In the modern mind, Hermione is to Harry and Ron as Juliet is to Romeo. But J. K. Rowling did not invent the name for bushy-haired Granger. A lesser-known Hermione also appears in this year’s annual Shakespeare play, The Winter’s Tale, which runs from Nov. 6 to Nov. 9.
Set during the Civil War era, The Winter’s Tale tells the story of Leontes, a rich businessman from the North, who fears that his wife, Hermione, has been unfaithful with Polixenes, a planter from the South.
It is one of Shakespeare’s less famous works, drama teacher and director of the annual Shakespeare play Mary Mastandrea said.
According to Mastandrea, producing a show that not many people have been exposed to poses certain challenges for cast and crew members.
“When you’re doing a Shakespeare play, you’re trying to bear in mind how the audience is going to respond to it,” Mastandrea said. “Our challenge is to really make sure that the audience understands the plot before they come in.”
Senior Jordan Underwood, who has done two prior Shakespeare plays and appears as a singer in The Winter’s Tale, said she agreed that the challenge lies in helping the audience understand the story. For that goal, she said, the actors and actresses also need to make sure that they understand the text and the story as a whole.
“I think what I personally will have to do is make my character and her intentions very clear,” senior Tal Scully said.
Scully, who is also making her third appearance in an annual Shakespeare play, plays the role of Hermione.
“When Leontes accuses Hermione of adultery, my reaction is going to set the tone for the rest of the act, pretty much,” she said. “I think just defining the characters and their relationships to one another and how they feel about one another and the various events will definitely help to define the storyline.”
Mastandrea said that in order to disseminate some of the plot material to the audience in advance, there may even be some possible interaction between the characters and the audience prior to the beginning of the show. For example, the cast and crew may decide to produce a newspaper of the time period that the audience would receive, or have the gentlewomen from the story greet the playgoers. However, Mastandrea said a decision has yet to be made.
According to Scully, putting on a lesser-known show also has its advantages.
“It’s very exciting to get to dive into something new for me as well as for the audience,” Scully said.
Underwood said that with a less famous play, there are more liberties the actors and actresses can take with how the characters are portrayed. They will not necessarily need to stick to the stereotypes that widely-acknowledged plays can bring.
“You basically have a blank slate in terms of what people will be expecting,” Underwood said. “There’s no prerequisite to what it’s going to be like.”
Ashley Lee can be contacted at [email protected].
