About
This production of Richard II, produced by Western Illinois University, was scheduled to open 27 March 2020. On 12 March 2020, WIU delayed the restarting of classes after spring break; on March 16, all classes were moved online through the beginning of April, and by March 20, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker had issued a stay-at-home order for the state through April 7. All of this was due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus. By the time we got to what would have been opening night, there were over 4,000 cases of the virus in Illinois and the stay-at-home order had been extended to April 30.
Our production was one week away from tech when this disruption occurred. Actors (comprised of undergraduate and graduate students at the University) were home on spring break; we had been rehearsing for 5 weeks, and had left for vacation off-book and after a successful designer run. We hoped to finish the show, albeit with less rehearsal time; then we hoped to film parts of the show; finally we tried to convert the production into a virtual, social-media based alternative. In many ways, we are some of the lucky theater artists - we did not lose contracts or livelihoods, and were not beholden to ticket sales or grants. But the loss of a piece of art was hard to accept, and I and many others fought to keep it together. In the end, some of us just needed to honor the work we had done.
The closing of the theatres due to COVID-19 has been, suffice it to say, incredibly difficult. Throughout the theatrical world, we've tried to find ways to continue to produce art. For some of us, we just need to keep creating. For others, the need for content and entertainment from a captive audience offers a new platform. Many have felt the need to produce - Shakespeare wrote King Lear during the plague! - and yet have been unable to write a single thing. Playwright Kate Hamill frankly discussed this pressure in her article for American Theatre Magazine; psychologists have weighed in repeatedly on the unseen pressures of living life in quarantine. It has been a struggle. The quality of art being produced varies widely, prompting Nicholas Berger to ask whether it should be produced in the first place ("The Forgotten Art of Assembly"). The truth is that watching a theatre production meant for live consumption mediated by a miniscule screen (no big-screen tv can compete with the size of a Broadway proscenium arch) leaves something to be desired, and artists like Joel Grey (Cabaret and Wicked) didn't know what to do without the chance to be together in our common space of story-telling.
This is the result of our work, our changes in plan, our attempts to pivot and adapt, and our collaboration. Some of it happened, some of it could've happened, and some of it was wishful thinking. The script was cut, edited, and prepared by me, with aid from the student dramaturgs. Video was shot on our stage, in costume, with 3 members of the 21-person cast on the afternoon before the stay-at-home order went into effect. (Please don't judge my talents as a camera-person, it is not what I trained for. We're all doing our best.). So much of our work, including the contributions of our student stage management team (Sky Aguilar, Taylor Redington, and Tristan Klein) cannot be documented here, but was essential to us. This archive is about process and honoring the work that was done, and seeks to demonstrate how COVID-19 affected one out of thousands of theatre productions.
Cast & Creative Team
Richard II..............................Ezekiel Bocklage*
Henry Bolingbroke..............Drake Pough*
John of Gaunt......................Daniel Hollander
Duke of York........................Chad Fess*
Aumerle................................Brandon Herring*
Thomas Mowbray...............Matt Bender*
Bushy....................................Eric Clemmons
Bagot....................................Bobby Haley
Green....................................Kevin Dillon
Sir Stephen Scroop.............Kelly Brown
Queen...................................Brooke Kassal
Queen's Lady.......................Clarissa Consoli
Queen's Lady........................Jessica Piekarski
Duchess of Gloucester........CJ Igwe
Earl of Northumberland......Rosalind Blume
Harry Percy (her son)..........Matt Bender*
Ross.......................................Caleb Johnson
Fitzwater...............................Morgan Johnson
Lord Marshall........................Kelly Brown
Lord Berkeley........................Jessica Patrick
Herald to Bolingbroke..........Jaylin Williams
Herald to Mowbray..............Tyler Castanuela
Gardener................................Jessica Patrick
Gardener's Woman..............Valerie Cambron
Gardener's Woman..............CJ Igwe
Keeper....................................Kelly Brown
Murderers..............................Tyler Castanuela
Eric Clemmons
Kevin Dillon
*denotes MFA student
Director.....................Hadley Kamminga-Peck
Asst. Director............Audrey Gniech
Choreographer.........Lara Petrin
Fight Director...........D.C. Wright
Fight Captains..........Matt Bender*
Brandon Herring*
Scenic Design...........Kaitlin Findley*
Costume Design......Rebecca Rankin*
Lighting Design........Joshua Wroblewski
Sound Design...........Sky Aguilar
Props Master............Gerald A. Trusley
Dramaturgy..............Audrey Gniech
Bryce Robertson
Intimacy Choreo......Hadley Kamminga-Peck
Intimacy Liaisons.....Brandon Herring
Drake Pough
Dance Captain.........Caleb Johnson
Stage Manager.........Sky Aguilar
Assistant SMs...........Taylor Redington
Tristan Klein
Technical Director/Production
Manager...............Dan Schmidt
Costume Shop
Manager...............Rebel Mickelson
Director's Note & Concept
Richard II has been a favorite play of mine since spring 2012, when I first encountered the play in an independent study with Professor Emeritus Jim Symons at CU Boulder. That summer, I assisted Jim as he directed the play for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. His understanding of the history - both medieval and Elizabethan - surrounding the play, his specificity and manipulation of the language, and his vision for that production continue to influence my work as a director.
Rereading the play in preparation to direct it in 2020, there was so much about Richard that felt immediate, contemporary, relevant. He is a celebrity obsessed with his image; he always projects a carefully cultivated public persona, one that reinforces his belief in how perfect he is. He wants to be loved, but is not willing to do the work to earn it; rather, he relies on his divine appointment to reinforce his position as king. For inspiration, I looked to the 2018 Met Gala, "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination," which also played into the many Catholic references throughout the play, as well as the world of high fashion and super-celebrities like Lady Gaga.
Henry Bolingbroke, by contrast, is the more down-to-earth guy. He doesn't use fancy words and hates playing the games of celebrity, fame, and political alliance. If Richard is Jared Leto at the 2018 Met Gala, Bolingbroke is Michael B. Jordan. He is Lizzo and Childish Gambino, celebrities who are open about their personal lives and use it as inspiration for their art and fame, rather than closing it off.
The play is a constant struggle between the forces of Richard and Henry. They balance each other, mirror each other, and eventually Richard falls as Henry rises, like a political teeter-totter. Richard uses the metaphor of two buckets in a well in Act IV scene 1; my goal was to mirror that same shift visually and physically. In that same scene, Richard famously smashes a mirror (which is not at all the same as "Smash the Mirror" from The Who's Tommy, though I made that joke too many times in rehearsal). That moment, and the ensuing line from Henry, "The shadow of your sorrow hath destroyed/The shadow of your face," is the pinnacle of the show, the moment where Henry defeats Richard in a crucial way - not with swords, but through words. Henry beats Richard at his own game.
In our production, this idea of mirrors and shadows manifested through social media. Social media embodies the idea of viewing a perfected reflection of yourself, a controlled image that only shows what you want it to show. It is a fiction, but one in which we willingly participate. Characters carried cell phones and public spectacles - 1.3, 3.1, and 3.4 - were captured and live-streamed, tweeted, and shared across social media. Richard and Henry each have their own facebook pages, as do some of the other characters; the actors enjoyed posting, commenting, and bating each other over social media. When Richard looked into the mirror and cracked it, he was looking into a cellphone camera, streaming to Facebook, then smashing the image he had so carefully cultivated. When he finds himself imprisoned, he is at last left only with his own thoughts and self-understanding; even then, he tries to populate his cell, needing the external validation.
Scenic Design by Kaitlin Findley*
Costume Design by Rebecca Rankin*
The author/director in quarantine. PC: Jennifer Koskinen, Merritt Design Photo
Jennifer did a series of photo shoots using iPhones and Facetime. Her continued artistry and ingenuity through quarantine was a big source of inspiration and encouragement as I worked through my own need to stay creative.
