"Musical Settings for Shakespeare" at Black Forest Inn

June 9, 2025
7:00 - 9:00 pm

"Musical Settings for Shakespeare" at Black Forest Inn

Black Forest Inn
9 E. 26th St.
Minneapolis, MN 55404

Performance is in room just east of the garden.

Free admission. Great food and drinks available to order.

"Musical Settings for Shakespeare" by Ken Takata and Sarah Zuber

In this edition, participating artists and performers: Sarah Callahan, Sophie Caplin, Eric Struve, and Sarah Zuber.

Description

We know that music played a crucial role in the original productions of Shakespeare's plays because there are over 70 texts that are supposed to be sung. Unfortunately, most of the original music has been lost. This is both a problem and an opportunity for theatre companies. On one hand, productions need to figure out what music to use, which can be tricky. At the same time, productions can also use music to solve "staging problems." These are practical problems that a company might want to address and solve. The problems could be created by 1) the text, 2) the physical circumstances of the production, 3) the audience, or 4) the general culture and context of the performances.

One example of a staging problem is the disparity between the demographics of the plays and the audience. Only 16 percent of the characters in Shakespeare are female. That's in stark contrast to most audiences that go to see Shakespeare, and it raises this simple question: can you use musical settings of the texts to bridge this demographic gap?

We'll look at this and other staging problems. I promise, by the way, that this isn't going to be a lecture. 80 percent of this will be musical performances featuring three vocalists, Sarah Callahan, Sophie Caplin, and Sarah Zuber. Musical styles include the Great American Songbook, period correct (i.e., circa 1600), Western swing, glam rock, parodies of radio ads from the 1940s, and several other genres, in other words, a little something for everyone.

More details and examples at https://kentakata.com.

“This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.”