Rice University’s Baker Residential College has played host to Houston’s longest consecutively running Shakespeare festival for 46 years. This season BakerShake, as it’s called, offers up Measure for Measure.
“We’re taking this classic show of law and lust colliding and re-envisioning it in a timeless setting, familiar to viewers,” said Baker Shakespeare publicist Jon-Kyle Bailey, who spoke to us during the set build. “This year the stage presented some challenges to the concept of a traditional stage,” he says, referring to the loss of set pieces.
“Our platforms are made from wood and stored in a basement, and a leaky pipe has been leaking all year,” said Bailey. “Most of our really important pieces were molded completely through. We had to rebuild from scratch.” In spite of the setback, the production remains on schedule for this lesser-known work that revolves around a temporary leader’s moralistic attempts to clamp down on brothels and illicit sexual activity.
Each year’s play is selected through a process known as Bard’s Night. “We invite anyone in the community who’s interested to come and discuss which five plays we are interested in seeing,” Bailey said in describing the collaborative interaction between directors and students. “We have a young cast. These are people who have never been on a stage before in their life. That’s a special thing to see, people being onstage for the first time,” he said. “We pride ourselves in not sticking to Shakespeare’s bigger pieces. We’re taking these rarely heard-about plays and giving them the vision that they deserve.”
Performances are held in what served as the university’s dining hall in the early 1900s — the oak-paneled Commons — which allows for quick entrances and exits, as well as interactions with the audience.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Starts: March 12. Continues through March 21, 2015
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2015.
