Can't get enough Shakespeare? Oklahoma Shakespeare does Shakespeare in Shakespeare Gardens

Over the past year, Joshua Murray has taken on several classical roles with Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, from Edward Ferrars in "Jane Austen's Christmas Cracker" and John Knightley in "Emma" to Guildenstern in William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and Borachio in "Much Ado About Nothing."

But the recent University of Oklahoma graduate never anticipated playing The Bard himself.

"When I auditioned, being cast as Will Shakespeare didn't really occur to me, just for, I guess, historical reasons: Will Shakespeare was a white man, and I'm a Black actor playing Will Shakespeare," said Murray, who is playing the lead role in the long-running Oklahoma City theater's first production of "Shakespeare in Love."

For the second title of its 39th season, Oklahoma Shakespeare is staging "Shakespeare in Love" Aug. 10-20 outdoors in its Shakespeare Gardens in the historic Paseo Arts District. It is believed to be the Oklahoma premiere production of the stage version of the hit movie, which won seven 1999 Academy Awards, including best picture.

"Shakespeare oftentimes gets a bad rap, because people want to label him and his work as being elitist or only for rich white people. But the thing about Shakespeare is Shakespeare's universal. Shakespeare speaks truth about humanity ... and that is not the purview and property of any one race, class, gender, sex, color, creed or otherwise," said Oklahoma Shakespeare Executive Producer Tyler Woods, who is directing the show.

"So, when I started looking at who to cast in this play, I was looking for the best actor — period, full stop. ... And Joshua Murray has exceeded my expectations."

Adapted for the stage by Lee Hall from Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard’s Oscar-winning screenplay, the ambitious romantic comedy follows a young Shakespeare as he struggles with writer's block. He finds a muse in theater-loving aristocrat Viola De Lesseps (Abigail Schmitz), who defies the social mores that prevent women from performing on stage and disguises herself as a male actor to star as Romeo in The Bard's new play.  

Murray and Woods spoke with The Oklahoman about what theatergoers can expect from Oklahoma Shakespeare's production of "Shakespeare in Love":

Q: Does it seem fitting that Oklahoma Shakespeare is staging the Oklahoma premiere of this show?

Woods: It absolutely feels like the proper evolution of our company ... with the growth of Oklahoma Shakespeare and having our own (outdoor) venue. ... There's so much fight work, and that alone was a huge commitment. There's a lot of moving parts, but I think our company is the right company to do it. ... It's just a natural fit.

Q: I understand the play incorporates a lot of references to Shakespeare's works?

Murray: All these Easter eggs of little quotes from different Shakespeare plays are written into the script. It's funny how they mold that into the script — and it's not just Shakespeare who will be saying these things. It's the other characters, too, and it fits with how in this play Shakespeare is using his experiences ... in writing 'Romeo and Juliet' (which will be the next show Oklahoma Shakespeare stages after 'Shakespeare in Love').

Woods: It's also styled a lot like a Shakespeare play: You have characters that are tragic figures. There's comic figures, there's clowns, there's people that learn their lesson and that grow in this dynamic way.

Q: What is it about Shakespeare that makes his works so lasting and relatable?

Woods: There's a very nice book by Harold Bloom called 'Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.' It's the idea that humanity was just coming into a consciousness during the Renaissance ... and, out of feudalism, coming to humanity, coming to individualism, coming to thought, coming to truth and focus and enlightenment and revolution. All of these things that happen in the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries really changed the course of humanity forever. ... Shakespeare speaks to what it is to be human. Humanity is our birthright: We are human, and we should all strive towards helping one another to find the beauty and the capacity to fulfill a life of being healthy and successful, whatever that means for us.

Murray: I think it's his love language, his poetry, the way that he speaks. I feel like there are multiple layers in the things that he says. And we can interpret them in plenty of different ways and still not come to one single conclusion as to what a line truly meant, because of the way that we all interpret his love language.

Q: Oklahoma Shakespeare debuted its new Shakespeare Gardens outdoor venue two years ago. How has the organization developed that space?

Woods: We go outdoors at nighttime to rehearse, and it's actually quite lovely. ... When the sun goes down and you get a little breeze going, it's downright cool almost.

(Scenic designer) Edward Morris, we spoke with him and said, 'Hey, we want to get this second story built for our theater. Can you envision this for us?' And he came up with this great design, which you saw during (the season opener) 'Much Ado Nothing.' And that's something that, in years past, we just didn't have. ...  So, the balcony, the body mics, all these things are helping to make it a better experience.

And then there are the gardens themselves and the fact that everything is in bloom. So, we're enjoying the fruits of our labor, literally.

'SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE'

• When: Aug. 10-20.

• Where: Outside in The Shakespeare Gardens, 2920 Paseo. 

• Tickets and information: https://www.okshakes.org.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oscar-winning movie 'Shakespeare in Love' comes to OKC outdoor stage