Calm, tranquil, quiet. Besides the chatterings of a few techies doing last-minute painting, the Loeb Mainstage is empty two hours before dress rehearsal begins. The seemingly lifeless theater is like a bear in winter, hibernating until the next performance.

The stage is set for a production of Shakespeare's "Richard III," a joint project of students and visiting drama professionals--a unique mix that only find its way to the Loeb every other year. For this show, Tina Packer, the founder of the renowned theater company Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox has collaborated with students on all aspects of the production.

The stage will come to life in mere hours, but it already shows hints of 15th-century England. Cocoa-shell mulch that crunches underfoot covers the stage floor. Three huge rocks--actually large chunks of styrofoam--lie on a large platform beside the main part of the stage. A curved and seemingly rickety ramp meanders its way from a height of about 10 feet down to the stage.

And it seems like ghosts or ghouls could emerge through the centuries from the dark "pit" in the center of the stage. Like a bear on the verge of spring, the theatre is calm and restful, but ready to roar.

Soon an epic play spanning three hours, two intermissions and four centuries will bring the set to life with emotion and intrigue. The "Richard III" cast will bring medieval London to life with the tale of a lifelong fight for the English throne.

Playbill

"Richard III," which runs today through May 8, is the third Visiting Director's Project (VDP)--a Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) program that hosts a professional director at Harvard every other spring. Richard's cast and crew rave about the program because it has allowed them to receive first-class theater instruction normally lacking in a Harvard education.

"[Packer] became our first choice because of her reputation," says co-producer Seth C. Harrington '00 who was involved in the search for a director.

Last September, Packer decided to take a break from her position as artistic director at Shakespeare & Co. to direct "Richard III." She brought to Cambridge techniques she learned while studying drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and in many productions since.

Packer invited some of her assistants at Shakespeare & Co. to help with the VDP production. Professional directors, voice coaches and fight choreographers have helped train the cast, according to Joe C. Gfaller '01, who plays the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Ely and the Duke of Norfolk.

"The play becomes as much about the process as the final performance itself--so that along the way you feel as if you are working as much towards refining a craft as you are towards mounting a play," Gfaller says. When the play opens tonight, the audience will be treated to refined Shakespearean "lamentations" and a full-fledged battle scene.

But Shakespeare in particular is about the script itself, according to cast members, and Packer has emphasized the importance of focusing on the words. To this end, she used a technique called "dropping in," that was new to most cast members.

The technique comes into play before the actors have memorized their lines. Packer took their scripts and fed them the words slowly--even one at a time--while asking them questions about their characters. Cary P. McClelland '02, who is the show's assistant director along with Monica A. Henderson '99, says the technique means that actors memorize their lines along with mental associations that help them play their characters.

"You become very intimately involved with the text which makes it much easier to memorize lines because you've spent so much time with the words," Gfaller says. Dropping in pulls meaning out of the individual words instead of imposing meaning on them, he says.

"Dropping in was a trip," says Peter D. Richards '01, who plays Lord Hastings. "It really helped you get a hold of your character early on."

Several actors said that at times the process could be overwhelming since it demands so much of their own emotion. Frances C. Chang '00, who plays the Duchess of York, says she couldn't help crying the first time she tried "dropping in."

"It's very intense," says Benjamin L. Kornell '02, who plays Lord Stanley, the Earl of Derby. "It works very well for Shakespeare because Shakespeare is as much about the words themselves as about acting."

The intense learning experience these actors have had with the VDP highlights what they say is a gap in Harvard's curriculum.

With no theater department or concentration, Harvard undergraduates mainly rely on each other for guidance. The VDP is one of the few opportunities for Harvard undergraduates to work with more experienced theatrical veterans or professionals.

"There are not enough chances for undergraduates to actually do a show with professionals," says VDP Coordinator Jessica K. Jackson '99, who has been working on the 1999 project for two years.

Although Harvard offers students a plethora of performance opportunities, the lack of instruction is a "trade-off." Chang says the VDP has been a refreshing change from her normal theatre involvement.

"With student directors, no matter how good they are, you tend to second-guess them a bit," she says.

Students involved in "Richard III" say the production has taught them the value of training, a value they will bring to their future student-run endeavors.

"The more professional training we can get, the more Harvard is going to benefit from the actors and artists that have their training here," says Marisa N. Echeverria '00, who plays King Richard. "I really respect the VDP."

On the Scene

"Richard III" has demanded longer hours from its cast and crew than most Harvard productions. The students say the show has become their life, overwhelming their academic and social lives.

"The long hours started much earlier than they do for normal plays," says cast member Ahana Kalappa '01, who plays the Marquis of Dorset.

The first read-through was in the first week of March, and rehearsals began the week before spring break. During the past two weeks, they have been at rehearsal, on-call from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. every night.

Thandi O. Parris '02, who plays Henry, Earl of Richmond and the Second Murderer, says her social relationships are either nonexistent or rapidly deteriorating because she doesn't see other people besides the Richard cast. But she accepts this because she "loves the cast and the theater experience."

"You deal with it," she says. "Everyone wants this production to be really good...we want to see the results."

Some of the actors say the play is more of a priority than their academics. Most say they can catch up on their classes after the curtain has closed for the last time.

"This is a job, more so than my schoolwork," McClelland says.

But despite, the short-term shift in the actors' priorities, Kornell says the play forces him to use his free time well.

"It's harder to keep in touch and harder to keep up on your studies...but when you do get to study or hang out with your friends, you're more focused on your studies" and value your time with your friends more, he says.

Last Sunday was the longest day of rehearsal. It was the beginning of "wet tech"--in which technical elements such as light and sound were slowly introduced into the play. At noon the cast commenced the three-hour production, which dragged on until midnight because of stops and starts to coordinate lighting and sound.

Some actors express dissatisfaction with having to be at rehearsal all day, even when their character was not on stage.

"There's no reason why I should be here tonight," Parris says as she snuggled under a blanket in the Loeb's "Green Room" on Sunday night. She soon went back to sleep.

Short-Staffed

The "Richard III" crew was forced to work longer hours than usual in part because of a campus-wide shortage of students experienced in theater tech.

Set designer Daniel O'Connell Scully '99 became a "de facto" technical director when a permanent one could not be found. He estimates that he has now spent at least 200 hours working on the show.

Co-producer Harrington attributes the failure to find a permanent technical director to a shortage of "TDs" on campus.

"For the most part, most of the people that could have done it were already busy," he says.

As a result, Scully, co-producer Elizabeth H. Feakins '99, Harrington and others picked up the slack in building the set.

"While we don't have a TD per se, we do have people fulfilling the roles of a TD in addition to their other roles with the show," Harrington says.

Starting with load-in on April 18, tech work had been done at the Loeb. But the production process began long before that. The producers had an initial meeting with Packer in December, and Scully met with Packer in January to discuss potential designs.

Harrington says he has spent six to 10 hours working on the show each day during the past two weeks. Though Harrington is not "on call" at specific times like the actors, he said he has to be prepared to do something for the show at all times.

"Producers are like a doctor, you're on call 24 hours," seven days a week, he says.

In the Wings

When the curtain rises tonight, the actors on stage will not be the only ones with a hand in the production. Even though "Richard III" has stadium seating, there is still a production team in the wings. From the producers and stage manager to the light ops, there are over 70 members of the "Richard III" production team.

But while the actors have been working together since March, most of the crew joined only in the past few weeks.

What is it like to mesh together the cast and the crew late in the game?

"It's like when you bring a picture you drew in school home to your parents and you want them to approve of it," says set designer Scully. "You always like someone to validate your work," namely the actors, in this case.

The set is one of the more risky aspects this show, which features stadium seating, an exit beneath the stage (the aforementioned "pit") and cocoa-shell mulch, posing as dirt, on the floor.

According to Scully, stadium seating has not been used at the Loeb since about 1980.

"It presents a whole new set of problems [in execution,]" he says.

With stadium seating, the actors are surrounded by the audience on both sides.

"It's sort of giving the Mainstage the feeling of a black box," Gfaller says. Black box theatres are flexible in design and can change to fit almost any type of set. Like Harvard's Loeb Ex, most black boxes host experimental, short-run productions.

Actors say the stadium seating was a challenge because they need to make themselves heard on all four sides. Some say the setting makes them feel vulnerable, since they can not hide from the audience's eyes.

"It's a real challenge to be both subtle and [be] heard at the same time," Juri Henley-Cohn '00 says.

"Stadium seating] makes me think big," Henry D. Clarke '00 says. "You have to talk out of your back, you really do."

After becoming accustomed to the set, some actors called it "thrilling."

"I like having people all over the place," Clarke adds. "Hopefully it will make the audience feel like more a part of the show."

Tripletake

In "Richard III," the title role of Richard is actually split up among three different actors, including one woman, Echeverria.

"I've actually really enjoyed it," she says of the traditionally male role." I just try to get really physically and mentally charged and have a good time."

Echeverria says her character is very energetic.

"He's really wily and resourceful and intelligent and he's on his toes all the time," she says, adding that Richard has many physical attributes both men and women can relate to, such as seduction and manipulation.

"Richard has a lot of seduction inherent in him," she says. She says she "can play with the seduction of Buckingham" a major male character, as well as with a feminine side.

Monteleoni also plays Richard, in the first part of the play. He says that "it's scary to start the play off" as Richard and then pass off the character to someone else.

He says the three actors did not work together while developing their characters.

"It's really interesting to see the different takes on the Richards," he says.

Monteleoni adds that he loves "reacting to the other two Richards."

"It's especially strange because I get to watch on stage as Ratcliff and react to this character that was me," he says.

"The three of us have really gone and found our own character," says Clarke, who plays Richard in the last third of the play. He adds that Packer "gives us a lot of autonomy."

Many of the actors praise Packer's open directing style.

"The way Tina works is so natural," says Francesco Brazzini, a 27-year-old cast member and professional actor from Florence, Italy, who plays Sir James Tyrrel. "She's confident about the text and about our sensibility about the text."

According to McClelland, Packer has let every actor's character grow and only recently intervened, unlike other directors cast member have worked with.

Packer introduces her ideas in an open-minded way, Monteleoni adds.

"[She] tells me the large directions she wants to go in," he says. "I think that's very liberating."

In Love With the Bard

One of the more exciting aspects of the show for the actors is the experience of performing Shakespeare.

Shakespeare is an amazing poet who makes the meaning of every line clear, in contrast to modern drama, where a lot is left unsaid, Henley-Cohn says.

"He makes it clear for you what you need to do," he says about incorporating the language and emotions Shakespeare wrote into his own character.

"Shakespeare has a way of drawing you into the time and place," whereas more modern plays tend to lose that illusion, Parris says.

The actors say the language is a treat because it is new to them. Some have performed Shakespeare before, but they say his writing is timeless and always a thrill.

"Shakespeare is basically a discovery process," says Kornell. "I don't know if anyone will ever discover every meaning Shakespeare had, but that's what's exciting about it."

Curtain Call

The next week of performances will be exciting and exhausting, the culmination of a triumphant effort. But the "Richard III" cast and crew say they will miss the unique process of putting on this play as much as the thrill of performing before a live audience.

"I dread having to leave knowing I have to go back to this other life," says Henley-Cohn about his academics.

"In terms of my [personal] education this year, this is one of the high points," he says. "This is what I came here for," to get this type of experience, he says. "I've learned fathoms more here than I could have in the classroom this semester."