From a theatre teacher: “…this kid was beyond exceptional.”

APT chats with Ron Parker, the theatre director at Appleton North. He was previously the theatre director at Tremper High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where core company actor, and this year's Hamlet, Matt Schwader attended high school. In the process of starting his Summer Shakespeare program for high school students, Mr. Parker directed Matt in his first Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Read about how Matt's journey to APT started at age 14. APT: Can you elaborate on your previous experience with theatre? Ron Parker: I went the directing route; I'm a teacher of theatre as opposed to a theatre person who happens to teach. Other than the fact that I wouldn't be very good on the stage, I have no interest in acting. Acting, to me, is too limiting. Just being one character, in one situation, as opposed to being a director where you get to dabble in everything. APT: How did you go about starting the Summer Shakespeare program? Ron Parker: I began the summer Shakespeare program back in 1987. I had gone to see a performance at a Shakespeare festival, kind of like a low-budget APT. I saw a production of Macbeth and they brought in a dude from New York to act the lead part and he was awful. He was terrible. He was really overacted, did not know what he was saying. I sat there, and I turned to my wife and said, my students could do as well as this guy. Then I went back and started the school year and I decided I was going to write a proposal to see if they would allow me to do a summer program in which I would get kids from all the area high schools in the city to come together and perform a Shakespeare play. The first year we did Macbeth, had a group of 16 kids. We did everything from build the set together, the lighting, we didn't have any money, so we used to do midnight raids behind K-Mart and stole the pallets they were throwing away to use the wood for the set. We went to the backyard of this one house and dug up vines for the castle. It was awesome. APT: When did Matt join the program? Ron Parker: From that group of 16, over the course of the next several years, the program continued to grow. Then I did A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1991 and we had this young kid, incoming ninth grader, who was going to be attending Tremper and he wasn't really interested in theatre. He signed up for the summer Shakespeare program because his friend was going to go and he wanted to hang out with him. And that was Matt. The moment that Matt joined the program and opened his mouth, it was obvious that this kid was beyond exceptional. He got the part of Bottom, right off the bat. Something about him, his talent, and this particular playwright, connected. That fall he entered the high school and became the star of the theatre program. From there, he had the lead in every other Shakespeare play for the rest of his time in high school. APT: What was it like coaching Matt for your production of Hamlet? Ron Parker: I knew, almost from the first time he stepped onto the stage in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and an incoming high school student, I knew I was going to do Hamlet with this guy. It was interesting because it was a journey that both of us were on. I learned how to direct Shakespeare on the fly while I was actually doing it. Hamlet, scared the crap out of me, and also scared Matt, so we both entered this situation really not sure if we should have taken this on. Whenever you do Hamlet, you've got this huge weight hanging over you. Everyone that ever wanted to be an actor wants to do this role or be someone in this particular play. We were both really, really scared. We kept avoiding the 'to be or not to be' speech. That started to become a running joke with us. We ended up blocking the entire show without doing that scene. Finally, we looked at each other, and we were like, we have to do this scene. It was a journey of discovery for both him and me. How much I actually directed him, I don't know. Even at a young age, at 17, he understood Hamlet at a level 17-year-old would, but also on an older level as well. I can't wait to see what he's done. We've talked that with his older perspective, and all of his experience, his professional training has really kind of augmented from the beginning. APT: How did the performance go? Ron Parker: People still talk about him, people still remember him in that role. Just last week, there was this posting on this guy's Facebook page talking about that 'he had heard APT doing Hamlet, and he saw this amazing Hamlet with this 17-year-old kid back in 1995 and it was the most amazing Hamlet he had ever seen and he had seen many Hamlets and had seen all the films, seen several professional productions, but there's something about this kid's production, I think his name is Matt, something or other.' People are still kind of moved by that performance years and years later. That was the year I wanted to do everything authentically, we went ahead and made all these authentic costumes with all these velvet layers, and that happened to be the hottest summer on record. And Matt, he's a sweater, he sweats all over the stage. I remember he was doing a scene with Ophelia, they were both sweating so much, and he went to kiss her, and his lips slipped off her lips onto her cheeks all the way past her ear. They were both trying so hard not to laugh. It was just an unusual summer, people were just enthralled. They knew that they were seeing something unique. These kids really became messengers or crusaders for the bard too; they went back to the classrooms the next year and would argue with the English teachers about Shakespeare. At the end of the entire production, when everything was done, there was this feeling of great accomplishment, but also sadness and also the feeling of knowing we had not even scratched the surface of what this particular play and particular character was. And that's why I can't wait to see him on stage, bring all that he has accomplished to this character. APT: What can Matt offer to audiences in this year's production? Ron Parker: Anyone who has seen him in any other production whether it's at APT or the Goodman or whatever, Shakespeare for Matt is not just another gig. Shakespeare is part of Matt's soul, it's really a part of every fiber of his being. He has played all these great characters, and each of those characters that he has played was a step towards doing Hamlet. Matt has played all these great Shakespearean roles, as well as other roles; I think he will be able to pull from all that experience, all that background to be able to show us a Hamlet that I don't think we've ever seen before. Matt also has a unique position of having basically performing full-length Shakespeare since he was 14 years old and I know that a lot of individual actors may have read Shakespeare, studied Shakespeare, but a lot of classical actors don't have a chance to perform Shakespeare so young, and not only act it, but act it well. I know that Matt says a lot that he tried to do Hamlet when he was 17. Yeah, it wasn't going to be the Hamlet he does now, but people were literally so affected by what he did that they are still talking about it now. Almost two decades later. APT: If you could offer any words of wisdom to Matt, what would you say to him? Ron Parker: I could no longer give that man any more words of wisdom. I'm the guy who is now learning from him. He comes in the summer when he is able to. He does a workshop for my summer Shakespeare students, which is always a great treat for them because they know he was where they are now and now he has become this critically acclaimed actor. I would not even begin to offer him advice any more. The greatest thing as a teacher that you could ever hope for, kind of like a parent, is that your child surpasses you. That your child ends up knowing more than you. He knows more about Shakespeare now than I ever did or I ever will. APT: Have you brought your students to APT performances in the past? Ron Parker: Oh yes, I used to bring my students every year as a field trip. In fact, one of those field trips is when Matt first saw APT. He saw Jim DeVita in a production; I remember he saw his first professional Shakespeare production. At that moment he said, 'Somehow, someway, I want to be doing this one day. I want to be acting on this stage. I want to be doing what I see DeVita doing right now.' And his dream came true, by his own work and his own talent. I had nothing to do with it, other than I provided an opportunity for him to get hooked on this guy and then he provided an opportunity for me to work with this naturally talented, gifted actor. There are just some people that are born with this thing, and he really is. We don't know what it is, and Matt had that when he first stepped on the stage. It's just kind of funny that this was one of his main dreams, to be a part of APT.