The competition was fierce. Markets, pubs, and sellers lined the bridge crossing the Thames, hawking their wares. Once over the bridge, Bankside was a cacophony of sounds and smells, the calls of corner butchers and the whistles of prostitutes, the stench of refuse and dung merging queasily with the tempting aroma of pub pies and cooked poultry, smoked fish and fresh ale. You could stop on the way to the Globe and instead hit up the Rose or the Swan, or say to hell with it and spend the afternoon watching bear baiting. Not to mention you could just stay in the city center and possibly see another traitor drawn and quartered, or stop down the Clink and laugh at the poor prisoners scrambling for tossed mouldy crumbs. Or just, you know, hit the pub and get hammered. Again. All this and more the Globe and Shakespeare had to compete with. Every day.
If he were alive today, he'd likely be a showrunner. Maybe he'd write for Image or Dark Horse or Avatar. Maybe he'd be turning out YouTube shorts for millions of followers. The Elizabethan theater was pop culture, its audience made up of street trash in the stalls, royalty in the balconies, and middle class merchants filling the seats all around. It was open, raucous, immediate. Everyone went, and everyone had a favorite performer, writer, company. The Lord Chamberlain's Men, of which Shakespeare was a member, had a rabid following, its star performers Richard Burbage and Will Kemp the celebrities of their day, and Shakespeare himself was roaringly popular, leading to his name being misleadingly slapped on countless compilations of dodgy poetry passed off at bookseller's stalls across London. They were notorious, famous, unavoidable. They were the boys.
These truths are all buried now under centuries of treacle laid on by scholars, academics, and acolytes, who keep the Bard's work elevated, all the rough edges sanded down, the crude jokes explained away, the naughty bits obscured with coughing and handwaving, these ribald, ragged works treated with a reverence the Lord Chamberlain's Men may have found laughable. He's ossified now, a butterfly pinned to corkboard, stuffed and mounted. Airbrushed. A tribute band in an airport bar.
Shakespeare should be accessible. Not condescending or clumsy, but nimble, immediate, welcoming. A tired-ass suburban dad coming off a 60 hour work week should be able to sit down at a performance of Taming of the Shrew and not only understand every word, but laugh his ass off. We've had that happen. We also had a German couple attend a performance and have a roaring good time, even though the wife didn't speak a word of English and the husband had to give her Cliff's Notes on the plot during scene transitions (how they heard about us, I never quite worked out). During Antony and Cleopatra, we had rooms full of reluctant theater goers dragged along by wives, boyfriends, co-workers, etc, approaching and thanking the cast for their first experience in really understanding Shakespeare. An NYC high school class came to Titus Andronicus on closing night, entering with dour, blank faces of the damned, forced to come for class credit; they give us a standing ovation at the end, and emailed me for weeks after with questions about other Shakespeare plays, telling me excitedly how much they loved the show and how it changed their perception of theater and the Bard.
That is what you want. That is what we should be doing. Let Shakespeare entertain. Be bold, be daring, make the text come alive in a modern way. Build a concept that illuminates, not one that smothers the text. Making the text sound immediate and modern, without breaking meter or sounding pretentious. Antony and Cleopatra recast as a Vegas mob capo and his burlesque queen. Titus Andronicus a military matriarch going to war with the Empire she sacrificed blood and flesh to save. Petruchio and Kate a perfectly mismatched Southern hellion and redneck good ol boy. It seems so familiar and natural this way. It's not hard, but it's not easy. We've staged Shakespeare directly three times, and have presented one pop cultural tribute to his genius. We've created an entirely new world out of the shattered, shredded remnants of his language and themes. I hope to do more. If I were told I could do two shows a year for the rest of my life but they could only be Shakespeare, it would be no punishment. The Lord Chamberlain's men were entertainers. Too many have forgotten this. We haven't. Shakespeare is our homeboy.
-- Frank Cwiklik, NYC 2015
SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare is my homeboy
Antony and Cleopatra (2003)
REPERTORY
PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN ABBREVIATED EDITION OF OUR REPERTORY ARCHIVES. FOR THE FULL ONSLAUGHT OF IMAGES, VIDEO, AND ENDLESS PRATTLE, HIE THEE TO A DESKTOP OR LAPTOP AND VISIT OUR FULL WEBSITE, WHICH IS PRETTY FRICKIN' SWEET
The Red Room, June/July 2011
Access Theater January/February 2001
The Kraine Theater, January/February 2003
The Brick, January 2008
ABOUT
WINNER 2003 OOBR AWARD FOR
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION!
Shakespeare meets the Sopranos in a radical retelling of the classic tale of jealousy, greed, romance, and murder. The place: Empire, Nevada. Time: Indeterminate. Away from the prying eyes of the law, five casino bosses, each with their own private army, tussle over turf, both real and perceived. While vacationers, millionaires, and fellow gangsters laze away the days under the hot desert sun and seize the nights in the cool red lounges of the Miracle Mile, brash, ruthless Caesar plots to wrest control of all his competitors' lucrative gaming resorts. Meanwhile, the hotblooded Antony, smitten with burlesque queen and legendary beauty Cleopatra, fights to keep his rapidly crumbling empire of crime and gambling from slipping through his fingers. Bullets fly, bodies pile up, and before this long, hot summer is over, someone's gonna end up dead -- and someone else is going to have complete control of Empire, Nevada. Not that anyone could control the lustful Cleopatra...
The first direct DMT Shakespeare production, and the genesis of the American Shakespeare Factory, Antony and Cleopatra played to packed houses, standing ovations, and unanimous critical acclaim -- and it kicked the ass of every other Shakespearean production playing in NYC that season. Glittery, sexy, gaudy, violent, DMT's Antony and Cleopatra was an exciting new spin on a timeless tale: a high-energy, high stakes theatrical event, a whirlwind of sex, violence, and ruthless ambition. Inspired by the colorful (and often shady) history of Las Vegas and the exploits of the unsavoury characters who built it out of nothing but desert sand, this A&C was unlike any ever seen: as romantic as it was brutal, as hopeful as it was bleak, full of life, death, and all the things that make life worth living -- and killing for.
GALLERY
Tom Mazur as Antony, Anna Curtis as Cleopatra (all photos by Moira Stone)
Bob Brader as Caesar, Carrie Johnson as Octavia
Ken Simon as Leonidas, Bob Laine as Pompey
Matthew Gray as Thidias
L to R: Alisha Silver as Iras; Anna Curits as Cleopatra; Maria Hurdle as Charmian
Gerald Marsini as Alexas
L to R: Matthew Gray, Bob Laine, Adam Swiderski, Tom Mazur, Bob Brader
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PROMO
original 20x40 lobby poster
CREDITS
DANSE MACABRE THEATRICS PRESENTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
BOB BRADER * JONATHAN M. CASTRO * ANNA CURTIS
MATTHEW GRAY * MARIA HURDLE * CARRIE JOHNSON
BOB LAINE * NICOLE MARSH * GERALD MARSINI * TOM MAZUR
EMILY MOSTYN-BROWN * ALISHA SILVER * KEN SIMON
MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG * KEN STANEK * ADAM SWIDERSKI
WRITTEN BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
PUBLICITY BY SCOTT MAKIN
CHOREOGRAPHY BY ANNA CURTIS / MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG
PRODUCED BY FRANK CWIKLIK AND MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG-CWIKLIK
DESIGNED AND DIRECTED BY FRANK CWIKLIK
The Red Room, July/August 2002
The Brick, October 2009
ABOUT
"A phenomenal experience... jawdropping... the cast is great through and through... bold, exciting, well-thought-out choices... FOUR STARS"
-- Matthew Barbot, playshakespeare.com
I AM NOT MAD.
Victorious in battle, chosen by the people to lead, Titus Andronicus has returned home after ten long years defending the honor, the ethics, the very existence of the nation state she loves -- only to discover that the art of politics and skirmishes within the halls of power are darker, crueler, and more violent than anything she has seen on the battlefield. Her nation changed beyond recognition, her leaders corrupt and venal, the rules she lives by mocked and broken, she devises a revenge for her enemies far worse than anything she could have done at war.
This radical reinvisioning of one of Shakespeare's most controversial works boldly recasts the family Andronici as a matriarchal career military clan, with Titus as the grande dame of Roman warcraft and her sister Marta as the no-nonsense Tribune of the people. Presenting this dark revenge melodrama as a conflict between matriarchs vying for power and justice in a wartorn world, the show's themes of sacrifice, honor, vengeance, and cruelty are thrown into stark relief. Supported by phenomenal performances from its dedicated cast, DMT's Titus took audiences by surprise and became one of the most acclaimed classical theater productions of its season. Direct in focus and bracingly immediate, this was a Titus that eschewed gore and gimmickry and confronted the dark and violent heart of this difficult work.
CLIPS
NOTE: As patrons were lined up at the box office, a monitor was mounted showing campaign ads for Saturninus and Bassianus, which both set the mood and backstory and helped cut much of the opening pages of the text to allow us to blast the show open with Titus' return to Rome, allowing us a leaner, punchier text to work with. These two ads, which ran on a loop during preshow, are presented below.
TRAILER
Original trailer created for Titus Andronicus. This was a modified edit of the montage played before the infamous banquet scene, and, as both versions were created to be screened on low-res playback equipment with a ton of compression, the effects and color timing for both were never really finished, as the low-quality formatting was able to hide a multitude of abuses. I've cleaned this up a bit, but it still will look a little dodgy on more recent playback equipment, especially after being thrown to the mercy of YouTube's compression algorithms, so, my apologies in advance. Then again, this is free entertainment, so you can't complain too much.
CREDITS
DMTheatrics
in association with The Brick
presents
William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus
Starring
Kymberly Tuttle * Sean Phillips * Brianna Tyson * Greg Engebrecht * Ann Breitbach * Fred Backus * Ken Simon * Kristin Woodburn * Adam Samtur * Craig Kelton Peterson * Peter Schwartz * Peter Schuyler * Stephanie Wortel * Lydia Blaisdell * William Welles
Written by William Shakespeare
Co-Producer Michele Schlossberg
Designed, Produced and Directed by Frank Cwiklik
Kraine Theater, March/April 2010
ABOUT
When his beloved rug is micturated upon as a result of comically mistaken identity, layabout ruffian the Knave embarks on a journey of epic proportions, encountering manipulative aristocrats, seductive artists, murderous consorts, and the worst theater troupe in the world, all aided and abetted by his bombastic friend Sir Walter of Poland, against a backdrop of ninepins, taverns, and pipesmoking.
Two Gentlemen of Lebowski is an extraordinary work from filmmaker/playwright Adam Bertocci which reimagines the cult classic motion picture as a Shakespearian farce, creating an amazing new work from the heightened language and surreal comic landscape of its inspirations. Initially a viral sensation, Bertocci's script has been published around the world and remains a top-selling cult classic, delighting fans of both Shakespeare and movie comedy. Immaculately crafted and riotously funny, this instant classic was also the inaugural production of DMT’s American Shakespeare Factory, an exciting project intended to present all of the Bard’s works in eclectic and innovative new productions, and to present new works exploring the connection between the great classical texts and the demands of modern theater. The fastest-selling show in NYC Indie theater history, and the biggest smash in DMT's repertory by far, the show attracted audiences from around the country, and from as far as the UK, Switzerland, Germany, and Australia, and remains a sensation to this day, over five years after its closing date.
Infamous, influential, irreverent, and peculiarly brilliant, nearly banned on its initial run, and likely never to happen again, it was a piece of New York theater history, and one of the best costume parties, Ever.
DIRECTORS' NOTES, 2010:
So, that happened.
Producing and directing this show was like trying to ride a wild beast, and I can't even imagine what Adam was going through fending off lawyers, agents, and Lebowski fanatics. It's also the most extraordinary experience we've ever had -- the love and enthusiasm for this show from all over the world was overwhelming, and we had some of the most giving, excited, and generous audiences I've encountered in my nearly two decades of working in and around show business. I was gratified by how many people got it, how many understood that this was as much a commentary on pop culture, Shakespeare, and performance in general as it was a cult comedy. We took an enormous risk on our interpretation of this beast, and our incredible cast and crew, plus the glorious lunatics at Horse Trade, were totally committed to making that gamble pay off. The response from our audiences, many of whom are still contacting us with warm affection and regards as of this writing, over a month later, proved that we were right to treat this as an event and not as a cheap gimmick.
It was the hardest and most draining show I've ever done, and I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of it, and the cast and crew that pushed themselves, sometimes beyond exhaustion, sometimes to tears, to make sure that this show lived up to expectations. Certain Unnamed Persons are hellbent on ensuring that this show is never seen again, but for those of us who were there, dear God it was something special.
I'm such a sap.
"Has to be seen to be believed!... Cwiklik's direction is crisp and clean... an incredible cadre of young and talented performers... FLAWLESS!"
-- Michael Roderick, broadwayworld.com review
PROMO
original teaser poster released before casting was even finished, to promote the show that needed basically no promotion, but plenty of legal fees AAAAAAAAAAA HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA the fun we have here at DMTheatrics
GALLERY
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NOTE: A particularly rabid Lebowski fan with terrific front row seats was good enough to film the first twenty minutes of the last performance of Two Gentlemen and upload them on the YouTubes. Due to various ridiculous legal nonsense courtesy of Churlish Persons Who Shall Remain Unnamed, it's not wise for us to embed them here. It would be a shame if we were to accidentally include a link to them, though. Like this one. Whoops. Oh, did it again, sorry.
CREDITS
Kevin Orzechowski...William Shakespeare, tourist
Josh Mertz...The Knave
Craig Kelton Peterson and Dan Phai... Blanche and Woo, thugs
Bob Laine... Sir Walter of Poland, a veteran
Stewart Urist... Sir Donald, a bowler
Matt Gray... Mr. Brandt, personal assistant
Ed Lane... Sir Geoffrey of Lebowski, achiever
Becky Byers... Lady Bonnie Lebowski, trouble
Devin Landin... Oliver aka Karl Hungus, nihilist
Devin Landin... Jack Smoke, pacifist
Matt Gray... Joshua Quince, pederast
Craig Kelton Peterson... Liam O’Brien, lackey
Brianna Tyson... Maude Lebowski, artist and feminist
Craig Kelton Peterson and Dan Phai... Nihilists, germans
Shiloh Klein... Player Queen
Devin Landin... Player Hungus
Melissa Opie... Player Bonnie
Kelly McCormack... Player Whore
Erin Posanti... Mistress Quickly, bowling green and tavern proprietress
Craig Kelton Peterson... Knox Harrington, odd duck
Devin Landin... Doctor Butts, no applause please just throw money
Courtni Wilson and Erin Posanti... Incredibly Serious Performance Artists,
incredibly serious performance artists (grants pending)
Shiloh Klein... Pilar, nurse
Dan Phai... Lawrence, punk
Matt Gray... Clown, obviously quite upset about the whole thing
Devin Landin... Jacques Treehorn, actor/manager
Dan Phai... Brother Seamus, hot on the trail
Craig Kelton Peterson... Burke O’Hare, Gravedigger
AND INTRODUCING THE MIGHTY MARTY DANCERS:
Shiloh Klein * Kelly McCormack * Melissa Opie * Erin Posanti * Courtni Wilson
For DMTheatrics:
Managing Director, Michele Schlossberg
Artistic Director, Frank Cwiklik
For Horse Trade Theater Group:
Managing Director, Erez Ziv
Horse Trade Technical Director, Elaine Jones
Costume Designer STEPH CATHRO
Production Technical Director luckydave
Scenic and Prop Design ELAINE JONES
Choreographer BECKY BYERS
Co-Producer MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG
As writ by ADAM BERTOCCI
Produced and Directed by FRANK CWIKLIK
Special thanks to Dina Gray and Karen Flood for costume support
This production of The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski is not endorsed by or associated with the Coen Brothers,
the writers and directors of the film “The Big Leboswki”, or Working Title or Universal Pictures, the producer
and distributor of the film “The Big Lebowski”. Any and all stage rights in and to “The Big Lebowski” are
reserved to the Coen Brothers.
ABOUT
When the rascally Petruchio charms his way into a wealthy family by hitching himself to their hellraising oldest daughter, Kate, he must find a way to tame the fiery lass before she ends up taming him -- which she just might. Not to mention her younger sister, Bianca, who's caught the eye of two scheming, dreaming lads who're willing to do anything to catch her heart and her hand in marraige. Plus, there's the nanny disguised as a man who convinces the gullible guy from out of town to masquerade as a titan of industry. Oh, and then there's the... you know, I think you just have to see this one.
Warm, bighearted, barrel-chested and shameless, this was a truly modern, radical take on a difficult classic, whose setting of the modern American South perfectly captured both the good ol'boy rambunctiousness of its hero and the changing and challenging attitudes of its heroine. Stripped to its walls, the legendary Red Room was transformed into a laidback, barewalled barnloft space, with bleacher seating, special blanket seats on the "NASCAR lawn", and inventive opening shorts that brought the rarely performed prologue to hilarious life. Beloved by audiences, and gathering strong reviews, this production proved once and for all that DMT's goal of creating Shakespeare for everyone was attainable, and roaring good fun besides.
“Tyson and Swiderski are near perfect... compelling, energetic, and funny... A work that will appeal even to those who are usually disinterested in Shakespeare...”
-- Adrienne Urbanski, Theatre is Easy (theasy.com)
GALLERY
Brianna Tyson as Kate (all photos by Frank Cwiklik)
L to R, Josh Potter as Grumio, Adam Swiderski as Petruchio
L to R, Lindsey Carter as Bianca, Charles Baker as Baptista, Brianna Tyson as Kate
L to R: Lindsey Carter as Bianca, Joshua B. Schwartz as Hortensio, Zachary Luke as Lucentio
Kymberly Tuttle as Tranio, Zachary Luke as Lucentio
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PROLOGUE CLIP
Most productions of Taming of the Shrew cut the opening Christopher Sly prologue. This is dumb. It's the only prologue in all of Shakespeare's canon, which means he didn't do it for no reason, and it repeats and lampoons not only the themes of the show, but Elizabethan stagecraft itself, from jigs to clowning to cross dressing, to the wide range of classes in the theater. Cutting it mortally wounds the piece: it's intended to act as air-quotes or parentheses around the show proper.
The DMT Shrew was Blue Collar Comedy Tour Shakespeare, set in the urban South with a redneck Petruchio, a rabble-rousing, hard-drinking Kate, and suitors who were beta males scrambling for attention. The prologue was pre-filmed and shown to the audience bracketed by clips of football, KFC ads, and NASCAR races, hopefully setting up our NYC audiences for a southern mock-fest. The prologue itself was fun to do -- meant to look like an early-70s European art film showing on a public cable station, it gave us a chance to send up both our own pretensions and the audience's expectations, and hopefully bring Shakespeare's intentions up to date. The full preshow reel was about twenty minutes and framed to fit the available projection area, but I've cut this down to just the relevant sections (the prologue and the Hortensio's Auto World ad preceding) and reframed it for a full screen. -- Frank Cwiklik, NYC
CREDITS
DMTHEATRICS' AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE FACTORY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP
present
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
starring
ADAM SWIDERSKI * BRIANNA TYSON
LINDSEY CARTER * ZACHARY LUKE * JOSHUA SCHWARTZ * CHARLES BAKER
KYMBERLY TUTTLE * JOSH POTTER * MICHELLE POLERA
with EDGAR EGUIA as Mr. Pedant
and TROY ALAN as Vincentio
Written by William Shakespeare
Publicity by Emily Owens PR
Produced by Michele Schlossberg and Frank Cwiklik
Designed and Directed by Frank Cwiklik
“Wildly ambitious, uniformly terrific, evocative, powerful... Cwiklik's confident command of the material makes for an amazing ride...”
-- Tom Penketh, Backstage.com
“uncompromisingly an original... enormously impressive... a big. ambitious, visually and aurally stunning work of theatre... unlike anything I've experienced before... YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO GET IT OUT OF YOUR MIND.”
-- Martin Denton, NYTheatre.com
“Cwiklik's dialogue has its own peculiar poetry... mindboggling, mutlilayered, overwhelming... FOUR STARS”
-- Raven Snook, Time Out New York
CLICK HERE TO EXPLORE
Two Gentlemen of Lebowski (2010)
Titus Andronicus (2009)
