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Anti-Racism at Ruff

By | Announcements

Over the last few months, protesters around the world have been fighting against the systemic racism and violence in our society. We stand with these protesters, and amplify the message that Black lives not only matter, but are valuable and vital. We stand with the movement to fight for a better, more just world for Black People, and recognize that the fight against white supremacy is deep, on-going, and crucial. We are all needed in this movement, and inaction is not an option.

We have spent the past months reflecting on what it means to run a theatre company using the not-for-profit model, magnifying shakespeare. We are interrogating the harm we have caused Black and Indigenous Peoples – the pursuit of a liberated world stands hand in hand with demanding justice for Indigenous Peoples. As a company that produces shakespeare, we are complicit in upholding the supremacy of the white Western canon above any other. Our pursuit of de-centring whiteness needs to go deeper, and we are – and will continue to – examine our mandate, our organization, and our place in the community. Changes, big and small, are necessary, and will be embedded into the company fabric. We are not looking for easy answers or quick fixes, we are in the pursuit of radical justice and peace.

Some of these changes you will see publicly, and some you may only experience if we have the pleasure of working together. What’s important is that these changes occur. We must do better.

One vital part of this process is to open a direct avenue of communication with our leadership and Board of Directors. If any members of our community have questions, we would like to engage in a conversation. If any members of our community would like to discuss past experiences you’ve had with Ruff, in any way, shape, or form, we would like to hear from you. To reach Ruff’s Co-Artistic Directors Eva Barrie and Kaitlyn Riordan, along with Board members Cecile Peterkin and Dasha Peregoudova, email us here. For messages directed exclusively to these two Board members, use this contact form, which, if you choose to do so, can be used anonymously. Any request for confidentiality will be respected.

We want to thank the Black and Indigenous artists who have been fighting this fight for years. We hear you. We support you. Thank you.

We are inspired by and want to thank the countless individuals who are organizing protests, occupies, and artistic expressions to make our city more safe, more vibrant, and more free. That is the city we want to live in, and create art in. Black Lives Matter Toronto, Not Another Black Life, Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project, Air Rising Collective, and so many more, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you. Please follow these groups on social media to help find a way you can support them.

We recognize these moments are challenging, but we believe that the work we do today, will prepare us for a better tomorrow. And a more just tomorrow is something worth fighting for.

Sincerely,
Eva Barrie & Kaitlyn Riordan
Co-Artistic Directors
August 11th, 2020

Big Changes Coming!

By | Announcements | No Comments

Kaitlyn Riordan and Eva Barrie are excited to announce that they will be stepping down as Ruff’s leadership following the summer of 2021. While serving the company for a number of years (Kaitlyn is a founding member, and Eva joined the company in 2016) they have had the opportunity to work with the community that makes Ruff what it is: talented artists, East-End businesses, future game-changers in the training programs, the Board of Directors, long-time audience members, the vibrant Withrow Park community, and the raccoons, who occasionally make cameo appearances and steal the show. That long and incomplete list ensures us that Ruff never was, and never will be, just two individuals. It is a community, a spirit, and a radical love for connection.

Both Eva and Kaitlyn believe that the health of an organization includes bringing in new voices who can refocus and reimagine what’s possible for it. After five and ten years at the helm, respectively, it’s time for a new vision.

This means that Ruff will be seeking new leadership! This city is ripe with amazing potential artistic leaders who can take the company to brave new places, bring new perspectives, and make great art! A full job description, fee, and application guide will be released in the coming days. If you think you are Ruff’s next leader (maybe along with someone else, because hey, shared leadership is what the cool kids do), check back here!

Here’s a photo of Eva and Kaitlyn doing their pre-show speech, which always involved at least  four jokes that never got laughs, but that they tested out every night anyway (they once even took a stand-up comedy class with the Young Ruffians . . . this did not help). The next leader(s) will undoubtedly receive many hours of training in How-To-Make-Cringey-AD-Jokes-Between-The-Trees. Please do not be dismayed by this – it’s a vital part of the job

Meet the 2020 Young Ruffians

By | Announcements

This year was unlike any other before, so we decided to run the Young Ruffian Apprenticeship Program (YRAP) like never before!

Led by Makram Ayache, this year’s program is a paid 8-week playwriting course, where participants from across Canada are digging into some phenomenal ideas and exploring experiences of family, death, belonging, identity, and friendship. Their stylistic investigations also range from conventional structures of the heroic journey to absurdist and magical realism. They are learning the rules of playwriting and daring to break them as they discover, uplift, and amplify their own unique and vital theatrical voices.

Alongside creating with Makram, participants are being mentored by creators Desirée Leverenz, Eva Barrie, and Jay Northcott.

Click here to check out these amazing artists and their work live on August 22nd at 2:00Pm EST. 

The Young Ruffians

Laith Al-Kinani 
Laith Al-Kinani is a theatre artist based out of Toronto. He is in his graduating year as a Performance Acting student at Ryerson University. He has partaken in a myriad of classical, contemporary, and devised productions. When he’s not on stage, he’s having a cold beer by the beach, or watching TikToks with his younger sister.

isi-bhakomen
isi-bhakomen is an Afro-Latinx multi-disciplinary artist with Peruvian and Nigerian heritage. They are entering their final year of acting at The National Theatre School of Canada. Their most recent credits include Black Girl in Search of God, a short film that they wrote, directed and starred in which premiered at the 2019 TIFF Next Wave and Insomniac Film Festival’s Battle of the Scores. Additionally, they were a member of Tarragon Theatre’s Young Playwrights Unit (2019) and Factory Theatre’s The Foundry (2018) where they wrote full-length plays, BOOM! and Mamacha del Carmen. 

Kimberly Ho
Kimberly Ho (何文蔚) is a multidisciplinary artist, performer, and collaborator based on the unceded ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Tseil-waututh peoples, known as Vancouver, Canada. In her practice, she seeks to explore and decolonize the intersections of queerness, the physical body, and ancestral history and habits, primarily in the context of Chinese diaspora. Select credits include House and Home (Firehall Arts Centre), Theory (Rumble Theatre), Marathassa (Dance, Vines Festival), No More Parties (Film, Natalie Murao), and A Query (Video installation, VIVO Media Arts Centre), and her short film Dumplings / 餃子 premiering this September 2020 at F-O-R-M (Festival of Recorded Movement). kimberly-ho.com

Davinder Malhi
Davinder Malhi is an actor, playwright, and a recent graduate from York University’s Acting Conservatory. His art explores the meeting place between realism and surrealism, with a special focus on bringing South Asian bodies into that space. He hopes to use his process to foster communities that work towards a Brown queer future.

Ziigwen Mixemong
Ziigwen Mixemong is a young Indigenous playwright and author from Beausoleil First Nation. Although playwriting is a relatively new medium for her, she has been raised by her community to be a storyteller. Mixemong has previously written the works entitled Empty Regalia, The Western Door, and 21. Ziigwen strives to place Indigenous voices in the centre of mainstream society’s collective consciousness. Ziigwen is the product of thousands of years worth of resilience and trauma and though she doesn’t always know what to do with it, she tries her best

Are you an emerging artist who wants to keep in the know about all our educational programs and opportunities? Join our mailing list today! 

Are you someone who wants to support paid educational opportunities, like the Young Ruffian Apprenticeship Program, and keep them available for future generations? Make a charitable donation and help us support emerging voices!

Meet Desirée Leverenz, Our Associate Artistic Director!

By | Announcements | No Comments

Kaitlyn Riordan, Eva Barrie, and the Board of Shakespeare in the Ruff are proud to welcome Desirée Leverenz as our new Associate Artistic Director!

Desirée is director, creator, and performer living in Tkaronto and hails from Treaty 6. She has an MFA in Theatre from York University (after finishing her undergrad at University of Alberta). She’s the artistic director of The Orange Girls, an experimental performance ensemble that blurs the lines between performance and art (check them out!). Want to see her work up close? She’ll be performing her piece Eat Me at the Rhubarb Festival.

To kick off 2020 with our new Associate AD, we asked her a rapid round of 20 Questions. Meet Desirée!

Favourite Shakespeare play?
Today, Othell0

Dream Lady M casting?
Viola Davis!!

 

Least favourite Shakespeare play?
Midsummer

Favourite park in the world?
The park down the path from where I grew up in St. Albert.

Must have picnic item?
Watermelon!

Super power?
I wish I could read books at warp speed.

Mediocre power?
The power to not put my fire alarm off every time I make toast.

A 2020 resolution?
To learn how to make toast.

Something you miss about Edmonton?
Eating green onion cakes with my sister.

The class/the thing that surprised you the most while doing your Masters at York?
How caring and supportive my cohort was!

A theatre show you’re looking forward to seeing in 2020?
Vivek Shraya’s “How to Fail as a Popstar.”

A favourite piece of advice?
Have a reading routine.

Secret music obsession that you’d never tell anyone about?
Line dancing music.  Cadillac Ranch, Cotton Eye’d Joe, etc.

Which basketball team do you support? (hint: this is a trick question)
Duh, Raptors over everything!!!  Want to know my least favourite? Phoenix Suns. Their logo is so bad.

Favourite book you read in 2019?
This is very hard for me to say, perhaps I will say an important book I read in 2019 is The Theory of the Young-Girl by a collective called Tiquun.

The thing you most like to cook?
Anything that requires a sauce, I am very good at making sauces.

Place you’d most like to visit?
Morocco!

What would you tell your 20 year old self?
To be brave and make bold choices.

What would you tell your 2 year old self?
To eat bananas, so that you could eat them as an adult.  They seem like such a convenient snack, but I hate them.

What excites you most about being a Ruffian?
I’m excited to ask difficult questions, and struggle with answers and solutions with the rest of the Ruff team!

 

 

 

 

Our 2019 Season Announcement!

By | Announcements

Welcome to a business meeting of your two Ruffian Co-Artistic Directors:

Eva: Hi my friend!

Kaitlyn: Hey Evie B!

Eva: You’re so far away from me at the moment, all the way across the country.

Kaitlyn: Staring at the Rockies covered in mist this morning, very portentous. How’s TO?

Eva: I’m staring to the CN Tower covered in mist. So I guess we’re living in a pretty portentous world. [Eva quickly googles the definition of portentous]

Kaitlyn: We sure are.

Eva: I guess we should start considering what play to do this summer? Though this mist and this PORTENTOUS feeling is making me feel like it’s not summer at all.

Kaitlyn: It does feel like ‘Winter is coming…’. [this is not a plug for HBO]

Eva: Enough about seasons, Kaitlyn, we need to talk about what Shakespeare play we are doing.

Kaitlyn: “Now is the winter of our discontent.”

Eva: We did that one.

Kaitlyn: “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”

Eva: Kaitlyn, focus!

Kaitlyn: Nothing is ‘springing’ to mind….sorry.

Eva: I forgive you.

Kaitlyn: Exactly! Forgiveness!

Eva: It’s a powerful act. Some might say a magical act. Have you ever forgiven someone who really hurt you?

Kaitlyn: Yes, and it felt like the biggest release I’ve ever experienced.

Eva: Kind of like you were being released from stone?

Kaitlyn: After what felt like 16 years!

Eva: Was it hard to forgive?

Kaitlyn: I did it instinctually, in that instance, because it was hurting me to hold on to it. So I guess it was harder to hold onto than to forgive, but it took some time. I think our society is weary of forgiveness at the moment though, and maybe I am too?

Eva: I think that’s true. Do you think it’s connected to the fact that we don’t know how to properly repent?

Kaitlyn: Good question. Have you ever repented? Did you know how?

Eva: I have. It took longer than I wish it could have. I needed to really confront who I was, and my actions. That’s a terrifying thing to do. I don’t know if you feel this too, but don’t you think we live in a world where we can never be wrong?

Kaitlyn: I do feel that on a larger level, for anyone other than Donald Trump for some reason, but personally, I am wrong all the time, and somehow, you’re still my friend 🙂

Eva: Even when we have a country in between.

Kaitlyn: Exactly.

Eva: Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Kaitlyn: Croissants!

Eva: And…

SHAKESPEARE IN THE RUFF IS PROUD TO PRESENT,
with the generous support of Crow’s Theatre:

THE WINTER’S TALE

Shakespeare’s magical dive into repentance & forgiveness

Directed by Sarah Kitz

Kaitlyn & Eva: Oh hey Sarah! Fancy seeing you here. Why do you think The Winter’s Tale is perfect for today?

Sarah Kitz. Photo by Alejandro Santiago

Sarah Kitz. Photo by Alejandro Santiago

Sarah: Hi Kaitlyn & Eva! Thanks for having me! It’s very fancy to be here!
The Winter’s Tale is a play for us now. It is a fairy tale (improbable things happen), which is another way of saying it is a myth about humanity. Fairy tales are not escapism but doors in the floor into the basement of the human psyche. Isn’t it the perfect time to have a show where we plumb the depths of patriarchy with an eye to coming out the other side by listening to and believing women? And isn’t it interesting to do that on a human artifact that’s hundred of years old, which has been used as a tool of colonialism, which is a container for so many conflicted feelings, to which we owe no undue reverence, which we will bash about to see what is has to say to us now.
This play is also an investigation of inheritance. In a culture that doesn’t know what it has to pass on, and a younger generation that has been violently disinherited and doesn’t know what is rightfully theirs, the intergenerational relationship is one of anxiety.

 

Eva: Kaitlyn! Maybe we should also tell folks who’s playing Paulina!

Kaitlyn: I think it’s too early for that.

Eva: But it’s so fun!

Kaitlyn: In a month we can announce the whole cast, so let’s not say any-

SHAKESPEARE IN THE RUFF IS MEGA-PROUD TO PRESENT,
with the generous support of Crow’s Theatre (K: cool! what’s this all about? E: tune in next week to find out)

THE WINTER’S TALE

Shakespeare’s magical dive into repentance & forgiveness, and some bad-ass ladies

Directed by Sarah Kitz
And featuring JANI LAUZON as Paulina!

Kaitlyn & Eva: Jani! Welcome! Why are you excited about this play and this part?

Jani Lauzon, photo by Helen Tansey

Jani Lauzon, photo by Helen Tansey

Jani: I am a Shakespeare junky. Love every opportunity to perform his text.  As for The Winter’s Tale, the play is so beautifully written and grounded in what is also a modern theme, the poisonous, disastrous emotion of jealousy that breaks down all possibilities of being in right relationship with each other. I am also fascinated by the metaphor of stone and it’s consequence when our hearts are shunned, shut down, and silenced. I understand that well having been through it in my life. As for Paulina, she is a woman who refuses to be ruled, she has a “truth-telling tongue”. She is called many things as a result: “bawd”, “hag”, “crone”, mankind witch”. But Paulina refuses to play the part assigned to her. Women in this play are on trial, through the character of Hermione. As she is often referred to as “grace”, it is grace itself that has been turned to stone. Paulina uses her magic to bring grace back into the world. Besides, playing Paulina has been on my bucket list for many years. This gives me the opportunity to cross that one off the list!
Eva & Kaitlyn: You were in a production by Shakespeare in the Rough, the company that used to perform in Withrow Park. How do you feel about returning to Withrow Park for another summer?

Jani: I am really looking forward to being back in the park. It was such an honour to play Shylock in Merchant of Venice surrounded by the trees, the bats, and the amazing, warm and supportive audiences that attend. I want to continue to be the kind of artist who has something to learn. Rehearsing in the park, playing outside and reaching audiences that are genuinely interested in this kind of theatre experience keep me humble as an actor. I don’t want to ever loose that.

 

Kaitlyn: I’m pretty excited, Eva. I wish it were summer already!

Eva: No no, I wish it were WINTER.

 

THE WINTER’S TALE coming to Withrow Park August 2019

Darwin Lyons leads the Young Ruffians!

By | Announcements | One Comment

Darwin LyonsWe are over-the-moon about our new Youth & Development Coordinator, Darwin Lyons! Darwin’s main role is to run the Young Ruffian Apprenticeship Program, and there’s no one better for the job. Not only was Darwin the Artistic Producer of The Paprika Festival from 2015-2017 (a youth led theatre festival and year round training/mentorship program for young artists), she also created the inaugural Acting program at Centauri Arts, and was a facilitator at Heydon Park Secondary school, a school that proudly uses alternative models of learning for women. We can’t wait to see what she does she with Young Ruffian Program!

Here’s some rapid-fire questions for Darwin:

What’s your favourite Shakespeare play?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Which, in your opinion, is the most over-rated Shakespeare play?
Macbeth

What are you most excited for in the Young Ruffian Program?
I’m excited to see the work the Young Ruffians come up with – every time I work with people in that age group the work fascinates and inspires me

What’s a book/movie/poem/show/play you turn to when you need inspiration?
Mary Oliver’s When Death Comes

What inspired you as a teenager?
As a teenager I was really inspired by my peers. I remember feeling like the people around me were so smart and strong, and like we had this amazing potential to make change.

Describe your role with Ruff in less than three words.
Circle learning

Best thing about Withrow Park?
Beautiful, huge nature in the middle of the city, a wonderful community of people and a very large hill that makes me a better biker

A little known fact about you that surprises people:
I don’t like mushrooms

If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Be able to communicate in the language of whoever I am with

If you could have a mediocre power, what would it be?
To learn new skills very quickly

To apply for our Young Ruffian Program, check back here in the Spring, or follow us on Instagram! (@shakespeareruff)

Eva Barrie in a Midsummer Night's Dream

We Doubled Our Leadership!

By | Announcements

Shakespeare in the Ruff is happy to appoint Eva Barrie as our Co-Artistic Director! Eva, who has been the Associate Artistic Director for two years, will join Kaitlyn Riordan at the helm.

The “Old Ruffians”, Troy Sarju, Sienna Singh and Jahnelle Jones-Williams

We asked three Ruff experts to interview Eva about this new role: Sienna Singh, Jahnelle Jones-Williams and Troy Sarju – graduates of the Young Ruffian Program, who became our Young Ruffian Chorus in Portia’s Julius Caesar. As emerging artists and future leaders themselves, they interviewed Eva and gave her some advice.

Sienna: What excites you most about this new role? What do you think will be the biggest challenge?

What I’m most excited about are the challenges! One of which will inevitably be fielding the question of “who really calls the shots?” (aka “who has the last call?” or “who wears the pants” [at the time of writing, both Kaitlyn and I are wearing skirts]). I’m collaborative in my art-making, so naturally, I’m collaborative in my leadership style. Kaitlyn and I have worked together closely, and most major decisions were made together. Now the financial and organizational structure of the company match how we best work. So, we aren’t really splitting leadership, we’re doubling it. That opens up a lot of exciting possibilities.

Eva and Kaitlyn rehearsing a pre-show speech (it definitely required a bit more rehearsal…)

This doesn’t mean we don’t disagree – we do, and that’s great. Conflict is a necessary part of theatre. I have a deep respect for Kaitlyn, and we both have a deep respect for the power of theatre. At the end of the day, what’s best for our community guides our decisions. The challenges that comes from disagreement – having to articulate, having to listen, and having to put your ego aside – help us grow as artists.

A second, ever-present challenge is that I love Shakespeare… sometimes. As a biracial feminist, it’s pretty tough for me to approach the work without cringing. There’s a lot about Shakespeare that’s connected to colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchal structures, and I spend long swaths of time wondering if/how I’m reinforcing those systems by presenting Shakespeare (you know, your regular Sunday brunch thoughts). I’m excited to truly grapple with this conflict. You can’t wrestle something if you’re watching from the sidelines, you’ve got to get in the ring. I don’t expect an easy answer – I’m not looking for easy anyway. Sienna, text me in a few years and I’ll let you know what I’ve mulled over.

Sienna: If you could swap bodies with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Beyoncé. Any other answer is a waste of a magical swap.

Jahnelle: Why do you like working with Ruff?

The people. I’ve surrounded myself by some pretty stellar hearts. From the Danforth barista that knows my usual, to the artists that open their hearts to the park, to the ever-supportive Board of Directors, to my drum-beating rock star Old Ruffians, I couldn’t ask for a better community.

I’m especially grateful for my work-wife, Kaitlyn. When we first chatted about my joining the company two years ago, I shared the fact that I hadn’t always felt welcomed into Shakespeare, and that despite it being so “universal”, I never saw families that looked or sounded like mine, and that was something I wanted to change. She’s never made assumptions, she’s never been afraid to ask questions, and she’s always listened with an open heart. She’s a true partner, and I couldn’t ask for better.

Jahnelle: What is your favourite dish? And why? (ex.bowl, plate)

Little ceramic ramekins. I think people make souffles in them (I once warmed nacho cheese in one). They can be so hot and so cool: my life goal.

Troy: If there is anything my time with Ruff has taught me, it is that community is very important. How is implementation of inclusive performances (such as partnering with Autism Ontario, live captions, etc) important to community-building?

It’s important because it’s okay if you don’t understand someone. It’s okay if their lived experiences are different than yours. It’s okay if they are fighting different fights than you. We tend to feel safe with people similar to us, and afraid when someone challenges what we understand as “normal.” If we get stuck on certain ideas of “normal,” then we are limiting our possibilities. Sameness breeds sameness (as President Michelle Obama says). Vibrant communities need to be challenged and need different and diverse voices in order to grow. Otherwise, what are we all doing here?

Troy: If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

To be able to body-swap with Beyoncé.

Advice from the Old Ruffians

Sienna:
My advice to Eva is to trust the company and it’s history over the past 7 years. Remember the love, hard work, and spirit that has gone into each and every show, and the community that has been created around them. And remember, Jack and Diane will always be there for you!

Jahnelle:
Always remember:
1. To drink your water because the sun is no joke.
2. There is not limit on how many times you can make the cast do something ‘uno mas’.

Troy:
Getting an everything bagel is normally a great choice but sometimes everything can be too much and that’s okay too. Get the bagel that you need and be present with your bagel.

The Old Ruffians on Eva

Keeping it serious with Christine Horne at the “Portia’s Julius Caesar” photoshoot

Sienna:
Eva will be an amazing Artistic Director for Ruff because of her true love of the work, the company, and the people involved. Seeing her get excited about the work (or even just a silly joke) is so fun and intoxicating. She has such innate leadership qualities, knowing when to step in, and when to step back. Her brain is full of ideas, and I can’t wait to see which ones she will bring to the company! Best of luck Eva!

Jahnelle:
Eva brings her heart and her smarts to her work and I know that she will make sure to fight for innovative shows, accessibility, and diverse casts, only enhancing all the great things about Shakespeare in the Ruff.

Troy:
Eva will be a great Artistic Director of Ruff because she allows every single individual to blossom in any creative space she is a part of. She is a very capable leader. I am so happy for Ruff and looking forward to all of the great things the company will accomplish, now with TWO astounding women leading the artistic charge.

Rewriting Shakespeare…because, why not?

By | Events, original practices, Outdoor theatre, Portia's Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Christine Horne as Portia, Concept & Design by Michael Barker

Christine Horne as Portia, Concept & Design by Michael Barker for Shakespeare in the Ruff, 2018

 

I believe that Shakespeare wrote many compelling female roles, and Portia, in Julius Caesar, is one of them. Her brief time on stage belies a rich and fascinating off-stage life that surfaces in unforgettable flashes: a self-inflicted wound to prove her metal, an a-typical devotedness between her and her husband, and the act of taking her life by ‘swallowing fire’.  Some argue that she actually swallowed hot coals…who does that?

These flashes spark my imagination, but don’t satisfy my desire to really know this woman. And Calpurnia, the only other female character in the play, is even more elusive – a part that’s as thankless as it is brief. In considering this epic moment in Roman History, when the governance of their society changed forever, I quickly began to wonder what other women might have played a role in these events, and how they were affected by the assassination of their leader.

And there was born the idea for Portia’s Julius Caesar (PJC), which is a version of the story told from a female perspective. Portia and Calpurnia are best of friends, both grappling with different stages of motherhood.  A new character, Servilia, is a key player too, maneuvering from behind the scenes, spurring on her son Brutus and her son-in-law Cassius to stop Caesar. Cleopatra, who is in Rome at the time of Caesars’s assassination, living lavishly as his Mistress, is caring for their new baby boy. Shakespeare doesn’t include her in his Caesar, clearly imagining a bigger role for her later, but come on, what a missed opportunity, Bill! Both the Soothsayer and Casca, now a Courtesan, are re-imagined as women in this version, and we also meet four Washer Women, whose stories intertwine with the fates of those who own them.

I’ve taken some liberties with historical timelines and filled in many blanks myself, as very little is known about the lives of women in that time (much to no one’s surprise). But as Shakespearean scholar, Stephen Greenblatt writes in his book, Tyrant, when it came to History, “Shakespeare felt comfortable trimming and making changes whenever it suited him…in order to produce more compelling and pointed stories.”

The plot of PJC still focuses on the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar and the inevitable fall-out, but tells it from a different perspective. In re-framing this story, I wanted to keep certain scenes from Shakespeare’s Caesar that I felt were vital – the bones of the play, so to speak, that would be fleshed out with new or borrowed writing. Those were the scenes that included the women (3 of 18 scenes), the Funeral scene (having once played Marc Antony, in an all-female production of Julius Caesar, I knew first hand the power of this writing, thank you, I’ll take that), and the tent scene between Brutus & Cassius (at least part of it…why is that scene so long?!). Others have also made the cut, been re-attributed, or scavenged for their plot points and reassigned to other characters.

Once the arch of these characters felt solid, I began imagining the scenes between them. As I wrote my own text in verse, I called upon Shakespeare’s writing to help me: long passages, single lines, and images have all been pilfered from Shakespeare’s works to enrich my own using text from 17 of his plays, 4 sonnets, and 1 poem. There’s not a ton of Shakespearean writing about getting your period, the difficulty of breast feeding, or being ‘the other woman’, but the themes of loss, isolation, and betrayal are everywhere, and were easily re-contextualized in those moments.

Now let me be clear, I’m not advocating for re-writing all of Shakespeare, but I am advocating for taking liberties, reimagining, and audaciously shaking things up. His plays don’t always reflect a world that I feel good about putting on a stage, in a public space, in Toronto, because perpetuating an archaic status quo does no one any good.

But I have to give credit where credit is due, Will’s been a great collaborator, and in the end, contributed to about half of the play. The other half is my nine month exploration of writing in iambic pentameter. It’s nowhere as complex, poetic, or inventive as Shakespeare’s, but it accomplishes what I set out to do: explore the agency of the women behind Shakespeare’s greatest political thriller and the effect of those choices on their lives. After all, if Portia – this strong, brave, and compelling character – did in fact swallow fire, then I want to go on that journey with her and discover why.

-Kaitlyn Riordan

*The link below is a scene from Portia’s Julius Caesar that shows how Shakespeare’s writing is interwoven with new text

Excerpt from Portia’s Julius Caesar

Megan Watson

Our 2017 Season!

By | Announcements | 2 Comments

Shakespeare in the Ruff is thrilled to announce our summer show: A Midsummer Night’s Dream! This is a play that we’ve had our eye on since the beginning, and we’ve finally found our “Dream” Director. We are happy to welcome Megan Watson!

Megan is the Artistic Associate at The Grand Theatre in London. She has run their High School Projects for the last two years (2016: Julius Caesar, 2017: A Shakespeare Mixtape) and is building their new play development program: Compass. In 2018, she will be directing The Glass Menagerie.

Megan on Midsummer:

“For me, both professionally and personally, 2016 rang out as a call to action. A call to be more political, more articulate and more fierce with my intention to create theatre that is part of a solution. The American presidential election has foregrounded hate and fear. As we feel the ripple effect of that in our own communities, we are required to take a closer look. Specifically for me as a theatre artist, this means taking on the systemic gender and racial inequality that our canon and traditions uphold. How do we take Shakespeare’s plays, which on one hand contain an unparalleled expression of the human experience and on the other, when not approached critically, serve as a platform for misogyny and racism? This has always been my struggle when staging Shakespeare and I am more committed than ever to take on that challenge in this volatile social and political climate.

In following Ruff for the last five years, I have seen them cultivate a clearer and sharper sense of who they are and what kind of ‘Shakespeare in the park’ company they strive to be. Reinventing and innovating the classics and specifically Shakespeare seems to be a common endeavour. However, Ruff approaches this with a fearlessness that is unmistakable in their productions. Their practice of taking Shakespeare’s plays and mining them for humanity and beauty – while blowing open and leaving behind the parts that perpetuate archaic and negative stereotypes – is why I am thrilled to join the company this season. I want to stage plays that reflect the world I want to work, live, play and love in.

And so we began the process of selecting the right play for the 2017 season. Kaitlyn and I visited the park together and she shared stories about the Withrow and Ruff community. I thought back on the magical experiences I have had there: setting up my picnic blanket, snuggling in close with loved ones and being transported. Even as we considered Shakespeare’s more overtly political plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream kept surfacing as the right choice. With the barrage of negative media coming at us, it became clear to me that our best offence against all this HATE is to fight back with LOVE. With this in mind, our production of Dream will be a wild celebration of what is possible when we set ourselves free, believe in magic and plumb the depths of our psyche to discover more about who we really are. Suddenly, in 2017 it seems radical to believe in and pursue love, magic and beauty.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs August 15th through September 3rd, 2017 in Withrow Park. All performances are Pay What You Can and more details can be found on our website soon.