Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor
April 4-7, 2018Van Fleet Theatre, Columbus Performing Arts Center
Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor was first printed in 1602 and reprinted in 1619, before it appeared in 1623 in a version that was nearly twice as long. (A surviving copy of the second quarto is held in the Stanley J. Kahrl Renaissance and Restoration Drama Collection of the Ohio State library.) Though the play has been a perennial favorite with audiences throughout the intervening centuries, these performances have always been based on the Folio version of the play. This naturalization of the Folio as the “complete” or “authentic” version of Merry Wives has caused critics to make specious and often inaccurate claims about the provenance of Shakespeare’s plays in print and the performability of the earlier text onstage. Characterized as the baddest of Shakespeare’s so-called “bad quartos,” the 1602 play text has endured little from scholarship but scorn. The Lord Denney's Players' student-driven production in April 2018 redeemed Q1’s crossed-fortune by giving it an opportunity to stretch its legs upon the boards.
And make no mistake, this production was not only student-driven, but student flown, ridden, piloted and steered. Alongside their work learning lines, practicing choreography, designing costumes, sets, sound, makeup and music, undergraduate students collaborated on promotional material, organized ticket sales and commissioned poster artwork, constructed props and managed spreadsheets. They did all this while simultaneously completing the written work of an upper-level undergraduate course in Shakespeare specializing in thorny textual problems and the eccentricities of early modern book publication, allowing the laboratory space of the theatre to inform their reading of primary and secondary material. As a result of their long and deep investigation, these students’ knowledge of the Q1 text of the play surpasses that of all but a handful of Shakespeare scholars, many of whom traveled many miles in order to come see the production and participate in a conference on this text of the play.
“This class taught me that there is so much more to Shakespeare than just reading, especially when it comes to reputations behind quarto and folio versions of the plays. This was something I had never heard of before and really made Shakespeare seem like a human playwright, rather than a god-like figure we “have” to study as students”.
- Becca Nunemaker
Videos↓
Full Production: Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor
Video Discussions:
Producing Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor For The First Time
Privilege in Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor (March 20, 2018)
Rehearsal Footage:
Cast and Crew↓
CAST
- Mistress Ford—Kallen Alsdorf, sophomore majoring in English and History of Art
- Mistress Page—Hanna Mandernach, senior studying English on the pre-education track
- Sir John Falstaff—Levi Prudhomme, third year studying Comparative Literature, Spanish, and Computer and Information Science
- Master Ford—Isaiah Johnson, third year studying Theatre and Political Science
- Master Page—Joey Hoffmann, third year studying English
- Mistress Quickly—Hannah Woods
- Doctor Caius—Conner Limbaugh, junior studying English.
- Justice Shallow—Keir Lamont, Program Manager for the Program on Data and Governance at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
- Parson Hugh Evans—Antony Shuttleworth, former lecturer in the English Department
- Master Slender—Joseph Glandorf, second year majoring in Philosophy and Political science
- Host of the Garter—Ellie Rogers, graduate Theatre Alumna.
- Anne Page—Madison Task, third year English major with a French mino on the pre-education track
- Master Fenton—Joseph Flynn, second year studying English with a specialization in Creative Writing
- Ensign Pim—Shanna Smith Jaggars, Director for Student Success Research for ODEE at Ohio State
- Corporal Nim—Jake Cody, junior majoring in English and minoring in Professional writing, and Music, Media and Enterprise
- Bardolph—Hannah Nelson, second year English and Anthropology major
- John Rugby—Pablo Tanguay, Undergraduate Program Manager in the English department.
- John Simple—Natalie Dalea, fourth-year studying English and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
- Falstaff's Page—Bri Clemens, English and professional writing major
- Children of Windsor—Mary Dolley-Kinsey, double major in English and Economics
- Children of Windsor—Miriam Nordine, second year majoring in English with a minor in Education and Studio Art
- Chorus—Hannah Grace, senior studying Chinese and International Studies with minors in Geographic Information Science and English
CREW
- Director—Sarah Neville, an assitant professor of English at OSU
- Assistant Director—Clara Davison, third year studying Arts Management and Business with a specialization in Philanthropy.
- Stage Manager—Heather Frazier, PhD candidate in English literature
- Assistant Stage Manager—Mary Dolley-Kinsey, double major in English and Economics
- Assistant Stage Manager—Hanna Mandernach, senior studying English on the pre-education track
- Assistant Stage Manager—Levi Prudhomme, a third year studying Comparative Literature, Spanish, and Computer and Information Science
- Dramaturge—Elizabeth Steinway, a PhD candidate in the Department of English
- Assistant Dramaturges—Hanna Mandernach, senior studying English on the pre-education track
- Assistant Dramaturge—Levi Prudhomme, a third year studying Comparative Literature, Spanish, and Computer and Information Science
- Choreographer—Kim Wilczak, a licensed landscape architect and choreographer
- Assistant Choreographer—Madison Task, a third year English major with a French minor on the pre-education track
- Costume Designers—Tiffany Evans, English major
- Costume Designers—Natalie Dalea, fourth-year studying English and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
- Costume Designer—Danielle Meller, junior studying Biology
- Costume Designer—Hannah Woods, second year English major
- Makeup Artist—Melissa Theodore, senior studying English Education
- Fight Choreographer—Jason Speicher, third year studying theatre with an emphasis in directing
- Music Director—Hannah Grace, senior studying Chinese and International Studies with minors in Geographic Information Science and English
- Sound Engineer—KP Boadu
- Set Designer—Ashton Ansel, sophomore studying English on the pre-Education track
- Set Designer—Jake Cody, junior majoring in English and minoring in Professional Writing, and Music, Media and Enterprise
- Set Designer—Melissa Theodore, senior studying English Education
- Props Master—Miriam Nordine, second year majoring in English with a minor in Education and Studio Art
- Promotions—Bri Clemens, English and professional writing major
- Promotions—Becca Nunemaker, senior majoring in English with a minor in Creative Writing
- Promotions—Maxwell Steele, fourth year English major
- Front of the House—Isabel Ciminello, senior studying English
- Front of the House—Danny Reese, senior majoring in English with a minor in Sociology
- Conference Secretaries—Alli Gill, fourth year English major
- Conference Secretaries—Sam Schrama, English major minoring in Communications and Professional Writing
Conference↓
‘Wives may be merry, and yet honest, too’: Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor in Context
A joint undergraduate and faculty conference held alongside our production, ‘Wives may be merry, and yet honest, too’: Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor in Context was held April 6 and 7, 2018. The conference's program featured a keynote address from Professor Jean Howard (Columbia University) and talks by David Lindley (University of Leeds), Helen Ostovich (McMaster University), Richard Dutton (Ohio State/Queen’s University-Belfast), James J. Marino (Cleveland State University), Adam Zucker (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) and Musa Gurnis (independent scholar). Fourteen undergraduate students presented their current scholarly work on medieval and early-modern women through a variety of topics, offering fascinating arguments such as the Trobairitz, Elizabeth Cary, evolutionary perspectives in literature, Antony and Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth and printed drama.
For our efforts in bringing the 1602 quarto text of Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor to life for the first time since the play had been printed, the City Council of Columbus awarded the Lord Denney's Players a Resolution of Expression commending our production.
Paratexts↓
Scholarship: David Lindley. The First Quarto of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Reviews: Shakespeare Play Returns After 400 years for show at Ohio State - Scott Good