Reflections on Shakespeare in the Swamp

Please welcome Ryan Reinike, our guest blogger this month. He was Nick Bottom, the Weaver, in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, our featured play for Shakespeare in the Swamp.

Ryan —

There is no other theatrical director, other than Perry Martin, whom I would have implicitly trusted with bringing a full cast and myself to a respectable production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. So many things were vague and uncertain with the constricted rehearsal period of two weeks, in which to memorize and embody one of Shakespeare’s most cherished characters, to do the role justice — in iambic pentameter, and with a Cajun accent to boot, no less.

Perry assembled actors he felt would embody the success of the production, bound us together, and led us there to John Schneider Studios, to show what we could make of it. The studio welcomed us like a home I had yet to remember, with the support and enthusiasm we needed to aid us, in lifting from the tarmac of rehearsal, to the stratosphere of performance. There was no ego, or pretense; just a genuine love of the storytelling that gave us a fertile environment, in which to play in the most serious of terms. We were all there to treat the dream with respect, and not to sign the moment off as fancy.

This was felt, I believe, not only by myself and fellow cast mates, but by John Schneider, who seemed as proud of our accomplishment as we were. This gave a connection and validation one does not often find in a producing body: a refreshing validation of art beyond the central question of: ‘Did it sell tickets?’, which it did, by the way - quite well from what I gather.

I thank John, and his son, Chasen - a fine Shakespearian actor and dramaturge in his own right, who bares a big part of the responsibility for the genesis of this concept of Shakespeare in the Swamp. He helped lay the fertile ground for Perry to seed with his creativity of direction, and the talent of the actors to till to fruition.