SHAKESPEARE WITHOUT FRILLS

The best way to do Shakespeare is to strip the stage of elaborate trappings, let the actors bond with the audience and watch the rich material carry everyone on an imaginative journey, Jim Warren believes.

"It's the actor, the text and the audience, and that's it," says Warren, co-founder and one of the directors of the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express.

The company, scheduled to do 220 performances in 30 states this year, will be at the Rose Theater and University Center Ballroom on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University Tuesday through April 23. This is the seven-year-old troupe's first trip to Cape Girardeau.

"We don't want any crutches getting in the way of some of the best stage material ever written," Warren said. No house lights, Elizabethan costumes or props impede the progress of an intimate actor/audience experience. There are many asides to the audience, and at times actors will play directly to an individual.

Express is in the company's name because each play takes no more than a few hours. And yet few cuts have been made on the material. With no intermission or scene changes, the production simply takes less time.

Thus defines the method and scope of the 11-member theatrical troupe that will perform "Twelfth Night", "The Tempest" and "Hamlet" beginning Wednesday and concluding Saturday, April 22, at the Rose Theater.

Workshops and discussions are scheduled after some of the morning and matinee performances throughout the week. All workshops and discussions are free.

In much the same way Shakespeare wrote for virtually every kind of audience, the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express plays to the same wide range of folks.

"One day they will perform in front of an eighth-grade class, the next before the Folger Shakespeare Library's Elizabethan Theatre in Washington," said Southeast Missouri State English professor Roy Dawson.

"This group will find a way to connect with the audience from the beginning and from that point on it's an experience that will make people want to come back," Dawson said.

In order to develop an intimacy with its audience the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express company brings theater patrons within an arm's length of the actors.

The stage at Rose Theater will seat 150 audience members to achieve such an intimacy. "Their motto is that they only need 20-by-20 space to perform and they would probably do it within an 18-by-18 setting if you asked them," Dawson said.

Pulling off the no-frills Shakespeare places more demand on the actors, Dawson said. "The actor must do more, but then so must the audience. The actor is saying, Let's play the game, and if you're willing you go through the story together."

Warren said he and co-founder Ralph Cohen have high standards for the actors they pick to perform sometimes three or four parts in one play. "This type of company tends to attract actors who are in their 20s or 30s," Warren said. "With all the traveling and demand on ability, it tends to limit the pool we can pick from. There are still a lot of good ones out there, though."

Actors who make the cut with SSE tend to be versatile performers with the ability to connect with the audience and still have enough depth of understanding to communicate the meaning of the text.

A typical rehearsal day will last 14 hours. Travel will include over 30,000 miles a year.

"These people love what they're doing and you can see it when you watch a performance," said Dawson, who has seen SSE perform on several occasions.

"I guess when you boil it all down, we're really about creating dynamic theater of the imagination," Warren said.

Calendar of events

Tuesday, April 18

10 a.m. (UC Ballroom) -- Page to stage: Bringing Shakespeare to life

2 p.m. (UC Ballroom) -- Shakespeare's women on stage

Wednesday, April 19

10 a.m. (Rose Theater) -- Performance of "Twelfth Night"

12:15 p.m. (Rose Theater) -- After-performance discussion

3 p.m. (UC Ballroom) -- The many dimensions of Shakespeare's comic characters

8 p.m. (Rose Theater) -- Performance of "Hamlet"

10:15 p.m. (Rose Theater) -- After-performance discussion

Thursday, April 20

10 a.m. (UC Ballroom) -- Directing and re-directing Shakespeare

2 p.m. (UC Ballroom) -- Dealing with the supernatural in "Hamlet" and "The Tempest"

8 p.m. (Rose Theater) -- Performance of "The Tempest"

10:15 p.m. (Rose Theater) -- After-performance discussion

Friday, April 21

10 a.m. (Rose Theater) -- Performance of "Hamlet"

12:15 p.m. (Rose Theater) -- After-performance discussion

3 p.m. (UC Ballroom) -- Fight scenes in Shakespeare

8 p.m. (Rose Theater) -- Performance of "Twelfth Night"

10:15 p.m. (Rose Theater) -- After-performance discussion

Saturday, April 22

11 a.m. (Party Room/UC Ballroom) -- Having fun with Shakespeare (special audience: writing award winners from grades 4-12, their teachers and guests; high school actors and their teachers)

1:30 to 4:30 p.m. (Party Room/UC Ballroom) -- High school actors performing scenes from Shakespeare (SSE members present for comments, suggestions.

8 p.m. (Rose Theater) -- Performance of "Hamlet"

10:15 p.m. (Rose Theater) -- After-performance discussion

Sunday, April 23

2 p.m. to 4 p.m. (UC Ballroom) -- Birthday party for Shakespeare with SSE actors and other performers presenting "bits of the Bard," singing and playing period music and show tunes, giving demonstrations of stage combat, and offering other entertainment.

Tickets for plays available at the door or by calling the University Theater Box office (651-2265)

Prices: $6 for general public; $4 for students, faculty, staff and senior citizens.

Workshops and other events are free.