As The Comedy of Errors was winding up, we pinned our twins down long enough bring you a fresh "10 Questions!"

What brought you to theater and to Shakespeare?
// Connor - I saw Jack Black in School of Rock and wanted to be an actor. I auditioned for plays in high school and played Falstaff in my first Shakespeare play, Merry Wives of Windsor. During the production I fell in love with the language.

// Cole - Orientation for my freshman year of high school included improv games and some acting exercises. I had a lot of fun with them and the drama teacher, so I auditioned for the fall one-act. I've loved acting and been close friends with Mr. Ivkovich ever since. The first Shakespeare show I was in was A Midsummer Night's Dream at UW-Parkside, directed by Matt Schwader (I was Snug) and the concept was Steampunk which was a lot of fun.

// Rebekah - I was in my first play when I was six. It was a play my brother wrote and I didn’t have any lines, but I have loved being a different person on stage since then. As far as Shakespeare goes, my first favorite “book” was Twelfth Night. In middle school, I fell in love with the twin confusion and Feste the fool. How fitting that in this show, I not only got to play a clown, but also a confused twin!  

// Thorin - I grew up in rural Wisconsin, I loved books and movies (storytelling), but there wasn't much theater around me so I didn't see it growing up. When I got to University, I decided I wanted to take part in the storytelling and I started doing theater. I fell in love with Shakespeare after doing a month-long intensive in Lennox, Massachusetts with Shakespeare and Company.


What did 10-year-old you think you’d be when you “grew up?”
// Connor - I wanted to be artist and draw comic books.​

// Cole - I always wanted to be an artist because my grandparents have made their living off of their amazing art for 40 years now. If you want to see some of their work you can visit XNTrixart.com (XN-Trix, get it?!)

// Rebekah - A teacher (which I am so grateful I already get to do with First Stage). 

// Thorin - I thought I'd be an engineer because I was always good at math. My uncle was an engineer and I knew it was a good job. I changed my mind after I realized, although I did well in math, I didn't enjoy it.
​

What do you think is the greatest challenge of portraying your character?
// Connor - The greatest challenge is making Antipholus of Ephesus a sympathetic human being who doesn't just yell and hit things.

// Cole - For me it’s been the most difficult keeping Dromio positive. When I first read the show, I saw him as very resentful of his situation, and we get to laugh at his pain. However ML and Ron wanted to play his resilience and intelligence, along with his inability to not tell a joke, rather than focusing on any anger he may have towards his circumstances.

// Rebekah - I  think when you have a lot of good jokes, it can be really easy to just try to make people laugh, the challenge is to make people laugh because you are being present and honest in the moment. 

// Thorin - The greatest challenge was letting go of what he's "supposed to be," to find out who he is.

We've got a few tee shirts left and we want to free up that storage space, so take the opportunity to scoop up some bundled tee shirt deals. Shop now for shirts or other SitP logo or items!

Greetings, Friends!
 
Shakespeare in the Park: it’s not just for summer anymore.
 
So, what do we do during the "off-season?" We get together with our community for some good-old gab-fests. We have a cadre of SITP-ers at the ready to meet and greet and talk about our favorite topic.
 
We recently had the pleasure of meeting with a local community organization where we all indulged in a lively discussion about almost everything under the Shakespearean sun….
 
We talked about…
What we do, why we do it, how we do it
… Why Shakespeare is still important and relevant
…… How his stories relate to our lives in the here and now
……… Life, times, loves, hates, prejudices and vision
 
You know – all the stuff that makes this fun.
 
Interested? Why limit yourself to only summer Shakespeare encounters? We’d love to meet you and your community group. Drop me a line and let’s make it happen!
 
Optimistically,
Susan