Summer of Shakespeare
Long, hard hours worth it for cast
Tied down for the summer? Imagine an evening shift six days a week, with the odd afternoon thrown in.
And that’s not even the bad part. Every day, you’re bullied to the point where you can’t take it anymore.
Welcome to Jamie Lee Shebelski’s July and August. And she thinks it’s great.
As a veteran of five Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan seasons, Shebelski knows how the rhythm of the season plays out — what you can and can’t do in a day and how having a show over your head kind of clips your wings.
“It’s weird. It’s something that you need to get used to as an actor,” Shebelski said recently at the festival site while workers around her unloaded trucks and painted plywood floors.
“I’ve missed my family camping trip and there’s no summer holidays. But, on the other hand, you get to spend the whole summer on the banks of the river.”
Shebelski’s first Shakespeare summer was in 2005. She started at the top, playing Juliet her first time out. She’s got another landmark role this year as Ophelia, the girlfriend Hamlet cruelly mistreats to the point where she snaps.
“She’s bullied by everyone around her constantly, and used and abused.
“She’s a young girl who’s in love with someone who is unfortunately out of her league. And she wants to believe that love is enough to overcome the class differences. And maybe at a better time it might have, but their whole story just got so messed up.”
Protecting your voice and staying rested are priorities when you’re in a play all summer. Being emotionally ready for show after show makes it unlike any other job.
“It’s there, constantly. Especially with the tragedy, knowing that you’re going to have to kill yourself every night. It does affect your day. It’s always in the back of your mind. It tempers all your activities.
“People think we have these wild lives but it’s pretty tame.”
To brighten things up, Shebelski gets to watch the antics of Matt Burgess in As You Like It. The play starts with a wrestling match between a wrestler (Burgess) and Jaron Francis’s Orlando.
“Matt Burgess gets me every time. I can’t even watch it because I’m laughing so hard.”
For Francis, who produces a lot of independent theatre, a Shakespeare summer of acting means a rare haven of financial stability.
“Everybody loves to get the contract. It’s hard in Saskatoon, period, to get work, and in the summer there’s really only this and the Station Arts Centre in Rosthern.”
He doesn’t make overtures to the festival every year but did this time.
“Hamlet is my favourite Shakespeare play and I re- ally wanted to be involved this year.”
Francis is the hero in As You Like It but he is just as pleased to be playing Horatio in Hamlet.
“He’s got a perspective that none of the other characters do. That allows him some knowledge of things going bad before anyone else sees them going bad. So that’s cool to play around with. It gives me something really strong in every scene.”
This is Francis’ first time back at the festival in eight years.
“I forgot how much fun it is, actually. And we have a great cast this year.”