#sam wanamaker
The Competition (1981). Paul Dietrich, at almost 30 years old, is a fading piano prodigy. Heidi Schoonover is a talented young pianist with a promising future. When Paul hears of an upcoming competition that could make his career, he dedicates himself to winning.
Oof, this one really misses the mark for me. Clunky, overstuffed, and peppered with wildly unlikeable characters, especially in Richard Dreyfuss’ narcissistic and sexist protagonist, there’s not much to redeem this one. One and a half stars for Lee Remick and Amy Irving though, who do their best with not a lot. 3/10.
The Windsor Locals.
The first people you’ll meet as you arrive at the Globe for this summer’s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor might not be those you’d expect in the wealthy, glamorous world of Mistresses Ford and Page – there are socialist agitators, street hawkers and someone who needs help with a washing line…
In this blog by Director Elle While and Associate Director Martin Leonard, we find out a little more about the Windsor Locals.
Sam Wanamaker always said that Shakespeare’s Globe is as much a local theatre as it is a national and international theatre. Whilst community has been at the heart of so much of our work here over the past 21 years, it has never been fully integrated into our productions. If we are truly a local theatre then we have to represent our local community on our stages as well as off them and there can be no better time and no greater need for us to find every possible way, across difference, to come together and tell a story. Expanding on old relationships and starting ones anew, for the first time in our history we welcome London onto its Globe and into its plays.
- Michelle Terry
Merry Wives is not a play about monarchs or magic, but rather ordinary people who happen to have extraordinary stories to tell. You can well imagine that Shakespeare based many of the characters on people he met down the pub, people who’d happily tell you their life story over a pint of ale.
We have collaborated with local arts organisations London Bubble, Clean Break and the Soldiers’ Arts Academy for The Merry Wives of Windsor. Collaborating with these groups has introduced us anew to creative local people with a wealth of similarly imaginative stories to tell. They have created characters informed by lived experiences and offering perspectives shaped by unique circumstances. This is an opportunity to break open assumptions around who Shakespeare is for, and how he is performed, by sharing his words with people who have something to say, but don’t always get given the chance.
This is a play about community – it ends with an exuberant event to which all of Windsor is invited. It seems fitting to welcome as many people as possible to perform in it.
Find out more about our collaborators
The Soldiers’ Arts Academy CIC is creating permanent arts hubs nationwide for current and former military personnel and their families. Founded by Amanda Faber, it runs free masterclasses and creates professional productions and exhibitions in performance, singing, creative writing, dance, poetry, film, photography and art. It provides forums where members can recover from physical and mental injury, link with professional mentors, and train for new careers. Shakespeare’s Globe partnered with the Academy for ‘Shakespeare and Remembrance’ on 11 November 2018 commemorating the World War One centenary. The Academy is delighted to work in association with Shakespeare’s Globe again.
Established in 1972, London Bubble Theatre is a community arts company working to bolster individual and community wellbeing through participatory theatre practice. Delivering workshops and performances in locations across London, building children’s communication skills through primary school drama intervention, training the youth community to make interactive issue-based plays and inviting people to join regular drama groups at our base in Rotherhithe, London Bubble is open to everyone. All sessions, from the intergenerational to the age-specific, are designed to cultivate togetherness through play and the sharing of stories and are assisted by experienced practitioners who share the vision that people make theatre.
Clean Break changes lives and changes minds through theatre – on stage, in prison and in the community. It produces ground-breaking plays with women’s voices at the heart of its work. Founded in 1979 by two women prisoners who believed that theatre could bring the hidden stories of imprisoned women to a wider audience, it is still the only theatre company of its kind remaining true to these roots, inspiring playwrights and captivating audiences with the company’s award-winning plays on the complex theme of women and crime.
The Merry Wives of Windsor opens at Shakespeare’s Globe on 17 May.
Photography by Helen Murray
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#ArchiveWeek: Anniversary Archives - celebrating Sam Wanamaker.
As part of Archive Week we have been thinking about ‘big moments’ and in particular the 100th anniversary of the birth of our founder, Sam Wanamaker which will be celebrating on 14 June 2019.
Sam was born in Chicago, Illinois in the United States. His love affair with the idea of the Globe began in 1933 when as a 14-year-old he attended the Chicago World Fair, an international celebration in which Britain’s contribution was a mock reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
By 1936, Sam, now a drama student was performing in Shakespeare’s plays having joined the Blackfriars Company who were playing in another fair at Cleveland, Ohio in which another replica of the Globe had been built for staging Shakespeare’s plays. We are lucky enough to hold the programme for this production in our Archive.
Sam came to the UK in 1949, narrowly escaping being blacklisted by the US Government in the McCarthy Trials. Being such a fan of Shakespeare he went to look for the original site of the Globe theatre. To his disappointment, all he found was a plaque on a brewery wall early that was not even correctly positioned. In a statement in an affidavit, he says
I was shocked to find that the site was in fact a rundown redundant riverside industrial area. I was particularly saddened, as by this time, the concept of Globe reconstructions had taken a stronghold in the US, and this was part of and contributed to a great revival and interest in Shakespeare and America’s English language heritage…
Fuelled by his disappointing discovery and a love of Shakespeare Sam set out to build a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre on Bankside. Sadly he did not live to see it completed in 1997, as he died on 18 December 1993.
We all have much to thank Sam and his determination for and we are very excited to be working towards an exhibition celebrating his life and vision next year.
Photography
Top: Sam Wanamaker and model by Brian Rybolt
Middle: Sam Wanamaker in front of a replica of the Globe donated by the British Government at the Great Lake festival in Cleveland, Ohio, 1936-37, photographer unknown
Bottom: Sam Wanamaker celebrating the successful settlement of the 1986 High Court case against Southwark Council and Derno Estates by Alan Butland
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