The Garden Bard

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about community. I am living for the summer in beautiful Door County, as a member of the Door Shakespeare acting company. What kind of community are we? And what is our position within the larger Door County Community?

So I took myself to a dictionary – Merriam-Webster OnLine was my choice – and scanned through the definitions it offered. Here was one of interest: "the people with common interests living in a particular area." Well, that could apply in a general sense to all of Door County, to the people who are fortunate enough to live here year-round as well as those who get to call it home for a few days, weeks, or months in the summer.

Another definition: "an interacting population of various kinds of individuals in a common location." Now, that could apply to the residents of the various towns and communities that contribute to the vibrant life of the Door. And, by extension, to those of us in the Door Shakespeare company who collaborate, both onstage and offstage, to present theatrical productions for the entertainment of local audiences.

Ah, but now I came to the definition I was looking for: "a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society." What better definition could one ask of a theatrical company that comes together for a season, does its job of creating a fulfilling public performance, and then disbands to go its separate ways and help form new communities in other locales?

Because that’s the life of the professional actor (or director, or stage manager, or theatrical technician, or musician, or administrator) – we come together to form a community with a specific objective, accomplish (hopefully) that goal, and then disperse to new jobs, new challenges, new objectives. Some are fortunate enough to work the year round (or most of the year) with a permanent company, or to be engaged for a lengthy run of a play, but that is a rare luxury in today’s theatre.

The members of this summer’s Door Shakespeare company come from a variety of backgrounds, different cities, different age ranges (I suppose I represent the upper end of the age spectrum, balanced by any number of handsome and gifted twenty-somethings). We’ve all trained in different places and worked in a variety of different places. Some of us have never worked out-of-doors before, while others are very knowledgeable about performing al fresco. Among this year’s company, I have had the least experience in classical theatre, and I stand in awe of the backgrounds of some of my fellow performers.

So the challenge in working with a seasonal company is to mold all these different backgrounds into a unified effort, to unite everyone’s approach in a common objective – to form a community. Every actor has her or his own "process" – the steps and procedures the actor follows to create a vivid interior and exterior life for the character he or she is portraying. Some prefer to learn all their lines prior to rehearsal, and devote their rehearsal time to developing the emotional reality of their character. Others prefer to come in with a blank slate, and to learn their lines in association with their physical lives on stage, and thus develop physical and emotional reality simultaneously. And there is a wide range of approaches within these extremes.

The actors of Door Shakespeare have been remarkably generous in their respect of one another’s process. There’s been no impatience with the actor who has been slower in learning lines, no pressure on those who may have more difficulty finding the emotional truth behind the poetry of their speeches. And in this collaborative effort, the company has found that ideal of those brought together for a relatively brief time to meet an objective: they have formed a true community, geared toward the nightly execution of a few hours of theatrical magic – truly, "a group of people with a common…interest living together within a larger society."

I am blessed to have been a member of this community.

Michael Sander is an actor at Door Shakespeare, and "The Garden Bard" is a rotating column written by various members of the Door Shakespeare company, including actors, musicians, and directors. Each column reflects on a different aspect of Door Shakespeare’s 2008 season, which runs through August 24 with A Midsummer Night’s Dream playing on Mondays, Thursday, and Saturdays, and Cyrano de Bergerac on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Call 920. 839.1500, or visit http://www.doorshakespeare.com for more details.