`HENRY IV, PART 1': UNIVERSITY TEATRE PLAY OPENS FRIDAY

Dr. Robert Dillon Jr. as Falstaff and Steve Ruppel as Prince Hal are compatriots in "Henry IV, Part I."

For Dr. Donald Schulte, the hardest part about both acting in and directing "Henry IV, Part 1" has been making the transition from director to actor.

As opening night approaches, he wishes he could just focus on his character as he teaches his students to do. But the theater department chairman spends the rehearsals carefully gauging the action from a perch in the house and running to make his cues onstage.

"I'm just trying to remember to take my glasses off," said Schulte, who plays Henry IV. At least it isn't the play's largest role.

The University Theatre production opens at 8 p.m. Friday at Forrest H. Rose Theatre and continues Saturday, and Nov. 13-15. Those performances are all at 8 p.m. Performances will be presented at 10 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Though 400 years old, Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1" plumbs political themes as current as the struggle for dominance between conservative and liberal ideas, and disillusionment with government.

Henry IV is the conservative here, a traditionalist who wishes his own son, Prince Hal, were more gallant and bound by honor.

In contrast, Schulte likens Sir John Falstaff to a hippie from the '60s. Falstaff, who has become one of Shakespeare's most memorable characters, is a rotund fantasist who believes not in doing honorable things so much as in doing his own thing: especially if they involve eating, drinking and wenching.

Torn between these two approaches both to governance and living is Prince Hal, the king's heir apparent who's become adept at enjoying life with Falstaff in taverns. Prince Hal's dilemma is reconciling the good he finds in both role models.

Joining Schulte onstage from the university faculty is Dr. Robert Dillon Jr., an assistant theater professor who plays Falstaff. Dillon also is directing the play's numerous fight scenes.

The other major roles will be played by Steve Ruppel (Prince Hal) and by University Theatre newcomer Marc Stephens, who is the prince's nemesis Hotspur.

A number of students in the play are new to the University Theatre this year. "It's exciting that we got a lot of first-timers to audition for a Shakespearean play," Schulte said.

It's not quite as hard as it looks, he confides.

"I always found Shakespeare easy to memorized because of its poetry. The rhythm helps you memorized the lines."

Though "Henry IV, Part I" runs 2 hours and 45 minutes, this is a scaled-back version. Whole scenes have been eliminated and the set is simple. "It's a streamlined production," Schulte says. "I didn't want to clutter it up with scenery and costumes."

Schulte chose to perform this play after teaching it in the University of Missouri's London program a few years ago and realizing its political bite. He says he identifies with the "flaming moderate" Prince Hal becomes by play's end.