Interview with Freewill Shakespeare Festival

Interview with Freewill Shakespeare Festival

Catch my interview with David Horak, the Artistic Director of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival in Edmonton, Alberta. We talked about how the company successfully pivoted to smaller, pop-up Shakespeare productions that were fully booked across the city, the importance of new works, and where David as a new Artistic Director wants to take the festival in the future. (More interviews here.)

 

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If you’d rather read the interview, a rough transcript is below.

 

 

 

 

Interview with Freewill Shakespeare Festival

Michael Van Osch: Hey, it’s Michael Van Osch. Welcome to the HARK Journal. This is our interview series, and we’re glad to have you here. And before we get into our guests, if you haven’t checked out our two-minute daily Shakespeare meditation at HARKjournal.com, check it out, sign up for that. See if you like it. If not, that’s no problem either, but check it out. A lot of people seem to like it.

So today, I’m pleased to welcome my guest. We’re in Edmonton, Canada this time and talking to David Horak, the Artistic Director of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. David, how are you?

David Horak: I am well, how are you?

Michael Van Osch: I’m great. Thanks for joining us today. How’s everything in Edmonton?

David Horak: It’s good, the province sort of did a big opening for the summer and that allowed us to do some programming but the numbers are rising. So there’s a lot of concern right now. But I know that’s kind of the way it is, the way it is everywhere. But we’re being, we’re trying to be very safe.

I’ve gone back to teaching. I teach at some of the local universities here as well as being an artistic director and everybody’s wearing masks and everyone’s trying to be as safe as possible. So hopefully we don’t have to go back online. Because that was hard last year.

Michael Van Osch: Yeah, no doubt.

Absolutely. Well, tell us a little bit about the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. It’s been a hundred years since I’ve been to Edmonton, but tell us a little bit about the theater, how old it is, how it got its start and kind of where you are right now because it sounds like you’ve had a great run that’s over 30 years, right?

David Horak: Yeah. In 1989, a bunch of friends who were all in an acting class together wanted to continue working together and it created this company. So just over 30 years, 32 years, I think they’ve always been housed in this great, big, beautiful amphitheater in a kind of centrally located park in Edmonton and the amphitheater is completely covered and, and holds can hold up to a thousand.

And often on a really beautiful night, we get that many Edmontonians coming in and, and enjoying Shakespeare and enjoying being outdoors. The company usually does two big plays: a comedy and a tragedy in rep. So the company is usually 15 to 16 actors, professional company, full production values usually, yeah.

The budget for the two shows is about half a million dollars. So they’re big and you know, fully produced, fully designed professionally and run for a good long time. About six weeks in June and July. So I was like, really, I’d been a member of the acting company about five or six years ago and had directed a couple of shows.

And then last year during the second wave of COVID, they were looking for a new artistic director. And I took that on thinking, oh yeah, it’ll be fine in the summer. And that did not happen. So I’ve been artistic director during - My entire time has been during COVID actually. So it’s been an interesting time to take over the program and plan theater, live theater, even outdoors because you know we primarily work outdoors.

It’s been tricky and challenging and this year, We kept changing and planning and pivoting. And so I was able to produce two shows, keeping the tradition of doing a tragedy and comedy. So we had a plan to do Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing two years ago and had cast it and designed it and been dreaming about it.

And so I took those two shows. Reduced them down to small casts and figured out a way to do it in a way that was safe. So there they were traveling shows kind of built on a theater for young audience kind of model that could travel to different. And that’s where we started. And then we were able to do The Fringe.

We were able to do backyards and patios as well as some large community parks. This was really interesting because we were able to get, draw a completely different audience than where, where an audience would usually come to us in the amphitheater. We went to them and that was, that was a really interesting new way for us to work.

It was exciting. Scary.

Michael Van Osch: Yeah, I bet. I mean, you know, and I saw it online on your website pictures of the big amphitheater with the permanent tent above it and everything. And it’s absolutely beautiful. I can imagine that’d be a great place to perform and to see a show. So you change all that up.

Like many, many companies I’ve had to do and you go to smaller casts, cut-down shows. And how did people, how did audiences respond to being able to have it in your backyard or a pop-up show here or there. It sounds like it was, it was really well taken.

David Horak: We, we booked it solid. I was really surprised when, when we set up this idea, I thought, okay, we’re going to, my real plan was to try to just hire artists, you know and, and, and, and to get some people back to work, keeping in mind that at any time we could cancel it, somebody got sick or restrictions, all of a sudden happened. So we budgeted it in a way that if we had to cancel or stop production, it wouldn’t destroy the company or make it very difficult for us to come back next year.

So, so we did that by keeping everything really low, you know, I built the set in my garage bound costumes that, you know, we could, that, that had already been built and, you know tried to put as many people back to work as possible. And then I was totally surprised that we were just booked solid, like overbooked.

We had more bookings than we could fill and we sold out at The Fringe. We popped up in some outside of community centers, we would have several hundred people just from around the neighborhood, just kind of bring their lawn chairs and set it up. So that was really, was really overwhelming actually.

And also to see people that it was great because I had kind of shifted it to an audience that could be younger that could take in both Macbeth then and Much Ado and follow the story. And, and it was good seeing kids like little kids come and watch it and enjoy it and be intrigued. And if they got bored, they could go off and play on the playground.

But for the most part, people stayed and watched. And that was, that was really gratifying. And the actors who had been out of work for so long, just couldn’t believe it. I mean, it was, it just brought tears to your eyes too, to go, oh my God, we’re doing theater again. And everyone was safe and we’ve got hundreds of people that are coming in and watching this.

It reminded me how resilient these stories are. That spirit can also be kind of mangled and pushed and shoved and changed. And retain some of those core themes and the stories, they just are so resilient and people respond to it. It’s it was really quite amazing. Actually.

Michael Van Osch: It sounds like it, congratulations on being able to put all that together and pull it off.

I’m glad you were able to, and it sounds too, like, regardless of where you do your shows or what year it is, or what’s happening with COVID, are your shows always free?

David Horak: We always do a pay what you will nights and days. Yeah. The company started off as a pass-the-hat kind of thing. We’ve had to change that slightly so that there is an admission, but we always make sure that there are days and nights that are because we do matinees as well that are, are pay what you will, and as accessible as possible.

At the Fringe, there was an admission. But sure. We did a lot of shows that were like pass the hat. And you know, it ends up being like a $20 ticket, which is usually what we charge anyway. Like that’s usually when we pass the hat, that’s kind of what people are paying.

So I’m always kind of arguing you know what, like people are. Kind of pay that anyway, whether we say that or not. So it’s really important to me that it’s as accessible and that’s part of the fun of outdoor theater anyway, I think, you know?

Michael Van Osch: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so it sounds like you you’ve had Shakespeare in your life for a long time.

I want to, I want to read a little bit of your bio to folks because, you know, as we, as we kind of said before, you said that you’ve worked throughout Canada and the US as a director, actor, educator. And you’ve kind of been at the helm there since COVID started, but you’ve directed a lot of shows there.

It sounds like Comedy of Errors, Winter’s Tale, Much Ado and others. And then and also goes on to say that you’ve also directed. It looks like around Edmonton and around Alberta at other theaters to Edmonton Actors Theater, the Mayfield, Bright Young Things, and you studied there. You got your BFA in acting in your MFA and directing at the University of Alberta.

Is that where you teach as well?

David Horak: I do a little bit of teaching at the U of A, and a couple of other of the smaller universities. I’ve taught at MacEwan University, which was a musical, is a musical theater program. So I have that background as well - large-scale musicals. And then a smaller university here called Concordia University of Edmonton.

That is a nice, small little up and coming university, which I enjoy teaching it. So again, I’ve been lucky I’ve been able to work in commercial theater as well as lots of independent and small-scale theater, as well as big musicals. And yeah, the occasional, the occasional Shakespeare as well.

My graduate studies were in Greek theater. So I sort of gravitate towards some of those big classic themes.

Michael Van Osch: And you spend a bunch of years in New York, too?

David Horak: That’s right. Yeah. I was living in New York in the nineties and was lucky enough to do some touring around the state.

So I did a theater for young audience to where that. All over the states for about two years, ran for two years. But then also worked a little bit in commercial theater and an off, off, off-Broadway. I helped start the New York Fringe Festival in the mid-nineties. So that was again, a nice wild range of different experiences, which I’ve been very lucky to be able to do.

Michael Van Osch: Yeah. Well, that sounds great. It sounds like a great career. Back to the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Now, what do you do educational things for, for young folks as well? And I know I saw something about camp Shakespeare. I don’t know if that’s happened or tell us a little bit about that.

David Horak: Yeah. Camp Shakespeare, hasn’t been done in a few years, but now that I’ve taken on the helm, one of the things, because I do quite a bit of teaching is to try and do more outreach for younger folks. So it was a really interesting experiment this year to do these shows that were essentially theater for young audience touring shows because so many other educators came and saw this and went, oh, could you come to our school?

So I think down the line, there’ll be a way for us to do some programming. That’s not just in the summer but actually does some outreach into, into schools and, and tours around. I kinda cut my teeth into doing theater for young audiences. A lot of actors do when they first graduate.

And I did quite a bit of Shakespeare in junior high and high school. And I think, I mean, Shakespeare needs to be spoken out loud and seeing it live, it just does. There are great movies but when you get to see it live and as you get to even get a taste of like performing it, it’s so cool.

It just elevates it from that, that dry English class that we all kind of took. Although, my dad was an English teacher, so I never want to put down the English teachers. And, and my dad taught, he taught and loved Shakespeare as well, which probably sort of, you know, kind of trickled down to me and my brothers. But that first, that first encounter with Shakespeare, when you can really kind of change people’s change young people’s minds and hearts when, when you engage with them live.

So I’d love to be able to bring that back.

Michael Van Osch: Yeah. And that kind of gets me thinking too. When, when, you know, from, from your perspective as artistic director and inaccurate, You take, you know, you take a pop-up Shakespeare to the community center or something like that. What do you think it does for the, let’s say the average person in a community, meaning they’re not a theater aficionado, but they dropped by, they see it. What do you think the value is there for them?

David Horak: Well, you know, there’s a version of Macbeth that I found, I found this great three-person version of Macbeth. From a company in the UK called Splendid Productions. And they were super gracious because when I approached them, I said, I saw this production downloaded the script.

I’d love to do it, but I don’t know when or how we can do it with COVID and they had lots of audience participation in its production. But it’s focused on leadership and it’s focused on ambition and this production ran about 60 minutes or so. And just three actors and was all about the cycle of leadership.

And right now in Canada, we’re going through an election. There’s a municipal election that’s happening in Edmonton as well as a federal election. And so there is resonance. I don’t even have to make a big deal about it. It just pops out. So when someone’s walking by, they go, oh, it’s speaking to me because the scenes are directly speaking to my life right now.

You know, it’s just so clear. And, I did notice people kind of like riding their bikes and they go, okay, what’s this. And then they stay because I think there’s something for them to be gained by sitting there and watching it and both shows were fun. And condensed and condensed in a way, but those themes, whether it’s Much Ado and about love and the stick and identity and all, you know, you know, oh, okay I get that. I see those archetypes. I see things that I recognize, but also it’s telling me something that I maybe I’m working through now, like with, with ambition and leadership and you know, in Macbeth, which was a really interesting take on that Macbeth story.

Michael Van Osch: Absolutely.

That’s very cool. Let me ask you about new works. Cause I know that’s something that’s very important to you and the company too. And how do you approach the area of new works?

David Horak: Well, this will be something kind of new for Freewill. Freewill did commission a new work number of years ago called Shakespeare’s Will by Vern Thiessen and who’s a local playwright and also a Governor General award-winning playwright and Freewill commissioned it along with the big regional theater in town called Citadel Theater.

But Freewill hasn’t really done much with new works for a while. So it is something that I’m looking at trying to incorporate into the Festival and it’s gonna be something I start over the next couple of years is reaching out mostly to local playwrights to work on something that I’m I’m dubbing right now, response plays.

So I’m looking for playwrights to pull out themes or characters or something in the plays that they want to respond to. So not just contemporary adaptations of the play, which are great, but actually respond to something in the, in the place specifically. So it’s going to be a bit of a process over the next little while, but I’m really interested to do a Macbeth and then at the same time, have a, have a, have a local playwright respond to something in that play. And, and to do these kinds of in, in rep, it means expanding our Festival from going from probably two plays to eventually the four plays.

So that you know, after COVID, we’re going to be in a sort of a restructuring, but after this summer and seeing the response to some of our adaptations. I went, oh, you know what? There’s a thirst for both the kind of more traditional way of doing it. And also kind of a shift as well. So I’m, I’m looking forward to doing both things. So part of our audience wants to hear the text and want to engage in the larger-scale production.

We are good at doing that and we’ve been doing it for a long time, and then there’s some of that audience also is going to be really surprised by getting something new out of these response plays.

Michael Van Osch: Yeah, that sounds really interesting. You know, it brings to mind American Shakespeare Center in Virginia, I think has done a program like that for a number of years.

And I love it too because you’re talking about local players.

David Horak: Yeah. Yeah. I’d really like to, to, to keep it local. It’s partly budget, but also I think it’s one of our core values is to keep it very local. So it’s local directors and local designers and local actors who get to train themselves to work on Shakespeare because Shakespeare does demand a particular kind of some, some different kind of technique than you’re often using in contemporary theater. So just that language and, and the size and scope of those productions and also being outside is a change.

So I think it’s, it’s also a kind of training ground for. Not just the actors, but the directors and the designers as well, and to keep it local. So we’re kind of like giving back to the community.

Michael Van Osch: Yeah, absolutely. Well tell us real quick, I’ll put it in the show notes too. What is your website URL? So people can look you up.

David Horak: Yeah, Freewillshakespeare.com. Will get you there. And we just we’ve revamped the website. So there’s, you know, check back there’ll be more history and, and I’m hoping to put a bit more stuff that’s kind of engaging.

I’m hoping to write some short essays on there as well about what we’re doing as we’re looking forward to coming back next summer. Hopefully next summer. We’re back in that big amphitheater. Yeah, absolutely.

I think we’d still be talking about it at this point.

Michael Van Osch: Right? I know. So, we never know, but yeah, hopefully, it will be back for real next summer.

David Horak: Yeah, exactly.

Michael Van Osch: David, this has been great. I appreciate it sounds like you guys are doing amazing work up there. Congrats on what you’ve done this summer.

I mean, really a pivoting, like most people have, but it sounds like you’ve really made it work so congrats to you and all your, all your creative staff too.

David Horak: Thanks a lot. Thanks for asking me. It allowed me to find your website and sign up for the meditations they are awesome. So, yeah. Thanks.

Michael Van Osch: Thank you. You know, I got one last question I gotta ask you because I ask everybody and that’s if Shakespeare was on this call with you and me, and you got to ask him one question. What would you ask him?

David Horak: Oh my God. Oh, that’s a great question. I. I want to ask him, you know what I was just thinking about burns plays Shakespeare as well.

I want to ask him about his will and what, what, what’s the deal with the bed?

Michael Van Osch: Exactly. I think we all want to know that.

David Horak: Yeah. Yeah. That’s I, yeah, I want a little bit more information about all that. So a good one.

Michael Van Osch: I love it. Well, David Horak, Freewill Shakespeare Festival up there in Edmonton, Alberta. Thanks so much. Stay on the line here when we say goodbye, but appreciate meeting you and having to share with us what you guys have got going on.

David Horak: Thanks a lot.

Michael Van Osch: All right. Take care.

David Horak: Bye.