"Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus" by William Holman Hunt (1851). (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Yellow Springs High School presents ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’
- Published: October 16, 2024
Friendship, love, betrayal, reconciliation and a band of forest marauders — what more can one ask for on a Thursday night?
These things and more the YS High School theater department will bring to the stage with Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” which opens Thursday, Oct. 17, with repeat performances Friday–Sunday, Oct. 18–20. All performances will be staged at Turner Studio Theater in Springfield.
This year’s fall play — one of Shakespeare’s early comedies, and a lesser-known one in the grand scheme of his oeuvre — centers on Valentine and Proteus, the titular “Two Gentlemen,” and their feats (and foibles) in love with their respective sweethearts, Silvia and Julia. When the two friends end up pursuing the same woman — in this case, Valentine’s lover, Silvia — their once-solid friendship, and Proteus’ relationship with the long-suffering Julia, take a hit.
But as with all of Shakespeare’s comedies, readers won’t be surprised to learn that, despite their misadventures, all’s well that ends well, as it were.
The play features some elements that Shakespeare fans not familiar with the work will recognize from The Bard’s later creations — Valentine and Silvia, for example, are prototypical star-crossed lovers, initially forbidden to wed.
And, of course, the play features some of Shakespeare’s tried-and-true comedic devices according to director and YS High School alumnus Charlie Cromer, who spoke with the News via email this week.
“A lot of the humor in [‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’] is classic: bad puns, silly pets and scatological references,” Cromer said.
With respect to Shakespeare’s well-known turns of phrase, Cromer added that part of his direction of the cast has been dedicated to emphasizing how and when to spotlight 400-year-old jokes so that they resonate with a modern audience’s sensibilities.
“One thing we’ve worked on since the beginning is recognizing when a joke deserves to be highlighted and when it needs to be lightly tapped and moved past,” Cromer said. “The Marx Brothers and Mel Brooks have been my inspirations.”
He added: “As far as the language goes, if a joke depends on arcane pronunciations, like ‘on’ and ‘one’ sounding the same, we tap it and move on. If it’s a joke about tongues and tails, we lean in.”
Another thematic element in the play familiar to those who know Shakespeare’s later comedies is the woman-disguised-as-a-man trope, as seen in works including “Twelfth Night” and “As You Like It.” In this case, it’s Julia who disguises herself as a man as she follows Proteus to Milan, where he attempts to woo Silvia.
“I made sure to remind the cast that Shakespeare’s women were played by young men, who then ‘disguised’ themselves as boys,” Cromer said. “We can’t quite hit those meta-comedic heights, but a silly mustache and fake deep voice go a long way.”
Cromer said the production’s stage design hearkens to the Shakespearean tradition of simplicity; the cast will perform in a “three-quarter thrust,” with the audience seated at stage left, right and center.
“There shouldn’t be a bad seat in the house!” he said. “I did want to break up the stage into areas that could easily switch between offices, apartments, taverns and the woods, so I asked for some platforms of different heights and shapes.”
He added: “All credit should really go to [set designer] Sam Jacobs for taking my flat pencil sketch and turning it into a beautiful, lived-in Italianate neighborhood.”
“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” features about a dozen characters — not including the cadre of bandits who kidnap Valentine and, later, elect him their leader — and some cast members have taken on multiple roles in the production. Cromer said those cast members have faced the task of shifting between roles with aplomb.
“I don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth, but the actors who were called on to play multiple roles found joy in the larger-than-life bodies needed to differentiate those characters for the audience’s sake,” he said.
Noting the play’s canine character Crab — who, famously, is serially maligned throughout the play by Proteus’ servant, Launce — Cromer added cryptically: “I really love a particular trick we’ve taught Crab, our dog, to perform.”
With the joys of rehearsal and performance, there are always challenges, too. The main challenge for this production, Cromer said, is one that has long plagued the theater program: space.
“Having to rehearse in a cafeteria, then a classroom, then move to a theatrical space the actors are unfamiliar with is a hurdle,” he said. “Luckily, that will not be an issue for much longer with the new theater (finally) being built for the high school.”
With opening night approaching less than a week from this issue’s delivery date, Cromer added one more thought for prospective audiences to consider.
“It always comes down to the students,” he said. “On stage, backstage, working costumes, props or lights. Nothing I come up with matters if they don’t make it real. I’m happy to say they’ve done the work. Now we’re just waiting for you to see it.”
“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” will be performed Thursday–Saturday, Oct. 17–19, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 20, at 2 p.m., at Turner Studio Theater, located at 300 S. Fountain Ave. in Springfield. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for seniors and $5 for students, and are available in advance at etix.com/ticket/o/11708.
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