It’s a woeful and twisted story of betrayal and corruption, where a prideful ruler pays the price for misplacing his loyalty. In the style of history’s greatest playwright himself, WJ STAGE opened the curtains this winter with a classical rendition of Shakespeare’s suspenseful tragedy, “King Lear.” They performed four showings of the play on Dec. 1, 2, 8 and 9 after diligent work to master the script, characters and special effects to bring the thrilling story to life.
The sophistication and raw emotion highlights the true dedication each cast and crew member put into the play. Although the script was an exact replica of the original play, with complex and metaphoric language, each word carries the passion of the characters with the fluency only a truly skilled actor could create.
“They did a great job of memorizing their lines. I was impressed that they were able to do so and how little slip-ups there were. I loved the Fool, they were such an entertaining character and offered an unexpected change up of tone whenever they were on stage. It was a good comedic break. The emotion each actor brought to the play made the tragedy come to life,” junior Parker Lasko said.
The choice of play is especially appealing to those who enjoy classical and mature plays. Assistant student technical director and fly master, junior Ari McIntosh, describes why they love the choice in play.
“‘King Lear’ is a beautiful Shakespearian play about how betrayal can turn to tragedy. It is an overall mature play, and if you are someone who loves writing and literature, I highly recommend coming to see it,” McIntosh said.
Due to the difficulty of the complex script, the actors put in a lot of effort into their roles.
“I’m really happy with the performance and the actors. I am thoroughly impressed with the number of lines they memorized. I really hope a lot of people come to see it,” McIntosh said.
Leading up to the performances, the cast and crew worked diligently to perfect the show. Each member dedicated a significant number of hours to working on the script and set. Sophomore Cody Herwald, cast and crew member, describes the process to prepare the show.
“It started with auditions, and once we got the cast list, we immediately jumped straight into rehearsals. We read the modern translation, then we read the original Shakespeare script. I spent most of my time memorizing my lines because I have three roles, and it’s a mouthful for all of them. Whenever I’m not memorizing lines, I help carpentry with the set because we have to manually build and deconstruct it after the show,” Herwald said.
Developing the show is no easy process. Herwald emphasizes the time he spent working leading up to the performance.
“Coming up to the show, we were working every day, even sometimes on the weekends. On weekends I’ve been working Saturday, [from] 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday, [from] 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. I’ve taken on more of this show than I did in ‘Twilight Zone’ or ‘The Addams Family,’ but the workload was about the same,” Herwald said.
