BWW Q&A: Alec Wild on ROMEO AND JULIET / THE ROVER, OR THE BANISH'D CAVALIERS at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Alec Wild was Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning Folio Theatre in Chicago, and Founder/Producing Director of the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Minnesota. As the recipient of a Fox Fellowship, Mr. Wild traveled to Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he studied Directing and Biomechanics at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Theater.

Among more than 50 productions of Shakespeare’s plays, he has directed The Taming of the Shrew at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, Titus Andronicus and Richard II for Milwaukee Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Chautauqua Theater Company, The Winter's Tale and Macbeth for the UMN/Guthrie Training Program, The Winter’s Tale, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Othello, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Great River Shakespeare Festival, and The Maid’s Tragedy, Pericles, Henry 60,Tales from Ovid, Cymbeline, and The Odyssey at STCA.

His film, Whisper, won prizes for Best Film, Best Actress, Best Acting Ensemble, Best Musical Score, and Best Screenplay at the 2015 St. Louis 48 Hour Film Project, and was an official selection for the St. Louis Filmmakers’ Showcase and the St. Louis International Film Festival. Mr. Wild has taught and directed at American Conservatory’s Advanced Training Program in San Francisco, University of Minnesota/Guthrie Conservatory, Fordham University, and Manhattanville College. He holds an M.F.A. in Directing from the Yale School of Drama, and a B.F.A. in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University.

What inspired you to take on the role of STC Academy Director?

Michael Kahn asked me to take on the role of Academy director after I’d directed The Maid’s Tragedy for the program, so I had already worked with the Academy students and faculty - and it was such a terrific experience that I fell in love with the place. I love working with actors in training. They’re always game to try things on stage that are daring and different, and they consistently help me see the plays in ways I’d never seen them. Even a regular day of classes at the Academy is exciting and full of discovery.

Can you share some insights on how the STC Academy prepares students for professional careers in theatre?

Our faculty is outstanding, and is made up professional theatre practitioners, so our students get hands-on training from people who actually do the hard work of making theatre. The actors in our program take classes in acting, movement, mask, voice, speech, and stage combat, and they’re on their feet acting – practicing – every day! We try each year to give them the experience of being in a full-time professional ensemble.

What makes the STC Academy’s Summer Repertory shows unique compared to other student productions?

I think two things: first, we play two shows in repertory, which is becoming kind of a lost art in the United States. The actors are playing roles (sometimes multiple) in two different productions - rehearsing them at the same time, and playing them every other day. Audiences get to see an actor play Florinda, the main love interest in The Rover, one night, and then play Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet the next night. It’s exciting. Second, this group of actors has been training and working together intensively for a year, and I think the way of working they’ve developed together, and the commitment they share to classical work shows up in the quality of the productions.

Can you share some success stories of STC Academy graduates?

We’re really proud that our graduates are working in theaters all over the US – and the world. We also love that many of our student choose to stay and work in DC, which is an incredibly vibrant theatre town. So we’ve got graduates like Lisa Brescia, who did Dear Evan Hansen, Wicked, Mama Mia, and others on Broadway, and local legends like Todd Scoffield, Dawn Ursula, and Marcus Kyd (artistic director of Taffety Punk), who work all over DC. Graduates from the last several years have done roles regularly at the Folger, Arena Stage, Mosaic, Olney, Round House, and Studio Theatre. Two of our graduates, Kimberly Gilbert (2001) and Renea Brown (2019, just won this year’s Helen Hayes Awards for best supporting performer and best performer.

What was your vision when directing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for this year's Academy?

I’m so scared of the word “vision!” It feels like such a big responsibility! But here goes. I wanted to lean into the idea that our two warring families were “both alike in dignity,” and members of the same community, rather than opposite political or religious factions or something. I felt like as soon as we make it about liberal vs. conservative, or Protestant vs. Catholic, or whatever, that the audience could take sides. What’s important is that they hate each other for really no good reason, and the senselessness of that hits home when the fractiousness destroys these two young people. I also really wanted direct the play for the person in the audience who’s never seen it before (if such a person exists). I wanted it to be physical, and boisterous.

How do you approach directing a classical work like Romeo and Juliet compared to modern plays?

A classic becomes a classic because it’s so dramaturgically sound, and the story resonates with us far beyond the time when it was written. With a classical work (and I’d include several plays from the last fifty years in this category), you can trust the play to work if you stay true to it. There’s a kind of cohesion of story, setting, character, and style that just feels electric, and can carry the production along if the cast and director are attuned to the wavelength. That said, I think we have to direct them for a contemporary audience, and can’t just do historically “accurate” productions that don’t speak to who we are, here and now. So that’s the hard side of directing classical work.

What can attendees expect from the upcoming productions of Romeo and Juliet and The Rover?

Lots of excitement. Two stories that are engaging, energetic, and fun to get into. Popcorn and drinks at the theatre. A pronounced lack of stuffiness. A great deal of boisterous physicality, a ton of great music, and generally just a great time.

Why must audiences come and see the show?

It’s a must-see to experience two such different shows performed by the same cast. Also, Romeo and Juliet has the actors climbing, hanging, swordfighting, and spinning around on twelve-foot scaffolding, and you’ve never seen anything like it. The Rover characters make up an onstage band called The Banish’d Cavaliers, and sing and perform like twenty songs from the seventies and eighties. Plus, it’s only twenty bucks!

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