by Kirby Lindsay, posted 7 July 2014
This month two actors from Fremont will perform, all around the Pacific Northwest, with Freehold Theatre Lab’s Engaged Theatre program in ‘The Flower Of England’s Face: William Shakespeare’s Henry IV’.
From July 12 – 20th, the general public (that includes Fremonsters) will be able to experience this adaptation, a prodigal son story, at the University of Washington’s Penthouse Theater. This will be, however, after the company takes this updated version of Shakespeare’s work to the Washington Corrections Center for Women, Harborview Medical Center, the Monroe Correctional Complex, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and Echo Glen Children’s Center.
Christine Marie Brown and Andrew McGinn live in Fremont, and have been invited before to perform in the Engaged Theatre program. They welcomed another chance to act for these special audiences. “We both did it last year,” explained Brown, “those audiences are some of the best audiences I’ve ever performed before. They are really there for the human event.” According to McGinn, the play’s adapter – Reginald André Jackson – told him that you cannot lie to the people they encounter at the prisons, or on the base. “You must own up to your values, and your art,” observed McGinn. As he plays a reluctant soldier, and a wastrel, for soldiers and prisoners, he feels he has to be honest to the role, and his audience of “people that are living this quandary that I am trying to act.”
Every Detail Considered
“I feel pretty confident in saying this production of ‘Henry IV’ is something [the audience] haven’t seen before,” Brown observed. Even for those familiar with Shakespeare’s royal plays, she said, “it’s not going to be the ‘Henry IV’ they’ve seen before.”
This production, directed by Freehold Artistic Director Robin Lynn Smith, has placed the conflict between the King and his wayward son in the 1950s, ignored races, changed genders (Brown plays Hotspur, as a woman – not a woman playing a man,) and meshed Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV’ with scenes from his ‘Richard II’, to give context and history for viewers with less knowledge of the English royal line, but still seeking a story of depth, with multi-dimensional characters. The production also features a musical score, composed by Gino Yevdjevich, performed live, and life-sized puppets created by Annett Mateo.
Ultimately, what may set this production apart is that, “We really give a sh**,” McGinn said, “and every detail is really thought out.” This is not ‘stand-and-deliver’ Shakespeare, but a work brought together by actors, director and support crew that want to give thoughtful, powerful theater to their audience, showing the necessity of reinventing our identities, and the human resilience and courage it takes to break out of conventional expectations.
Weather That Suits
Originally based in New York City, actors McGinn and Brown moved to Fremont, and the Seattle theater scene, a few years ago. “New York is like cocaine,” McGinn explained, “the only way to be done is to leave it.” The couple, married three years, moved here when they decided they wanted a yard, and a cat.
They’d worked at Seattle Repertory, in 2007, and, Brown recalled, “we thought, ‘what a neat city!’” They chose the Northwest over New Orleans, a decision that proved wise when they came here and discovered, “the weather suits us,” Brown said, smiling.
The professional actors have found enough work here to sustain them, when they add in teaching and, in McGinn’s case, directing. Both are members of the Sandbox Artists Collective, and have performed at most of the large theaters in our region. While they both want to do more in their industry, neither have aspirations to start their own theater company. “A new company is about as necessary as a hole in my head,” he answered the question, “but I have shows I want to do.” As for Brown, “I never had a desire to start my own company. It is incredibly hard work, and so is being an actor – but that is something I’ve invested in and have an interest in.”
Gather Inspiration
While both actors find work around our region, they’ve found a home in Fremont. “It’s a great location for us,” Brown said, “it’s so central. It’s so close to everything.” On their random nights off – together (they don’t always get opportunities to work together, or share a schedule,) – they can always find someplace to go and/or something to do.
“I can look forward to Moisture Festival,” McGinn said, “I can walk to West of Lenin, Stone Soup Theatre…” Still, for them, Fremont is a place where they can step off the stage, and be themselves. “It’s an environment where I can think,” McGinn explained, “to gather my inspiration.”
A Unique Performance
To perform in Freehold’s Engaged Theatre program requires an invitation, and an audition. “If [the director] Robin values your work,” McGinn observed, “you get asked.” Both Brown and McGinn were proud to have been asked, more than once, to take part in this special opportunity to construct, as part of a very talented team, a production for a very diverse audience. “It makes each new production unique,” McGinn said of the change of audience from one location to another, “it is something we have thought about.”
By the time the company takes the stage – July 12th to 20th – at the UW Penthouse Theater, expect to see a production honed and sharpened, practiced and performed with great pleasure and professional pride. Purchase tickets to see ‘The Flower of England’s Face’ through Brown Paper Tickets, and enjoy this tale of reinvention, and coming of age, told very, very well.
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