Elizabethan Shakespeare Company performs at Stevens
HOBOKEN, N.J. — New York’s Elizabethan Shakespeare Company (ESC) makes its debut at Stevens Institute of Technology’s DeBaun Auditorium April 28-30 with Shakespeare’s The Comedie of Errors. The company, established in 1994, recreates the theatrical conventions and techniques for which Shakespeare wrote his plays.
The show opens Friday evening, April 28, and closes Sunday, April 30, with a matinee. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. for the Friday and Saturday performances, and curtain is at 8 p.m. For the Sunday matinee, doors open at 2:30 p.m. and the performance begins at 3 p.m. DeBaun Auditorium is located at 5th and Hudson Streets in Hoboken.
Tickets are $10, available in advance or at the door. A half-price discount is available for students and seniors. For more information or reservations, call (201) 216-8937 or visit the DeBaun Auditorium website at www.debaun.org.
The ESC is the only company in the United States solely dedicated to recreating the production practices of Shakespeare’s own company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, whose performances had more in common with a modern-day poetry slam than with the staid, ultra-prepared presentations most people associate with Shakespeare today.
The ESC emulates the actors of Shakespeare’s day, who performed under conditions utterly unlike those of modern-day theater. That is, no group rehearsal of the play (only the practicalities of entrances, exits, fights and dances were prepared in advance); no director (all cues for characterization and movement were found in the text); minimal sets; and the use of "cue scripts" (containing the actors’ own lines prefaced by a short cue) instead of copies of the full play.
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, like other Elizabethan companies, was a resident, full-time troupe of actors whose professional lives were spent working together. This kind of stable company structure is both the newest and the oldest approach to Shakespeare.
Leading the ESC is Clarke McCarthy. For more than 14 years, McCarthy has worked closely with Patrick Tucker, vice-chair of the Artistic Directorate of the International Shakespeare Globe Centre and chief developer of First-Folio cue script techniques.
A New York-based actress with a thriving career in voice-overs and instruction, McCarthy is one of the founding members of the Elizabethan Shakespeare Company. She holds degrees in English and speech communications from Penn State University.
Note to reporters: For further information about the Elizabethan Shakespeare Company, Clarke McCarthy can be reached through DeBaun Auditorium at (201) 216-8960.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.
Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.
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