24.Oct.2011 From the Danner Lounge with Andrew Ahrens
21.Jan.2010 The Designers
Notes from the designers of IRT’s 2010 production of Romeo and Juliet Gordon R. Strain Scenic Designer Romeo and Juliet was one of the first Shakespeare plays I read. We read it in high school English and then watched the Zeffirelli film. Several years later, I remember viewing and enjoying the Baz Luhrmann film. I have since re-read [...]
20.Jan.2010 IRT’s production of ROMEO and JULIET for 2010
Because of Romeo and Juliet’s widespread familiarity, companies who produce it seek to find a particular viewpoint for their version of the story. This was true when Shakespeare wrote the play. He took an Italian story, kept the original character and place names, but gave it his own unique twist with English poetry and values. [...]
Shakespeare’s Theatre
In Shakespeare’s day, playgoing was enormously popular for all classes of people, and new theatres were springing up across London. None was more popular than Shakespeare’s home theatre. The Globe functioned in many ways as a metaphor for contemporary concepts of society, civilization, and the universe at large. The name of the theatre itself—the Globe—suggested [...]
Shakespeare
Although William Shakespeare is generally considered the greatest dramatist in the English language, few facts are known about his life. Only a handful of legal documents verify his existence. Tradition has it that he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small market town, on April 23, 1564. His father was a glove maker who became High [...]
Why Shakespeare?
Why do we study the plays of William Shakespeare? He lived and died almost 400 years ago. He wrote about kings and queens and other people far from our own time. His use of poetry is strange to our ears, and his vocabulary is full of words we don’t understand and can’t pronounce. How could [...]
The Cast of ROMEO AND JULIET
Karen Aldridge Nurse Karen makes her IRT debut. At Chicago Shakespeare Theatre she has played Olivia in Twelfth Night, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Isabella in Edward II, and the Princess of France in Love’s Labor’s Lost; she also appeared in the international tour of Le Costume directed by Peter Brook, which included performances at Chicago [...]