Caesar with a twist

By Rich Hardwick
Staff Writer
The Georgia College & State University Department of Music and Theatre will be presenting William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.”
The play will take place at Russell Auditorium.
The assistant professor & coordinator of Theater, Walter Bilderback, will direct the play. Bilderback is a seasoned veteran of the theaer. He has worked in GC&SU”s Department of Music and Theater for the past four years.
“For the last four years, I’ve been a part of all the plays in some shape or form,” said Bilderback. “This is the tenth stage show that I’ve directed here, third Shakespeare. This year I directed ‘On the Verge’ in November. Last year I directed ‘MacBeth,’ ‘Mid-Summer’s Night Dream,’ and ‘Grapes of Wrath’.”
Senior, Jason Brown, playing the part of Julius Caesar, leads the cast.
Mark Anthony is played by J-Me McAteer. Junior James Davey plays Brutus. Brad Bergeron, who is a freshman, plays Cassius. Bergeron proved that he is able to play in big roles after his leading role in “A Beggars Opera..”
The plot of the play is about the murder of Julius Caesar and its aftermath.
The conspirators who murder Caesar feel that he will proclaim himself king. They decide to assassinate him in order to save the Republic of Rome.
Mark Anthony manages to turn the public opinion of the citizens of Rome against the conspirators. The death of Caesar leads to a civil war.
‘Julius Caesar’ is one of the best known plays in the world,” said Bilderback. “One of the main reasons that I chose this play is because it’s in the literature curriculum that’s in most of Ga schools.”
Shakespeare has been a big inspiration to Bilderback. This is the third play by Shakespeare that he has done at GC&SU. This is his first time that he has ever directed “Julius Caesar.”
“In my opinion he [Shakespeare] is the greatest single playwright that the English language has produced,” said Bilderback. “For my acting students I think that it’s important for them to have experience with Shakespeare, with his language, and the style of his plays.”
After directing ‘MacBeth’ and ‘A Mid-Summer’s Night Dream,’ Bilderback felt that ‘Julius Caesar’ was a good choice for his next play.
“I chose “Julius Caesar” for a number of reasons,” said Bilderback. “It was a Shakespeare that I have never done. It is one of the best plays ever written about political intrigue and about the tensions that can be among people who are involved in trying to achieve global change by any means, including civil war.”
Bilderback would like the audience to be intrigued by the play. With many adaptations to Shakespeare’s play including hiring a combat coordinator and using modern weapons and costumes, he has certainly tried to make the play unique and entertaining to the whole audience.
“I like to entertain people. That’s why I hired a fight coordinator,” said Bilderback. “I know it shocks the audience to see good stage combat with real swords. I also try to think of questions that would be in the audience’s minds. The play is very rhetorical in the sense that it raises a lot of questions. I also would like the audience to be convinced that Shakespeare is not boring. I would like them to be thinking about manipulation of public opinion in the world around us and the way in which certain people see certain events.”
The play opened on Thursday the 16th and will run to Sunday the 19th. The times for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are at 8 p.m. The Sunday performance is at 2 p.m. Also on Friday there will be a high school matinee at 10 a.m.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 19 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry