Each season, Red Bull Theater provides a series of Classical Acting Masterclasses that provide adults of all levels of training or experience the opportunity to interact with and learn from some of the finest artists working in the classical theater. We also provide informative post-performance Bull Sessions for all of our readings and productions, giving audiences a chance to discuss the work with the artists involved. COVID-19 had put a temporary stop to all that. So we’re going virtual with RemarkaBULL Podversations. These informal, online conversations will investigate approaches to essential passages from the Shakespearean and Jacobean canon―and beyond. Guests have included MICHAEL URIE, ELIZABETH MARVEL, LISA HARROW & DION JOHNSTONE,, KATE BURTON, CHUKWUDI IWUJI, MATTHEW RAUCH, and STEPHEN SPINELLA.
IN THE NEWS
INTERVIEWS | MAY/JUNE 2020
Jesse Berger:
Being Jacobean
His Red Bull Theater puts its emphasis on the language in both its core texts and beyond.
By WENDY SMITH
"When John Douglas Thompson first heard that Jesse Berger intended to start a theatre company dedicated to Jacobean drama, the actor recalls, “I thought, C’mon, man: You’re going to last as long as your first production!”
On the contrary, 17 years after Berger founded RED BULL THEATERwith a credit card and three friends to sign the 501(c)(3) paperwork, the New York City company boasts a formidable track record of 20 full productions and 150-plus staged readings in its Obie-winning Revelation Readings series. Named for a Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, Red Bull has built a well-deserved reputation as a fearless interpreter of seldom-seen classics. From Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside in 2003 to John Webster’s The White Devil in 2019, it has given the Jacobeans a contemporary edge without scanting their 17th-century particulars—indeed, the Jacobeans’ cynical take on a corrupt society plays very well in the 21st century. The company draws on a cadre of committed actors who speak the tricky verse in an assured, unfussy fashion that might be called the Red Bull house style...."
