Ended Revels: The Absence Left by Georgia Shakespeare

Abstract:This essay discusses two Atlanta Shakespeare companies, Georgia Shakespeare (formerly the Georgia Shakespeare Festival) and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company (known locally as The Shakespeare Tavern) in terms of their different rehearsal approaches and budget structures. It argues that the former company (now defunct) invested in the region through its payment of higher actor rates and longer rehearsal periods, while the latter justified lower payments through a claim to early modern production practices which actually privilege author and text over the value of those who do the necessary work of production in the present. As such, the Tavern manifests the paradox of a regional company whose ideology and working practice is fundamentally anti-regional, while Georgia Shakespeare's commitment to rigorous, inventive work and support of its personnel finally proved fiscally untenable. The demise of Georgia Shakespeare has left a significant hole in the region's LORT arts scene which cannot be filled by smaller, less well-funded companies; as larger outfits have moved steadily toward more populist commercial fare, Shakespeare is being monopolized by culturally nostalgic and conservative operations.