Sign of the times: Elizabethan-era experiment takes the stage

As the Lord Mayor of London in the Hamner Theater’s production of “Richard III,” John Holdren is more rock star than Shakespearean character.

Wearing a dark suit with pink lapels and a pair of silver-rimmed, flashy sunglasses, Holdren saunters into a scene late in Act One with a strut worthy of Keith Richards or Mick Jagger.

“At first, he was a total, sort of simpering idiot,” Holdren later says about his character.

But now, after almost five weeks of intense rehearsals, the mayor has evolved into what Holdren calls a “mob boss in the hood.

“We’re figuring out that this world is very corrupt.”

“Richard III” tells the story of the late king of England’s bloody rise to, and eventual fall from, the throne. It’s full of violence and double-crosses as the power-mad Richard does anything — including killing his own brothers — to get what he wants.

Led by local actress and Shakespeare teacher Mary Coy, Holdren and the rest of the cast are using Elizabethan theater practices to mount the play, which is the inaugural production of the Hamner’s Nelson County Shakespeare Festival. It opens with a free preview at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the theater, located inside Afton’s Rockfish Valley Community Center (see box for more information).

The Elizabethan era is the time associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603), when theater was primarily a moneymaking venture, says Coy.

“The way they made money is they spent as little money as possible,” something she says can certainly work for community theater groups during these uncertain economic times.

One penny-pinching measure had the actors forgoing costumes in favor of their own, everyday clothing.

In order to be faithful to that practice, Coy knew her cast had to be in modern dress and eventually settled on a sort of mafia theme, partly inspired by Martin Scorcese’s “The Departed.”

The result is lots of leather jackets and dark suits and some good, old-fashioned mafia swagger.

“With actors, it’s very good if you can have something that will spark their imagination,” Coy says.

The Elizabethan process also kept the actors on their toes.

Back then, troupes staged plays in a couple of days and rarely performed without an audience. Part of this was for economic reasons — the fewer rehearsals, the less they had to pay actors.

If a play was a hit on opening night, it continued its run. But if audiences weren’t wowed, it usually closed immediately, Coy says.

“They rehearsed a play for two, maybe three days maximum, and then they (would) bring an audience in,” continuing to tweak it as they went along, she says.

“They didn’t see any sense in running through the play without an audience.”

For “Richard III,” Coy spread three days’ worth of rehearsals over five weeks, mostly on weekends and one evening a week. She also asked the actors to come in with their lines already memorized; about half did.

“It’s come together faster, which is interesting (because) we’re using an ancient method,” says Mariflo Stephens, a Charlottesville actor who plays Queen Margaret.

Coy is managing the play and starring as Richard, another Elizabethan practice. There were no directors, and it was really up to the actors to develop their characters and find their own stage cues.

“You really mine the text for clues to how the play should be performed, rather than someone coming up with a concept,” says Coy. “I really love that idea.”

Coy gave her actors some history about the play and the era, but “other than that, I have only done what an actor does in the moment, and we’ve all done that.”

Waynesboro actor Jonas Collins, who plays Richard’s right-hand man, the Duke of Buckingham, says the whole process feels backwards at times.

“It’s an experiment,” he says. “You throw all these ingredients in there, and you wait to see what happens.”

At first, not much was happening, says Coy.

“Our first couple of times, getting up there, it was terrible,” she laughs. “Every time we have done it, it has gotten significantly better. It all comes from understanding the story better the more you do it.”

Koda Kerl, a recent Nelson County High School graduate, says that this style of theater has made him more self-aware on stage.

“It’s been so different. From the second or third rehearsal, we were running (the show),” he says. “Everyone has made so many changes themselves.”

The Elizabethans also performed often for the nobility, and Coy has found a way to do that, too.

They’ve organized a special benefit performance on Valentine’s Day, which will be held in the main hall of the Rockfish Valley Community Center. Attendees will sit on the stage for a banquet dinner, while the play is performed at their feet. Tickets are $75 and include dinner and a lecture after the show.

Offstage seats will also be available for $5 and don’t include dinner or the lecture.

To explore the class differentiation that went on during the time period, Coy says they’re going to pretend like the people in the cheap seats aren’t even there, just like performers would’ve done back then.

“I can’t wait to hear what those audiences think,” she says.

Another thing she can’t wait for? Next year.

“I want to try to do it faster next time.”

About the Hamner Theater
This “Richard III” experiment is just another one of the Hamner Theater’s innovative ventures.

“It’s just a gem,” says Philip Lawton, who plays several parts in the production and has been coming to the theater for years.

Co-artistic directors Peter Coy (Mary’s husband) and Boomie Pedersen first opened their doors in 2005.

“We didn’t really know what to expect,” says Peter Coy. “We thought, ‘Let’s see what we can do.’”

In addition to the theater’s main season, they host a series of cabaret performances and movie nights, as well as a playwright’s initiative designed to help writers develop new work.

They also recently formed an improvisational troupe that meets once a week and has started performing.

The black box theater seats about 49 people and can be reconfigured to suit each production.

“The space really lent itself to flexibility,” says Coy. “We really love the intimacy of our theater. It’s very small, and that demands a certain kind of acting.

“Our productions tend to be really intimate, and it gives them an immediacy that people really respond to.”