{"id":5229,"date":"2018-01-17T08:07:41","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T13:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=5229"},"modified":"2018-01-18T07:27:48","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T12:27:48","slug":"shakespeare-in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/01\/17\/shakespeare-in-love\/","title":{"rendered":"In SpeakEasy Stage\u2019s \u2018Shakespeare In Love,\u2019 What\u2019s It Like To Be The Great Playwright?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In SpeakEasy Stage Company\u2019s \u201cShakespeare In Love\u201d<\/a>\u2014being performed at the Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion from Jan. 12 to Feb. 10\u2014George Olesky is the actor cast to play the great Will Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first it was overwhelming. \u2018God, do I read four biographies of this guy?\u201d Olesky recalls.<\/p>\n

Then perhaps the\u00a0New York-based, Newton native\u00a0got a wee bit too comfortable. \u201cWhen I was first around this, I\u2019m like, \u2018I am this guy. I get what he\u2019s going through.\u2019 Sure he\u2019s a heavyweight of the Western canon, but I get where he\u2019s coming from. He\u2019s sort of this tormented artist, but he has a sense of humor about being a tormented artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Olesky landed on a mix of study and invention. \u201cResearch helps and knowing what is the social environment and what is the economic environment,\u201d he says. \u201cIt helps you get into the feel of the play. There\u2019s only so much we know about him. So you have a lot of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"George<\/a>
George Olesky (center) in \u201cShakespeare In Love. (Nile Hawver\/Nile Scott Shots)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpeakEasy Stage\u2019s production (directed by Scott Edmiston) is billed as the New England premiere of Lee Hall\u2019s stage adaptation of the Academy Award-winning 1998 film written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard. This screwball, \u201cromantic comedy of errors\u201d draws on mistaken identities and other Shakespearean tropes to invent a tale of a young Will Shakespeare overcoming writer\u2019s block by falling in love with Viola, a noblewoman who has disguised herself as a boy to appear in one of his shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s adapted so smoothly to the stage. It\u2019s much more about the making of the play and the making of a genius,\u201d Olesky says. \u201cIt deals with the love of the theater and the play. It\u2019s about the camaraderie of a group of theater makers, working-class people and the obstacles, what goes into making art as a team, and Shakespeare himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/a>
Jennifer Ellis as Viola and George Olesky as Shakespeare in \u201cShakespeare In Love.” (Nile Hawver\/Nile Scott Shots)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The original \u201cShakespeare in Love\u201d movie\u2014about Shakespeare\u2019s romance with Viola, a woman seeking social equality in 16th century London\u2014was produced by Harvey Weinstein\u2019s Miramax. This production of the play now arrives in the #MeToo moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cViola and Will have these sort of parallel lives. He believes theater can be more truthful. And he believes in his ability. He just doesn\u2019t know how to get there,\u201d Olesky says. \u201cFor Viola, nothing ever will be truthful until women are up on the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a place for her to find freedom,\u201d he says. \u201cViola can\u2019t have freedom in her material world. Her marriage is decided for her. There\u2019s nothing that she can do. But she finds freedom in art. \u2026 There\u2019s this space for her to fully live and ultimately find love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Help us keep producing our great coverage of local arts by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In SpeakEasy Stage Company\u2019s \u201cShakespeare In Love\u201d\u2014being performed at the Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Pavilion from Jan. 12 to Feb. 10\u2014George Olesky is the actor cast to play the great Will Shakespeare. \u201cAt first it was overwhelming. \u2018God, do I read four biographies of this guy?\u201d Olesky recalls. Then perhaps the\u00a0New York-based, Newton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[37,223,224,221,222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5229"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5261,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229\/revisions\/5261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}