arts & life
theater
Alan Ball (below, left) as Alfred Doolittle in Pygmalion (with Joseph Wycoff) and (above, center) as the Duke of Clarence in Richard Ill
(with Rick Eva and Jared Cole)
The Michigan
Shakespeare
Festival brings its
repertoire closer to
Metro Detroiters.
The Michigan
Shakespeare Festival
performs July 29-Aug. 16
at the Village Theater at
Cherry Hill in Canton. $16-
$40. (734) 394-5300;
michiganshakespeare
festival.com .
Shakespeare Steps Out
I
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
I is the 21st anniversary of
the Michigan Shakespeare
Festival, and the company is
celebrating by stepping out. With
a performance history in Jackson,
the troupe is moving to Canton for
the end of the season and asking
Metro Detroiters to join them.
The Canton presentations,
July 29-Aug. 16, are planned to
accommodate the growth in audi-
ences from the Metro Detroit area,
who will have a shorter drive to
see Shakespeare's A Midsummer
Night's Dream and Henry IV
(two parts combined) as well as
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The
Rivals.
Alan Ball, appearing in all three
plays, looks forward to the addi-
tional venue, the Village Theater
at Cherry Hill. Although based
in Chicago, he will be recognized
by local theatergoers because
of his many roles for the Jewish
Ensemble Theatre (JET) in West
Bloomfield.
"I'm excited because we're the
Michigan Shakespeare Festival
and able to expand into more of
Michigan:' Ball says. "The deci-
sion to go into Canton had to do
with a study of our audiences.
"They expanded by 70 percent
in the last five or six years. While
we have people coming from
all directions, a lot come from
southeast Michigan so we're going
closer to them.
"Also, the theater in Canton was
designed by the same person who
designed the Baughman Theatre
in Jackson. It's a very nice fit. The
shows have been directed so that
they will work in both places with-
out much cutting or changing"
Ball is playing Bottom in
A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Falstaff in Henry IV and Sir
Anthony Absolute in The Rivals.
"I like that there's something
different about each role," says
Ball, whose appearances in pro-
ductions with Jewish themes have
shown him in Fiddler on the Roof,
Conversations with My Father and
Meshuggah, among others.
Bottom, coming across as a fool,
adds to the comedy. Falstaff, a
large and iconic character, brings
an expressive range. Sir Anthony
is a disapproving father.
Ball, an artistic associate with
the festival, auditioned while
finishing his master's degree
at Wayne State University. He
earned his bachelor's degree at the
University of Massachusetts.
"This is my fifth season with
the festival:' says the actor, 51 and
single. "They had Detroit audi-
tions at Wayne, and I was lucky
enough to get cast. I've been here
every summer since then and feel
it is an artistic home for me.
"The company follows a cer-
tain plan each year. One play [A
Midsummer Night's Dream] is
among eight or 10 well-known
Shakespeare plays, and one play
[Henry IV] is something else from
the Shakespeare canon that isn't
done quite as often. The third play
is not by Shakespeare but still clas-
sical.
"In this way, we're not doing the
same plays over and over. It opens
up the world to us in terms of
plays they produce. In five years,
I've done 10 new plays."
The production schedule allows
patrons to see two different shows
in one day. Each attending group
will receive one complimentary
ticket for the coordinator or bus
driver.
Ball's interest in theater
started at a Jewish day camp in
Massachusetts, where the entice-
ment for a 5-year-old was going
on boat rides with the older kids.
The stage experience whetted his
appetite for more, and the deci-
sion to act professionally was
made in his teen years.
Ball's first professional work
was in Michigan. For the Hope
Summer Repertory Theatre in
Holland, the actor appeared in The
School for Scandal, Camelot and
Strider.
"I've done a few tours and a
lot of regional theater; says Ball,
whose 150 productions reach
from The Misanthrope to Barnum.
"I've performed in 45 states:'
Ball, nephew of bluegrass fid-
JN
dler Fred Weisz, shares stage inter-
ests with his father, Jay, a retired
electrical engineer who appears in
community theater. His mother,
Erica, suggested they appear
together in a production of Mitch
Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie.
"I'm a member of Actors'
Equity, but I was able to do this
with my dad:' he says.
Traveling for work between six
and 12 months a year, Ball enjoys
photography for relaxation. This
past May, the actor, along with
his father and brother, traveled
to Arizona to pursue the camera
hobby they share.
After summer roles in
Michigan, Ball moves on to West
Virginia, where he will take on
two characters — Polonius in
Hamlet and The Man in Veronica's
Room. He follows up in West Side
Story staged in Chicago.
"In high school, I started car-
ing about telling a good story and
became less of a performer and
more of an actor; he says. "From
college on, I pursued what I con-
sidered to be the art of acting.
"Telling a deeper story, discov-
ering things about myself and
helping audiences discover things
about themselves and each other
are the things that I hope theater
can do.
"That's why I love Shakespeare.
He deals with fundamental ques-
tions about who we are, what we
want and what we care about:'
❑
July 23 • 2015
45