BWW Interviews: Linda Emond - Winter Tales in Summer

"People who love this play really love this play," Linda Emond says of The Winter's Tale. She should know: The current revival at the Delacorte Theater, courtesy of The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park program, is her third production of the classic, though hopefully not her last.

The play is famous as one of Shakespeare's most difficult-not simply in terms of production, but in  terms of tone and comprehension. The first act is an epic tragedy of injustice on a massive scale, while the second is a comedy with plenty of buffoonery and a deus-ex-machina (literally, to some extent) happy ending. So to get the play right is, to say the least, a challenge.

"I'm really proud of it," Emond says of the current production, in which she plays Hermione, the wronged wife of a stubborn king. "[Director] Michael Grief has done such a gorgeous job with it in the Park," she adds. "Directors in the Park have to know how to make it all work-pageantry, music, color, even lack of color."

The Winter's Tale, she continues, is one of her favorite Shakespearean plays. "It feels very mature to me. It's very simple, but beautiful. I love that it's fable-like. I love the themes-they're big and broad. I love that he plays with time and place. He sends signals that this isn't reality. It has a kind of magical quality." Having played both Hermione and the role of Paulina in earlier productions, she adds that she feels "lucky" to be able to have another chance to reinterpret the maligned queen, and to find new layers to the character.

Still, even returning to the play for a third time, she finds it hard to compare this production to any  other. As she walks away from any given production, she says, she can only hope that she is better than when she started. Returning to a role, then, can only help make the performance that much better. "More years and more experience and more age, even-having an understanding of these things-makes my work richer, smarter, deeper, and have more resonance."

She also feels "delighted" to be making her Shakespeare in the Park debut. "I wanted to do it in the past," she says. "There were other opportunities, but this time when it came up, I jumped." This is also Emond's New York debut for any Shakespeare at all-except for some selections of A Midsummer Night's Dream performed with the New York Philharmonic. "That doesn't count!" she laughs.

Being part of the Park production-performed outdoors, as many of Shakespeare's works were originally-is even more exciting. "I love working there," Emond says of the Delacorte. "I think of it like Shakespeare safari, 'cause you're outdoors with wildlife." Turtles frequently crawl around the lake, a raccoon has been known to crawl onstage at times, and a hawk sometimes hovers over The Players. Being outdoors also means being at the mercy of the elements-for example, the production's first preview was rained out. "It makes it an adventure," Emond says, and adds that these challenges make the actors hardier. "You have to be! You have to get out there in heat or rain with animals and mosquitoes and just do it! And the audiences are thrilled to be there. They worked hard to get their tickets, standing in line. The whole environment is very joyful. I'm delighted to go to the theater each night." 

Adding to the joy is the egalitarian access to tickets, which are free to anyone willing to wait in the line. "There's something moving about the fact that in New York City, one of the greatest cities in the world if not the greatest city in the world, there is free Shakespeare!" Emond says enthusiastically. "The fact that all the pieces it takes to make it happen-all the talent, the corporate sponsorship, the donations-it's for the best reasons. You're doing the greatest writer ever in greatest city, and it's free for 80% of people...It's such a fantastic thing, and people worked hard to do it. That's the very central notion of Shakespeare in the Park-the fact that we're doing Shakespeare for free in the middle of Central Park. Isn't that a cool thing?"