Shakespeare for My Father
The Shakespeare Project of Chicago presents Michelle Shupe in a theatrical reading of “Shakespeare for My Father” by Lynn Redgrave”
Presented in Partnership with “Weekend With Will” and Jill Gordon
About Shakespeare for My Father by Lynn Redgrave:
In 1991 I set off on a journey that began almost as an act of desperation. I needed a job and decided to write myself a one-woman show. I had never attempted to write a play before but I had a gut feeling that my search for my father, my longing to come to terms with our relationship (or lack thereof), my passionately emotional desire to know him, even after his death in 1985, was something that I shared with men and women of all ages. Out of the blue that summer came an invitation from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC to give them an evening of theatrical reminisces that would include readings from my favorite Shakespeare plays. I’ll write my show, I thought, and surprise them. And since they’ve asked for Shakespeare, couldn’t I use the Bard’s words to take my senses to a higher plane? I rehearsed alone, early in the morning before my family was awake and until I arrived in Washington in time for the performance, no one had seen the show.
The presentation at the Folger ran over an hour and the comments afterward were encouraging. It seemed that people saw their own relationships with their fathers, living or dead, reflected in my story. “Where are you going next?” they asked.
So in March of ’92, I took another step in the show’s development in front of an invited audience. The play had a title now, Shakespeare For My Father, but still only ran about an hour and a quarter. “You have to have two acts,” they said. “An intermission so the theatres can sell drinks and souvenirs.” A year later, with a full-length play in two acts, I was on the road. Twenty-seven cities in six weeks all across America. Performing arts centers, symphony halls, college campuses, high school auditoriums. Learning from every audience. Then the giant leap of faith. The Big Apple. Broadway. What began as a limited six-week run at The Helen Hayes Theatre in April 1993, extended and extended…and extended. Almost three hundred performances over nine months. I continued to perform the show for another three years, in the US, Australia and finally, in London’s West End.
My “act of desperation” changed my professional life. It led to films like Shine and Gods and Monsters and empowered me to continue to make my own opportunities. Telling my story night after night and conjuring my father’s ghost to appear with me, brought me to the happiest place of all: a true reconciliation with the memory of my dad and a reunion with my mother and siblings.
“Shakespeare For My Father” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
