A glimpse behind the scenes of one of Washington’s finest theaters
An interview with Alexis Greene, historian and author of Shakespeare Theatre Company: The History of a Classical Theatre
By Norah Vawter
If you are a theater-lover, a D.C. history aficionado, and/or someone interested in the inner workings of an arts organization, I’ve got a book for you. Shakespeare Theatre Company: The History of a Classical Theatre is an oversized, glossy, beautiful volume, with over 250 photographs. So it’s a fun read, and a visual delight. But I was surprised at the depth and specificity of the history. The author, Alexis Greene, has a PhD in theater, has taught at New York University and Hunter college, been a critic for TheaterWeek, and written two previous books and edited several others on theater.
Greene interviewed many actors, directors, administrators, and board members, and had access to both the archives of The Shakespeare Theatre Company and The Folger Shakespeare Library (the original home of STC). She spent two years writing and researching the book, and her meticulous attention to detail, as well as her keen intellectual curiosity, is evident. Alexis Greene was kind enough to chat with me about the book, her own theater journey, and her thoughts on Shakespeare and the theater.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to this project, and, more generally, to the work that you do as a writer, historian, and educator?
I was asked to write this book about Shakespeare Theatre Company in 2022, a wonderful assignment. I love theater. I fell in love with theater when I was nine years old. Friends of my parents took me to see the Broadway musical Peter Pan with Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard. We were sitting in a box in the theater, and I fell in love and decided I wanted to be an actress. So I acted in high school and college, and when I graduated from college, I got a couple of Off Broadway productions. I was in New York City. But I was not able to have a solid career as an actress. So I went back to school and got a PhD in theater. I taught theater literature at New York University and at Hunter College. I became the literary manager at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. And I was a theater critic for a magazine called TheaterWeek. That really led to my definite calling as an editor and writer of books about theater and theater artists. I've written two biographies and edited several books on theater. I am particularly interested in the work of women in the theater.
What an interesting life you have lived! I feel like we could talk all day. But if you were in an elevator with me and had just a minute or so to tell me about this book, what would you say?
It's a book about Shakespeare in America, as told through the history of a very successful theater in Washington, D.C. I'm also very glad I created “Behind the Scenes” quotations from my interviews with actors and directors and designers. And it's a beautifully designed book. It has more than 250 wonderful photographs of productions and actors.
Were you the one sourcing the illustrations and photographs?
I do all my research myself, but I worked with a wonderful archivist who was able to locate so many of the photographs, and then she and I would look at them on her very large computer screen and select the ones that we thought would be best.
How long did it take for you to research the book?
I got the assignment to do this book in 2022 and the book was finished really in 2024. So throughout that time I was doing research.
Why do you think we are still reading, producing, and viewing the works of Shakespeare 400 years after his death? What's the staying power?
That's a wonderful question. Shakespeare dramatized and gave voice to issues and feelings that human beings have always experienced, that we still experience. Love. Hate. Friendship. Competition. War and peace. Life and death. And the language is magnificent! Both verse and prose. And the characters are so rich.
I agree! What role do you think that the long history of Shakespeare being embedded in our culture plays in Shakespeare continuing to be performed?
Well, I think Shakespeare speaks to us about our lives and the world we live in, no matter what century we’re living in.
So it's universal?
Yes. And a good director can emphasize and bring forth an aspect of a play that particularly relates to how we are living in the world today, or a hundred years ago.
What do you think about modernizations and adaptations of Shakespeare’s works?
Well, I saw The Merry Wives of Windsor this season at Shakespeare Theatre Company, a production that was adapted and given the title Merry Wives. It was set in Harlem in contemporary times. There was music and dancing. I enjoyed that. In relation to what you're asking, one of my favorite examples would be [current Shakespeare Theatre Artistic Director] Simon Godwin's production of Macbeth in 2024, which took place not in one of STC's theaters but in another space that was specially brought to bear for this.
Before you entered the playing space as an audience member, you walked through a room where there was a destroyed car, and as you entered the playing space there, you could hear warplanes. Simon used this script to describe what it was like to be at war, to cause war, really.
Getting back to the history of Shakespeare Theatre Company, I was surprised at the connection to the Folger Theatre. Can you tell us more about that early history?
The Folger Shakespeare Library was founded in 1932 by Henry Clay Folger Jr., who already had been collecting both Shakespeare's First Folios and books about Shakespeare. He did want a theater space to be part of the library, a space of the sort Shakespeare performed in and wrote for. An Elizabethan theater, like the Globe. And occasionally there was a production, but not until 1970 were plays performed regularly in that space, when Mr. Harbison, who was the library’s director, said: we have a theater, we really need to have regular productions. And so that was the root of what eventually became Shakespeare Theatre Company.
And because of that root, we now have full seasons at both the Shakespeare Theatre Company, which now exists independently, and the Folger. Would you say they’ve been integral to the booming of theater in D.C. in recent decades?
Oh, I certainly think so. Absolutely. And when Michael Kahn became producing director in 1986, he ultimately urged for what was then called Shakespeare Theatre Group to have its own space and move out of the Folger Theatre. He also began what was called “Free for All” summer theater, which was outdoors, and he would spur the opening of Shakespeare Theatre Company’s second performing space, Harman Hall.
Do you have a sense of Michael Kahn bringing a new quality to productions, or other changes?
His predecessor, John Neville-Andrews, who was also quite a fine producing director of the theater, had created a resident company. Michael Kahn, when he came on, dissolved that and really brought in many a star to the productions, including Kelly McGillis and Stacy Keach. That certainly helped bring in audiences and many favorable reviews. And as I said, he pushed for what was now an independent company, even though it was at the Library. Kahn pushed for it to have its own space. So in 1992 it moved into the Lansburgh Theatre, now named the Klein Theatre.
Were there also more high quality directors or crew coming in?
Yes. And in addition, one of the stimulating things about this theater is that its leaders have always produced plays by dramatists in addition to Shakespeare. Kahn was very determined to produce pre-Shakespearean classics, and plays of Shakespeare's contemporaries, and also what he considers contemporary classics: plays by Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill and Bertolt Brecht. The seasons were very, very stimulating.
Do you have a sense of why other playwrights were being produced from the beginning?
I think it had to do with plays and dramatists that the producing directors loved, and also the plays they felt could draw audiences in.
It also, I suppose, puts Shakespeare in this context of other great playwrights.
That's a good way of saying it. And including them in that context.
Yes, of course! In recent years, I’ve seen true contemporary plays performed at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Tom Stoppard’s latest play, Leopoldstadt, comes to mind, along with Moisés Kaufman’s Here There Are Blueberries. Both excellent new plays, which I reviewed.
I think that these artistic producers felt these plays would be really attractive to Washington, D.C., audiences. And in addition, as the theater has progressed over the decades, the artistic producers have increased the diversity of the casts, so that they reflect the people who live in D.C. Later classics such as Tennessee Williams’ plays, all the plays you mentioned, really allow them to meet this diversity.
I really appreciate that as a theatergoer. Simon Godwin directs some of the productions. Did Michael Kahn also direct some of his productions?
Yes, he did.
So he was very integrated into the everyday working of the–
He was hands on.
I feel like his name is still kind of synonymous with Shakespeare Theatre Company. But when he left in 2019, leadership shifted to Simon Godwin, who is younger, British, and has directed plays at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre in London. What sense do you have of any changes or new directions Godwin has brought?
Well, that's an excellent question, but of course, it brings forth some complicated responses. Simon Godwin had to lead this theater during the pandemic, and the theater had to close down for a good portion of two seasons. When that happened, the theater began sending films of productions to subscribers on their computer screens. I gather that subscription levels have gone down somewhat as a result of the pandemic, but now subscription levels are going up again. It seems to me that Simon is dedicated to producing Shakespeare and also to producing classical plays and musicals of subsequent centuries. This season he directed Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. The musical Guys and Dolls, directed by Francesca Zambello, artistic director of the Washington National Opera, opens on December 2 at Harman Hall.
Is that a direction you enjoy?
Oh, yes! He's also doing many more co-productions with other theaters [in other regions], which certainly contributes to spreading the word about STC to other parts of the country.
The world has changed a lot in the decades since productions began at the Folger. Do you think that changing cultural norms have led to other changes that we're seeing on stage, along the lines of the diversity we talked about earlier?
I think theater people—people who make theater and people who love to go to the theater—believe that theater is an invaluable art form. As I said earlier in this conversation, it speaks to us about our values as human beings in relation to each other, and as we create the world we live in. And I'm sure that at The Shakespeare Theatre Company, and indeed throughout the country, we hope that not-for-profit theater will be able to continue to live and provide audiences with beauty of various sorts. And in D.C., I imagine that most theaters don't want to be the Kennedy Center.
Exactly! And I think it’s lovely to think about how the theater is not just reflecting the world, it's creating a world on stage, and doing it thoughtfully and carefully.
Theater is a beautiful, vibrant art form. It's had a long life, and will continue to live.
Buy your copy of Shakespeare Theatre Company: The History of a Classical Theatre from Casemate IPM or Bookshop.
You can learn more about Shakespeare Theatre Company’s upcoming programming, and buy tickets, on their website. You can also check out my reviews of past STC productions, including Merry Wives, Frankenstein, and Here There Are Blueberries.
Alexis Greene is the author and editor of numerous books about theatre, including The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway, written with Julie Taymor, and most recently, the biography Emily Mann: Rebel Artist of the American Theater. In addition to writing books about theatre, Greene's career spans acting, theatre criticism, and teaching (she holds a PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York). Born and raised in New York City, Greene lives part-time in Gotham and part-time upstate in Walton, New York, with her husband, Gordon R. Hough.
Norah Vawter is the co-founder and fiction/nonfiction editor of Washington Unbound. She’s a freelance writer, editor, and novelist, represented by Alisha West of Corvisiero Agency. Follow her on Instagram @norahvawter and check out her Substack, Survival by Words.
