Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007
by Keith L. Martin | Staff Writer
Frederick theatergoers can now come face-to-face with some of William Shakespeare’s greatest characters.
The experience is made possible by the Maryland Shakespeare Festival and its new Elizabethan Playhouse on West Second Street, in a rear addition to the Centennial United Methodist Church.
Last month, the Frederick-based theater company reached an agreement with the church to occupy the 80-year-old hall previously used for Saturday services.
An influx of parishioners moved services to the church’s main hall and left an ideal spot for intimate, indoor performances of some of the Bard’s greatest works, according to Becky Kemper, artistic director for the festival.
Kemper said the company makes a financial contribution to the church for the space and also plans to hold benefit performances for parishioners, including their winter performance of the complete — but abridged— works of Shakespeare.
‘‘This is truly an Elizabethan Hall and a space for which these plays were written,” said Kemper, the company’s founder. ‘‘... This space is everything to us.”
Created in 1999, the Maryland Shakespeare Festival is perhaps best known for its summer outdoor performances at Hood College and its educational programs in county schools.
The past held a company without a true home, but Kemper said the future holds a theater for performances all year long.
The theater seats 120 people on the floor surrounding the performance space. An L-shaped balcony lines the second floor and doors block off ‘‘backstage” from the main performance area.
The intimate space means that, unlike larger theaters where the audience sits in the dark far from the action, the audience here is front and center, locking eyes with actors and sometimes becoming part of the play themselves.
Steven Hoochuk, a founding company member, said Frederick’s troop gets back to the substance of Shakespeare’s words. Having played Macbeth in the first ‘‘Bare Bard” stage reading series last month — the first performance in the new theater — Hoochuk saw that connection firsthand.
‘‘We strip away the design elements that can sometimes be distracting and take away from the story or text,” he said. ‘‘It allows the audience to connect with the actors and hear what is being said.”
Hoochuk, who like Kemper has called Frederick home for the last eight years, said the new theater adds to the city’s already rich arts community.
‘‘I think [the theater] starts Frederick down the path of becoming ...a center for great art,” he said. ‘‘We want to be another jewel in that crown. Hopefully, we become a sparkling jewel.”
Kemper said the company’s goal has always been melding an artistic home with a welcoming community, a goal she thinks is achieved in Frederick.
She shares that feeling with actor Robert Leembruggen, who plays the lead role in ‘‘Richard III” on Sunday.
Leembruggen has lived in Frederick for two years; he left his native England in 1986.
He was drawn to the company by the desire of wanting to work where he lived after participating in Shakespeare across the state.
‘‘If I can work with an organization and do something dear to my heart in my hometown, why go to Washington, D.C.?” he said.
‘‘If this can happen in the town where you live, what a blessing that is.”
‘Richard’ takes the stage
The Maryland Shakespeare Festival’s ‘‘Bare Bard” reading series continues at 4 p.m., Sunday with ‘‘Richard III.”
The play follows Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, who becomes king after scheming against everyone around him – family included – to rise to power. The play, first performed around the year 1600, features the classic lines ‘‘Now is the winter of our discontent” and ‘‘A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse.”
Admission for the performance at Frederick’s Elizabethan Playhouse (8 W. 2nd St.) is $10 for adults, $8 for children and seniors. For more information, visit www.mdshakes.com.
