Directing Shakespeare in America: Historical Perspectives by Charles Ney (review)

“We want to make Shakespeare attractive to the masses, and to that end . . . we must concede something to them” (7). Augustin Daly’s comment in an 1882 letter to William Winter expresses a view of directing Shakespeare that has remained central to the work of many: to bend Shakespeare’s texts to external slants. Other directors, in contrast, have advocated allowing Shakespeare’s plays to reveal themselves. Charles Ney traces such broad tendencies as well as fine distinctions among American directors since Daly, whose repertoires have prominently featured Shakespeare. As a well-practiced director and teacher of directing, Ney grasps and conveys the specifics of various techniques. As one who is passionate about Shakespeare, he tellingly evokes the essence of stage moments and interpretations. The result is a book that achieves two purposes, offering practical insights for directors and illuminating selected individual contributions to the history of Shakespeare production on the American stage.

The historical perspectives of this book cover a first wave of directors from the 1870s to the 1940s, successions of directors at four major Shakespeare festivals from the 1930s to the 1990s, and two chapters on other directors from the 1950s to the 1990s. The study builds on Ney’s earlier volume, Directing Shakespeare in America: Current Practices (2016). However, the two volumes are structured quite differently. For his study of current practices, Ney traveled to attend productions, and he interviewed directors, whose transcribed comments are presented in topical chunks alongside other directors’ views on issues such as preparing the text and conducting rehearsals. The present volume’s distillation of historical perspectives necessarily relies more heavily on secondary sources; Ney’s skill at drawing from a range of perspectives keeps the analysis lively and interesting. A few directors (notably Barbara Gaines, Michael Kahn, Mark Lamos, and Tina Packer) appear in both volumes.

The historical coverage begins with a survey of the emerging art of the director as applied to Shakespeare’s plays by Augustin Daly, culminating in his 1893 Twelfth Night. A 1922 Merchant of Venice serves to represent David Belasco’s opulent approach. In sharp contrast were Arthur Hopkins’s four minimalist or “unobtrusive” (19) Shakespeare productions on Broadway in three seasons, 1920– 1922. Orson Welles brought considerable variety to three Shakespeare productions: the 1936 “voodoo” Macbeth, his 1937 version of Julius Caesar, and the history plays conflated into Five Kings (1939). Margaret Webster’s thoughtful treatment of Shakespeare gets the most extensive coverage of that early group, with particular emphasis on her legendary 1943 Othello.

The four chapters on four leading Shakespeare festivals form the heart of the book. B. Iden Payne is rightly signaled as an influence on several Shakespeare-related initiatives; indeed, Oregon Shakespeare Festival founder Angus Bowmer regarded him as a mentor. During Bowmer’s tenure as artistic director, 1935– 1971, several freelance directors made strong impressions: Robert Loper, Rod Alexander, and Richard Risso. Jerry Turner succeeded Bowmer in 1971, followed by Henry Woronicz in 1991. Significant productions during those years were directed by Laird Williamson, Jim Edmondson, Audrey Stanley, and Pat Patton. Many directorial hands defined the early history of San Diego’s Old Globe; its noteworthy artistic director was Jack O’Brien, from 1981 to 2007. The Old Globe chapter includes a section that details Tyrone Guthrie’s influence on American directing of Shakespeare. The American Shakespeare Theatre weathered its complex trajectory for twenty-seven seasons (until 1982) and launched several careers, including those of Michael Kahn and Gerald Freedman. Ney attributes its demise to several factors, including its embrace of “a Broadway business model instead of a non-profit regional theatre one” (112). Oddly, the chapter never mentions the theatre’s location in Stratford, Connecticut. In addition to Joseph Papp, the chapter on New York Shakespeare Festival/The Pubic Theater examines the work of directors Stuart Vaughan, Freedman again, Gladys Vaughan, A. J. Antoon, Wilford Leach, and JoAnne Akalaitis.

The analyses of the various directorial approaches offer insights on several fronts. We see...