Image via Facebook / No Holds Bard
No Holds Bard: The Pericles Project
Milwaukee’s Optimist Theatre has produced free Shakespeare in the Park every summer since 2010. Last summer, forced to accept the pandemic’s demand for a new approach, company co-founders Susan and Ron Scot Fry, Tom Reed and ML Cogar remembered they’d all had some film-making experience.
“We decided early on that we weren’t interested in doing Zoom,” says Executive Director Susan Scot Fry. “We want to appeal to a web series audience, and they’re looking for some different things. We want to engage in ways that somebody who primarily gets their entertainment on the internet will connect with.”
They’ve given the venture a witty name, No Holds Bard. They’ve chosen Shakespeare’s little known, rarely staged Pericles, Prince of Tyre as their script, a choice that allows them ample room for creativity. It’s thought that Shakespeare gave the storyline of the first two acts to an admirer, who tried and failed to imitate the master’s writing. As Optimist’s dramaturg, Cogar shaved the fellow’s labored lines to their essentials, the better to underline the gorgeous poetry that Shakespeare wrote in the remaining acts. And the quicker to draw contemporary viewers into the play’s fantastical—not to say nutty—plot. As Fry says, ‘It’s totally a melodrama.”
The cast of No Holds Bard: The Pericles Project includes a dance company and 39 actors, many of them well-known. It was filmed in 10, very different, outdoor Milwaukee locations between August and January, with every safety precaution observed and visible on screen. Two segments are animated. The co-founders took turns directing.
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The result was cut into sixteen segments, each about eight minutes long. Beginning January 13, two successive segments will arrive on the company’s website and YouTube channel every other Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. They’ll remain available on-demand, “totally free of charge, no ads, no pop-ups, no requests for donations,” Fry assures us.
The broadcasts will be livestreamed from the bar in the basement of Cogar and Reed’s house. In the manner of old-time radio, the couple will catch viewers up on earlier episodes, arouse suspense about future developments, answer selected questions from viewers, and offer a drink of the week for viewers to fix at home.
“Our goal is to showcase Milwaukee, to reflect the variety you see in the city,” Fry says. “With Shakespeare in the Park, we’ve always tried to bring people together in a central setting. This is about getting out there!”
To watch, visit noholdsbard.org, or follow the project at facebook.com/NoHoldsBardMKE
