Andy Park | Episode 8

Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Author

09/24/2021 Added

3 Plays

Description

Andy Park is Artistic Director of the Nebraska Repertory Theatre and Research Associate Professor in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film. He talks about his work with the Nebraska Rep and his background in theatre, which includes puppetry, marine animals, and Chinese acrobats.

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[00:00:03.103]Welcome to ArtsCast Nebraska,
[00:00:04.310]a podcast about the creative activities
[00:00:06.423]and research of the faculty and alumni
[00:00:08.827]of the Hixson-Lied College
[00:00:10.351]of Fine and Performing Arts
[00:00:11.715]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:00:14.903]I'm Chris Marks, Associate Dean
[00:00:17.046]of the college, and
[00:00:18.312]it's my privilege to share with you
[00:00:19.704]these conversations about the
[00:00:21.351]fascinating work that our
[00:00:22.617]faculty and alumni do in the
[00:00:24.366]fine and performing arts.
[00:00:27.399]In this episode, I speak with Andy Park,
[00:00:31.085]who is Artistic Director of the
[00:00:32.781]Nebraska Repertory Theatre and
[00:00:34.975]a Research Associate Professor in
[00:00:37.071]the Johnny Carson School of
[00:00:38.570]Theatre and Film. We'll hear Andy
[00:00:41.017]talk about how he found his way
[00:00:42.764]to UNL after a varied theatre career
[00:00:45.504]involving puppets, dolphins, and
[00:00:47.814]Chinese acrobats. He'll also talk
[00:00:50.505]about some current projects of the
[00:00:52.227]Rep, including making Shakespeare
[00:00:54.583]scary again. First, I asked him to talk
[00:00:58.103]about what an Artistic Director does.
[00:01:01.867][Guest] Well, an Artistic Director
[00:01:03.365]is really responsible for the vision
[00:01:06.715]of the theatre and so for Nebraska Rep
[00:01:10.071]I'm concerned about not only
[00:01:11.740]what are we doing this season,
[00:01:13.024]but what are we doing down the road
[00:01:14.556]and what kinds of shows are we going
[00:01:16.617]to do, what are we going to say
[00:01:18.665]um, with our season
[00:01:21.497]I think that, you know, it's not just
[00:01:22.988]um, I don't know, a collection
[00:01:25.762]of random shows; I always
[00:01:27.708]like to try to pick a show
[00:01:29.168]and curate it, you know, curate
[00:01:30.895]a whole season so that the whole
[00:01:32.277]thing says something that matters
[00:01:35.539]and so I'm looking out for the shows
[00:01:38.224]I'm casting the shows, I'm
[00:01:39.915]picking the directors, I have oversight
[00:01:42.087]over who the design teams will be,
[00:01:43.996]and that's in large part what
[00:01:46.740]an Artistic Director does for a theatre.
[00:01:49.726][Host] What's the difference between
[00:01:51.665]a director and an artistic director?
[00:01:55.753][Guest] So a director is, um
[00:01:58.052]sort of navigating a specific production
[00:02:01.141]and so they're staging the show,
[00:02:03.564]they're helping the actors
[00:02:05.734]find the truth of the characters,
[00:02:07.470]they're helping to, um, sort of
[00:02:09.712]build, um, the total production.
[00:02:13.533]It's kind of like, it's really hard
[00:02:15.610]for the actors, for example –
[00:02:17.083]you know, I like to say
[00:02:18.517]you can't judge the picture
[00:02:20.156]when you're in the frame.
[00:02:21.616]And so you need that person
[00:02:22.777]on the outside, who sort of
[00:02:24.213]helping to guide the process
[00:02:26.832]that is looking at it and sort of
[00:02:28.641]being that audience member
[00:02:30.511]the entire process.
[00:02:32.180]And so that's what I
[00:02:32.959]try to do as a director.
[00:02:35.143][Host] So where did you grow up?
[00:02:36.652]And what's your earliest memory
[00:02:39.642]of theatre, and encountering theatre?
[00:02:43.391][Guest] I grew up in Lafayette,
[00:02:45.509]Indiana. I even went to undergrad
[00:02:47.942]in Indiana at Indiana State University.
[00:02:49.703]And so I spent a good part of my early
[00:02:52.438]life in Indiana, and I've pretty much
[00:02:54.317]always stayed in the Midwest.
[00:02:56.145]And my earliest recollection of theatre
[00:02:59.286]um, I was an Oompa Loompa
[00:03:01.933]in, uh, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
[00:03:05.081]And this was, you know, every year there
[00:03:07.309]were productions that would happen
[00:03:08.882]at the, at Columbian Park in Lafayette, IN,
[00:03:12.010]and there would be auditions, and
[00:03:13.691]you could go audition, and
[00:03:15.443]I was an Oompa Loompa and I got my
[00:03:17.710]um, first taste of the stage
[00:03:20.853]and I've been doing it ever since.
[00:03:23.041][Host] How old were you?
[00:03:24.234][Guest] I would have been in kindergarten.
[00:03:25.618]It would have been the summer
[00:03:26.967]after my kindergarten year.
[00:03:28.412][Host] Cool. [Guest] Yeah.
[00:03:30.736]And I followed it up in the first
[00:03:33.516]grade as a Munchkin in the
[00:03:35.793]Wizard of Oz at the local high school,
[00:03:38.923]so I have the, sort of, little people covered
[00:03:41.524]I think.
[00:03:42.788][Host] When did you know that theatre
[00:03:44.061]was your life, that's really what you
[00:03:46.576]wanted to do?
[00:03:48.392][Guest] You know, I think
[00:03:49.614]I, it's a strange thing, I, I've
[00:03:53.978]always sort of known that
[00:03:55.420]this is the course for me.
[00:03:56.864]Um, especially, I think maybe
[00:03:59.492]before I knew that it was theatre
[00:04:01.169]I knew that puppetry was going
[00:04:02.753]to be a big part of my life, you know,
[00:04:05.293]in between my, um, kindergarten
[00:04:08.080]and first grade year was a
[00:04:09.312]transformational time, I guess
[00:04:10.645]I would say, in between being
[00:04:12.212]and Oompa Loompa and a Munchkin
[00:04:13.737]Um, but I went to an amusement park
[00:04:16.038]and I saw a ventriloquist, uh,
[00:04:18.941]performing, and I was like,
[00:04:20.123]Mom, how does this puppet talk?
[00:04:21.708]and she's like, that puppet talks
[00:04:24.201]because the puppeteer is just
[00:04:26.130]talking without moving his mouth,
[00:04:27.616]and it must have made sense
[00:04:29.143]or maybe I just got a lot of
[00:04:30.186]practice on the way home, but
[00:04:31.945]I was able to do it. And so I
[00:04:34.015]started performing as a ventriloquist
[00:04:36.113]as a, as a very young child, and something
[00:04:39.045]that I've continued to this day.
[00:04:40.949]And so, I started probably mostly
[00:04:44.149]as a puppeteer, and then, it
[00:04:46.364]sort of morphed and became
[00:04:48.055]puppetry, or became theater,
[00:04:50.299]puppetry sort of morphed into
[00:04:51.892]theatre and became a career,
[00:04:53.778]really, for me.
[00:04:55.647][Host] And when you talk about
[00:04:56.975]puppetry, people listening to this
[00:04:58.857]may not understand that you're
[00:05:00.618]not just talking about holding
[00:05:02.580]a ventriloquist dummy. Talk
[00:05:03.948]a little bit more about the kind of
[00:05:05.305]spectacle and what puppetry
[00:05:07.176]means in a bigger way for you.
[00:05:09.916][Guest] Yeah, you know, I think that
[00:05:11.959]sometimes when people hear
[00:05:13.729]"puppetry" they think, I don't know,
[00:05:15.750]like the little puppets on Mr. Rogers,
[00:05:18.114]you know, and puppetry can be
[00:05:20.276]so much more than that, and
[00:05:22.555]the puppetry that I do is
[00:05:24.482]informed largely from a tradition
[00:05:27.146]of puppetry that stems from
[00:05:28.663]Bread and Puppet Theatre.
[00:05:30.011]And, you know, Bread and Puppet
[00:05:30.976]Theatre was really the first large-scale
[00:05:34.106]puppet company, so when you think of, um,
[00:05:36.046]think of like Julie Tamor's puppets for
[00:05:38.544]uh, uh, Lion King. That is really based
[00:05:43.550]and inspired by the Bread and Puppet
[00:05:46.796]Theatre and in fact, she worked with
[00:05:48.890]Bread and Puppet Theatre, something
[00:05:49.988]that I've had the privilege of doing
[00:05:51.355]as well, and, um, much of her aesthetic
[00:05:54.398]was informed by her work with them.
[00:05:56.714]So, yeah, puppetry can involve stilts,
[00:05:59.367]and costuming, it can be puppets
[00:06:01.713]that, that take 10 people to operate
[00:06:04.261]a single object, uh, and so that's
[00:06:07.345]the kind of puppetry that I like to do
[00:06:08.755]the kind that you see it and you can't
[00:06:11.016]even believe the spectacle that's
[00:06:13.403]unfolding before you.
[00:06:15.447][Host] Before Andy came to UNL, he
[00:06:17.569]worked at the Shedd Aquarium in
[00:06:19.284]Chicago, doing multispecies productions.
[00:06:23.080]I asked him to talk about how he got there,
[00:06:25.600]and what his work at the Shedd involved.
[00:06:28.983][Guest] I think you'd have to start, um,
[00:06:30.740]a little bit before that because I, um,
[00:06:33.740]there was a period where I actually,
[00:06:36.120]I actually got kicked out of grad school
[00:06:38.168]and I got a directing, a chance to direct
[00:06:42.688]a show that I'd written in Chicago
[00:06:44.460]after I'd gotten there and
[00:06:46.083]after my, um, my first year of grad
[00:06:49.917]school, I went out to Bread and Puppet.
[00:06:51.816]Now Bread and Puppet in those days
[00:06:54.489]there was one phone, and all 200
[00:06:56.508]people had to share it.
[00:06:58.048]We didn't have, everyone didn't have
[00:06:59.935]cell phones, and even if you had one
[00:07:01.709]at that time, there would be no service,
[00:07:04.061]and so the theatre actually lost the space
[00:07:06.889]it was supposed to be the next summer
[00:07:08.719]and, and so, um, there was a rule in
[00:07:13.027]grad school, you couldn't work outside
[00:07:14.721]of the program, because they would lose
[00:07:16.672]everyone that they needed for the shows
[00:07:18.557]to other shows in Chicago, and there
[00:07:20.426]were a lot of them. So I tried to
[00:07:22.081]keep it quiet, I didn't quite know
[00:07:23.719]how Chicago worked. Um, and then
[00:07:26.229]I came back and they saw advertisements
[00:07:28.845]and they basically said you either have
[00:07:31.562]to quit the show or you're kicked out
[00:07:33.758]of grad school. And, it was a chance
[00:07:36.617]to have a show that I had written
[00:07:38.668]that I was getting to direct, it was
[00:07:39.950]in Chicago, and whether it was right
[00:07:42.545]or wrong, I chose the show.
[00:07:44.645]And, um, the show went really well, and
[00:07:47.567]the grad school ended up inviting me back
[00:07:50.020]and, you know, gave me more money
[00:07:52.841]and I had to do some publicity for the school.
[00:07:55.673]But, the people that I met on that show,
[00:07:58.685]they got a phone call, they were looking for,
[00:08:01.835]this Chinese acrobat show was looking for
[00:08:03.937]an artistic director, and um, and so
[00:08:06.426]I threw my hat into the ring, and
[00:08:08.456]I got it; I had never been outside of
[00:08:10.917]North America, and I found myself
[00:08:13.380]in China, directing for Cirque Shanghai,
[00:08:15.788]and so, um you know, I would audition
[00:08:18.527]Chinese acrobats at all the different
[00:08:20.201]areas in China, I'd piece together
[00:08:22.663]shows, and then they would come
[00:08:24.369]back and they played at the Pepsi Skyline
[00:08:26.316]Stage at Navy Pier, and then they would
[00:08:28.344]move to the Tropicana Casino
[00:08:29.903]in Atlantic City, and then, and I would go
[00:08:32.276]with it for that leg of the journey, and
[00:08:33.933]then I would go back to China and start
[00:08:35.411]the next show while that show toured
[00:08:37.348]the country and Europe and wherever
[00:08:39.716]they chose to take it.
[00:08:41.304]Um, and so I did that for three years,
[00:08:43.214]and so it was a high profile show
[00:08:44.858]in Chicago, Shedd Aquarium was looking
[00:08:46.996]for an artistic director, and they liked
[00:08:49.756]the idea that I didn't speak the
[00:08:52.071]language, and I worked with trainers
[00:08:54.479]to make these acrobat shows
[00:08:56.621]and they saw a parallel with not speaking
[00:08:58.660]the language of animals, and working
[00:09:02.109]with trainers, and they did a national
[00:09:04.831]search and somehow or other, I
[00:09:06.971]managed to talk my way into that job,
[00:09:08.919]and it was extraordinary. You know,
[00:09:11.706]I worked with dolphins, beluga whales,
[00:09:14.156]penguins, sea lions, birds of prey;
[00:09:17.696]all of these animals were in this
[00:09:19.179]multispecies show that we did.
[00:09:21.564][Host] So how do you direct dolphins?
[00:09:23.560][Guest] Uh, well, you know, I'll tell you,
[00:09:26.232]I find that, um, marine mammals are
[00:09:28.790]more reliable than actors.
[00:09:32.679]They really want that fish. So,
[00:09:34.946]they love the positive reinforcement.
[00:09:37.821][Host] So did you come here to the
[00:09:39.386]Nebraska Rep from your work at
[00:09:42.284]Shedd Aquarium?
[00:09:44.983][Guest] Yeah, so while I was
[00:09:46.762]in, um, Chicago, I was artistic director
[00:09:49.722]at, um, Shedd Aquarium, but I
[00:09:51.659]was also artistic director at a theater
[00:09:53.577]that I started called Quest Theatre Ensemble.
[00:09:56.063]And it ran for 17 years until I left here
[00:10:00.077]and that was a free theatre, um,
[00:10:02.343]you know, the idea was that the second
[00:10:03.947]you put a price tag on art you start
[00:10:05.851]to exclude people, and so
[00:10:08.180]we decided we were going to be free
[00:10:10.786]and, um, and we had a huge audience,
[00:10:13.500]it was an extremely diverse audience,
[00:10:15.273]um, and it was a, it was an exciting
[00:10:17.703]theatre, and when I was there I
[00:10:20.429]had the chance to, um, write,
[00:10:22.807]direct, and produce about somewhere
[00:10:25.661]between 20 and 25 original pieces,
[00:10:28.118]mostly musicals. Um, and so, it
[00:10:31.287]was a really good, um, you know, uh,
[00:10:34.351]place to practice my craft, and to
[00:10:36.612]to work on my work and then
[00:10:38.266]that was sort of on one end of the
[00:10:40.544]spectrum because it was completely free
[00:10:42.389]we charged nothing for our shows, um,
[00:10:45.337]but we paid our actors and our
[00:10:46.782]designers and everyone, and we operated
[00:10:49.001]strictly on donation. And then there
[00:10:51.298]was Shedd Aquarium, where I could have
[00:10:53.559]a, you know, a single production budget
[00:10:56.003]could be over a million dollars, so
[00:10:57.782]um, it was kind of an interesting, um,
[00:11:00.762]dichotomy of ways to work.
[00:11:04.021]Um, and then, yeah, I basically
[00:11:07.083]decided I was at a crossroads, I
[00:11:09.571]started to feel like, you know, in
[00:11:11.321]10 years there may not be
[00:11:12.768]uh, marine mammal shows anymore
[00:11:16.445]and I would, and, give me another
[00:11:19.028]10 years and I'd be "that dolphin show guy"
[00:11:21.748]and so I decided it was time to get
[00:11:25.004]back to my roots and I'd always wanted
[00:11:27.528]to do, um, regional theatre. You know,
[00:11:31.046]I'd look at theatre companies like
[00:11:33.226]the Guthrie, and, uh, Steppenwolf, and
[00:11:36.492]Goodman, and you know, Roundabout
[00:11:38.674]and these great regional theatres that
[00:11:40.668]are spread all over this country.
[00:11:42.568]And I've always wanted to work
[00:11:45.251]on a regional theatre, and I looked
[00:11:46.932]at Nebraska Rep, it was a theatre company
[00:11:48.799]that had been around for 50 years, it, um,
[00:11:51.987]it was an Equity house so I'd have the chance
[00:11:54.823]to work with great actors and directors, and to
[00:11:58.709]sort of, it was at a crossroads, it was
[00:12:00.832]a huge opportunity to, um, really put
[00:12:03.607]and imprint on it, and to, um, really
[00:12:07.394]help try to take it to the next level,
[00:12:09.994]I loved the vision of moving it from
[00:12:12.852]a summer theatre that basically
[00:12:14.665]the students at UNL couldn't
[00:12:16.283]interact with to moving it to the
[00:12:18.446]academic year where all of the sudden,
[00:12:20.778]not only the students who were
[00:12:22.335]working on the show would have access
[00:12:24.039]to these great artists, but the general
[00:12:26.444]student population would have access
[00:12:28.932]to great theatre. And Nebraska Rep is
[00:12:32.346]the only professional Equity theatre in
[00:12:34.958]the entire state of Nebraska, and
[00:12:37.955]that was very very appealing,
[00:12:40.989]and it still is. I am, I love working
[00:12:44.356]here and, and, um working, uh, with
[00:12:48.119]you know, all of my colleagues that
[00:12:50.058]help make Nebraska Rep happen.
[00:12:52.211][Host] And you have now the Nebraska Rep
[00:12:54.216]has, is into a partnership with the
[00:12:57.789]St. Louis Black Rep Theatre, so talk
[00:13:00.316]a little bit about that partnership and
[00:13:01.838]how that came about and
[00:13:03.060]what you're accomplishing with it.
[00:13:04.605][Guest] Yeah, you know, so Ron Himes
[00:13:06.605]is the producing artistic director,
[00:13:08.537]he's actually the founder of the St. Louis
[00:13:09.951]Black Rep, and, uh, he actually was here,
[00:13:13.831]I brought him in to direct a production of
[00:13:16.652]Dutchman, by Amiri Baraka. And it's a great
[00:13:21.681]play, I mean it is, but it is controversial.
[00:13:24.883]And you know, I don't, do you remember
[00:13:28.639]when on, when we had that, um,
[00:13:31.841]white nationalist student on campus and
[00:13:34.531]he sort of frightened everyone, um,
[00:13:37.574]and he, he, you know, with violence, and
[00:13:40.058]I think he did a video with a gun, or you know,
[00:13:42.210]something strange, and that was, I chose
[00:13:45.467]that show sort of to, um,
[00:13:48.089]step into that moment, and to, um,
[00:13:51.162]consider, you know, sort of the underbelly
[00:13:53.902]that I thought that that sort of behavior
[00:13:55.973]represented. And we had Ron here
[00:13:59.325]and, um, he directed the show and then
[00:14:01.818]we had talkbacks after each production
[00:14:04.085]where we had a chance to really talk
[00:14:06.763]about the show and when you do that
[00:14:09.622]you talk about larger issues naturally,
[00:14:12.713]without having to say "Now let's sit
[00:14:14.824]around and talk about racism!"
[00:14:16.926]You know, you don't have to do that,
[00:14:18.401]you just talk about the show and all
[00:14:20.061]those things come up and we had these
[00:14:21.661]great dialogues with the audience, and
[00:14:24.515]you know, this 2020 was a crazy, crazy year.
[00:14:31.119]And, you know, with everything that happened,
[00:14:35.798]and the, the murder of George Floyd,
[00:14:39.893]it really felt like Nebraska Rep needed to do
[00:14:42.974]something, and I really wanted us
[00:14:46.971]to do something that, um, was more
[00:14:49.726]than just issuing a statement.
[00:14:51.802]I think it's wonderful to, uh, to issue
[00:14:54.684]a statement of solidarity, but I think
[00:14:57.095]it's way better to do something to
[00:14:59.171]try to make things, to try to help move
[00:15:02.487]everything along. And I though about
[00:15:05.085]Ron, and I'm like, I don't know if he would
[00:15:06.954]do it, but could we come up with some sort
[00:15:09.282]of, of partnership, where we work with
[00:15:12.559]Ron and the Black Rep and we
[00:15:15.232]um, come together and try to figure out
[00:15:17.607]how can we become a better theatre,
[00:15:19.625]how can we become better as a school,
[00:15:21.958]how can we become better, um, as
[00:15:24.686]Nebraskans. And that, and Ron was
[00:15:29.229]all about it, you know, he jumped on it
[00:15:31.930]and you know, we, we did a - when we couldn't
[00:15:35.551]do other performances we were able to
[00:15:37.528]actually - there was one one time we had
[00:15:40.537]the St. Louis Black Rep audience was
[00:15:42.334]watching a show about Fanny Lou Hamer
[00:15:45.094]in the parking lot of the Black REp
[00:15:48.752]because they couldn't be indoors
[00:15:50.462]and our audience was watching it
[00:15:52.328]as well; both audiences one in Lincoln,
[00:15:54.660]one in St. Louis, and we were watching
[00:15:56.720]that St. Louis Black Rep show about Fanny
[00:15:58.708]Lou Hamer. It was so cool, and
[00:16:02.605]you know, and it really gave us an
[00:16:04.114]opportunity to have some programming
[00:16:05.692]at a time when we couldn't really
[00:16:07.284]do, um, shows ourselves.
[00:16:10.221]And, um, and it was a wonderful
[00:16:12.725]opportunity. And another time
[00:16:15.632]Ron Himes interviewed Dick Cavett,
[00:16:17.712]um, you know, because Dick Cavett
[00:16:20.094]had conducted that really famous
[00:16:21.967]interview with James Baldwin, and
[00:16:23.660]so to have that dialogue - these
[00:16:25.786]were really cool things that, that
[00:16:27.547]we were able to do during the
[00:16:28.922]pandemic, but the thing that we've
[00:16:31.163]all been building toward is what's
[00:16:33.930]going to happen this fall. And it's
[00:16:36.114]a show called Dontrell, Who Kissed
[00:16:37.939]the Sea. It's an amazing coming of age
[00:16:40.891]story where this young man Dontrell
[00:16:43.564]learns to look at his past, honor his
[00:16:46.683]ancestors, but also, um, figures out how
[00:16:49.320]to do navigate, you know, modern life,
[00:16:53.412]and he's on the cusp of going to college
[00:16:55.477]and so it's just a perfect show for us
[00:16:57.126]and we have actors and designers coming
[00:16:59.281]from the Black Rep, um, and I was just
[00:17:02.251]in a design meeting today, it's going
[00:17:03.944]to be so cool, it uses projection
[00:17:06.838]it, it's just really going to be fantastic.
[00:17:10.021]And, um, and it's, it's wonderful that
[00:17:13.110]we are able to do such an amazingly
[00:17:16.637]poignant and, um, just a show that
[00:17:21.183]really addresses where we are as a
[00:17:23.188]country and where we would like
[00:17:24.707]he country to go, it's really cool,
[00:17:27.264]and it's going to be a beautiful show.
[00:17:29.141]And, am, and Ron is going to be here
[00:17:31.355]directing that show.
[00:17:33.708][Host] Finally, I asked Andy to
[00:17:35.651]tell us something about one
[00:17:37.106]more upcoming show that
[00:17:38.631]he's especially excited about.
[00:17:41.048][Guest] I'm really excited about
[00:17:43.042]a production that we're doing called
[00:17:45.539]ShakesFEAR. So, this is, um,
[00:17:48.057]immersive theatre, it's a haunted
[00:17:49.801]attraction, but basically the audience
[00:17:52.273]will enter the demented mind
[00:17:54.110]of Shakespeare, in fact we're building
[00:17:55.840]this huge skull that's going to live
[00:17:58.292]outside of Temple Building and it
[00:18:00.428]wears a ruff, and you have to walk
[00:18:02.909]through it like a funhouse, you know,
[00:18:05.203]um, object that you'd have to walk through.
[00:18:07.749]And, then, you'll go into the Studio Theatre and
[00:18:12.154]you basically encounter a bunch of different,
[00:18:15.136]um, of the scary characters from
[00:18:18.384]Shakespeare's plays. I am really
[00:18:20.696]overjoyed about how cool this
[00:18:23.331]thing is going to be, it's going to
[00:18:24.388]scare people in the classiest way
[00:18:26.037]possible, you know, it really is.
[00:18:28.812]And, and then, next year we hope
[00:18:31.709]that this becomes an annual tradition
[00:18:34.015]that we do every year, and also
[00:18:36.955]next year a version is going to be
[00:18:39.084]opening in Colorado, Boulder as well,
[00:18:41.770]so it's going to be in two cities at once
[00:18:43.947]which is kind of cool and, you know, when
[00:18:45.901]you think about like, Shakespeare,
[00:18:47.997]it's sort of become elitist, people sort of
[00:18:51.593]think of Shakespeare as like an elitist
[00:18:53.272]art form, they think that it might be
[00:18:55.289]above them, that they won't understand
[00:18:57.377]what they're hearing and all these, um,
[00:18:59.689]things that people have, but, that they
[00:19:02.629]bring into a show when they go as an
[00:19:04.393]audience, but Shakespeare was a
[00:19:06.241]populist, I mean, there was a whole
[00:19:08.932]section of people that paid about a
[00:19:10.776]penny to come in and see the show,
[00:19:12.765]they were called the groundlings, and
[00:19:15.115]you know they, they would watch
[00:19:18.141]the show, they would boo, they would
[00:19:19.916]you know, cheer, cheer it on, and
[00:19:22.298]then you have the other classes as well,
[00:19:24.306]it was something for everyone, and what
[00:19:26.774]I, what my deep hope is, is that ShakesFEAR
[00:19:31.099]could do for Shakespeare what
[00:19:34.028]Cirque de Soleil did for the circus,
[00:19:36.533]and basically revive an art form.
[00:19:40.908][Host] You can learn more about the
[00:19:42.490]Nebraska Repertory Theatre by
[00:19:44.564]visiting nebraskarep.org, where you
[00:19:47.294]can also purchase tickets for the season
[00:19:48.765]and to individual shows. You can learn more
[00:19:50.976]about Andy and his work at stagedirector.org.
[00:19:53.917]You've been listening to
[00:20:01.419]ArtsCast Nebraska, a podcast production
[00:20:04.009]of the Hixson-Lied College of
[00:20:05.815]Fine and Performing Arts at the
[00:20:07.372]University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:20:10.089]This episode was recorded and edited
[00:20:12.530]by me, Chris Marks, with technical
[00:20:14.667]assistance from Jeff O'Brien at the
[00:20:16.789]Johnny Carson Center for Emerging
[00:20:18.517]Media Arts. Special thanks to
[00:20:21.050]Kathe Anderson and to Ella Durham.
[00:20:23.701]For more information about the college,
[00:20:25.951]please visit arts.unl.edu.
[00:20:29.940]Thank you for listening and remember
[00:20:32.075]to support the arts.

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Andy Park | Episode 8

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