Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Hark, yes, that is Shakespeare you will hear soon.
A group of Sweet Home residents are starting a Shakespeare club that will begin meeting on Feb. 1 on the first and third Thursdays of the month. Eventually, some of them hope to perform Shakespeare and possibly other works at events in Sweet Home.
Two of the organizers, Alan Handman and Dianne McIntosh, have drama experience. Handman is the pastor of the Church at 18th and Long (formerly the Church of Christ). He has professional acting experience in New York City. McIntosh, a member of the church, has performed in a community theater group in Ketchikan, Alaska. She also writes and directs plays and skits at her church.
The program is not a program of the Church at 18th and Long, but the church is hosting the group’s meetings.
“I threw the idea out,” Handman said, but “it was just one of those things you say.”
McIntosh took it another step and began planning and calling people about the new club.
“We do need that kind of thing in this town,” McIntosh said. “It will be a benefit to the whole community.
“For one thing, it brings people together. It’s a good way to grow relationships. I had my best friends from theater because you just bare your soul to them.”
Shakespeare’s work doesn’t offer a “clear moral vision,” Handman said. “But he was an extremely shrewd observer of human behavior and how human beings interact.”
Initially, presuming participants agree, they may take up one of Shakespeare’s simpler works, “Two Gentlemen of Verona.” If the club is up to it, it might include reading four or five scenes, and discussion.
McIntosh described Ketchikan as a bit of an arts community, with four to six plays per year and art galleries. That’s something she and Handman would both like to see locally.
They don’t want to turn Sweet Home into a Ketchikan, but echoing the voices of others, like high school arts teacher Gelindo Ferrin, and even a proposal by developer Dan Desler to create a “potter’s village,” they would like to see the arts grow in Sweet Home. They would like to see Sweet Home become a haven for art.
What this group will do initially will depend quite a bit on who shows up, Handman said. “I was toying with the idea of scene studies.”
If people with experience with Shakespeare show up, they may be able to read or even perform scenes. Novices may want to study Shakespeare, along with his language, before moving on to other activities.
Exactly how the club will function will depend largely on who shows up Feb. 1.
Handman said he is willing to teach and lead in certain areas, but “if it turns into something like full-blown theater or a full-blown play, I doubt I’ll have time,” although he said he may be able to handle some small role somewhere in the production.
“My hope is that we start out reading, get used to it, and then people take a scene, a monologue or speech, begin fine tuning them and then sometime have a performance,” McIntosh said. She sees the club as “a stepping stone to something bigger.”
Performances might include a number of scenes from a play or multiple plays at or during community events, she said. As the members of the club do this, learning about the language and the plays, moving beyond just memorizing lines, will be an important part.
Plays are best when the actors understand what they are portraying, she said.
The club will meet from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of the month. The first meeting will likely be organizational, determining a direction for the club. It will be held in the church fellowship hall, which also is the Charter School lunch room.
For more information, call McIntosh at 367-5651, the church at 367-2094 and ask for Handman.