 RICHARD III
With this play we plunge into the realm of Shakespeare and history. This being our fifth year in existence, I thought it important that the kids learn some English history. Of course, Shakespeare was writing for his own particular audience, so his version of that history must not be taken as gospel and it was this challenge that drew me to Richard III in particular.
In researching Richard III, I found many contradicting stories and confirmed what I had suspected - that Richard is a very controversial character for many reasons. Shakespeare, naturally, was crafting his story for his contemporary audience, for whom Richard was a monster who killed children and who was ultimately beaten by their hero, the grandfather of their present queen, Elizabeth I. One could see why Shakespeare might want to slant the story the way he did, out of love for his patron and sovereign.
However, having cast such a sweet-faced child to play the role, I had to find another side to Richard to make him palatable for us and possible for Chad to play. I learned that, in reality, Richard was not a grotesque, deformed hunchback, but simply born with an underdeveloped left side (the side belonging to the devil for Elizabethans). In an effort to keep up with 3 older brothers who were strong soldiers fighting for their family's claim to the crown, Richard exercised his right arm to such a degree that it was vastly stronger and therefore grossly out of proportion to his left side. He was in fact a powerful fighter and historians agree that it was a miracle that Richmond defeated him in the Battle of Bosworth.
The other aspect to Richard that I thought a lot about was that he grew up knowing nothing but war and bloodshed. The Wars of the Roses, a bloody series of gang-like skirmishes, had been going on for his entire lifetime. Therefore, if you entertain the nature-nurture question at all, you could allow some understanding of how a person could become so ruthless and hold human life so cheaply. Certainly, in many places in our present day world there are people like this who come to power and abuse it. Perhaps it is possible that the pervasive violence in their countries - in most countries - contributed greatly to the production of such a leader.
Ultimately, in working with these children, I was interested in exploring how such a profoundly evil character could be portrayed by beautiful innocents. We rediscovered something that Shakespeare assumed - that people, especially teenagers, are often very much a product of how other people see them. Therefore, Richard, having grown up with people whispering of his deformity and even feeling the mistrust of his own mother who was distressed at his imperfections, could easily have taken all this to heart and decided to go ahead and live up to their assumptions. Even Chad, after hearing others call him "poisonous bunch-backed toad" enough times could come to believe it.
I hope our production gives you a glimpse into history and gives you some interesting things to think about. I also hope that all of us, on a personal and a global level, can practice being more considerate and choose our words with care, for words are our ultimate power.
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