Photo credit: Courtesy of STC
“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players…” So said Shakespeare in his play As You Like It. The fact of the matter is that not all people are merely players. There is definite talent in the theatre, and few more so than Julie Taymor.
On Sunday evening, director, writer Taymor was honored with the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre at the 2015 Harman Center for the Arts Gala. A spectacle for the senses it was, including presentations by none other than Dame Helen Mirren, Broadway’s Jennifer Damiano and Tsidii Le Loka, Joffrey Ballet principals Fabrice Calmeis and Victoria Jaiani, acclaimed Russian soprano Albina Shagimuratova, and Christine Sherrill & Douglas Sills…to name a few: Spectacular performances all.
Will Award honoree Julie Taymor and Shakespeare Theatre Company Board of Trustees Chair Michael R. Klein Photo by Margot Schulman
A native of Newton, Massachusetts and graduate of Oberlin College, Taymor may be best known for her stellar and creative direction of The Lion King on Broadway. She is a force of nature that has transformed American Theatre and transfixed her audience with her abundant creativity—deeply rooted in Shakespeare.
There was no shortage of praise for this accomplished artist. “We are delighted to celebrate Julie Taymor’s bold, visionary work for the stage and screen that has brought classical work to new audiences and strengthened appreciation of what makes Shakespeare’s creations timeless,” said STC Artistic Director, Michael Kahn.
Dame Helen Mirren and 2015 Will Award honoree Julie Taymor Photo by Kevin Allen
“My friend Julie Taymor is being honored by this great theatre —I’ve performed here. It’s got a great energy and is a beautiful auditorium—great people who run it. They are honoring my great friend, my colleague, and it’s wonderful that they are honoring her. It’s a marriage made in heaven for me,” Dame Mirren told Hollywood on the Potomac. “It was a real surprise and one of the pleasures in my career,” Ms. Taymor replied of her honor. “I was surprised and delighted that I was chosen for this.”
Directing movies and on the stage can be a man’s world, but she doesn’t dwell on the lopsided gender roles, although she knows they exist. “I try to find a way so it doesn’t become complaining…I just always do what I do. I never thought I didn’t get jobs because of it. I know it’s there. I have theatre and films that I want to do. I have gone up against it—I tried not to pay attention to it because it gets in the way…but I know it’s there,” she told us.
Dame Helen Mirren onstage at Sidney Harman Hall during the 2015 Harman Center for the Arts Gala. Photo by Kevin Allen
Among Ms. Taymor’s works is The Tempest, which she directed both on Broadway and in film starring Helen Mirren as Prosera (as opposed to the original Prospero, usually a male role). “I thought that there is this sadness that there are so many great women in the theatre, and after the age of 30…35, there are few roles for women. …and you have Judi Dench, you have Helen Mirren, you have Meryl Streep…I thought about the play,” she told us in our one on one interview. “I knew it very well having done it, and I thought…will this work with a woman? I think any woman can play male roles and any woman can play a female role, but really changing the character’s gender…some don’t work, but this one does. Having done all this work in Shakespeare, I actually like this better…so I thought about Helen…I asked her if she would be interested and she said yes without even blinking. We were very cautious about it…changing all of the ‘h’s’ to ‘she’s,’ I wanted it to have some real power. But one word that cannot translated is ‘Master.’ Mistress? No. So there were many fabulous things we did in the shooting that became evident of how well that does work for a female. I hope that now many more ‘Prosperas’ are being done.”
Fabrice Calmels and Victoria Jaiani of the Joffrey Ballet perform an excerpt from Lar Lubovitch’s Othello Photo by Kevin Allen
Opening young minds to the arts is among the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s educational initiatives. STC has a stable of initiatives that teach learners of all ages, from school programs and acting classes to discussion series as well like accessible programs like the annual Free For All, allowing audiences to experience Shakespeare at no charge.
“This theatre is the major producer of classical theatre in DC,” STC Chairman Mike Klein reminded us. “We have tremendous programs that expose the next generation to a chance to act in, produce, and be a part of theatre. We have virtually every high school and charter school participating. This event is a celebration of what it means to be in classical theatre—we bring together dance, theatre and musical performances to celebrate the classical theatrical experience. People are caught by ‘the bug’ in their youth. Our educational programs create the scenario where children with a love of theatre grow up, and they bring their children.”
MOMIX performs at the National Building Museum during the 2015 Harman Center for the Arts Gala. Photo by Kevin Allen
Proof that this program is essential, was a performance during the event by one of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s students—a 12 year old, that performed Hamlet’s soliloquy as well as Olivier, Branagh, Hopkins.
Ms. Taymor shares the sentiment of early theatrical exposure and education being important. “I think it’s really critical because our music and television and films are everywhere. We don’t pay attention to how we influence the rest of the world,” she explained to us. “We are not necessarily putting out the best of our culture. I grew up in the public schools and I got a tremendous arts education there—it is completely who I am today. I saw Shakespeare when I was seven years old. I think the arts have more power—they have the power to be subversive, they have the power to transform, they definitely have the power to create much more discerning individuals. This is what transforms human beings—how they listen to and understand the arts. We know for a fact that if kids are exposed to theater, film and dance, they do better in all other subjects. To be put in a position where the arts are marginalized, less thought of than science or math, you’re going to look at a culture that is spending their entire time on iPhones; not capable of writing full concepts, not capable of communicating and definitely not capable of communicating cross culturally.”
Julie Taymor receives the 2015 Will Award from Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Michael Kahn Photo by Kevin Allen
Over the past quarter of a century, the Shakespeare Theatre Company has become “the nation’s foremost Shakespeare company” (Wall Street Journal) and the “region’s most dynamic theatre” (The Washington Post), and received more Helen Hayes Awards for producing than any other theatre. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Kahn, STC has grown from its residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library to the Lansburgh Theatre in 1992 to the opening of the brand new Sidney Harman Hall in 2007. The mission of the Shakespeare Theatre Company is to present classic theatre of scope and size in an imaginative, skillful and accessible American style that honors the playwrights’ language and intentions while viewing their work through a 21st-century lens.
The Shakespeare Theatre Company endeavors to be an important resource to an expanded national and international community—as the nation’s premier destination for classic theatre, as a training ground for the next generation of theatre artists and as a model provider of high-quality educational content for students and scholars.
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