The New York Public Library has been a model for the library-as-venue in its extensive calendar of presentations. One of the most involved theater companies on that calendar is Instant Shakespeare. One of New York's extraordinary theater phenomena, The Instant Shakespeare Company has presents reading of all of Shakespeare's plays every year. In 2000, their first year of readings, they completed a Shakespeare marathon, reading all 36 plays over the course of three days at an NYC bookstore. Last season, their calendar expanded to every month of the year, and the list of venues extended to several performance spaces, primarily Manhattan libraries.

Words are meant to be heard - and this is especially true of Shakespeare's words. Back Stage, the theater trade magazine, wrote of this company's work, "Shakespeare's drama does unfold its magic through the reading, and watching actors in impromptu performance is a privilege."

The scripts are presented roughly in chronological order, but like true Shakespearians, the troupe take every opportunity for an "occasional" piece. Thus, they're likely to read A Midsummer Night's Dream on June 21st, and Henry V on St. Crispin's Day. Last season, Black Heritage month saw a production of Othello at NYPL's Andrew Heiskell Braille & Talking Book Library. In April, the Sonnet Celebration doubles as Shakespeare's birthday party (and quite a festive event it is!). The 2006 season began with a reading of Twelfth Night on - when else? January sixth. The year's schedule totaled 40 readings - the 36 plays of The First Folio, three plays from Quarto editions, and a reading of the sonnets. The company has performed at many Manhattan libraries, but last season they focused on three of NYPL's branches, and all three facilities provide marvelous performance spaces. Riverside Branch is located on Manhattan's Upper West Side, near Lincoln Center; its performance space features a huge picture window opening on to Amsterdam Avenue. The Mid-Manhattan Library is a mega-library, with five floors of open stacks.

Of course, the difficulty in this ambitious project is casting the hundreds of roles in the Shakespeare canon. Actors are usually double-cast; an actress may play Goneril and a nameless herald in the same reading of King Lear. The huge company draws from the rich pool of New York talent, and its actors have a wide range of backgrounds - from actors with extensive Broadway credits to 12-year-old talent. When he's short of actors, the company's Artistic Director, Paul Sugarman, doesn't hesitate to recruit from the audience. Sugarman encourages an informal atmosphere during the play - the audience is invited to come and go as they like. And whether they comprises a small group or fills the room, library audience's are always enthusiastic, educated and responsive. Often, a fan will come straight from the Drama section of the stacks with a copy of The Complete Shakespeare, and read along while the actors speak the lines. The audience is always offered Sugarman's own publications - hand-size versions of the First Folio, designed specifically for his company's work. And after the reading, Sugarman will often receive questions from Shakespeare scholars in the audience about fine points in script.

Instant Shakespeare actors stress spontaneity. They perform with little rehearsal, abandoning themselves to the text. Playmaster Sugarman, explained: "The idea for the Instant Shakespeare Company came out of my work of publishing the First Folio in modern type. There are clues in the First Folio for actors that have been edited out in modern editions of the plays. They're in the form of irregular punctuation, capitalization, spelling and frequent shifting between verse and prose. If a word needs to be emphasized, Shakespeare capitalized it. If there should be a change in intention or physical action, he marked it with a colon. If a character is breaking down, it was reflected by irregularity in the verse. Over the centuries, these First Folio texts have been regularized to make them more understandable to the casual reader. However, from a theatrical point of view something was lost. There clues for the actors in these first texts of Shakespeare that are actable."

Remember Instant Shakespeare's motto: Shakespeare For Everyone!

- Steve Capra

April 2007

www.newyorkcritic.org

published: Capra, S. (2007). Every Shakespeare, every year. Broadside (Theater Library Association), 34 (3)