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The Bard is Back in Boston By Andrea Shea  Listen to story (Real Audio)
But now the Bard is back with free Shakespeare on the outdoor stage in full force. WBUR's Andrea Shea reports on its return to strength. TEXT OF STORY: ANDREA SHEA: Steve Maler founded the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in 1996 and has been staging the Bard on Boston Common ever since. STEVE MALER: I tell people it's sort of like a rock concert, except it's Shakespeare. SHEA: This year Maler's directing the romantic comedy, "As You Like It," a play about love and loss. On a recent steamy morning he and his actors rehearsed inside. REHEARSAL, "AS YOU LIKE IT:" "It is to be all made of faith and service. And so am I for Phoebe. And I for Ganymede. And I for Rosalind. And I for no woman. It is to be all made of. Good, good. Let's go back to the top please, alright, standing by." SHEA: The cast this summer is a mix of local actors and out-of-towners. 3 travelled up from New York, including Fred Weller. He's been on Broadway, in films and currently stars in the TV show, "In Plain Sight." In Boston he plays Orlando against Marin Ireland's Rosalind. REHEARSAL, "AS YOU LIKE IT:" "Oh but dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee wear thy heart in a scarf. It is my arm. I thought that the heart had been wounded by the claws of a lion. Wounded it is but with the eyes of a lady." SHEA: Maler says he couldn't afford to hire New York stars for last year's production. MALER: I certainly today feel much much better about where we are with the future and possibility of Shakespeare on the Common then I did a year ago where it was it was a tough time. SHEA: Tough because the Citi Performing Arts Center, which presents the production, cut the show's 1 million dollar budget in half a year ago, citing a financial crisis. Then it shrank the run of the show from 3 weeks to 1. This riled up a lot of people in Boston: politicians, citizens, the arts community. With the increased attention came increased scrutiny. The Boston Globe reported a $1.2 million dollar bonus paid to the CEO of the Citi Center. The State's Attorney General investigated but found nothing illegal. Rumors of conflict between the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and the Citi Center flew. All of it appeared messy and uncertain. But Steve Maler says the two entities eventually came to the table. MALER: Joe Spaulding, the CEO of the Citi Center and I sat down and we tried to figure out how can we get this back on track? SHEA: Joe Spaulding wouldn't be interviewed for this story, but Maler says the Citi Center and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company are now two separate organizations. Maler is freelance directing "As You Like It." He says Citi Group stepped up to the plate with funding. The state also kicked in money to enable Maler and Spaulding to stage three additional shows in Springfield. In the end Maler says the drama that played out last year isn't as important as the civic act of staging free drama outside. MALER: It's more than just a play it's an opportunity in sort of the old sense of theater for, and I mean the Greek sense or the Shakespearean sense, where really the theater becomes a meeting place for all different kinds of people where really you see a cross-section of all of our society out there on the Boston Common. SHEA: Tina Packer agrees. She founded Shakespeare and Company in Lenox 30 years ago and says the possible demise of free Shakespeare on the Common was a wake up call for everyone to take stock. TINA PACKER: So in that respect you know I think it served us really well, you know none of us can take it for granted, one of the things about running a theatre or almost any arts organizations that don't have large endowments, you're always living on the edge. SHEA: Even more so now, according to Maler. MALER: Every organization in town is struggling to raise the dollars that they need to do the program that they want to do and this program is particularly challenging because we give it away. [Sound from Boston Common ] SCENE FROM "AS YOU LIKE IT" ON THE COMMON: "Let me see (laughter). What think you of falling in love? Oh Mary I pray thee do make sport with all, but love no man in good earnest." SHEA: About 75,000 people are expected to attend the run of "As You Like It" on the Common this year. They'll bring blankets, picnics and bug spray. New York actor Fred Weller says the mosquitoes have been driving him crazy. But still he's thrilled to present the work of the bard outdoors. In the play he's Orlando. FRED WELLER: We have something like it in New York of course. I think it's essential to the cultural identity of New York certainly, and I imagine that it provides the same here in Boston. SHEA: Weller adds that the audience in Boston in twice as big as the one in Central Park, and that's making him a little nervous. But for Boston actor Larry Cohen it's addictive He's playing Touchstone this year and has performed Shakespeare on the Common twice before. LARRY COHEN: When you're out on that stage and the moon is rising behind the buildings of Boston and you look out and it is like Woodstock ? it is thousands and thousands of people out there, and they are quiet, and listening, and they're responding to everything that you say. It is a high that would never say no to. SCENE FROM "AS YOU LIKE IT" ON THE COMMON : "Stand you both forth now and stroke your chins and swear by your chins that I am a knave. By our beards if we had them, thou art. By my knavery if I had it then I were but if you swear by that that is not you are not foresworn." SHEA: For the people who stage Shakespeare on the Common, everything is pretty much 'as they like it.' At this point their biggest worry isn't funding. It's the weather. For WBUR I'm Andrea Shea. [Music from the production] Shakespeare on the Common continues with free shows through August third. Click on the links below for info and to see photos of this year's production, "As You Like It," in rehearsal.
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