2004 Mainstage
Behind the Scenes
Spotlight on Aldo
Billingslea
Aldo comes to us from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,
where he was most recently seen in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. A Texas native, Aldo
received his M.F.A. in Acting from Southern Methodist University
in Dallas, one of the nation's top professional actor training
programs. Besides playing over a dozen roles at the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has performed
at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, the Utah Shakespearean
Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Lorraine
Hansberry Theatre, TheatreWorks, the Magic Theatre, and
Portland Center Stage among many others. Local audiences
may remember him in Marin Theatre Company's The Hairy Ape.
At 6' 4" and possessing a deep baritone voice, Aldo
is an apt candidate to fill the Forest Meadows
amphitheatre with the poetry and pathos of Shakespeare's
romantic tragic warrior, Othello.
Lesley Currier, Marin Shakespeare's Managing Director,
says: "I first saw Aldo at a general audition
run by Theatre Bay Area. For a full day, a different
actor would come onstage, perform for three minutes for
the dozens of assembled casting directors, then disappear.
Some actors sang, or did contemporary pieces,
a few did some Shakespeare. Imagine my delight
when this completely self-assured actor appeared and with
a beautifully trained voice launched into a complicated
monologue from Henry VI, Part III. I
said to myself, 'we want this guy to be our Othello.'"
It took three years for the Curriers to convince Aldo
to accept. He had a baby. He decided to go back
and do another season at Ashland. But eventually
persistence won out and schedules meshed.
As it turned out, Aldo had always wanted to play Othello
directed by a friend, Cynthia White, who had
also studied at SMU and also gone on to Ashland,
where she worked as an Associate Director for six
seasons. Cynthia knew the Curriers and was on
their short list of directors they were eager
to work with some day.
Says Artistic Director Robert Currier: "One of the
great things we're able to do at a theatre this
size is to craft a production around key artists.
To allow a lead actor to help choose a director is
rare in professional theatre. In this case, since
the project took so many years to coalesce, we
lucked out and were able to put together a dream team
of key artists. It's really fun when you can do something
like that."
The stars are aligned for this production. As it turns
out, 2004 is the 400th anniversary of the first
performance of Othello. What a great way
to open the 15th season of "Shakespeare Under the
Stars." (More
about 2004's Othello production)
Spotlight on Oliver
Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith was not an overnight success. He
was born in 1728 and had an unremarkable career as
a student at Trinity College, Dublin where his life
was miserable and poverty-ridden. Upon graduation
in 1749 which was also the year in which his father
died, he attempted to work as a tutor but lost his
position due to a quarrel and he made plans to emigrate
to America where he could make a fresh start. He failed,
however, to carry out this plan and missed his ship,
which sailed without him.
He was given a helping hand (and some ready cash)
and determined to enroll as a student of law.
However, upon returning to Dublin the money was lost
in gambling and Goldsmith changed his plans once again
when two years later a backer gave him an endowment
to pursue the study of medicine. For a year and half,
he attempted to succeed in this new endeavor, but
eventually -- without completing his courses -- he
gave up anatomy and became a continental tramp, supporting
himself as a busker by playing his flute.
Finances demanded that he return to London, and in
1756 he offered up his services as a writer
and took on any assignment including translations,
histories, and children's books that allowed his
brilliant but somewhat superficial wit to gain an
income to support his lifestyle which included
too much drink and gambling to allow either peace
of mind or good health. His writing did, however,
gain him a reputation and considerable popularity.
Goldsmith claimed that She Stoops To Conquer
was based on a biographical experience. As a
student, having been given a small amount of
money, he chose to celebrate the closing of the school
term by spending the night at an inn, which was
for him at that time a novel experience. He stopped
off at a town and asked directions of a local, who
directed him -- as a joke -- to the home of a prosperous
squire. The squire's family kept up the joke
and Goldsmith spent the night at their house,
apparently with considerable swagger and a resulting
shame upon learning in the morning of the trick
that had been played upon him.
The play itself was considered quite modern and naturalistic
when it opened and enjoyed an immediate success.
It has since been recognized by no less than
Samuel Johnson as the best play of its era and it
has been delighting audiences for almost 200
years. Goldsmith is also the author of the well-know
novel, The Vicar of Wakefield. He died
in 1774.
(More about 2004's
Production of She Stoops to Conguer)
 Spotlight
on Jim Dunn
Jim Dunn has been up in the
saddle as the director of more Shakespeare plays
in Marin County than any other theatre artist. But
by far his most successful Shakespeare production
is his Wild West Taming of the Shrew.
Jim got the notion for it when he was a young teacher
at the College of Marin (some say he was out
riding the hills on his horse, others swear the
idea struck him at the local saloon.) Jim decided
to mount the show with his students (which included
an equally young Robin Williams) and then, because
it turned out to be a darned good show and Jim
had just as much gumption as the next fellow, he decided
to take it on over to the Edinburg Festival in
Scotland. Well, those Scotch play-goers had never
seen the likes of Shakespearean lasses with lassos and
Shakespearean signors with spurs. The production was
such a hit at the Festival that it had sold-out
houses and Princess Margaret, hearing of a group
of American students putting on a Shakespeare play
in cowboy boots, requested a private command
performance.
Upon returning to the states, The Taming of the
Shrew continued to charm the petticoats off
even the prettiest gals and tickle the funny bones
of the dandiest dandies. Jim and some of the
actors just off and went to mount a commercial
production in San Francisco where the play -- a Shakespeare
play -- ran for six months straight. Well, Jim was
about ready to pack up his saddlebags and mosey
on off to put on some other plays at the College
and up on old Mount Tam, but this darn Taming
of the Shrew kept turning up like a bad penny.
He took it to P.C.P.A. He took it to the Denver Theatre
Center. He rode it all the way on down to San
Diego's Old Globe Theatre. Well, that Jim, you
know, he never could shake it. And when he started hemmin'
and hawin' and finally brung up the ideer of doing
it one more time right back here in little old
Marin County where the whole thing started, well,
you know it just had to be.
So mosey on over to Forest Meadows later on this summer
and catch yourself some good old whoop-de-doo
fun. This one's a good one, folks. Saddle 'em
up. (More about 2004's
The Taming of the Shrew)
Marin Shakespeare Company
E-mail Us: management@marinShakespeare.org
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