The question “what makes a great leader?” is certainly timely for a play opening four days before Juneau’s municipal election, although director James Palmer isn’t making any endorsements when it comes to how he’s staging William Shakespeare’s battle-themed “Henry V” for Theater Alaska at various locations between Friday and Oct. 20.
“It’s often done as either a pro-war piece or an anti-war piece,” Palmer said during a break in rehearsals Wednesday. “I think it’s a war piece. I think it puts you right in the middle of it, and doesn’t make a case for it or against it. It just says, This is what war is.”
Palmer, based in New York City, has directed plays for a variety of companies nationwide. He said he’s long known Flordelino Lagundino, Theater Alaska’s producing artistic director, and accepted an invite to Juneau for his first-ever chance to direct a production of “Henry V” after putting on numerous other Shakespeare productions elsewhere.
James Palmer (left), director of “Henry V” for Theater Alaska, offers direction to actors and crew during a rehearsal Wednesday at the Filipino Community Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
“Henry V,” focusing on events related to the Battle of Agincourt in Northern France in the year 1415, depicts the namesake as new to the English throne as he ventures to the battlefield and defeats a superior French army. The cast of seven actors, most appearing as multiple characters, will be playing out the war tale in venues ranging from McPhetres Hall to the Mendenhall Valley Public Library — which Palmer said is consistent with Shakespeare’s concept of the production.
“He’s telling you he wants a small, tight-knit group of fierce actors to come and do this show,” he said. “He didn’t write it for a bunch of special effects and hundreds of soldiers. He wrote it for a pared-down group of actors who are lean and mean, and that aesthetic is also the theme of the play. Henry pulls together this disparate group of ragtag individuals and defeats the undefeatable army.”
While the size of the cast and venues for “Henry V” are modest, the sound for the production will be imposing with the sounds of battle and an originally composed soundtrack. Both are being provided by Matt Otto, who’s done previous sound work for Theater Alaska— but never seen “Henry V” — and said discussions about the prerecorded soundtrack ended up focusing on larger-than-life themes.
“We were talking about the references to God and religion, and the fact that it kind of feels like Henry’s anointed — not that he’s preordained to win the battle, but there’s an understanding that it’s successful because he’s chosen by God,” Otto said. “And so that inspired sort of a kind of choir sense to me, and put it in this big cathedral, to help invoke that kind of sense of the divine.”
As for putting the actors and audience into a field of fire — in an acoustic sense — Otto said the intent is to convey the worries of war to those inside the theater.
“I want them to feel like it’s dangerous without overpowering the text,” he said. “So I want the actors to be able to feel like they’re in trouble, but when they’re performing I want the sound to meet their performance.”
Connor Chaney (foreground) rehearses one of his three roles in Theater Alaska’s production of “Henry V” on Wednesday at the Filipino Community Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
The costumes won’t be authentic to the period, but the dialogue will remain true to its origins — although Palmer said he is making trims to what is a three-hour play when performed in its entirety.
Prolific local actor Enrique Bravo is cast in the lead role as Henry V, with the rest of the ensemble comprised of Lagundino, Natalia Spengler, Bryan Crowder, Caitlin O’Meally, Connor Chaney and Becky Orford.
The play debuts on Friday with a free performance at Juneau Makerspace. Other free performances are Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Alaska Southeast Egan Library and Thursday, Oct. 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library.
Pay-as-you-want performances at McPhetres Hall are scheduled from Oct. 3-20. Ticket and other information is available at www.theateralaska.org.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
