Take a look at the all press coverage we’re getting for What You Will!
WRTI 90.1 FM (2/14/09, 11-11:30am) Direct link to listen to show (about 22 minutes into the show)
Princeton Packet (2/17/09) review (2nd half of article)
U.S. 1 (2/18/09) review
Edge Philadelphia (2/19/09) review
U.S. 1 Blog (2/19/09) review + commentary
Trenton Times (2/20/09) feature article [...]
Recently, co-directors BRT Artistic Director Keith Baker and Donald Byrd and composer Justin Ellington sat down for a radio interview regarding BRT’s production of WHAT YOU WILL. Some fascinating details emerged. What follows is an excerpt of the interview as told to Jason Pfeifer, Arts/Theater Reporter for WRTI Radio.
Read the rest after the jump!
Here are some clips of Keith Baker’s favorite modern Shakespeare retellings. Have a look and see what you think of these–then take a stab at guessing what BRT’s production might be like!
As Keith Baker puts it,
“On YouTube there are terrific performances of Twelfth Night (the Trevor Nunn movie, starring Ben Kingsley, and the 1960″s John Dexter BBC production with Alec Guiness and Ralph Richardson.) A wonderful performance by Helen Mirren in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a Kenneth Branagh production of As You Like It. All are beautifully standard productions but remote from a 21st century generation. What You Will seeks to overcome that with a completely contemporary production that is focused on the use of language in current hip-hop culture and in Shakespeare. Indeed he could have called a 16th century rap artist in many ways. He bent, turned, and cajoled language to his own uses. He invented much of the English we now use. Nothing was sacred to him. Boredom was the devil and he used language to hold onto the imagination of his audience in a way unheard of before him. The same can be easily said of rap and spoken word. We seek to find a distinctive American voice in Shakespearean performance.”
Twelfth Night
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helen Mirren was in two versions–this is the 1981 version.)
As You Like It
Check out the footage of Teo Castellanos being interviewed by Keith Baker.
BRT 4 10-17-08 from How We Will on Vimeo.
On August 14th, 2008, a workshop for BRT’s What You Will took place at NOLA Studios on 54th Street in New York City. Here are some photos from the workshop. Stay tuned for videos featuring What You Will’s directors Donald Byrd and Keith Baker discussing the projects.
The actors included in the photos are:
From Equity:
Christin Sawyer Davis, Miriam Hyman, Kamilah Forbes, Brian Richardson, Neil Patrick Stewart and Ryan Holmes
Non-Equity:
Wade Allain Marcus and Brian Cheng
Pictured: Wade Allain Marcus (standing), Ryan Holmes (Equity) and Brian Richardson (Equity) (on the floor)
(more…)
