Elizabethan Shakespeare Company performs at Stevens
HOBOKEN, N.J. — New York’s Elizabethan Shakespeare Company (ESC) makes its debut at Stevens Institute of Technology’s DeBaun Auditorium April 28-30 with Shakespeare’s The Comedie of Errors. The company, established in 1994, recreates the theatrical conventions and techniques for which Shakespeare wrote his plays.
The show opens Friday evening, April 28, and closes Sunday, April 30, with a matinee. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. for the Friday and Saturday performances, and curtain is at 8 p.m. For the Sunday matinee, doors open at 2:30 p.m. and the performance begins at 3 p.m. DeBaun Auditorium is located at 5th and Hudson Streets in Hoboken.
Tickets are $10, available in advance or at the door. A half-price discount is available for students and seniors. For more information or reservations, call (201) 216-8937 or visit the DeBaun Auditorium website at www.debaun.org.
The ESC is the only company in the United States solely dedicated to recreating the production practices of Shakespeare’s own company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, whose performances had more in common with a modern-day poetry slam than with the staid, ultra-prepared presentations most people associate with Shakespeare today.
The ESC emulates the actors of Shakespeare’s day, who performed under conditions utterly unlike those of modern-day theater. That is, no group rehearsal of the play (only the practicalities of entrances, exits, fights and dances were prepared in advance); no director (all cues for characterization and movement were found in the text); minimal sets; and the use of "cue scripts" (containing the actors’ own lines prefaced by a short cue) instead of copies of the full play.
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, like other Elizabethan companies, was a resident, full-time troupe of actors whose professional lives were spent working together. This kind of stable company structure is both the newest and the oldest approach to Shakespeare.
Leading the ESC is Clarke McCarthy. For more than 14 years, McCarthy has worked closely with Patrick Tucker, vice-chair of the Artistic Directorate of the International Shakespeare Globe Centre and chief developer of First-Folio cue script techniques.
A New York-based actress with a thriving career in voice-overs and instruction, McCarthy is one of the founding members of the Elizabethan Shakespeare Company. She holds degrees in English and speech communications from Penn State University.
Note to reporters: For further information about the Elizabethan Shakespeare Company, Clarke McCarthy can be reached through DeBaun Auditorium at (201) 216-8960.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University TM , lives at the intersection of industry, academics and research. The University's students, faculty and partners leverage their collective real-world experience and culture of innovation, research and entrepreneurship to confront global challenges in engineering, science, systems and technology management.
Based in Hoboken, N.J. and with a location in Washington, D.C., Stevens offers baccalaureate, master’s, certificates and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences and management, in addition to baccalaureate degrees in business and liberal arts. Stevens has been recognized by both the US Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Excellence in the areas of systems engineering and port security research. The University has a total enrollment of more than 2,200 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with almost 450 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as strategic partnerships with industry leaders, governments and other universities around the world. Additional information may be obtained at www.stevens.edu and www.stevens.edu/press.
