Visiting Shakespeare at Winedale
In May, Clayton Stromberger of the University of Texas at Austin travelled to South Africa to work with students at Wits University in Johannesburg, as well as teachers and learners at schools in Cape Town. (You can read all about his time in SA, and learn more about the Wits-UT partnership, in our previous post.) In June, Tsikinya-Chaka Centre director Chris Thurman was fortunate to make a reciprocal trip to Texas - and, in particular, to the Winedale Historical Center some 80 miles outside Austin. This is the home of Shakespeare at Winedale: a remarkable place where, for over fifty years, students have been learning how to make Shakespearean magic through intensive theatre training programmes.
A curious sight greets the visitor to Winedale: a colourful parade of painted bulls. More accurately, this is a row of wooden longhorns, the iconic cattle for which Texas is famous (and, unsurprisingly, a much-loved UT symbol). Each one is decorated by a class that has completed the summer programme – a firm tradition and an irreverent celebration of the Winedale achievement. It offers a vivid record of plays performed, favourite lines, cast in-jokes. The longhorns lead to a converted barn that is the beating heart of Winedale. Inside, a thrust stage conveying a decidedly Elizabethan feeling is the site of pilgrimage to which young thespians have made their way for half a century.
Warming up outside the barn.
When you sign up for Shakespeare at Winedale, especially the summer programme, you are signing up for hard work. For two months, morning till night, the students’ entire focus is on staging Shakespeare; the process culminates in three full productions, performed in repertory for audiences who come from far and wide. But at the core of this rigour, as every theatre maker knows, is playfulness. Summer at Winedale means labour and sweat (and not just because temperatures regularly reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit). Happily, however, it also means a whole lot of fun. The result is a profound experience for those who participate – a source of life-long inspiration, of personal growth and reflection, of friendships forged through hundreds of hours in rehearsal.
Zip . . . zap . . . you’re out!
The plays being performed by the 2022 summer class are Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter’s Tale and The Two Noble Kinsmen. Thurman and Stromberger arrived at the end of the first week, during which James Loehlin (director of Shakespeare at Winedale) had been working with the students on Much Ado. Throughout Friday and Saturday, in preparation for a first preview on Saturday night, the ensemble focused their energies on plotting scene work, polishing up dialogue, and thinking through the practicalities of props and costumes.
Students at Winedale may retreat onto a porch to escape the midday sun and learn their lines. As the heat of the day starts to recede, it’s time for volleyball!
Lots of work, lots of laughter - the actors playing Dogberry, Verges and the Watch sharpen their comic edges.
Into costume for the Much Ado preview.
With the thrill of the preview behind them, there was no time for the students to rest on their laurels. First thing on Sunday morning, they started The Winter’s Tale. Sunday afternoon brought an opportunity to be in the audience instead, as a Camp Shakespeare cast took to the barn’s stage. Camp Shakespeare is a programme for schoolchildren between the ages of 11-17 run by James “Doc” Ayres, who founded Shakespeare at Winedale in 1970 and steered it for three decades before handing over to Loehlin. The young performers wowed their audience with a production of a perennial Winedale favourite, As You Like It.
A “table read” of The Winter’s Tale down by the lake.
Robin Grace Soto, James Loehlin and “Doc” Ayres introduce the Camp Winedale performance of As You Like It.
All smiles: UT students and alumni, Camp Winedale cast members and proud parents compare notes.
After three inspiring days at Winedale, it was time for Chris Thurman to return to Austin before flying to Johannesburg - no doubt with thoughts of finding a barn somewhere in South Africa to convert into a theatre . . .
Chris Thurman, Clayton Stromberger and James Loehlin with the 2022 Winedale summer class.
“our play is done . . .”
The barn gets some rest after hosting another thrilling performance.