For six-year Glencoe resident Austin Tichenor, Shakespeare is a way of life. A managing partner of the Reduced Shakespeare Company along with Reed Martin, Tichenor moves from the stage to the page this month with the debut of “Pop-Up Shakespeare,” a lavishly illustrated, kid-friendly compendium – co-authored by Tichenor and Martin – that boils every Shakespeare play and poem down to a single sentence. (Romeo and Juliet: “Teenage marriages are almost always a bad idea.” Othello: “Don’t believe everything you hear.”)
In tandem with the book release, Tichenor opens this month in Northlight Theatre’s “The Book of Will,” playing Shakespeare’s favorite actor, Richard Burbage.
Q: So William Shakespeare is touted as our greatest English playwright ever. But so many people think he’s like algebra onstage – useless, inaccessible, intimidating and totally boring. If he’s so great, what do so many people not like him?
A: The biggest culprit is bad productions. Or middle school. Most people who grow up to hate Shakespeare had a bad experience with him in middle school. His plays are hard to read if you’re a director or an actor – never mind if you’re a seventh grader. Also, his plays are supposed to be seen and heard, not read.
I was lucky. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and saw some fantastic Shakespeare productions on stage long before I had to actually read him. When I finally had him in school, it was still hard, but I knew it could make sense and be hilarious because I’d seen it make sense and be hilarious.
Q: Your pop-up book reduces every single one of Shakespeare’s plays – plus the sonnets – to a one-sentence summation. Reduced Shakespeare does the entire canon in under an hour. Do people ever say, like, “How dare you?”
A: I don’t get that “how dare you” reaction as much as I used to. I think people have come to understand that every production of Shakespeare is (an adaptation) in some way. With both the company and the book, I want to share my enthusiasm for the plays. I want Shakespeare to be clear and accessible and not intimidating.
The biggest challenge is reducing these tremendously complicated plays to a sentence that a child can understand, without losing the intent of the play. When we started working on the book, we realized that there were some things – like rape in “Measure for Measure” and cannibalism in “Titus Andronicus” – that we just didn’t want to get into a lot of detail about.
Q: Jennie Maizels’ illustrations are rather epic. You’ve got a massive 3D storm battering a ship for “The Tempest,” a series of pop-up castles for “Lear,” “Hamlet” and “Macbeth.” How did you determine which images to use?
A: It was a little like songwriting in terms of what came first. With songwriting, it’s the music and the words. Here, it was the illustration of the words. We knew we wanted to end with a castle – “Macbeth” and “Hamlet” both take place in castles, so we could use both sides. We tried to come up with what the most famous image was from each play.
We also wanted a book that changed depending on how you held and looked at it. Like, with the history play’s pages: If you hold the book flat and look down on it, it seems like “Henry V” is getting all the emphasis. But if you bring your eye down to the level of the book, you’re also seeing the Richards. It’s like a stage play where what you see kind of depends on where you’re sitting.
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Q: To shift gears slightly, you play Richard Burbage, Shakespeare’s favorite actor, in “The Book of Will.” Does all your inside info come in handy?
A: In a way. This play is kind of like fan fiction for Shakespeare nerds. Although it’s also a wonderful comedy even if you don’t know the first thing about Shakespeare. It’s about the First Folio, the first edition that collected all the Shakespeare plays. It’s full of hammy actors and drunk playwrights.
Q: Speaking of which. Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play?
A: “Comedy of Errors,” because it’s the shortest of the comedies. Also “MacBeth,” because it’s the shortest tragedy.
Catey Sullivan is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
“The Book of Will” runs Nov. 9 – Dec. 17 at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie. For more information, go to https://northlight.org. Tichenor will discuss “Pop-Up Shakespeare” and “The Book of Will” on Dec. 5 at the Book Stall, 811 Elm St., Winnetka. For details, go to http://www.thebookstall.com