ELY — A new theater festival in Ely aims to help audiences connect with Shakespeare during the inaugural Great Nordic Shakespeare Festival starting Friday.
The festival, organized by the Northern Lakes Arts Association, is staging a production of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" alongside a production of the one-man show "Every Brilliant Thing" by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe, trading off performances on the Vermillion Fine Arts Theater stage every weekend until Feb. 2.
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Northern Lakes Arts Association Executive Artistic Director Ian Lah is the momentum behind the new festival. Lah grew up in Ely and was involved in the arts throughout his elementary and high school years. Both of his parents are teachers who instilled in Lah a love for the written language.
"The last contract that I had booked before COVID started was as a company member at the Texas Shakespeare Festival, which COVID quickly knocked out," Lah said. "But in the back of my head, I've wanted to dive back into Shakespeare. I mean, I love producing musical theater, but it's always been something I've wanted to do again."
Lah heard about a grant from Arts Midwest and the National Endowment for the Arts that promotes Shakespeare in the community and immediately decided to apply. To qualify, Lah needed to commit to holding events that help people get better in touch with Shakespeare and his language and connect the festival with local schools.
"I think I only ever got to see one piece of Shakespeare when I was in high school," Lah said. "But I think that northeast Minnesota deserves to have great Shakespeare. So we're bringing the production to schools across the area over the next month, from Silver Bay to Duluth to Virginia and here in Ely. And this should hopefully be the start of our connection with the schools as we continue on."
While waiting to see if he received the grant, Lah started subtly auditioning actors as he reached out for other shows. The grant requires that the actors in the show are professionals to ensure the Shakespearean work is being done to the best of its ability, according to Lah. Some of the actors are from as close as Wisconsin, and some are from farther out, such as New York, Florida and Tennessee.
"My biggest pitch was that it's the 'coolest' Shakespeare festival in America, mostly because it could be negative 40," Lah said. "I said you have to experience a winter up here at least once, and most of them have been up for it."
Lah said most of the actors in "Romeo and Juliet" have been staying in a homestay situation and have been willing to go out to see frozen waterfalls in the area. Several of them saw the Northern Lights for the first time last week.
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"And they were just filled with this intense awe and wonder over it," Lah said. "Being able to provide these actors with this connection to the natural world while getting to do their work, that's a win."
Lah said that he picked Romeo and Juliet as the main Shakespeare production for the festival because it's a familiar play for most people.
"You have to read it in English class in ninth grade or so, so why not have it be the one that we take to the kids in ninth grade?" Lah said. "And it's the one people tend to know, or think they know, but we've made it accessible to more audiences with how we've adapted it."
The other show set to be staged during the festival is a one-person show called "Every Brilliant Thing," which tells the story of a young boy who makes a list of everything that makes life worthwhile for his mentally ill mother to try to help her.
"Both plays deal with suicide in very different ways," Lah said. "There's the element of family and the pressure of living and trying to make it through. It's a bit more intimate and interactive and pulls people into this character's world as he tries to convince his mother that life is worth living."
Two nights of the festival are dedicated to original performances with staged readings from new authors.
If you go
- What: Great Nordic Shakespeare Festival
- When: "Romeo and Juliet," 6:30 p.m. Jan. 10, 11, 24 and 25, and 2 p.m. Jan. 12 and 26; "Every Brilliant Thing," 6:30 p.m. Jan. 16, 17, 18, 30, 31 and Feb. 1, and 2 p.m. Jan. 19 and Feb. 2
- Where: Vermilion Fine Arts Theater, 1900 E. Camp St., Ely
- Tickets: northernlakesarts.org/the-great-nordic-shakespeare-festival
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