There is a moment that you reach when you’re a parent when you say, No you can’t, and your son or daughter replies, Yes I can – and I will. Director, and mother, Keely Eastley says, “You realize that they are actually breaking away. There is this moment that you know that you will never be a parent in the same way as you used to.”
All of the actors putting together this show are apt at connecting to this seemingly complex language and plot. They are just on the cusp of that change, and all the parents, who help these kids learn lines at home – and who will be sitting in the audience - they are going to know exactly what this feeling is, having lived through it themselves as kids, and now coming upon it as parents. It helps that most of the roles in Cymbeline, excepting the parents and political figures, are young people.
Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, a modern and dark fairytale, is about young adults learning how to love, deal with the trials of love, and live with the choices they make in spite of their parents guidance. Mothers push daughters, fathers push sons, but the young people all have the drive to prove themselves by acting independently and following their own ambitions. “So, the main characters go on these journeys that bring them through enormous hardships of life. They start from a place of idealized love. Then they go through the hardships of life, which make them grow and come to a place of forgiveness. Finally, they come to a deeper and more real love at the end of the play, and it’s just beautiful,” says Eastley.
I peer into the large red rehearsal room in the back halls of New England Youth Theatre. Students stand in a circle making strange noises, shaking their bodies, and laughing with each other. Their warm-up seems to bring a sense of not only focus towards a common purpose, but a great camaraderie. Soon rehearsal begins, and each student is busy doing something – working with one of the three directors, learning lines, practicing scenes, and talking about the meaning of what they are saying.
Keely Eastley - who has taught actors at Yale, MIT, Boston Conservatory, and Shakespeare & Co. - is embarking on her first sojourn into directing. With experience as an actor and voice teacher, having worked intimately with Shakespeare’s text, and served as vocal and text coach for two previous summer Shakespeare Programs with NEYT, Ms. Eastley is ready to jump in with directing and take on one of Shakespeare’s more complicated Romance plays.
“I took what I knew, and we just started with the material, the text, and the relationships.” At rehearsal students stand in a big circle in the room diving into the text, really investing in the meaning of the words. “It is really allowing the actors to have the permission to do whatever kind of movement or physical relationship building that they feel is right in the moment, without constraints of the stage or a set. The kids have really found some things on their own, and I think its because they don’t have to focus on remembering their blocking.”
As a “green” director, Eastley was nervous about one thing – the epic Shakespearean war smack dab in the middle of this beautiful, raw, emotional, modern fairytale. She said she was looking for an outlet that was different – some way that the actors could express the true ferocity of a brutal war. Then with a stroke of brilliance, she found her answer – a dvd of STOMP. “I rented three different versions of it, and was looking at the ferocity of the rhythms and how they were using their bodies – that could be war.”
The tech department at NEYT created quarterstaffs and Todd Roach is guiding the actors in creating a rhythmic and dynamic battle scene. “Most of them are not musicians or drummers, but Todd - it is amazing what he can get them to do. The fight is just gonna be thrilling, its gonna rock,” Eastley says.
As we wind up our interview, the director confides, “I’m tired, but I’m a good kind of tired. I’ve never in all my years seen a group of more focused actors - they actually go away and work and hang out some but they work hard.” Hard work pays off. Cymbeline will be a “can’t miss” performance.
Catch the shows July 9th and 10th at 7 pm or 10th and 11th at 2pm in the air-conditioned New England Youth Theatre on 100 Flat St. in downtown Brattleboro. Tickets can be purchased online at www.neyt.org or in the NEYT box office on Wednesdays from 12-5 pm. Prices are $7.50 for students and seniors and $9.50 for adults. This show is sponsored by The Bear Bookshop.
