After I did an interview Friday afternoon in Forest Park, I burned a few hours writing at Kribi before heading to watch Forest Theatre Company’s free outdoor Shakespeare performance of “All’s Well That Ends Well” at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Moore-Dugal House in Oak Park at 5 p.m.
I stopped at the Aldi on Harlem for green grapes and a cherry kombucha and got to the venue early. I brought my own blanket, but there were several chairs set up for guests. Richard Corley — who founded Forest Theatre Company in 2021 with free outdoor Shakespeare — showed me to a seat front-and-center, though the actors faced all sides of the audience.
I’ve seen Forest Theatre Company plays before, but, before Friday, had yet to experience an outside Shakespeare production, let alone one backlit by such a beautifully historic house.
I remember disliking reading Shakespeare in high school but forgot how different, better even, watching it performed is.
“Shakespeare is meant to be listened to. It’s not really meant to be read,” said Michael Roush, who lives in the Moore-Dugal House and is renovating it, after the play. “I love that ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ isn’t done a lot. It’s a lesser-known play, so it’s great to get to see something new. It’s always ‘Romeo and Juliet.’”
It’s just like Corley told me in an interview before the production, that he intentionally chooses Shakespeare’s less-popular works, and that this is how Shakespeare intended his plays to be consumed: outside, during the day without microphones.
I thought the lack of microphones might make hearing the actors difficult, but the acoustics were shockingly good ,and I could make out most every word. Even if I didn’t understand all of them, the emotions and stage direction provided necessary context — the type my eyes couldn’t even have fathomed at age 16.
The only time acoustics were an issue was when a helicopter passed overheard, and the actors paused momentarily.
There was a small stage in front of the Moore-Dugal House, and actors exited the stage through a tall gate on the side of the house or via the front door. Actors even used the balcony upstairs during a couple scenes, projecting down across the yard in a way that did make me feel like I was in “Romeo and Juliet.”
“It took a lot of planning to manage all that,” Roush said of actors using the Moore-Dugal House as a backstage area. “It’s wonderful to have the audience here and I’m really excited to keep going for the next three weeks.” He added, “We’re already talking about other things we could do here.”