Press
Exploring Boise’s Theater Community
Back in 1864, Boise was barely a blip on the map. And yet it had theater: The Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman reported that the Idaho Saloon had been converted to accommodate traveling stage performers. When visiting actors failed to travel to Boise in numbers great enough...
Hamlet at the Old Penitentiary — Shakespeare from the Bones
There has been a particular delight in setting up this “Folk Hamlet.” Spending the past month readying for tonight’s (yes, tonight’s!) performance for you (yes, you, stranger). We have been gathering tinder, hewing logs that will burn, and rolling the stones that will...
Boise Bard Players bring low-cost Shakespeare to Treasure Valley
When Chris Canfield saw Shakespeare at the Globe theatre in London, he knew some of it had to come home to Idaho with him. He was awestruck by the simplicity of the performance of Macbeth, even if it was on one of the world’s most famous stages. There were no...
A Shakespearean Sit-Com
As a young child, Taylor Hawker would run up to the altar during sermons and mimic the priest. The churchgoers loved it and Hawker’s mom thought he would become a priest one day. But, really, the young boy just loved having a “captive audience” to perform in front of....
Romeo and Juliet — Or: Come Crush A Cup of Wine (Review)
In the tap room of the Mad Swede Brewing Company, two households, both alike in dignity, mingle in passion and laughter. The Boise Bard Players' neat, compactly staged Romeo and Juliet is delightful and honest, not at all a paint-by-numbers tragedy but something fresh...
Boise Bard Players’ Production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Review)
I finally got to see the Boise Bard Players’ production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and wow, it was really, really good! Seriously, check it out this weekend if you can, because you’ll not have seen this story this way before. The story is probably fairly...
The Tempest — Or: Let Your Indulgence Set Me Free (Review)
A wall and words are all you need to put on a show. Boise Bard Players, a gorilla tribe of actors used to putting up Shakespearean epics in the backrooms of breweries have stepped out into the sun, into JUMP’s Amphitheater, to put on The Tempest. Neatly cut but a...
Anthony and Cleopatra — Or: How Not to Make an Asp of Yourself (Review)
Shakespeare gets a lot of flack for being precious; swaddled in the cotton of industry, academia, and sanctity. And while his plays deserve all due reverence for their ability to, through warp and woof of plot and language resonate behind an audience’s sternum four...
Richard III — Or: One Kingdom, Will Trade For Horse (Review)
Dickie gets a bad rap. Sure he murdered two kids (what monarch hasn’t) and maneuvered a whole host of folk into getting their heads chopped off, but in the two years of his rule he opened collages, protected the poor, balanced the budget, and was as fair and decent a...