When was the last time you took in a play by William Shakespeare? Was it a shoestring high school production of Romeo & Juliet? Did you give up on The Bard after Julius Caesar in 10th grade English?
Well, there’s a community of Austinites who want to bring Shakespeare back into the city’s consciousness. Last weekend, three local theater companies came together for a Bard-themed smackdown called the Great Austin Shake Off.
“It speaks volumes that so many of you are here tonight supporting not one, not two, but three amazing Shakespeare companies,” Lindsay Palinsky, artistic director for The Baron’s Men, told a boisterous Saturday night crowd at the Scottish Rite Theater.
“Elizabethan power!” one theatergoer yelled in response.
The Baron’s Men performs in period-accurate Shakespeare productions, wearing handmade costumes. They were joined by Austin Shakespeare, the longstanding company behind a range of productions across the city, including annual free shows in Zilker Park. Also competing was a relative newcomer to Austin’s Shakespeare scene, Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project.
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Mike Crugnola with Walking Shadow Shakespeare Project performs a scene as Beatrice from “Much Ado About Nothing” during The Great Austin Shake Off.
For Stephanie Crugnola, the artistic director behind Walking Shadow, the goal is to make Shakespeare accessible and relatable for diverse actors and audiences with innovative, choose-your-own-adventure-style productions and thoughtful editing of his original text.
She said she wants people to experience the “rawness of human nature” through Shakespeare’s work.
“Shakespeare is so much more than what you did in high school English — and I say that as a high school English teacher for a very long time,” Crugnola said. “It is not the right venue to explore and experience Shakespeare.”
Crugnola and her husband Mike, who is also with Walking Shadow, had been discussing how a lighthearted head-to-head competition with the other Shakespeare companies in town might be a fun way to bring more people back to The Bard. At first, they thought of a WWE-style showdown, but when a performer from The Baron’s Men had the idea for the event’s name, the final vision fell into place.
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Julio Mella of The Baron’s Men performs as Falstaff in a scene from “Merry Wives of Windsor.”
“This is essentially a monologue competition inspired by the wholesome, friendly nature of the Great British Bake Off,” Crugnola said.
On Saturday, each company sent a representative onstage to perform a monologue across several genres. Audience members bought votes and cast them for their favorites in each round.
First up was the history round. Rachel West of Walking Shadow stole the show with her bold and imperious take on Queen Margaret from Henry VI. She pulled an audience member onstage to stand in as a shamed and defeated Duke of York.
“Where are your mess of sons to back you now?” she mocked him. When she stacked a Burger King crown on his head, peals of laughter rang from the audience.
Pablo Muñoz-Evers represented Walking Shadow for the drama round as a passionate, bilingual Romeo beside himself over his banishment from Verona. But Babs George took that round for Austin Shakespeare with a cold-blooded rendition of Cassius’ speech convincing Brutus to turn on Julius Caesar.
Though Julio Mella of The Baron’s Men raked in laughs during the comedy round with a swaggering, clownish Falstaff from The Merry Wives of Windsor, the win again went to Austin Shakespeare. Skylar Ewing performed as Lance from Two Gentlemen of Verona, using a stuffed dog and the shoes off her own feet as props.
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Skylar Ewing performs a scene from “Two Gentlemen of Verona” in the comedy round.
The evening culminated in a head-to-head between leaders of the three companies, each of whom performed their take on Hamlet’s existential dilemma: To be or not to be?
Crugnola brought a golden deck of tarot cards to the stage, shuffling them like a person desperate for insight into fate’s plans. But it was Palinsky who carried the final round with her classic rendition.
Each group had their moments of glory, but there could be only one overall winner for the evening. Ay, there’s the rub. In the end, it was Walking Shadow who carried the most votes.
Crugnola was delighted by the win, but mostly, she said, she was just happy to bring people together to celebrate “Billy Shakes.”
“Just to get a room of 250 people together who like Shakespeare for Shakespeare is huge,” she said.
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KUT News
Runners move from the stage to the audience to collect votes on the best performances during the competition.
The event raised more than $6,500 for future Shakespeare productions planned by the three companies, along with ATX Theatre, which helped with the event.
Crugnola says to stay tuned for another Shake Off in 2027.