We extend warm greetings to those who are new to the Guild, and gratitude
to those who've contributed to the success of our many programs. As you
browse these pages, clicking on the blue links that serve as navigating
devices, you'll see that we're now using online formats for most of our
offerings. All but a handful have been produced in collaboration with the
National Arts Club in
Manhattan, and our conversations with DAME
JUDI DENCH and SIR IAN MCKELLEN, which drew more than 2,000 viewers
apiece from around the globe, attracted the
NAC's largest audiences of 2021 and were featured in the Club's year-end
highlights.
AN APRIL CEREMONY IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY
We're now focused on a celebration that's scheduled to take place on Saturday,
April 23, in
Westminster Abbey. One of the globe's most iconic settings, this historic
institution is renowned, among other things, for Poets'
Corner, where authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare
are honored along with other legendary artists, among them Henry Irving,
the first actor to be knighted, and Laurence Olivier, a performer in whose
name each season's award-worthy achievements are now recognized by the Society
of London Theatre.
It's a pleasure to announce that a new memorial, a floor plaque designed
by eminent carver Wayne
Hart to commemorate the life and legacy of
SIR JOHN GIELGUD, will be
dedicated as the highlight of a festive commemoration
of two significant birthdays, Shakespeare's 458th and Gielgud's 118th.
In addition to his remarkable career as an actor, director, and producer,
Sir John was also a renowned memoirist and theatre historian whose many
contributions included an eloquent article about "Tradition,
Style, and the Shakespearean Actor Today" that appeared in the third
volume of William Shakespeare:
His World, His Work, His Influence, a 3-volume Scribners
reference set that was published in
1985. He also contributed illuminating forewords to Everyman Shakespeare
editions of Julius Caesar and
The Tempest that were
completed in 1989 and 1991, a few years before the Guild established the
Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts in 1994.
Details about our April festivities in London will be provided shortly.
Meanwhile we hope you'll join us for two online conversations that will
prepare the way for them.
At 3 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, February 16, we'll chat with executive
director BEN
HARTLEY of the National Arts Club. Since his arrival at the NAC in 2018,
Mr. Hartley has introduced a variety of new initiatives, among them the
virtual programs that have brought an impressive roster of celebrities into
the homes of viewers not only in New York but around the world.
And at 1 p.m. ET on Friday, March 18, we'll talk with CLIVE FRANCIS, an actor who has played leading roles with
the Royal Shakespeare Company and who has appeared in such feature films
and BBC television series as A Clockwork Orange, The Crown,
Sense and Sensibility, and Yes, Prime Minister. A gifted
illustrator, Mr. Francis has also produced delightful images of dozens of
leading performers, among them framed caricatures
of Sir John Gielgud and other celebrities that are
elegantly displayed in the corridors of the West End theatres such as the one that now bears Gielgud's name.
In 1994 Mr. Francis published Sir John:
The Many Faces of Gielgud, a 90th-birthday collection that featured
anecdotes from many of the actor's most distinguished colleagues. And since
2005 a commemorative portrait of Sir John (copies of which Gielgud inscribed in 1996
with his distinctive signature) have been presented to recipients of the
Gielgud
Award.
A MEMORABLE SEASON OF ONLINE ATTRACTIONS
We opened our 2021 SPEAKING OF SHAKESPEARE series on Wednesday,
February 24, with a conversation that focused on
JUDI DENCH. The Guild had honored Dame Judi with its 1999 Gielgud
trophy at Broadway’s Barrymore
Theatre during a gala that featured such luminaries
as Keith Baxter, Zoe Caldwell, Rebecca Eaton, David Hare, Hal Holbrook,
Robert MacNeil, Ronald Pickup, Toby Stephens, and Christopher Plummer. To
enjoy this charming visit to Dame Judi's home a few miles south of London,
click
here. And to enjoy recent profile of Dame Judi in AARP: The Magazine,
click here.
A week later, on Wednesday, March 3, we enjoyed a wide-ranging NAC@Home
dialogue with IAN MCKELLEN
that focused primarily on his dozens of Shakespearean roles. In 1996 Sir
Ian had received the Guild's inaugural Gielgud
Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts during a historically
resonant ceremony at the Folger
Shakespeare Library in Washington, and at several points he recalled
that illustrious occasion. To revisit that conversation
click here.
On Tuesday, April 20, we focused on playwright DAVID
HARE. Having taken part in our 1999 Gielgud Award presentation
to Dame Judi Dench at the Barrymore
Theatre in New York, Sir David himself received our 2017 Gielgud trophy at London's venerable Guildhall.
To watch a memorable conversation
with an extraordinary dramatist, screenwriter, director, and performer,
click here.
A few days later, on Saturday, April 24, Guild President John Andrews and
cabaret artist SHANA FARR of The Players co-hosted a 2021 Shakespeare's
Birthday gathering with Oscar laureate F.
MURRAY ABRAHAM, an exchange that celebrated what has long been revered
as Edwin Booth's club, a historic institution that was founded by the actor
in 1888. To watch it, click
here.
Another of 2021's highlights occurred on Monday, June 14, when Mr. Andrews
arranged a delightful conversation
with SUSAN
STAMBERG, one of the radio
pioneers who made All Things Considered an essential part
of our lives. In 1999 Mr. Andrews hosted an evening with Linda
Wertheimer and Cokie Roberts, two of Susan's NPR colleagues, at the
National Press Club. Three years earlier he'd asked Ms. Stamberg, who helped
launch the Gielgud
Award in 1994, to interview Kenneth
Branagh (who would go on to to win that trophy in January of 2000) at
the Smithsonian Institution. Two years later Ms. Stamberg interviewed 1998
Gielgud laureate Zoe
Caldwell and her husband Robert Whitehead at the Folger Shakespeare
Library. What led to this summer's program with her was a remarkable new
book, Susan,
Linda, Nina, and Cokie, a tribute to "The Founding Mothers of NPR"
by arts journalist Lisa
Napoli. It's a riveting narrative, and if you click
here you'll enjoy a memorable dialogue with the first of its title characters,
a legend whose many honors include a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk
of Fame.
A few days later, on Tuesday, June 22, cabaret artist Shana
Farr, who serves as Vice-President for
The Players, hosted a wide-ranging discussion with Guild president JOHN
ANDREWS. To enjoy this dialogue, click
here.
Our most recent event, on Sunday, September 19, was a delightful follow-up
conversation with IAN MCKELLEN,
who by then was thrilling audiences in a production of Hamlet at
Theatre Royal Windsor. At 82, Sir Ian was starring in an age-blind, color-blind,
and gender-blind presentation of the drama with which Players founder
Edwin Booth concluded his career in 1891 at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music. Co-hosted by cabaret artist Shana
Farr and Guild president John
Andrews, this program was presented under the auspices of
The Players. To watch it,
click here.
Click here for background
on the Guild's signature Speaking of Shakespeare series, which
commenced in 1998 at the National Press Club in Washington, and has included
programs at the British Embassy, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, the University
Club, the Washington Club, and the Woman's National Democratic Club in D.C.,
the Chicago Shakespeare Theater in the Windy City, and such New York institutions
as the Algonquin Hotel, the English-Speaking Union, the Lambs, the Princeton
Club, and the Schimmel Center at Pace University.
And for details about offerings that have been presented in previous seasons,
click on the years that follow: 1998,
1999, 2000,
2001, 2002,
2003, 2004,
2005, 2006,
2007, 2008,
2009, 2010,
2011, 2012,
2013, 2014,
2015, 2016,
2017, 2018,
2019, and 2020.
COMMEMORATING TWO SIGNIFICANT GIELGUD MILESTONES
Looking back to what now seems like a previous era, in October of 2019 we
celebrated the 25th anniversaries of two GIELGUD
milestones (the establishment of an award in Sir John's name, and the
renaming of a venue that had been known as the Globe when he performed there)
with festivities in honor of producer
CAMERON MACKINTOSH that took place in a pair of historic settings: the
venerable Guildhall in the
City of London and the newly-refurbished Gielgud
Theatre in London's West End. It was Sir
Richard Eyre, who'd been honored in Sir John's name the previous year,
who bestowed our trophy on Sir
Cameron.
GARDEN-FRESH SHAKESPEARE IN SANTA FE
Meanwhile in the Land of Enchantment, after several seasons of support for
productions at St. John's College and the Santa Fe Botanical Garden, the
Guild has continued to broaden its scope through liaisons with organizations
such as Journey Santa
Fe, the Lensic
Performing Arts Center (contributing "Great
Conversations" to its online programming), the Museum
of New Mexico Foundation, the New
Mexico Actors Lab, and Theatre
Santa Fe.
During the summers of 2017 and 2018 the Guild co-hosted SHAKESPEARE
IN THE GARDEN, joining the Santa Fe Botanical Garden and Shakespeare
in Santa Fe on productions of The
Tempest in 2017 and A
Midsummer Night's Dream in 2018. During the summer of 2019 we collaborated
with Santa
Fe Classic Theater on a presentation of Romeo
and Juliet that ran from May 31 through June 9 and was glowingly
reviewed by the Santa
Fe Reporter. Once again tickets sold rapidly, and we were immensely
grateful for the Bardtenders
who joined us for another season of theatrical charm. For background on
the play, attendees were referred to a Routledge anthology of commentary
about what is often described as the world's most resonant love story. They
also enjoyed a KSFR
radio feature about the production, hosted by SFBG's Clayton Bass and
Lindsay Taylor and featuring director Patrick Briggs and Guild president
John Andrews.
As we put the finishing touches on our third presentation of SHAKESPEARE
IN THE GARDEN, we were still relishing what the Guild had co-produced
on Santa Fe's bustling Museum Hill in previous summers. For details about
a 2018 Dream show that was warmly welcomed, for example, click
here. And for background on
the presentation, see Jennifer Levin's article about "The Ecology of Shakespeare"
in Pasatiempo and listen to radio interviews in which the
Garden's Clayton Bass and the Guild's John Andrews talked with KSFR
host Lynn Cline. Also of interest might be a program that Peter
Lloyd hosted with musician Mary Springfels and Mr. Andrews on KSFR's
"Classical Sunday."
To encourage supporters to help sustain the work of a dramatist who was
still electrifying audiences in his 454th year, we established a Bardtenders
support group for SHAKESPEARE IN THE GARDEN. And we offered cultivation
events such as a TLC
dialogue that took place Tuesday, July 31st. This gathering, under the auspices
of Theatre Santa
Fe, followed a March 29th Food
for Thought dinner at La
Fonda on the Plaza and a May 29th benefit, Ever
the Twain, which took place at the Lensic
Performing Arts Center. Under the direction of Lois
Rudnick and Jonathan Richards, this revival of a fantasia
that enchanted attendees in January 2016 was enthusiastically received,
and those who arranged it were eager to revive it in other settings.
As we relished the highlights of our 2018 production of A Midsummer
Night's Dream, we were also savoring an SFBG rendering of The
Tempest that graced the Garden amphitheater in August 2017. More
than 1500 attendees applauded a show that featured superb acting, charming
music and special effects, and an exquisite set by designer Jay Bush. To
learn more about SHAKESPEARE
IN THE GARDEN 2017, read the informative background article by
Jennifer
Levin and a review by James
M. Keller in Pasatiempo, the Santa Fe New Mexican's
weekly cultural supplement.
This production was brilliantly directed by Nagle Jackson, who'd helped
artistic director Rachel Kelly preside over several seasons of Shakespeare
in Santa Fe between 1997 and 2002. Mr. Jackson had returned to La Tierra
Encantada in 2013 for a sprightly St. John's College medley that proved
to be a complete Delight,
indeed one that Mr. Keller described in Pasatiempo as that summer's
"most endearing revival." Our 2017 Tempest took place in a magic
circle that evoked such predecessors as the amphitheaters of Greek antiquity,
the "Wooden O" that Shakespeare evokes in his prologue to Henry V,
and the Zia Sun Symbol that adorns the New Mexico flag. Pulsating with reminders
that an aging playwright was scripting his valedictory drama at the same
time that a Spanish army was seeking to establish a "brave new world" on
terrain which had been occupied for centuries by earlier settlers, this
rendering of a classic score proved especially pertinent for audiences in
the Southwest.
For an overview about The Tempest, attendees were encouraged to
read the foreword that Sir
John Gielgud generously contributed to John Andrews' 1994 Everyman
Shakespeare edition of the play, as well as the Editor's
Introduction that followed it. They also enjoyed Ellen Berkovitch's
KSFR
radio feature about Shakespeare in the Garden, as well as conversations
with KVSF host Richard Eeds and KBAC host Honey Harris. In response to the
show, several wrote letters
that appeared in the New Nexican. And a few weeks after the production
concluded, Mr. Andrews offered some late-September "Reflections
on The Tempest" as part of a lecture
series that he'd inaugurated a quarter of a century earlier at Grand
Valley State University in Michigan.
A TRIBUTE TO THE AUTHOR OF "TO SIR, WITH LOVE"
As we reflect on the recent death of Sidney
Poitier, a great actor and an inspiring leader, our thoughts return
to the life and legacy of the gifted teacher, writer, and cultural ambassador
who inspired one of Mr. Poitier's most memorable roles.
On Saturday, March 25, 2017, the Guild played a small role in a Washington
National Cathedral memorial service for E.
R. Braithwaite, the author who gave us To Sir, With Love, a
1959 literary best-seller that became a celebrated 1967 film with Poitier
in the role that Mr. Braithwaite's autobiographical novel had made famous.
Mr. Braithwaite died at the age of 104 on December 12, 2016, and Guild president
John Andrews was one of the three speakers who eulogized him in the Cathedral's
lovely Bethlehem Chapel.
The service concluded with an organ rendering of Lulu's musical tribute
to "Sir," a recording that had been popular music's number-one single a
half-century earlier. Click here
to watch a February 2007 conversation between Mr. Andrews and Mr.
Braithwaite that has been telecast several times on C-SPAN's weekend
Book TV service and now seems particularly resonant. And click here
for links to Mr. Andrews' C-SPAN appearances with other authors, among them
ecologist Lester R. Brown, political leader Susan Eisenhower, Shakespeare
scholar Stanley Wells, and cultural historian A. N. Wilson.
MAKING THE MOST OF THE GUILD'S RESOURCES
For detail about these and other endeavors, we encourage you to browse these
pages, clicking on the blue links that serve as navigation keys to an ever-expanding
array of enriching material. Among other things, you'll observe that our
BACKGROUND
section provides a rich variety of perspectives
on Shakespeare's world, work, and influence, many of them featuring unique
contributions by or about eminent actors, directors, producers, playwrights,
historians, critics, arts journalists, and other cultural leaders.
HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THE GUILD'S EFFORTS
By design most of the Guild's offerings are admission-free; but of course
that doesn't mean they're cost-free. So any help you provide will be gratefully
received and promptly acknowledged. If you wish to contribute to our activities,
either by enrolling or renewing as a Guild
member or by assisting us with a tax-exempt donation,
we'll be delighted, and we'll look forward to welcoming you to events such
as our April 23 festivities at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.
