Photo courtesy of A.J. Magoon
Summit Players Theatre Executive Director A.J. Magoon
In his mid-twenties, actor A.J. Magoon is the new executive director of Summit Players Theatre, the popular company that has toured brilliantly edited, well-acted Shakespeare productions through the Wisconsin state park system for the past five summers. Shakespeare scholar Maureen Kilmurry expertly pares each play to an essential hour or so and directs the youthful ensemble in productions aimed at family audiences. This summer’s tour of 25 performances in 24 parks was scheduled. Then the pandemic struck.
What a hard thing to face in your first year of leadership!
I’ve been with the company from the start so I had the blessing of not coming into this fresh. But it’s been a challenge trying to keep everything together, make the best decisions for our company members and our audience. It’s all about trying to be prudent and smart, making sure that everyone is well-protected throughout all of the craziness that’s going on.
How did things unfold?
First, when the governor acted, all the state parks were closed; then it became just a portion of them. So we took the closed parks off our schedule, which cut it down to 14 parks, and moved our performances to only July and August. Then the state Supreme Court ruled and all the parks reopened. But looking at July-August, we felt like it wasn’t enough time. The thought of gathering people to rehearse and the thought of bringing folks from Milwaukee to other parts of the state just didn’t feel right to us.
You’d planned to do The Winter’s Tale?
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Yes. And to try to imagine a production of The Winter’s Tale in which the characters aren’t able to be close to one another? To communicate relationships while trying to maintain a social distance exceeds imagination.
The miracle at the end, when the dead queen returns to life, would have been awfully moving.
Maureen’s cut is wonderful. We’ll pull it back off the shelf in 2021. Most of the cast has already expressed interest in recommitting.
Didn’t you always do an audience workshop before each performance?
Yes. And how do you circle a bunch of people or get them to do a group acting exercise? So that’s part of what we’re offering online this summer, video versions of three different workshop curriculums. I’m releasing one a month. They’re most geared for children and young people, but ‘fun adults,’ as we say, can participate and enjoy, or watch and enjoy. It’s a demystifying process. We’re trying to teach the fear out of Shakespeare, the stigma. It’s showing that Shakespeare can be fun and something you can understand.
What will your video workshops cover?
The one we always bring to the parks is sort of all-purpose. It goes through what Shakespeare is, what he did, when he lived, and what is it about his plays and his writings that’s still recognizable and understandable today. Then we’ve got two other workshops coming. One looks specifically at heroes and villains in Shakespeare and the other is all about magic, the use of magic in Shakespeare’s plays.
What else are you offering?
So this summer we’re presenting No Bummer Summer: A Digital Shakespeariance, which is a plan Caroline Norton and I dreamed up. She’s our education director and this is her baby to shape. It plays through our social media—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube—and on our website, where we’ll host a variety of audio and video content, sort of focused on Shakespeare education. Everything will remain free for folks. That’s essential to mission. We’ll try to release two or three bits each week. We’re already doing videos called “Wednesdays with Will.” They’ve been very well received. Caroline does a small educational segment on some aspect of Shakespeare, followed by an action of some kind for folks, especially kids, to complete.
So we’re going to create a scavenger hunt that people can scan and print out and bring with them into the state parks, so they can hunt down some of the natural features that Shakespeare described in his plays. We’re also recording an audio guide to Shakespeare in the parks. If you put it on your iPod or phone and go to a park, our park director Joe Picchetti will take you on a guided walk, describing some of the natural features as Shakespeare described them.
Those are really good ideas.
It’s obviously not what we planned but we’re trying to see this as an opportunity to experiment with some new and interesting ideas—and stay connected with people.
For more information, visit summitplayerstheatre.com.
