Brown Box Theatre Tours Shakespeare's 'Cymbeline' :: A Chat with Kyler Taustin

If you've attended any of Brown Box Theatre's Season Six productions, you've likely come away impressed. Beginning with a world premiere play by Boston-area playwright Patrick Gabridge, then continuing with a short plays anthology that probes the margins of reality before landing in a remote, frozen wilderness with a two-hander that sizzles, this year has turned out aces all around.

Now the company is touring its traditional summer Shakespeare production. The pick for 2016? "Cymbeline," one of the lesser-seen plays from the Bard's canon. Founding Artistic Producer Kyler Taustin chats with EDGE about this sterling season, Shakespeare in the park (and anywhere else he'll fit), and what's still to come.

EDGE: "Cymbeline" will be this year's production for Brown Box's Free Summer Shakespeare Tour, which will be playing at different places around Boston and then traveling to different cities around the area and, I believe, also playing in Maryland. Have you added some locations to your schedule compares to years past?

Kyler Taustin: We have expanded this year inside of Massachusetts, as well as we have a tour stop in Virginia, so it's actually a four-state tour this year. Here in Massachusetts we are not only doing our typical venues, like Atlantic Wharf, Castle Island, and Hyde Park, but we've also added Hopkinton, as well as Plymouth and Fall River. So we have a nice array of options in Massachusetts, and they are all outdoors, open to the public, and free of charge.

EDGE: As I understand it, you're the founder of Brown Box and you created the company to bring theater to your native Maryland - but also to take theater on the road to places that might not see a lot of theater. Has that mission changed over the years?

Kyler Taustin: I started Brown Box under the guise of taking theater into communities that have little to no access to the performing arts. We use Boston-based talent and then take what we have here in Boston and share it with communities in places where it would take several hours to get to professional theater. That has been where the whole project began. We have expanded now to not only my home town in Berlin, Maryland, but all over the entire Delmarva peninsula. What we have done as well is expand here in Boston to share what we do in other communities, again providing free and affordable access to theater.

EDGE: What adjustments, if any, do you find you need to make to your productions when you visit different venues in various cities and states?

Kyler Taustin: From day one when we decide to do a play, we need to be careful about the design, the cast size, about how we can set up and break down. We view it as more of an opportunity and a challenge as opposed to a hindrance. We're aware that our cast also ends up serving as our crew, and we are aware that we need to accommodate the living, the transportation, and everything for our cast and crew that go on these tours. We used the touring element of Brown Box as an opportunity to create and design productions that have the ability to be taken around, set up, and broken down by a small group of people.

Now, Shakespeare is the largest production that we do every year. This year we'll have a touring company of 16 people - 12 actors and four staff who are responsible for setting up the entire production and breaking it down every night at each location. We just have to be aware of everything that any outdoor production has to deal with, like weather, but then we have to take into account the fact that sometimes we're on a boardwalk, sometimes we're on grass, or on sand... we might have a cement stage in certain venues. Really, what it requires is an element of adaptability and flexibility by both the design elements and all the people involved in the production.

We really create a beautiful ensemble and, again, six years into this we have found that the people who are attracted to the work that we do are able to not only find a creative outlet where they are able to explore Shakespeare in an exciting setting with people who are passionate about it, but they also have the dedication and passion to be a hands-on participant in the creation, every day, of the set, the props, the costumes, and the lighting that are required to put on a full production in over 25 locations.

EDGE Is it harder to assemble that cast and crew, people who are willing to take on so many challenges and so much responsibility, than it would be to bring together personnel for a standard play that takes place in a single theatrical venue?

Kyler Taustin: It changes what we look for as a company. Obviously, we are still looking for talented professional individuals who are able to serve the text and who can play these roles. During the audition process, however, I also like to get to know who I am going to be living with - ultimately, this becomes a ten-week process for all of us, not only in the rehearsal process but then we live and work and spend almost 24 hours a day together on these tours.

That doesn't necessarily limit the people who are interested in it, but it does require a certain personality, a certain effort, and a certain energy for someone to be part of one of our tours in general, but specifically for Shakespeare. While our casts for our smaller shows still take on those crew roles, for the big summer tour, we set up our stage every day outdoors in whatever the temperature might be, then still perform a two-hour production, and then break it down every night.

It's a challenge, but I have heard several people that have worked with us in the past say that they feel that it allows them to take complete ownership over every part of the play. It very much instills a sense of community and family. Theater does that across the board, but it's at a whole new level with our cast for our Shakespeare tours.

EDGE: Do you end up being "Dad" to this family on the road when quarrels break out, or tensions rise, or people start feeling tired and unsure?

Kyler Taustin: I take on a role in which I am there every day, so I don't leave the production, like some other directors might be able to do. I end up driving the trailer, so I am driving the equipment and everything around to each of these venues. So I do end up taking on a different role as well as director; I try very hard not to be the "dad" figure or the patriarch in that regard, but I am responsible for, and we all feel responsible for, the well-being of body and mind for every person that we are working with.

I have truly enjoyed being able to see the production grow and change, and that is informed by both the length of the tour but also - for better for worse - the challenges we face while on tours, and the joys that come with reaching a large variety of people. Personally, I get to serve the traditional role as director, but then be a part the family that travels with this for the full tour watching it and our ensemble evolve and grow.

EDGE "Cymbeline" is a lesser-produced play among the Shakespearean canon. What decided Brown Box on making "Cymbeline" the pick for this summer's tour?

Kyler Taustin: "Cymbeline," to me, addresses two major timely topics. One is nationalism. It serves a modern audience as a warning for how we use national pride and how that national pride manifests. In an age where we're dealing with how national pride is causing more turbulence than it is stability. I think "Cymbeline" speaks very much to the risks of using national pride as an excuse for division as opposed to a seed for unification.

The second is truth. "Truth," as a label, is used, manipulated, and vocalized to each of the different characters. We're forced to see people take reality and truths that exits and twist or fracture them, almost as a kaleidoscope, in order to use these altered "facts" for personal gain - for ego, or for true madness. I think that this play, for me, just seems very timely - in the age of Brexit and the entire political unraveling, if you want to call it that, that is happening in this country as well.

No matter what side you are coming from, I think "Cymbeline" definitely speaks to being an informed member of the community and questing the 'truths" that are being presented as such, and whether they are actually true - or whether they have been manipulated to fit a certain story told. That comes through the political plot of the play as well as the personal, emotional, and romantic side of "Cymbeline."

EDGE: How does "Cymbeline" mesh with what you've done earlier in the season?

Kyler Taustin: When we select [material for] a season we are not necessarily looking to create a "themed" season. That's not something that Brown Box is necessarily always trying to do. Our mission is more about showing a diverse array of theater and the styles that are out there to audiences that, again, do not have a lot of access to this diverse array of theater. That being said, I think "Cymbeline" fits in with what has been a string of strong female roles throughout the year.

It's been a huge season for us, and we've been able to explore everything from world premieres with "Lab Rats" to short plays that are again showing us diverse voices with "From Water to Dust." "Brilliant Traces" and the poetry in that play launched me as a director further into the poetry of Shakespeare. It's been a successful and exciting season. I think "Cymbeline" will be a beautiful cap to the year.

EDGE: What's the setting for this production of "Cymbeline?"

Kyler Taustin: I have worked with Chelsea Kerl, our costume designer, for the past five years. We always have a conversation about the costuming and how we do things, and that seems to be the easiest way for me to describe the world that we have ultimately created.

I do not put a period onto any of the Shakespeare work that I do; I am a firm believer that it is plot and theme driven, and obviously paramount to all of that, it's language driven. The period is not as important to me as the themes in the story that's being told. We're not doing period garb, we're not traditionalists in that regard; but the world we create serves the theme and the plot and the language that we are diving into. We are in a more modern dress, but we have broadswords. We're not modernizing it, but we're not doing a full period garb, either.

EDGE: What has Brown Box got lined up for Season Seven? Or is it too early to be thinking about that?

Kyler Taustin: Season Seven is still something that we are sinking our teeth into. It is not necessarily too early; at this time last year we were diving into Season Six already. We are excited to be exploring some alternate venues, potentially; that has definitely put us into a situation of wanting to make sure that we're making the right selections for our growth. It's going to be a little bit different for us next season, but we are excited to continue serving all of our communities and serving the mission. We will of course be back with Free Shakespeare again next year, but in terms of what comes before September of 2017, we have potentially some very exciting projects and collaborations we're working on, so keep an eye out.