Shakespeare in the Parks returns to Havre

Shakespeare in the Parks is returning to Havre, performing "The Merry Wives of Windsor" Saturday at 6 p.m. on the east lawn of Montana State University-Northern.

"The goal is to bring the highest possible caliber professional performance to communities that deserve it and to offer it for free to the public," Shakespeare in the Parks Artistic Director Kevin Asselin said. "People bring their kids, grandparents and multigenerational audiences, so that has been the mission for 47 years."

Shakespeare in the Parks has toured to Havre on and off throughout the years. It is returning four to five years after its last show in Havre. The company had stopped coming after the local tour coordinator retired and the company was unable to find someone to take over. Due to the interest from individuals and groups in Havre, the program is returning. Each community has a tour coordinator who lives in the community and is able to work on the program's behalf to do advertisement and find a location for the program to perform.

"My hope is that now, once we have re-established a tour coordinator and maintained a relationship, we get to keep coming back to Havre," Asselin said. "I know for myself, I performed with the company in 2002 as an actor and I loved coming to Havre, it is just a great community to perform in."

Erica Farmer said she and her husband, Marc Whitacre, are Havre's tour coordinators.

Farmer said that several community members expressed interest in seeing Shakespeare in the Parks return. She added that she and her husband worked with the company and Havre was put on a waiting list in the fall of 2018.

"We are excited to see this unique cultural program return to the community," she said. "This is an opportunity for children and adults to experience what was once only available in big cities."

She said sponsorships by Hill County Community Foundation and Best Western Plus Havre Inn and Suites made bringing the tour to Havre possible.

Asselin said that, in choosing plays, the goal is to choose two shows each season that complement each other, a history or drama paired with a comedy. On a logistical level, Asselin said he always chooses a play that Shakespeare in the Parks has not produced in more than 10 years, so that the audience isn't experiencing the same play within a matter of five or 10 years.

The program chose the plays "Henry VI Part 1" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor," which both feature the character, Falstaff.

"We thought it would be fun to have him appear in both plays this season for our audiences, so the same actor is playing the same role in both plays," Asselin said.

The company is alternating productions of the plays during the season, performing "Henry IV" Friday in Great Falls, "Merry Wives" Saturday in Havre, then "Henry IV" again Sunday in Conrad.

Their tour next week runs to Choteau; Townsend; Boulder; Salmon, Idaho; Anaconda, and Butte.

"Merry Wives of Windsor" Director Marti Lyons chose to set the production in a 1960s theme with an effort to tie together what Shakespeare was commenting on about women's rights and how that theme in the '60s was a turning point in women's rights.

The idea was to be to able to reflect on those themes and to bring them to life in a more contemporary setting, he said.

"It has been a lot of fun to see how our audiences respond to it," Asselin said. "A lot of audiences find it to be really accessible when they have some sort of relevant contemporary connection and that the humor comes to life in a different way, so that works well for audiences."

Asselin said the play is about the character Falstaff, who is inappropriate in how he assumes women are attracted to him. Falstaff decides to take advantage of his status by attempting to woo two women at once. On the opposite side, the women lure Falstaff in to make a point that men should not be making assumptions or be taking advantage of a situation that may or may not be appropriate. Shakespeare also comments on the male assumption of what love means.

Shakespeare in the Parks is in its 47th season with the the stated mission to bring live, free and professional theater to primarily underserved rural communities. The Bozeman-based program is and outreach of Montana State University's College of Arts and Architecture.

This season, the company is performing in 61 communities in Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, Washington and Wyoming

The program produces two shows with featured professional actors that come from the Chicago, Minneapolis and Houston areas. Also, the program sees more than 500 actors throughout the course of the year.

"I'm trying to find people that are not only talented actors who understand and are professional with Shakespeare's language, but I'm also trying to find people who can be good ambassadors for our company because they are engaging our communities in a very unique way," Asselin said. "We find over the course every year that there is a fair number of actors who want come back out each year because of how welcomed and how appreciated they feel, by how the community responds."

Asselin added it is a hard job to find actors with the right kind of personality. The actors are not only performing in the shows, but they are also building a stage, tearing down the stage, then packing up and moving on to the next community. Actors only have four days off during the entire summer because the goal for the program is to reach as many people as possible.

"It also requires a person who is curious and has a great sense of adventure," Asselin said.

Asselin said he performed in "Henry VI Part I" when he came to Havre. He said Shakespeare in the Parks is a true outreach program in comparison to a marriage between the professionals and the community members. It reminds him as an artist why he chose to do what he does in this field, and that is to serve and to collaborate with audiences.

He has been artistic director for six seasons and has been with the program since 2002 as an actor, director and teacher.

"My personal agenda is to bring Shakespeare's stories to life in relative ways, so that we can identify how his beings and stories are just as much alive today as they were over 400 years ago," Asselin said.

For more information about the play or tour dates, visit, http://www.shakespeareintheparks.org./.