---

Vincent Carlson-Brown
Artistic Director,

Director - CW

This is Vincent's second year as Artistic Director, fifteen years with Nebraska Shakespeare. Previously he directed The Comedy of Errors and Titus Andronicus for On the Green, as well as Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar, and Twelfth Night On Tour. Most recently Vincent directed Melancholy Play for Creighton University.

He is also a fight director for many high schools, universities, and theatres in the region.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
I am sometimes approached with the struggle or the difficulty some people have with Shakespeare's work. The words, the language, the plots. How are we supposed to find all of that interesting and entertaining? If I am speaking my truth, I find that specific question exciting because I find that the search for "how" is actually very interesting in and of itself.

I had to read Shakespeare in high school just like everyone else, but instead of creating an aversion to his plays, those mandatory readings of Romeo and Juliet in Miss Carraher's freshman English class actually hit on something truly remarkable in me. I fell for his plays immediately; all the passions, joy and grief, wars, sword fights, the kissing too! We read parts of the play out loud, and we watched parts of the Fellini movie (Carraher tried to fast forward the naughty bits, but I had stolen the remote). And I think that that may have been the key, for me at least; the naughty bits, yes. But more importantly, hearing the words out loud and seeing the characters' gestures and actions. "Suit the action to the word" right? Shakespeare makes sense when we see it. That's what Shakespeare meant. Probably. I wasn't there, but we knew his plays weren't published until 1623, ten years after his death. So we understand that Shakespeare was writing his pages for the actors on the stage (maybe even the day of performance!). So the complexities and depth of meaning and the choices to be made on every word are there for the opportunity of performance. Maybe we set ourselves up for a lack of success when we have to read Shakespeare. How can we make the words, the language and the plots interesting? By performing them. And figuring how to perform them is what is so exciting for me.

The Complete Works is a play that attempts to make accessible all of Shakespeare's plays in a single evening. A brave endeavor, to be sure. But a challenge I was willing to undertake. I performed the play in high school, under Miss Carraher's direction in fact, with some of my best friends. It was a riot. I remember falling off the front of the stage. Probably intentionally. The script itself has seen some changes since then, as the original creators have adapted and changed their play based on their own experiences and those they've seen from around the world. They've recently re-issued a "revised" edition that collects the greatest hits from different performances. And they encourage each production to make it fun and funny and meaningful to each specific cast. So we've created a play that is exclusive to Nebraska Shakespeare, special to Omaha and 2014, and interesting and exciting for actors and (hopefully) audience alike.

What's the greatest way to access Shakespeare? Though great performances of Shakespeare. We hope you enjoy our endeavor.