Building the Globe at UM
Shakespeare’s classic theater stage rises on campus
By Erika Fredrickson
There’s nothing more quintessential to the world of theater than a Shakespeare production. And, like all good theater programs, UM’s School of Theatre and Dance tackles the Bard every year or so, often with a modern twist.
In 2016, for instance, audiences witnessed “Romeo and Juliet” done with a nicely nuanced teen-pop flair. Other years have seen a 1950s James Dean-style treatment of “Hamlet,” a version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that spanned the ages (and fashions) from 1660 to the present, and a “Much Ado About Nothing” that was set in 1840s-era Mexico. As it turns out, the possibilities with Shakespeare are endless. And that’s why sometimes the best twist is to take a production back to its roots.
This past year, UM’s School of Theatre and Dance presented Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” in classic style. What makes the UM production extra special, is that it marked the kickoff of a new project for the department: the ongoing construction of a set that mimics London’s old Globe Theatre — the space where Shakespeare staged many of his plays.
“In the past 10 years, so many towns have built their own re-creation of the Globe,” says Alessia Carpoca, professor of theater and head of design and technology at UM. “And we thought, ‘Why not us?’”
Carpoca worked all spring to design the classic Globe replica, and now students and professors made it a reality. Besides its appeal as a throwback to Shakespeare’s time, the set is notable because it’s a permanent structure that UM can reuse in productions for years to come.
Its basic elements include a raised rectangle stage with a trap door and columns on either side of the stage that extend to a garden-style roof. The back walls consist of a second-story balcony and several openings that can be constructed as doors or windows depending on what’s needed for a given production.
Designing the set was no small feat. The original Globe was built in 1599 by Shakespeare’s theater company, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and it was a palatial three-story structure with surround seating and an actual roof supported by large columns. In 1613, the Globe was destroyed in a fire after a cannon misfired during a production of “Henry VIII.” It was rebuilt the following year and then torn down in 1642 by the Puritans to build tenements. It took centuries for its next incarnation, built in 1997. There are now Globe Theatres all over the world, in almost every major city.
UM’s version was created inside the Masquer Theatre, the black box space in the PAR/TV Center, which has constraints when it comes to scale. Designing stairs is particularly arduous because steps require a certain width-to-height ratio to make them safe and easy to climb. Carpoca had to keep readjusting the Globe model she was working with in order to condense a serviceable staircase, raised stage and trap door into a 17-foot-high room.
“In set design, there are always technical challenges, but this was the first time where an inch made a difference,” Carpoca says. “With every other design in theater, what’s it going to matter if you make something an inch smaller? But here it did.”
The Globe replica is being built by UM technical director Brian Gregoire with help from students. When it comes to the theater department’s sets, Gregoire acts as engineer, construction foreman and carpenter, deciding how best to achieve the design and mentoring the students through the process. Usually, the sets they build aren’t meant to last.
“A lot of the sets we do for the school are one-offs,” he says. “We build it, it goes into place, and then we tear it down, never to be seen again.”
For the Globe replica, Gregoire had to reconsider the materials, swapping in steel for wood in some cases and generally approaching the set like he would for a touring company, which must rebuild their sets on new stages night after night. The set will be built in sections, so that it can be broken down and reconstructed easily. Those sections will be housed in storage at Fort Missoula inside old cell blocks.
The permanent nature of the Globe replica offers a few important benefits: It cuts down on waste and saves money. But one of the most valuable aspects of the Globe replica is its potential for education. It’s a structure many Shakespeare festivals use, and knowing how to work with it gives tech students a leg up when they leave UM for a career (see sidebar).
John Kenneth DeBoer, a UM associate professor and director for “As You Like It,” says he had the good fortune as a student to take classes from a teacher who was a set designer as well as a theater historian.
“She spent a lot of time pointing us to the ways the stage influenced the literature,” he says. “Your staging is a constraint to the kinds of stories you can tell, so working within those constraints allows writers to awaken their imaginations.”
UM’s never had a space that really captured the kind of picture box for which Shakespeare wrote his plays, so the Globe replica offers that opportunity.
“The tendency right now is to bring Shakespeare to modern audiences and to give it a modern concept and design,” DeBoer says. “And we’ve done a lot of that, and we’ve done it quite successfully. So I was thinking with ‘As You Like It,’ ‘Let’s forget about all of that and try to go back to the roots of his work.’”
Students started building the set as soon as they arrived for fall semester. For some, it was a little like getting thrown into the deep end of the pool.
“Some people have amazing skills when they come — maybe they’ve worked on a farm,” Carpoca says. “Then there are people who have never held a hammer, and they’re all in the same class. And they need to make costumes and build sets for a Shakespeare play in a month. That’s part of the fun and part of the importance of the practical training. It takes a lot of time and a lot of patience, but it’s very rewarding because you see results immediately. After two weeks you have something tangible.”
To complement the hands-on experience, students take art history classes in which they learn about the sets they’re building. They got a precise sense of what the Globe Theatre is and the reasons behind the design. There’s also a talk back at the end of the show when students can ask questions about the set and critique it.
The set was completed for the production of “As You Like It,” but Carpoca says other features can be added onto it over time. She hopes that in the future, the set can even be put up downtown or in a park where it will get greater community exposure.
It also will provide an opportunity for all students in the theater department to immerse themselves in the tradition of Shakespeare and gain a deeper understanding of how a space like the Globe can cultivate good theater, no matter the era.
“The main idea is to go back to the roots, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do more modern interpretations,” Carpoca says. “It is quite flexible if you’re creative. And that’s how Shakespeare used the space. It is about imagination.”
UM Theater Tech Offers Opportunities
Actors get a lot of attention in the world of theater, but those who work behind the scenes reap major rewards when it comes to a career in the field. Technical theater students have a high placement rate both in terms of entering graduate school and in the job market.
Carpoca, who received a BFA in scenography and art history at the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome, gained invaluable hands-on knowledge of set design while earning her MFA at Northwestern.
“Every program in the U.S. has a physical theater and generally more than one,” she says. “They usually have a large proscenium stage and then also a black box like the Masquer. So you get to experience working in different types of spaces, and that’s useful. You can learn every technique you want.”
At UM, tech students hit the ground running as soon as they enter the program, doing hands-on projects (like the Globe replica) and often working their way up from being a design assistant to designing their own shows.
Carpoca said 100 percent of UM’s technical theater students work summer jobs in their field (if they choose to), mostly in summer stock companies that come to interview them during the department’s “professional weekends” held in late January. Last year, 25 companies from around the Northwest (and a few from the East Coast) showed up to interview UM students, including Alpine Theatre Project, Bigfork Summer Playhouse, Fort Peck Summer Theatre, Grandstreet Theatre and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.
A large majority of students work for at least one company for multiple summers, and some of them keep working for these companies for many years after graduation in different capacities, often starting from a tech position then going into design. A lot of times they end up freelancing, working for multiple companies throughout the year since those companies often hire on a show-by-show basis. And even major companies, such as the Santa Fe Opera or Oregon Shakespeare Festival, hire theater techs on contract, but still, those jobs are plentiful when you have the skills to do them.
“Except for the students who insist on staying in Missoula,” Carpoca says, “all others are able to work in the field immediately upon graduation.” •
