By Christine R. Walsh

Your innocent and playful summer nights will never be the same, Worcester. There’s a bad boy in town by the name of Richard and he’s guaranteed to add a little evil to your evenings.

Redfeather Theatre Company will explode onto the stage of the Memorial Grove Amphitheatre and bring Shakespeare’s Richard III, in all its venomous glory, to life for its 2007 summer season. As the Bard’s second-longest play, this favorite is quite the undertaking for any company. But the tight and talented clan of Redfeather, now in its fourth year, is ready.

“It’s an amazing play ~ a rollercoaster ride!” said Ed Isser, PhD. during a recent phone interview. “[The character, Richard] is about fourth in line to the thrown, but he decides he wants to be king. So he kills everyone along the way and has a great time doing it.”

Isser stands at the helm as the show’s Director, as Redfeather’s Executive Director, and as Associate Professor of Theatre at Holy Cross in Worcester. He is ecstatic about the production and gives much credit to lead actor Tim Smith.

Isser chose Smith, 33 and Artistic Director of Redfeather, to portray the wicked heir to the crown. The role calls for an intelligent, manipulative villain who deceives anyone who crosses his path and Smith welcomes the challenge.

“It’s a role I was born to play,” Smith said. “Of course, Richard is a pretty mean guy so I’m not sure what that says about me. But Richard doesn’t take anything seriously, not even himself because he hates himself so very much. He has a wonderful sense of humor and is just a great character for the audience.”

Isser spent a great deal of time cutting down the immense play and deciding upon an appropriate time period for the piece. According to Isser, no matter how well one knows the language of Shakespeare, there are always moments of alienation an audience member can experience as he or she gets into the Shakespearean mood. By choosing an era that an audience can relate to, Isser said, people can easily identify with the show. In the end, he chose the Roaring Twenties.
“Richard III is all about deception,” Isser said. “The 1920’s was a period of supposedly high morals but there was also a great deal of bootlegging going on. And Richard, ultimately, is a gangster.”

Joseph Mader, 44, Managing Director of Redfeather, has seen the play come together and gel perfectly when he’s had free moments between creating posters, selling tickets and fundraising. As a former theatre and film critic, Mader has seen his share of Shakespeare, but he believes Isser is one of the best Shakespearean directors in America.

“[Isser] really cares about the language and the poetic meter,” said Mader. “I’ve seen many productions where the actors simply do not understand the meter or they will throw in kitchy accents which they feel are funny, but ultimately completely obliterate the language.”

Apart from working for such a fantastic company, the cast of Richard III has another theatrical blessing for which to be thankful. Students from Holy Cross, some involved in internships and apprenticeships with Redfeather, have renovated the stage area of the Amphitheatre.

“The kids from Holy Cross have been amazing,” reported Smith. “They’ve rebuilt a considerable part of the stage area and have done so much with the landscaping. The backstage area was actually pretty dangerous, but now it’s great and it’s the students’ hard work that had made it happen.”

Richard III will run Wednesdays through Sundays from August 1-19th. Shows start at 7pm and general admission tickets are available for $20, students and seniors for $15. According to Smith, there’s no better way to add a little bit of delicious and dramatic darkness to your summer nights.

“It’s great,” Smith said. “As Richard, I tell everyone I’m bad and that they should hate me. Then I tell them to come with me. And they do.”

For more information, go to www.redfeatherco.org.

Photos: Professor Ed Isser (top), Timothy Smith (bottom)