On the scaffold - Scaffold Theater Project's open-air production of the 'Twelfth Night'

Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, Summer, 1998 by Anya Wassenberg

It all began two years ago with a production of the Threepenny Opera at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Greg Bride was involved with the production, along with Brian Lilly. One of Lilly's ideas was to start the play outside the theatre as the audience was coming in, with 40 beggars in a penny fair. Audiences loved it-because they became involved with the performers and the performance-and the production had an overwhelming response.

Scaffold Theatre Project is now in its second season with Bride as artistic director. 1998's major production was an open air Twelfth Night, staged on a unique set made up largely of (yes) scaffolding. The roof top plaza of Jackson square, a downtown office and shopping complex, was the venue. The "off the stage" element has become a series of "Rabble Rousings", performed both on their own and as a prelude to Twelfth Night.

Rabbling is theatre at street level. The scenes are scripted entirely by the three Rabble teams and their directors, and include an improvised element. Each centres around a theme and "universal prop" - this year, a kind of tool box. Gillian Stovel, director of the Etwenty 9 Rabble Team, explains one of her team's performances:

"We developed the structure, the direction. Our focus is on Saint Joan [from the play Saint Joan of the Stockyards] and how it links to Viola in Twelfth Night. There's a collective beginning, and a comic ending from Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan.

The scene became a one-act play.

The Rabble Rousings usually begin on the downtown streets. The Death Rabble Team put the Grim Reaper on a crosstown bus. They commuted to work crawling on the sidewalk, and five of the men put on their business clothes in front of a cheering crowd. Last year, there was the 29 Second Theatre-the amount of time it takes for traffic lights to change at King and James streets in the heart of the downtown core.

"[It got so] taxi drivers were jockeying for first position to see them," says Scaffold co-founder and Rabble Team director Jay Cormier.

For someone schooled in more traditional theatre, the differences are exciting. "It's completely unconventional," says Rabbler Pamela Tonkonah, "I've done mostly musical theatre before this. It's always structured. This is totally different-I can hardly wait."

With 360 [degrees] of distractions, Rabbling requires both focus and volume; how to make every word and gesture so big it doesn't get swallowed up in the bustle of a downtown street corner?

"It's amazing, as a performer, how animated you have to be," Gillian Stovel notes. As for the spectator/audience response, "I was incredibly thrilled. People actually made time to watch on their lunch hour, and it did lead to people coming to the main stage play."

Part of Scaffold's raison d'etre is to bridge the gap between student and professional theatre.

"Opportunity doesn't meet the potential of the theatrical community in Canada," Greg Bride comments. As such, the company is comprised mainly of actors in their twenties. It's part of Bride's philosophy that the actors be paid an honorarium. "Often, with community theatre, actors have to pay to belong to the group," Carm Iachelli (Malvolio in Twelfth Night) points out.

Re-animating and bringing attention to Hamilton's downtown - suffering from the common urban malaise of a flight of business and public apathy - is another of Scaffold's mandates. Judging from the interest that Scaffold has generated, (about 1500 people saw As You Like It) the company seems to be succeeding on that level, too.

Providing challenging yet accessible theatre is the third of Scaffold's goals. In its first year research indicated that about 30% of the audience for the mainstage production were people who had never attended live theatre before. It's a remarkable achievement all on its own.

The rooftop plaza of Jackson square is a combination of concrete and small islands of tended green, with a backdrop of skyscrapers. Twelfth Night competed with skateboarders, sirens and bad mufflers, and the odd drunken heckler. However, an ingenious sound and lighting system took care of any potential acoustic problems.

"Outdoor theatre is exciting and extremely different," says Twelfth Night director Paul Rivers. "Everything has to be bigger, faster and louder. The subtleties are lost. We had to work everything through carefully indoors [beforehand]."

The play was set in modern day Hamilton, with Duke Orsino (Mark Zenchuk) running a music store on the verge of bankruptcy and Olivia (Andrea Romaldi) as the proprietor of a cafe. Malvolio's "yellow stocking and cross garters" became a hideous golfing ensemble. The humour and fun of the script were captured, and Shakespeare's language delivered in a natural rhythm that was comprehensible even to those whose knowledge of the English language begins and ends with the late twentieth century. Partying as your business goes down the drain seems an appropriate image these days.

"Purists might not like it, but it fits the setting and the audience," Carm Iachelli believes.