BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | The story of how “Jazz by Shakespeare” — an intriguing hybrid of a show to be performed at the Hudson Guild Theatre next month — came to be starts 59 years ago.
Duke Ellington had taken his band to Stratford, Canada for a Shakespearean festival in 1956. Impressed by both how warmly the band was welcomed and the abundance of the Elizabethan bard’s plays, Ellington was inspired to write a suite of music, explained Jim Furlong, director of arts for Hudson Guild, in a phone interview.
Working with his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn, Ellington created “Such Sweet Thunder,” named after a line from “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.”
In the ’90s, Furlong, working then as a freelance theater director, had an interest in Ellington and discovered the jazz maestro’s suite.
“I did some research, and I found the music, and I eventually ended up putting together a short piece incorporating scenes from the plays which inspired Ellington,” he recalled.
The show, which was done with pre-recorded music in the background, was performed at a few off Broadway theaters and the original Knitting Factory, a jazz club on Houston St., said Furlong.
Furlong, who has lived in Chelsea since 1998, also founded the Hudson Guild Theatre Company, a part of the nonprofit Hudson Guild that has served the neighborhood for over 100 years.
“The company was founded to provide [theatrical] opportunities for people in the Guild community, which consists of many low-income families in the housing projects — the Elliott-Chelsea Houses and the Fulton Houses,” he said.
The company, which puts on three productions a year, has at least one open casting call. It gives people the chance to learn about theater craft, and to work with professionally trained artists, Furlong said.
“Both to experience things if they’re interested on a practical level, but also just to be exposed to things as audience members,” he said.
Around a year and a half ago, the company applied to the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) for a grant for a multi-disciplinary work. He said he thought of Ellington’s suite, but this time around to produce the show with a “live jazz band, which had also been my dream for the piece.”
Furlong explained the company and Hudson Guild have had a relationship with Jazz at Lincoln Center for the past 10 years. The center has brought concerts to children who participate in the nonprofit’s afterschool programs.
“They’re very easy to work with, and very generous with time and personnel,” he said. “They were eager to help us with this project.”
Jazz at Lincoln Center became a part of the company’s NEA grant application, which strengthened it and helped to make it happen, Furlong said.
Furlong gave an example of the center’s generosity: the budget for the work only included funding for five musicians and “our contact there said, ‘Oh, you can’t do the Ellington harmonies with that few musicians, we’ll throw in three extra for the same cost.’ ”
He added, “They’re trying to spread the gospel of jazz, too, so this is a good opportunity — a community center with an underserved population to do that.”
“Jazz by Shakespeare” has a total of 13 numbers and is 50 minutes long.
“It’s a strange kind of hybrid piece,” said Furlong. “There’s no singing, first of all. Some of the music has just dancing, but most of the music has spoken word over it.”
The spoken word is from both dialogue and monologues from Shakespeare’s plays — some of which is spoken rhythmically to the music. There are three scenes from “Othello,” a couple of scenes from “Macbeth,” and scenes from “Hamlet,” “Julius Caesar,” “Henry V,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Antony and Cleopatra” and “Timon of Athens.”
The actors will be miked, but not the band, he said.
“It’s a very novel approach,” he commented.
For this incarnation, explained Furlong, dancing has been added. The company has been working with choreographer Matthew Westerby on several projects for the past few years. Westerby brought in four dancers from his eponymous company to perform.
Auditions were held for “Jazz by Shakespeare.” Two members from the cast are from Chelsea: Joan Ostroff, who will play Puck, is a senior that lives in Penn South, and Mystique Crosby, a visual artist who lives in the Fulton Houses, will make her company debut as Desdemona.
The NEA grant has enabled the company to have a higher budget for this production, he said.
“This piece is hard to explain to people until you see it, but it’s unlike anything we’ve done before,” Furlong said.
“Jazz by Shakespeare” will run select dates from Nov. 6–14 at the Hudson Guild Theatre (441 W. 26th St. btw. 9th & 10th Aves.). Admission is “pay what you wish.” Visit hudsonguild.org/event/jazz-by-shakespeare-2/ or call 212-760-9817 for more info.
