BWW Interviews: Guy Roberts Discusses His Work with Prague Shakespeare Company

This is the third interview in a six part series for Shakespeare Spotlight featuring players of Shakespeare.

Guy Roberts is an actor/director with a mission. As Founder and Artistic Director of Prague Shakespeare Company, he dreams of leading his company to recognition as the premiere English-language classical theatre in continental Europe. Now in his sixth year of living and working in Prague, he has already made great strides toward that goal.

DC: Tell me about how your artistic journey from America to Prague.

In 2007, I was running Austin Shakespeare Festival. The City of Austin gave me a grant to come to Prague and direct MACBETH with a multilingual company. I came and loved it. I was 35 years old at the time and in my sixth year at Austin Shakespeare. I realized if I was going to make a big change, that was the time to do it. And so I came back in early 2008 and started the Prague Shakespeare Festival [now Prague Shakespeare Company]. We have just finished our fifth year, so we're in our sixth season now.

DC: Can you describe the theatre scene in Prague?

Prague is a magical city. Both the communists and the Nazis loved Prague, so it's one of the few cities in Europe that wasn't bombed by anyone. The legend is that one Allied bomb accidentally fell. So there are a lot of original structures and beautifully historic places in the city.

The respect for theatre in the Czech Republic is phenomenal. I mean, this is a country that selected a playwright [Vaclav Havel] as its first democratically elected president. And Prague is a very special place. It's remarkable for a city that has just over a million people to have a hundred professional theatres, each playing a different show every night. People go to theatre in Prague the way people go to movies in America. They'll just show up sometimes not even knowing what's on that night, just knowing they want to go to the theatre. It's really unique to feel that theatre is actually respected and admired.

DC: Tell me about Shakespearean performance in Prague.

There is a very rich Czech tradition of Shakespeare. There's a long history, we think, of English language Shakespeare being performed back as far as 1596 when Robert Brown and some of the English comedians toured Europe. There is also a large Shakespeare festival that was started by Havel at Prague Castle every summer.

Most of the Czechs know Shakespeare from one source. There's a man namEd Martin Hilsky who has translated the entire canon. His translations are always in iambic pentameter, but it's very difficult. In Czech, the first word of every syllable is always stressed. So the beginning of every line will always be a trochee. It's impossible to have it any other way. But Hilsky is very careful about trying to stick to ten beats per line and maintain as much as he can of the original rhythm.

How is Prague Shakespeare Company structured?

We have an artistic core [ensemble] that lives in Prague year round. I believe when you are doing Shakespeare and Moliere and Chekhov, you have to have a core company. But our company changes and is fluid. We've had actors from the UK, Canada, France, Russia, China. It is a multi-national company, although all performances are in English.

Every year, we have an open casting call in Prague. This year, we held auditions in London and New York as well. We also have several Associate Artists around the world who come here from time to time. Obviously, a lot of people are willing to come to Prague. We've been very fortunate in that it has not been difficult to find people who want to do plays with us in Prague.

How do you handle the language barrier?

I speak poor Czech. It's a difficult language but one I respect, because I'm a quarter Czech myself. English language is so pervasive here, and everyone wants to speak English with you. So it's a bit of a challenge getting to practice your Czech.

All of our productions have Czech subtitles and we work closely with Hilsky to provide the translations. Some of our shows have multilingual aspects to them. For example, when we did HAMLET last year, all The Players spoke different languages in the play-within-the play. In our AS YOU LIKE IT, Phoebe speaks Slovak and Czech. We are doing a MACBETH right now and the Porter will speak Czech. So we have some different languages, but English is the base.

Is there a uniform company acting style?

One thing I try to do for the company is have a continual culture of training, but there is not one particular style or aesthetic. There are a few people who we always bring to work with the company. Today we had a rhetoric class with Rebecca Kemper who used to run Maryland Shakespeare. For the last several years, we've always brought over Andrew Wade, former voice director of the RSC. Andrew has coached shows for us and also done a lot of workshops. We also work with Tina Packer. I want to expose the company to all these different ways of working and see what works best for us, because what works for a company in America or Britain won't by necessity work in Prague where English is the second language.

I really committed to the idea that if you want to be a classical actor, you have to stay in shape and train. The danger with too much training is that there is a certain kind of acting that is great in the classroom but doesn't translate to a successful production. You can over-train and fall in love with too many Linklater classes. You have to keep a balance and make sure that training is always related to performance. And that's why I've wanted our companies, either in Austin or Prague, to continually be in performance because that's where you really get to test these things out. An audience will let you know immediately whether something works or doesn't work.

What is unique about the Czech theatre scene?

When you meet an actor in the Czech Republic, you don't say, "What are you doing right now?" You ask, "What company are you with?" Because almost all actors are members of a company. When they name the company you know what kind of repertoire and what kind of actor they are.

Here, everything runs on a true rep system. There are about a hundred professional theatres in Prague, and all of them basically play a different show every day. And they all have about 8-17 productions in their rep at any one time. It's very much like Shakespeare's day.

We haven't done that [rep] system yet. We are trying to do a combination of an American/British/Canadian system and a Czech system. For example for the last six weeks, we've been performing CYMBELINE and MACBETH in rotating rep, but now we will take a break from those shows for a while. MACBETH will tour to Houston, Texas with Mainstreet Theatre for a few weeks, and then we will bring it back probably in June. So MACBETH will stay in the rep.

The idea is that if shows are successful in the repertoire, they will play for years with different actors slotting into them. What is really exciting is being able to come back to [a role] after having some time away. That's the real joy. You don't play Hamlet or Macbeth or Rosalind just once. You get to do it two, three, four times. When you come back to it, it's a much deeper experience for the actor, and hopefully, for the audience as well.

You have directed yourself in many productions. Can you describe the experience of being actor and director simultaneously?

From my earliest days I've tried to conjure the spirit of Kean and Irving. I've directed myself many times and I think there is a certain skill set you have to have. Sometimes I've been more successful than others. There is such as great tradition in Shakespearean theatrical history of actor-managers doing that. I think it's not so uncommon in Shakespeare than it would be in a Sam Shepard play or something perhaps. I've done it a lot.

What does the future hold for Prague Shakespeare Company?

We are doing a co-production of JULIUS CAESAR with Orlando Shakespeare Theatre. Tina Packer is directing. It is a seven person CAESAR. It will originate in Orlando, play in Prague and then go to Shakespeare & Company.

We are also in the middle of a three year agreement with Mainstreet Theatre Company, which is an Equity company in Houston, Texas, for three years of co-productions. Two years ago, we did a RICHARD III that played Houston and Prague. This past season, we've done HENRY V and we're bringing MACBETH there in February/March.

I really think that Shakespeare theatres need to collaborate more. We all basically do the same 38 plays. I don't know why we don't take a page from the great August Wilson circuit-- whenever there was an August Wilson play, it would play all these fantastic theatres before the show would move to Broadway. They would share in the cost, so it would be more economical.

I know one of the reasons that Shakespeare theatres don't do this is most of them are producing in the summer. But I think there is a way to structure artistic partnerships and collaboration that will increase the audience's appreciation for the art because they are seeing these new and interesting faces. It will deepen the local artists' work because they are having the experience of working with people that they don't normally get to work with. So we're very committed to co-production and collaboration with other theatres. A hallmark of our company is that at least once a year, we have a major production that is created with another theatre that tours and gives our artists experiences to play outside of Prague. You learn so much when you leave home.

Next season, we are also expanding outside the Shakespeare canon for the first time. It looks like I will direct our first musical, INTO THE WOODS. American musicals are loved in Prague and there aren't many of them. There is also a three-person CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus, and we are going to do the European premiere of that. And we have the Czech premiere of VENUS IN FUR coming up. And a gender-reversed KING JOHN that Tina Packer is directing. Plus we've commissioned a play about Kafka.

It is a very exciting time in Prague for us.

Photo credit: Ashe Kazanjian

To post a comment, you must register and login.