Delaware Shakespeare's Julius Caesar offers examination of tyranny

I first encountered Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” as many of us do, in my high school English class. I was known as a “theater nerd,” and many of my classmates playfully poked fun at me for my frequent (and unprovoked) proclamations of loving the Bard. But as we trudged through reading this particular play, I was becoming more aligned with my 16-year old classmates: “This play is boring!” I thought.

Fast forward to today. I am in my first six months of being the new artistic director of Delaware Shakespeare, and we’ve chosen to program “Julius Caesar” for our annual Summer Festival production at Rockwood Park. So what’s changed over the years to make me now appreciate this piece of work not only to produce it but also to perform in the show?

I was first introduced to Delaware Shakespeare in 2019 when I auditioned for their season.

While I didn’t book either of the major productions, David Stradley, then the producing artistic director, sent me an email saying he wanted to “keep me in the fold” and invited me to see “The Merry Wives of Windsor” that summer.

The performance I attended was a hot evening, and many of us in the audience had tried to attend the previous night’s performance which had been rained out. Even so, the audience was full of smiling faces, people enjoying their picnic snacks, and chattering in anticipation for the performance. It was electric. And as the actors got to work telling the story, I was quickly infatuated with Del Shakes. Not only was the performance hilarious and moving, but the overall community feeling I experienced in Rockwood Park that evening was second to none.

I continued to “stay in the fold” at Del Shakes; performing in Shakespeare, Poe and Fiends; serving as a teaching artist during 2020; and eventually becoming an Artistic Squad Member, which allowed me to have a deeper relationship with the organization and assist with some of the artistic programming.

In one particular season planning conversation with David and the other Squad members, I arrived with a very specific pitch in mind for a production. You guessed it. “Julius Caesar.”

Following my high school AP Lit course, I returned to the text I had once found “boring” through a college drama department course on the power of adaptations. I was fascinated by the modern takes on “Julius Caesar" we discussed in class that both exploded and explored the story on a much deeper level. We watched the Marlon Brando film from the 1950s and then compared it to clips from a 2012 Royal Shakespeare Company production that set the story in modern apartheid Africa. It was still the same text and the same story, but these two productions had entirely different impacts.

I realized there was much more to the story. “Julius Caesar” explores the full expanse of human relationships both intimate and public. It interrogates tyranny and the pursuit of power. And, most excitingly to me, it uplifts the power of rhetoric.

The language of “Julius Caesar” motivates the characters in all of their choices, and it moves audience members. It features some of Shakespeare’s most powerful and memorable lines such as, “he doth bestride the world like a mighty Colossus,” “the fault … is not our stars, but in ourselves,” and “Friends, Romans, countrymen, Lend me your ears.” These lines have stuck with me from that college course, and I decided that returning to this text was a must for my artistic endeavors in the near future. And so, in that fall 2023 Del Shakes season planning meeting, I came in swinging.

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I look forward to returning to the Summer Festival stage as Mark Antony, Caesar’s trusted confidant. But also, being able to program director Tai Verley’s specific vision with a gender-expansive cast as the first major production of my tenure has truly made my relationship with this play come full circle.

I sincerely hope you’re able to join us this summer as we come together as a community and tell our own version of “Julius Caesar.” And, hopefully, you can walk away thinking this is more just a “boring” story, but instead, it’s an opportunity to connect with those around us and embrace the humanity that has united us with these characters and the powerful language they bring to life.

“Julius Caesar” runs Thursday, July 18, through Sunday, Aug. 4 at Rockwood Park. More info can be found at delshakes.org

Mariah Ghant is artistic director of Delaware Shakespeare.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware Shakespeare's Julius Caesar offers examination of tyranny