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Written by Harry Cherkinian, Contributing writer
Apr 7, 2011
James DeVita is known locally as a consummate classical actor, primarily for his many lead Shakespearean roles in Spring Green, Milwaukee and beyond.
To watch DeVita play himself and explain his profession in his one-man show “Acting Shakespeare” is to journey with the actor/writer to a whole new level of self-exploration, vulnerability and, ultimately, passion.
DeVita says he understood Shakespeare for the first time in 1983 after seeing Sir Ian McKellen’s one-man show of the same name. DeVita was then in his mid-20s and had dropped out of college twice. He was working on a fishing boat.
As much as McKellen inspired DeVita, the theater was unfamiliar to him, given his working-class background with its stigmatization of the stage. “I would feel I didn’t belong there,” he says of sitting in the theater, dressed up in his best, uncomfortable in his surroundings.
But seeing McKellen was a life-changing experience for DeVita. He entered the Professional Theater Training Program at UW-Milwaukee. And upon graduation three years later, he performed on the outdoor stage at American Players Theatre.
DeVita and director John Langs spent two years of research and 14 drafts on adapting McKellen’s play. While McKellen’s ideas and structures remain, DeVita has transformed the piece into his own, using McKellen’s experiences as humorous counterparts to his own. For instance, the esteemed British actor was easily accepted into a number of prestigious acting schools, while the young DeVita was repeatedly rejected.
DeVita moves easily playing multiple characters. He recreates the voice and physicality of characters ranging from his father to a female teacher who encouraged his writing talent. And then there’s Shakespeare himself. DeVita imagines what young Will sounded like as a child and as a young man discovering his talent and passion for writing.
Throughout the two-hour production (including intermission), DeVita holds our attention rapt. His storytelling brims over with illuminating anecdotes. We learn that Shakespeare was a teenage father at 18, that he invented 2,000 words (600 of which can be found in “Hamlet”), and that his son Hamnet died at age 11, three to five years before Shakespeare wrote “Hamlet.”
“Acting Shakespeare” gives us a glimpse into DeVita’s journey of discovery, both of himself and the world’s greatest writer.
“Acting Shakespeare” runs through April 17 in the Studio Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. Call 414-291-7800 or visit www.r-t-w.com.
