they do so, patrons will
enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that their generous support of this
benefit will provide indispensable sustenance for such educational
endeavors as ESU Washington's annual Shakespeare Competition for the
National Capital Region, an event which is co-hosted by the STC and is
mounted each spring on the Lansburgh stage. They'll also know they're
making it possible for ESU Washington maintain the assistance it offers to
the STC's Academy for Classical Acting through an annual Walter L. Wright
III Award for Exceptional Promise in the Dramatic Profession. This prize
is presented each March to a talented young professional in the ACA, and
it is now underwritten by Mr. Wright's widow, Dr. Marjorie Williams. Along
with the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Dr. Williams supplies
major programmatic funding for the branch of the English-Speaking Union
that serves our metropolitan area.
For additional details about this special evening -- including information
about corporate and individual sponsorships, about potential foundation
partnerships, and about options for congratulatory or promotional
expressions to be printed in a handsome keepsake to commemorate the
occasion -- call (202) 234-4602 or e-mail
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.
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Programs on C-SPAN
We're pleased to note that a luncheon program in which we had a hand, a
presentation at which Walter Isaacson talked about his new best-selling
biography of Albert Einstein at the Woman's National Democratic Club on
Thursday, April 12, was telecast over C-SPAN 2's weekend Book TV service
Sunday, April 29, at 12:00 noon and again at 8:00 p.m. That program can
now be watched online, and it will be repeated again on Monday, May 14, at
12:30 a.m. See www.esuwdc.org/calendar.html for a link to that feature and
for information about earlier ESU Washington events that have been covered
by C-SPAN.
_______________________________________________________________________
Programs on Public Radio & TV and on the Web
In one of the most ambitious of its many contributions to this spring's
Shakespeare in Washington festival, the Folger Shakespeare Library has
produced a three-part public-radio series about Shakespeare in American
Life. These fascinating programs are narrated by actor Sam Waterston, and
they can now be downloaded and listened to online. See the www.folger.edu
for links to the series. And if you're interested in the playwright's role
in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, see www.esuwdc.org/calendar.html
for a link to the page that features John Andrews and his remarks about
the most dramatic moment in American history.
For another conversation with Mr. Andrews, this time as part of an
afternoon Tea with Heather program on Maryland Public Television, see
www.esuwdc.org/calendar.html for a link to the MPT page that offers
snippets from a chat he had with hostess Heather Sanderson about Dame Judi
Dench, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Dame Diana Rigg.
We're pleased, too, to inform you that Gracie Terzian, the ESU Washington
entant in the National Shakespeare Competition at Lincoln Center, can be
seen in a video recorded on April 23, 2007, by the New Globe Theatre as
she joined nine other finalists on the stage of New York's Mitzi Newhouse
Theater. For a link to that performance, visit www.esuus.org.
_______________________________________________________________________
To obtain more detail about any of these attractions, and to place orders
for events you wish to attend, please contact
John F. Andrews, OBE
Executive Director, ESU Washington
President, The Shakespeare Guild
1604 New Hampshire Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20009-2512
Phone 202 234 4602 Fax 202 234 4639
http://www.esuwdc.org
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S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook,
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