Mindy Braden
Backstage Manager

What is your story?  
Well, I had been doing theater in the Annapolis/Baltimore area for about 25 years when I became aware of CSC. My friend, Jamie, kept encouraging me to come see the shows. In the winter of 2009, I came on board to do wardrobe for Country Wife…. and I never left! Since then I’ve worn many different hats for CSC including Assistant Stage Manager, Stage Manager, Costume Design, Property Design, Box Office, Wardrobe Supervisor, and Backstage Manager for the summer shows at the ruins. I even scraped gum, and God knows what else, off of the floors when we first got the theater building! I have been a Company member for the past 12 years and have participated in 45 productions (not including educational tours)! I’m eagerly looking forward to the new adventures that await us all at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.

What was your first CSC show?  
Country Wife in 2009… back then we were working out of our little office at HCCA in Ellicott City and the show was performed in the black box at the center.

What do you love most about working in theater? 
I’ve been doing theater as long as I can remember. I was one of those kids in school that was always in a show, planning a show, or closing a show. I think that the aspect that I love most is the ability to let your creative juices flow and then collaborate with others to create something really alive and spectacular that will affect others in some way.

What made you want to work for CSC?
I joined CSC for the aesthetic… our mission… to make Shakespeare and classic theater accessible to everyone. It’s a wonderful thing.

What keeps bringing you back?
Once I became a Company member, I found a family. People who worked hard, loved what they were creating, and appreciated what everyone brought to the table.

Favorite play/book/story?
Oh wow… that’s a difficult question. My “go-to” answer is always…the next play that I’m working on! In literature… I’m a big fan of the American classics… Fitzgerald, Alcott, etc. I am also a massive musical theater fan…. having performed in musicals most of my life. (Yes, in my world, people actually do break out into song at the drop of a hat… have you met my friends and family?)

Favorite Shakespeare quote? Play? 
Once again, this is like asking which is my favorite child! I could tell you my least favorite Shakespeare play (cough... Cymbeline), but my favorite…. Hmmm… there are so many, but I guess I will go with Midsummer because “I am amazed and know not what to say.”

Fond/favorite memories?
Where shall start? All of those amazing rehearsals… I learned something new at every one.  The day that we got the good fog machine for Richard III (the movable version) and Ian and I were setting it off in the field at the PFI. The first time I got to call for the battle sounds in Caesar, and it seriously sounded like an army was approaching over the front hill of the PFI. Watching our amazing actors embody each character completely.  The night that we got snowed in at the theater. Traveling all over the state of Maryland bringing Shakespeare to schools in underserved communities. First production meetings when ideas start to flow, and the project begins to take on a life of its own. I could go on and on…

What are you most proud of/have found to be the most rewarding? 
Things that I’m most proud of… finding that samovar for Uncle Vanya…. Staying up all night to win an eBay auction to get a functioning Victrola for Midsummer…. Having lances shipped in from Missouri in the middle of a snowstorm for Richard II… beautifully choreographed quick changes… finding the perfect blood recipe… recreating the fireplace room at the PFI into the actual infirmary that it was used for in WWI for Richard III…
But mostly I’ve found the most rewarding part of being a Company member of CSC is to be part of creating something that reached so many people, changed so many lives, and changed all of us for the better.

Terrance Fleming 
Company Member and Volunteer

What is your story?  
Well, I am from Mobile Alabama. I graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2015 with a BFA in Acting. In 2016, I was looking for a change. I wanted to go somewhere brand new, exciting, where nobody knew me, so I took a chance and decided to move to Baltimore. So there I was looking for work in Baltimore. When I heard about CSC I was doing Memphis with Art Centric, where I heard about a casting call for Red Velvet. I didn’t get cast in that, but I did come back for Alice and Wonderland.

What was your first CSC show? 
The first show I ended up seeing may have been A Christmas Carol, but that was after I had already been cast in a few productions. The first show I volunteered for was one of the student matinees of Romeo and Juliet, which I really enjoyed, knowing it is a staple of CSC, and knowing how critical of a role that program plays in the life of CSC, it was an honor, I guess I could say, to help with that.

What do you love most about working in theater?
I would say, for one, I love the life of theater. As we all know, with film, you film it, you send it out, and that’s it. It exists like that forever. But in theater we have the freedom to change impulses, to change objectives, and that keeps it alive, keeps it on its feet. And in theater, an audience member can come see the same show more than once and you could focus on the same actor and get a different perspective of that character just from the actor having different impulses. Just the variations of what theater can bring night to night is what draws me to it. And also, I just like showcasing myself in front of people.

What made you want to volunteer for CSC?
I know that once I did that student matinee, teaching is somewhere in me. I don’t know when that’s going to happen or if it will happen specifically in a class setting, but I already knew I liked the concept of teaching and guiding. So doing that student matinee and being able to interact with the students, seeing their imagination and growth, and seeing the students who wanted nothing to do with taking a field trip to a theater only to see them leave with a new point of view and a new love for what it is, really made me realize I am interested in all that. So, when they came to me with opportunities to do teaching residencies and go talk to a class because I played such-and-such character I was like, yes, let me get on that and it was just as satisfying as I thought it would be, so that’s what made me sign up for the teaching residencies.

What keeps bringing you back?
I really love the environment and the energy I get from the people. It's always great. There is hardly any negative energy when I walk in, when I see the patrons or Lesly and Ian, they’re all just very welcoming and the place itself, it just gives me a good vibe, and any where that gives me a good vibe, I’m all about being a part of and giving as much as I can to help propel their mission.

Favorite play/book/story?
If we’re talking Shakespeare, I would have to say its Comedy of Errors. I just love all the hijinks and the farcical nature of Comedy of Errors.

Favorite Shakespeare quote? Play?
At the moment, it might be from Hamlet, and it’s “my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived,” just because that one is hilarious to me. Especially because when I was in Hamlet, my partner and I were watching Arrested Development and the whole concept of Buster actually being his uncle’s son, making the dad his “uncle-father” it just shows the ripple effect of Shakespeare. And seeing that line, which was written centuries ago, used years later in that hilarious context, it just made it, if you had to ask me, my favorite quote.

Fond/favorite memories?  
Like I said, I tend to enjoy the company, and I am almost naively happy, and have a good time whenever I am with CSC, so its hard to pick. One moment that does stick in my head, its more of a funny memory than a fond memory, it was my first show with. I played Humpty Dumpty and when they showed me my costume it was a brown egg, which I loved. It made me feel included. Instead of them just giving me a white egg and saying, “Here stick your brown face in this white hole,” they showed that they were thinking about me and inclusivity.
Sticking with another Humpty Dumpty Story, the costume was just something I stuck my head through and didn’t move any piece of it, but my arms were my own arms, and my legs were these silly little fabric legs that just hung off the egg. And because they were kind of loose, I started to play with them. So, whenever Humpty Dumpty got mad and developed a bit of an attitude I would kick his leg up and throw it down like he was stomping. Well during one performance I threw it a little too hard the leg came right off. And it was okay because the girl playing Alice handled it well.

What has been your biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge was coming into it all because I am a big rule breaker, as far as wanting to do what I want with the lines, with the verse, with the iambic pentameter. You have to know all of the rules before you break them. So, because I do Shakespeare with a bunch of different companies and directors, they all have different rules for how they want to perform Shakespeare. The difficulty has been stepping into different situations and adjusting and trying something out to get the rhythm of the director and the theater and adjusting accordingly. And because everyone has their own specific ways of approaching Shakespeare or hearing Shakespeare or reading Shakespeare that might be the hardest thing. And also, sometimes they throw dialects in there, which is not my strong suit.

What are you most proud of/have found to be the most rewarding?
Honestly, I am proudest of the fact that I wanted to go to a place where there were fresh eyes, and no one knew me, and no one had any previous conceptions of me so whenever I come to the stage, they’re seeing me raw and seeing me bare and there are no other influences, and they are just accepting my craft as it is. And it’s been very rewarding being accepted into not only the CSC community but also the Baltimore community and the bits and pieces of the DC community. I am most proud of the collaborations I have had, because I can only do so much, and I can only get better when someone is on stage with me and they’re helping me be better, and I’m helping them be better

Jan Purnell
Volunteer

What is your story?  
I taught in the Baltimore City public school system for 35 years. Grades 6-12, a multitude of subjects; English, reading, social studies, theater, technology, and was in the central office for a little while. I did a little bit of everything.
I minored in theater in college. My freshman year my two roommates decided to audition for the musical, and the director made it clear that nobody could just sit there, you had to audition, but I was just there to support my roommates. Far be it from me to get in trouble so I said okay, and I don’t remember what I auditioned with, but I got the supporting role in the show, and it was downhill from there (laughs). That’s what started it. I worked on productions in high school, but I didn’t act, I was behind the scenes, but in college I started being on the stage. I have only one Shakespeare credit in my repertoire. Freshman year we did Comedy of Errors and I was the courtesan, of course. I had the most expensive costume and the smallest amount of lines.

What was your first CSC show? 
I think it was Imaginary Invalid, so that is way back (2005), when they were performing in the Arts Center on Rogers Ave in Ellicott city. I started ushering when the downtown theater opened. I don’t remember the first CSC show I ushered but it was probably one of the Romeo and Juliet matinees, or maybe one of the evening shows. It was definitely at Calvert Street.

What do you love most about working in theater?
Generating an immediate response from and audience whether it be through the costumes, or when the lights come up on the sets and everyone applauds, or through the performances or the story being told. It doesn’t matter if you’re on stage, backstage, or when I’m ushering, [the response from the audience] that’s the magic. At least that’s the way I see it.

What made you want to volunteer for CSC?
I’ve been a patron for a while and when I retired I was looking for volunteering, things to keep me busy and engaged, and its struck a chord because I could continue my love of theater and Shakespeare, being an English teacher. I could also use my experience as an educator, because I still have the “look” and I do rather well at telling children where to go so the high school matinees are my forte. It allowed me to do all that, I could see Shakespeare at 10 o’clock in the morning. The flexibility CSC offers for a volunteer experience is important because, I looked into a lot of things. All the other volunteering experiences I looked into were very structured. Because at the time I was also taking care of my elderly mother, whose doctors appointments I needed to chauffer and also do the grocery shopping, I needed that flexibility, and CSC made it so easy. And talking with the other ushers, we all agree with that. It’s the flexibility that makes it so attractive.

What keeps bringing you back?
It’s all about the relationships that I have with the staff and the actors. It’s just the best bunch of people anywhere. I’m allowed to get away with being silly and crazy and am accepted for that. And as I said, watching the audience reactions. Watching the students who for many are watching live theater for the first time in their lives, watching the awe in theirs eyes, listening to them yell to Romeo “don’t drink it" and cheer when Tybalt gets killed. Or just watching them interact with the actors. Same thing in the evening performances. After seeing the show one time, you know what’s coming, so you definitely find someone in the audience to watch, and its just great fun to see them react to what’s happening on the stage. It’s a fun way to spend your time. Why wouldn’t you want to spend your evening with Shakespeare.

Favorite play/book/story?
Oh! There are too many! I can’t tell you that. I really thought about it! I said, “Okay Jan, desert island, if you had to be on a desert island" and I realized I couldn’t be on a desert island with a steamer trunk, I would need a container. So no, there are far too many.

Favorite Shakespeare quote? Play?
Weirdest answer you’re going to hear, Richard III. Because historically the play is one lie after another, and we know that, and that’s okay, but Shakespeare was writing for his boss. And you’re going to tell the Tudor story. And the character he created in Richard III, all of the lies he told about Richard, he created the most charmingly despicable character ever. And I just love the character of Richard III. And also, of all the performances that were given in the many times that they have done it at CSC, the outdoor version with the creepy people standing around in gas masks made it. It was the best. So, when they first did it indoors I asked, “Are you going to keep the creepy people” and of course they did. But its most effective in the moveable, because it adds to the creepiness. They can hide around corners and the weather always cooperates whether its bitingly cold or a little drizzly.

Fond/favorite memories?  
These are not in any order of importance or preference. The pre-shows is one of my absolute favorite knock-down drag-out, for every show they’ve done. Whether it’s the matinees or evening performances, out at the PFI, the pre-show performances are the best. And also, any other music that has been incorporated into the productions. That’s one of the things that CSC does that I think is absolutely magical.
Second is the simplicity of production for Merchant of Venice, a number of years ago, because the set consisted of two benches, I think, and that was it. Also, the amazing performances that were given. It remains one of my favorite productions ever. I think that had maybe 40 people max in the audience, you were literally on top of the actors, and Greg Burgess was off the charts, he was phenomenal
The magic and the thought and the wonderful decision to do A Christmas Carol but set it in Baltimore. To put the Cratchits in Fell's Point. The thought, the detail all those sorts of things. To make it new and surprising for a Baltimore audience who think are coming to see what they’ve seen on TV all their lives, just to find out they’re right at home. That’s one thing that I hold dear. I think its one of the best things they’ve done.

What are you most proud of/have found to be the most rewarding?
I was really taken aback and speechless when I was given a pin. I was really honored to get a CSC pin. That was like getting a team uniform.
Also, I was asked to be a consultant, and I use the term loosely, when they did Alice Through the Looking Glass. They wanted to do tea parties, and I’ve done tea parties for some of the ladies I met at CSC. Evidently, word got back, so they asked me to consult on the tea parties they had for the show, which was great fun. I was very honored to be asked to do that. And the fact that it added an additional dimension to a play some people might not think to come see at CSC. It made it special for a lot of families, and a lot of moms, grandmas, and daughters to come see a show and have a tea party at the same time
Finally, CSC asked me to work out of the Gordon Center when they were doing The Diary of Anne Frank. The Anne Frank Center from New York has a travelling photography exhibit of the Frank family, since her father was a photographer. And they managed to find all of these unbelievable photographs of them. They had photographs of everyone, all of the other “characters” in the play and of everything before the war. And photographs after the war that were just horrific. But they asked me to go out and represent the theater at this showing. It was the most unbelievable experience, because families came and looked at the photographs and talked about their own family experience with the Holocaust. This one family came in and their great, great aunt or somebody, babysat the two Frank girls.  Just to see somebody who had this connection, seeing these photographs, and to be able to share in that was an experience I will never forget. And if it wasn’t for CSC I wouldn’t have had that.

Quincy Vicks
Teaching Artist and Volunteer

What is your story?
Well, its actually funny, when I was in 11^th grade I took a drama class, but I grew up as a musician. I really wanted to be a musician and I played the piano. So, before drama class, I found out about this jazz club. After school one day I stayed in the drama teacher’s classroom while I waited for the jazz club to start next door. There were so many people in her class I didn’t know what was going on. Apparently, that was the first day of their drama club. She was presenting the play for that year, a play called Purlie, it’s an old musical. She was telling everyone all the info, like here is the audition info. Again, I had no experience acting at that point, I’m still waiting for jazz club to start. But I was there listening, I wasn’t even that interested, but I thought, why not audition for the heck of it and why not audition for the lead? Go big or go home. And long story short, after memorizing the monologue, believing nothing is going to come of it, I auditioned, and I ended up getting the role. From there I automatically felt like I could do this for the rest of my life. And hearing the reactions from the audience, getting that live feedback, the music, the dancing, the movement, and just being able to be on stage and have everyone listen and watch, I don’t know, there was just an adrenaline I felt, and I’ve been chasing that adrenaline ever since.

What was your first CSC show? 
My first one I was in was Love’s Labor’s Lost (2019) a couple years ago that was performed at the PFI. As for volunteering, I don’t know if it counts but I guess my first would be teaching Romeo and Juliet.

What do you love most about working in theater?
I love the live audience. I think that’s what separate my interest in film and theater. I love film but I’ve always gravitated toward theater because you get that immediate response. I love the fact that if you mess up, which we all have done, in every show we’ve done, the audience wouldn’t know as long as you keep it going. I love the fact that anything can happen in theater, and you always have to be on standby. It sharpens your mind. I just love being in that atmosphere and having the audience be a part of it, even if its only for an hour and a half. So, it’s really just the live audience that keeps me captivated and keeps me grounded in theater.

What made you want to work for CSC?
I met some awesome people. I went to Morgan State in Baltimore, and our Director worked with CSC a lot and she actually got me in the door. And Ron was the first person I met, and he introduced me to what CSC does, the classes and the shows. I just enjoy the people. Everyone has been great to work with, just all of the people I’ve formed relationships with, and I want to continue working with them.

What keeps bringing you back?
I just feel like CSC is family, you know, they really helped me out. They gave me an opportunity to teach and kept reaching out to me year after year. I really appreciate that, them wanting to continue working with me and valuing me. I’m always invited to auditions and events and volunteering, and after a while, like I said, they’ve become family and I want to keep helping out.

Favorite play/book/story?
Classics wise, my favorite play would definitely be Much Ado About Nothing. I’ve done several versions of that play and it always brings me joy. It’s a play about nothing, it’s a waste of time but its so fun. But I also love August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. Wilson is one of my favorite playwrights. I actually took a class at Morgan State on his work and who he is as a person, a writer, and a creator. But Gem of the Ocean was his first play that's part of his Pittsburgh cycle. And its very spiritual and very symbolic. I always get something new every time I read it. It is actually one of my dream plays to direct one day. And I really feel like I could do it justice and bring that vision to life as far as what August Wilson was writing at the time.

Favorite Shakespeare quote? Play?
One of them is from Benedick in Much Ado. It’s the one where he talks about men in love. “I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love…” Because I relate to that heavily. I am that guy. He says that and I go “oh, that’s me.” And it’s funny because by the end of the play he is also that guy.

Fond/favorite memories?
One of my favorite all time memories is, at the end of the week when I am teaching on behalf of CSC, and I get to see the students perform their scenes. When they’re on their feet, whether they have their scripts in hand or not, just seeing everything I implemented in their brains like dialogue or dialect or movement. And seeing how they’ve meshed all of that to create something with what they had.

What has been your biggest challenge?
To be perfectly honest, being seen equally based on the color of my skin, just in general. As an African American actor, I feel like there is this stigma that pressures me to step it up. Like we have to step it up to prove ourselves. So yeah, the biggest challenge has been being an  African American performer in predominantly white theater. That has always been the challenge for me, no matter where what theater it is.

What are you most proud of/have found to be the most rewarding?
Being a teaching artist. That has always been rewarding to me. Just seeing the students perform at the end of the week, and that’s where I really appreciate CSC. For giving me the opportunity and trusting me to be responsible for these young minds. It’s truly rewarding, even this past summer teaching at the PFI, it came with a lot of challenges, being outside with the heat wave and all that. And I dealt with a lot of students that were really hard on themselves and were really intimidated by the language. But they stuck it out and I think that’s what I’m proud of the most.    

Abigail Funk
House Manager and Teaching Artist

What is your story?  
As an actor, as a storyteller, stories are very important. When I graduated from university I minored in Anthropology, which is really interesting to me because it the study of the story of people and the story of culture and how we’ve grown and shifted and changed and how culture has shifted and changed, so you’d think as an actor, a storyteller, a writer, and an anthropologist I'd be able to formulate my story. But when you turn that lens inward it becomes so much more difficult. So, my story is one of imagination, and passion and creativity. From the time that I was young I’ve always had a very vivid imagination. I’ve always enjoyed reading, performing, and telling stories, and trying to share that with the people and the world around me. It wasn’t just enough to create a story, it also had to be told. And that’s one of the things that was really interesting to me when I was studying Cultural Anthropology.

What was your first CSC show? 
The first one that I saw was Othello back in 2016, and I saw it for a class. I had to see it and then write a paper about it, which was really fun because once I graduated and started working at CSC, I was working with a bunch of people I had written an essay about. Like I did a show with Jose Guzman, who is fabulous, a wonderful performer, and he did something in rehearsal that made me realize "oh that was Iago! That’s the Iago I wrote a whole paper about!” But the first show I did with them was A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the summer of 2018. And the reason I got that opportunity was because Gerrad Alex Taylor was one of my professors in my senior year. He was teaching Auditioning and Business and he was prepping us to go out into the world. He arranged for us to audition for the Summer Acting Internship Program that CSC was putting on. I can’t confirm this with the rest of my classmates, but I think there was a sense that, sure it was a real audition, but nothing would come of it. It was just practice. But then about a week later Gerrad pulls me aside and says, “So we want to give you the internship.” And I can’t say to his face, “Oh? That was real?” so I had to play it cool and say, “Yeah! Yeah, absolutely I’ll take it! I definitely knew that it would come to this!” So then, with that I got a small role in Midsummer, and I also helped with some of the Summer Teaching Program and eventually became an actor and a Teaching Artist with CSC.

What do you love most about working in theater?
I think the genuine connections you make around you. The people that are onstage for sure, but also the audience members. The children who have never seen the show before and are experiencing it for the first time, and the older audience members who have probably seen, let’s say, Romeo and Juliet, a thousand time before. But then getting to do it yourself and being able to share your version and your view of it is always so valuable. And I think seeing that excitement in the audience when they leave is one of the best feelings. I’ve had peers ask me if I only do Shakespeare, and I don’t only do Shakespeare, but I much prefer Shakespeare. I’ve always loved Shakespeare, and that started when I was a child. My mother had a collection of the Sonnets, and so sometimes she would read me bedtime stories or sing me songs, but my favorite nights were when she would read Sonnets to me. And go to sleep with the iambic pentameter, you know, the heartbeat. And sharing that love, and seeing people get swept up in the language is so valuable because I remember what that was like. I remember how it feels to be pulled into the story and into the rhythm of the words and being able to share that with other people is passing that love along.

What keeps bringing you back to CSC?
See above! The opportunities, the people, the audience, my love of Shakespeare. CSC is the nice pretty package tied up with a bow so why wouldn’t I keep coming back!

Favorite play/book/story?
Gotta go with the hard questions. Top 3 is much easier. I very much enjoy The October Daye novels. Which is about this changeling PI in San Francisco and its this beautiful blend of modern city living and ancient fairy lore. It is an excellent urban fantasy series. The amount of world building and lore, they are jam packed. I am also a fan of the Greek plays. I know they’re not widely done these days because people can find them stilted or weird, and they’re hard to do with a small cast because you need a chorus. But I think there is something so deeply evocative about the Greek stories. In a lot of ways, they started it all. They are our grandparents. And the stories they tell of a world where gods descend from the skies and move among us. Where the divine is tangible and where the divine is within you and so recognizable in everybody else, and there are extremely high-stake situations. I think those stories are very intrinsic to our cultural psyche and our cultural memories. I am also a Star Trek fan. And I think the thing I love about Star Trek is how they create the future. And one of my favorite episodes is one where they are performing Hamlet in space. So even in the 23^rd or 24^th century they’re still coming back to Shakespeare and spoken word and the stories we’ve loved for centuries and the things that have changed the theatrical game. And the hope and the optimism and the passion that Roddenberry put in his story lines and what he wants the future to be forever captivates me.

Favorite Shakespeare quote?
One of my favorite Shakespeare quotes is from Much Ado About Nothing, and it’s the famous Beatrice “O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace.” And I love that one because it is so juxtaposed to everything that has been happening up until that point in the play. The first chunk of the play is dick jokes, and sex jokes, and virginity jokes, and Beatrice and Benedick just snarking at each other. And it’s wonderful! If you can get characters that have great chemistry, it’s just delicious to watch. You just want to get the popcorn and watch them go at it. But then in that scene after Claudio has disgrace hero and hero has fainting, and everyone thinks she’s dead, we see more of Beatrice’s substance. We see the devoted family person, the person who loves her cousin so much, and the raw, visceral anger of wanting to eat and persons heart, not even in private, but in a marketplace where anyone and everyone can see. Its such a primal, visceral, gory line that is so juxtaposed and because of that it draws so much attention.

What has been your biggest challenge?
Well going into Pericles and having never house managed before was certainly a challenge. When I’ve worked in theater before I’ve never been on the front line with the patrons. I’m on stage or I’m backstage they’re not coming to me about something that went wrong that I might not be able to fix for them. There was definitely a learning curve going into not only house managing in an outdoor location, which presents its unique opportunities for growth and learning, but I was also doing this job for the first time so it was a bit jarring. While it may not have been the most challenging thing it was definitely the most I've been pulled in multiple directions.

What are you most proud of/have found to be the most rewarding?
Oh, the Teaching Artist work I do for sure is one of the most rewarding things. Like I said, sharing the passion and showing other people how much I love Shakespeare and hoping it rubs off and the ability to instill that passion and instill that drive in young actors is absolutely always rewarding. Some kids come into the sessions really excited, and some kids come into it because Mom and Dad signed them up and if I can get them really excited by the end, that's always incredible. And I’ve had students come back for multiple sessions been like, “Alright Ms. Abby, what are we doing this time?” and I remember the first time I had some of them and they were like, “I don’t wanna do Shakespeare. I don’t understand what he’s saying. He’s dead and this is stupid.” I get to show them all the ways that is not true. And that will always be rewarding.

Emily Karol
Teaching Artist

What is your story?  
I graduated with a BFA in Musical Theater. After I got my degree, I was off traveling around the country doing musicals and everything when I got an email asking if I’d be interested in doing a month long intensive with a Shakespeare Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. Now, at that point I had only done a few Shakespeare plays in college, and it wasn’t really my thing. However, I felt like I was hitting a point in my career where it felt stale doing musical theater. So, I decided I’m going to do this program and either stay with theater but find a new track or see if this part of my life is over and move on. And I did the intensive and I was so unprepared, but I left feeling like, “Oh my gosh, I need more,” so it jump-started this shift in how I do theater. I became obsessed with Shakespeare, and I trained with this company more. When I came back, I worked with the Maryland Shakespeare Festival, I did some education work with them. Then when their doors closed, I heard that CSC needing teaching artist. That’s how I got connected because my previous boss introduced me to them. And I got hooked in and that was 5 years ago.

What was your first CSC show? 
Oh, I don’t remember what year it was, but my good friend, Teresa Spencer, was in their outdoor production of As You Like It at the PFI. One of the reasons I went to see it was because she and I where in a production of As You Like It where she was Rosalind and I was Phoebe, and I wanted to support her because in the CSC production she was playing Phoebe. And then I saw Three Musketeers shortly after, because I was friends with a lot of the actors, and by that point I was working with CSC as a teacher

What do you love most about working in theater?
One of my all-time favorite things, and it’s part of the education side of it, but I love when we take Shakespeare into the schools. The kids are having to read Shakespeare as part of English class, and despite them not really having any initial interest in it, they still manage to come up come up with these beautiful, truthful moments for Romeo and Juliet, without us having to do any pushing or prodding or prompting. It makes me kind of go, “That’s so not fair. You’re so intuitive and you like a 13-year-old.”  It is also really special, these little moments when I’m doing the teaching residencies and the students are like “I kind of don’t hate Shakespeare” or I feel like we’ve given the key to the kids, and they are no longer afraid of Shakespeare. It makes me really, really happy because I didn’t have that same relationship with Shakespeare until I was much older.

What made you want to work for CSC?
I knew they were a good company, and I had known about them before they got their space in Baltimore because Maryland Shakespeare Festival and CSC kind of ran simultaneously. Then they got their beautiful space, and they need teaching artists just as my time with Maryland Shakespeare Festival was ending, and it all just fell into place where one door closed, this door opened.

What keeps bringing you back?
Oh, definitely the people. I love getting the cast list or seeing who I get to teach with each year. The people I’ve met here are some of my favorite humans. I love my summers with CSC and getting to see these kids every single summer. It’s amazing to see the kids I’ve taught that are now onto doing High School Corp or go on to audition for the shows. It is definitely the people that keep me coming back. It is like this weird little family that I adore.

Favorite play/book/story?
If I’m going to pick a Shakespeare play, I have to go with Twelfth Night. I think its pretty flawless and all the different story lines that come together are great. If you have to pick a more serious play, I’m working on Richard III right now and the text is so intricate and the rhetoric in it is so great, I’m becoming a big fan of it.

For books I have to go with, Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. That’s mainly cause I’m a 90’s baby and I love the miniseries and the movie with Winona Rider. I wasn’t much of a reader growing up, so if it wasn’t a musical it was hard for it to register in my brain. My favorite musical was Rent because it was the first Broadway musical I saw. It really left an impression.

Favorite Shakespeare quote?
It's from Measure for Measure, and it’s one I say to my students all the time, “Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”

And it’s spoken by Lucio, the comedic bachelor, so you’re like “what?” but it is such a true line. Our doubts are traitors, and they make us scared to try things, so whenever I’m hesitant about a new path and I start to dig my heels in, I try to remember that it’s my doubts telling me I can’t succeed. And I love that Shakespeare gave it to Lucio, this one truthful moment.

Fond/favorite memories? 
This is more of a general, recurring thing, but usually every year there is the same group of teaching artists and being in the teachers lounge together is kind of like being in the trenches. I just love those moments, and it’s why those people are still my favorite humans to talk to. There was a residency my first year I got pulled in where I was teaching a 7^th grade class by myself, and when came back the next year, these kids are now in 8^th grade, and they still remembered me. That connection with them was so great and is something I really cherish. I also love those moments during rehearsal or sitting backstage at, say, A Christmas Carol, where all of us are hanging out and you have a surreal moment of like, “I’m having a casual conversation with Jacob Marley”

So, there’s nothing really specific, but any chance I get to connect with the people I love so much at CSC makes it really easy to sign the contracts.

What has been your biggest challenge?
Admitting when I’m wrong. I love when the campers or directors challenge me on what I know about Shakespeare. It’s kind of tough when you’re still a student while you’re also the teacher. You can get stuck in these little tirades or talking points you always fall back on, because sometimes you turn on autopilot. But then you’ll get a student who questions you, and you have to admit you’re wrong
or things have shifted.  Theater is shifting all the time and you constantly have to adjust how you approach Shakespeare. So, admitting I’m wrong and being okay with admitting I’m wrong is a lesson I’m constantly allowing myself to learn. I always tell my students you have to give yourself permission to fail, and that’s something I try to practice with myself.

What are you most proud of/have found to be the most rewarding?
I guess I’m proud of the fact that people still like to work with me, and students still like to learn from me. Something as simplistic as that. I haven’t reached my peak yet. I’m proud of myself for not getting bored. Kind of like what I said with the autopilot thing, you can get stuck in how you do things and get really bored. I’m still actively challenging myself 7 years into teaching Shakespeare, and I feel like I’m constantly being rewarded for it.