Renaissance Now Theatre & Film, led by Kathy Curtiss, specializes in freely adapting Shakespearean plays with additions of dialogue in contemporary prose. This "now speak" is used to highlight social issues, including political and moral themes, from the viewpoint of characters in the plays.
Hamlet, adapted and directed by Kathy Curtiss, is a new adaptation and shorter cut (world premiere) that includes predominately the original text, punctuated with contemporary monologues for Hamlet and Ophelia. The text of Hamlet has passages of contemporary writing added to give a modern perspective to issues that relate the classic play to our time. Costuming borrows from Renaissance dress, but adds recognizable detail from the 21st century in the trendy attire of the young characters. Hamlet, at age 30, is the equivalent of a modern college graduate student, seeking wisdom and truth about humane and right behavior as he prepares to be Denmark’s next king. He is surrounded by other identity-seeking college students: Laertes, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern and Horatio. His election as King of Denmark is overridden by fear-mongering that the King’s brother, Claudius, has created in order to claim the throne. The ensuing atmosphere of panic and political confusion is all too familiar in our time. This adaptation chastises rash behavior when impatience prevails over conscience (Polonius’s rash slaughter) and affirms the potential for right judgment and pure motives in Hamlet, a man of conscience who is Shakespeare's quintessential Renaissance Man.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Laurie Harrop Purser with vocal/text work by Steven Rimke, adapts Shakespeare's fantasy play to the California Rock Music scene in Laurel Canyon in the early 1970’s. The war that is scripted in Shakespeare's original is replaced by a battle of the bands: a sing-off involving Theseus, the Duke of Rock, and Hippolyta, the Amazon of Songs. The comedic characters – the Mechanicals – are the Opening Act for Theseus and Hippolyta. The set is simple with projections depicting the Rock Concert setting and the woods surrounding Laurel Canyon. Costumes are indicative of late 1960’s and early 1970’s. There is singing, stage fighting and chasing throughout the play as love triangles shift back and forth. Perception changes with a dimensional shift into a land where fairies and fairy royalty exist in tandem with Rock Stars. The door to this dimensional shift is a “weed” often found and smoked at rock concerts. The mischievous fairy/roadie Puck enables the audience to see the Mechanicals turn into fairies before their eyes. There is much in this interpretation about perspective and "seeing what we want to see" when it comes to love. Ultimately everyone finds their way out of the woods, everyone is paired with the proper partner, and it ends with hilarity and dance.
