Belt actors make Shakespeare fun and enjoyable
BELT – Sword fights, insults, royalty and knavery spice the telling of the story of England’s King Henry IV.
“People think Shakespeare is dry, but we’re making it fun and enjoyable,” said English teacher Jeff Ross, director of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part I” as performed by the Belt Valley Shakespeare Players this weekend.
“It starts with the students. As they become comfortable with the language, and the community follows,” he said. “Of course, we already had some Shakespeare fans here.”
Assistant director Kyra Langston said Belt is warming up as this mark’s the theater troupe’s fourth year of Shakespeare.
“As our actors get more experienced, it’s easier for the audience to pick up on the funny scenes,” she said.
The Belt actors have three performances this weekend and then take their show on the road in May. They’re taking part in the Shakespeare’s First Folio exhibition at the University of Montana.
Ryley Mapstone was among the elementary students who walked down to the Belt Theater on Wednesday for a sneak peak at the show and to learn what the middle and high school student actors had done to get ready. He wanted to know if the actors get nervous. (Yes, they said.)
“I sort of and sort of not” understand the Shakespearean language, he said. But the sword play was definitely a hit for the fifth-grader.
Harley Gorton, who plays the sheriff and the Earl of Douglas, said he enjoyed speaking as one did at the turn of the century. The 16th century.
“It has this almost elegant language. It’s more pristine,” he said. “With the words we use, it doesn’t sound insulting, it’s playful.”
Yet it’s plenty insulting – and the banter is one of the favorite parts of the play for some of the actors.
“Thou art so fat-witted,” and “There’s neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee,” they say.
The play is “half funny, and then there’s the war part,” said Nick Vogt, who plays Sir John Falstaff. “Hotspur and Hal fight, and one of them dies.”
Vogt summarized the play, in which he has 600 lines, as “There’s this king ...”
King Henry IV has a “goofball” son and people who want him dead, Vogt elaborated.
The students gasped when the actors brought out their metal swords for a demonstration, swordplay a skill they’ve spent hours planning and practicing.
“They’re not sharp,” Vogt told his audience. “We don’t want to eviscerate each other.”
The key, Gorton added, is to “cast beyond the person not at them,” he said.
Langston yelled, “double — pass — back — parry — cut — left leg” as the actors thrust, advanced, retreated, bobbed and swung imaginary swords during a demonstration of the choreography they practice before they can step on stage with metal swords to “fight.”
In another demonstration, the students made like they were on horseback and picked up cards and placed them on their foreheads. They had to decipher the rank the card gave them by the way others treated them. Some scrapped and bowed as they encountered face cards. Others were ignored for the low number on their cards.
“We spit on aces,” Vogt said.
“We practice this as you can tell a lot about characters by how others treat them,” Ross added.
Austin Shelton, who plays Hotspur of the rebel camp, said he particularly likes his stirring speech in the fifth act, “And if we live, we live to tread on kings. If die, brave death, when princes die with us!”
Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Inbody at kinbody@greatfallstribune.com. Follow her on Twitter at @GFTrib_KInbody.
If you go...
What: Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part I”
Who: Belt Valley Shakespeare Players
Where: Belt Performing Arts Center
When: 6:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 20; 6:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 21; 2 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 22