Measure for Measure

This "problem play" NEEDN'T BE! The ALL CLEAR! SHAKESPEARE project takes on the challenge. We eschew the obvious (but unsatisfying) solution of rendering the entire text into prose. Oops! - "Eschew?" Now that's the sort of word for which ALL CLEAR would find an alternative. But find an alternative for the rhythms and sometime rhymes of the poetry? No, No! Not with prose. So much of the pleasure would be lost. Keep the iambs; keep the pentameter; keep the rhymes and the couplets. Lose the obscurity! You might call this a translation -- but from English to English! This play -Measure for Measure - is not as popular with audiences as, say, Romeo and Juliet. But the twists and turns of the plot are even more fascinating, as the Duke finds a way to spy on his deputy's efforts to clean up Viennese vice. Having a convent postulant go to bed with a not-so-angelic-Angelo, Deputy Do-Good, is a bit novel! The language is rich; and the language is even brutal at times. But then the play itself is, in Harold Bloom's words, rancid, savagely bitter, blasphemous. Now wait a minute - Bloom also characterizes it as a "wild scherzo." Surely you're enticed!
About the Author: It all probably started when Eugene, as a monastery novice, was given the assignment of providing complementary "off-stage" material for some of the Bible stories. During that same time frame, he re-wrote A Christmas Carol for presentation at the Christmas "haustus" -- a monastic beer party in essence. A sketch - so we must skip to The Breadloaf School of English in Vermont, where acting and Shakespeare sort of came together for him. Now, on to Stanford (and MFA) and his stint with faux poetry under the faux authorship of Bluser Pacquing - throw in some composing: setting to new music the songs in Mother Courage. Skip to this mouthful: The Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, in Santa Maria, Calif. The acting and directing opportunities there solidified the direction of his life (well, the rest of it). Skip, skip, skip to Charlotte, NC - eight years as Artistic Director at the community theatre. What looked like a demotion to public schooll drama teacher, turned out to be the perfect fit; and the beginning of the ALL CLEAR! SHAKESPEARE project - now 20 years old! Humble beginnings at a Middle School with no budget for stage productions; but a teacher with a mission to take the students where they'd never been before. What else, but a production of Midsummer! Do some adapting - but no insulting dumb-down; compose a little music; borrow a few costumes -- and voila! Hippolyta's mom was the theatre reviewer for the Charlotte Observer - that didn't hurt! And here we are, ten re-writes later, three in print.