Washington's own Shakespeare Theatre Company, STC for short, started out at the Folger Shakespeare Library with a sold-out production of "Romeo and Juliet."

Today, it occupies two buildings in Penn Square and an important place in Washington, DC's theater scene as well as among American theaters that produce Shakespeare plays.

I got to talk with award-winning director and STC's artistic director Simon Godwin about what the future holds for the company.

What's your big vision for Shakespeare Theatre Company?

I'd like to make Shakespeare Theatre Company the best classical theater in America.

Curry, voice-over: Godwin became the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in 2019.

He succeeded Michael Kahn, who led the company since it began.

I love this because we're getting to see the theater in its in-between stage.

Godwin: They're about to build a new set on this stage, and it's very magical when you're reminded of how much these theaters can transform, and they're all about creating new worlds, and, of course, that's what Michael Kahn was so brilliant at, the founder of Shakespeare Theatre Company.

He was a great technician of the theater, but also he created very spectacular worlds.

Curry, voice-over: Under Michael Kahn, STC won a Tony Award for Best Regional Theater.

Godwin is acclaimed in Great Britain for groundbreaking stagings of classic plays and world premieres of new works.

Singers: ♪ Hit me, baby, one more time ♪ I know that a lot of people probably said, even to you, when you got the job here, "Why choose somebody from London to come over here and run this American Shakespeare company?"

Sometimes when you bring an outsider in, they bring a new energy or new eyes or new ideas.

So, I hope to sort of be that person for Washington.

You're working on multiple projects in multiple cities on multiple continents.

What are you working on, and how do you manage all of it?

Well, I still have a great link with England.

I'm still an associate director at the National Theatre in London, and right now, "Macbeth" is with us in Washington.

Curry, voice-over: Godwin's brand-new production of "Macbeth" is breaking boundaries, setting audiences in modern-day war zones created in empty warehouses.

We're taking them out of the theater.

We're placing them essentially in the war zone.

Do you want people to leave feeling a little uncomfortable?

I want people to leave feeling alert.

Mm!

One of the great challenges about being a theater director is stopping people falling asleep.

[Chuckles] Extraordinary is how quickly people can and do fall asleep in the theater.

So, the great thing about putting a play on in an entirely different space is that people are very alert, they're very engaged, and, although it can be a little stressful, it's also very energizing because your antennae are up.

It's back to out of the comfort zone.

The play's a very contemporary study of the kind of drift towards tyranny that I think a lot of countries are trying to negotiate right now, and we very much put the audience in the heart of that debate, whether it's that you walk through the war zone, whether you're sitting in a warehouse, whether you're exposed to these arguments in a very intense way, and I would say with "Macbeth," that intensity has never been greater.

We are coming into the hallway of one of my favorite places here, and that is where you display these costumes.

Yeah.

This is a really fun outfit from "Much Ado About Nothing."

This is for Beatrice and Benedick finally getting together at the end, and we wanted something jolly and colorful and that's what we got.

And glittery.

Godwin: One of my first Shakespeares here was "Much Ado About Nothing," when Beatrice and Benedick were warring co-hosts of a news broadcast, and the news reports were from other Shakespeare plays.

So, it was an attempt to make a Shakespeare universe where you got all Shakespeare plays in one.

And then we're moving into "King Lear."

This one is iconic.

I think we've all seen a picture of Patrick Page in this outfit at some point.

Yeah, it's--it's fabulous, isn't it?

♪ Funnily enough, I first met Patrick Page when he interviewed me for the job.

Wow.

I began to think to myself, "What is the big Shakespearean role that Patrick is now ready to play?"

with his incredible voice and his charisma and his emotional vulnerability, which is another superpower that Patrick has.

While we, unburdened, crawl towards death.

Godwin: And I thought of "King Lear," and we decided to go for it, and it was the most successful Shakespeare the theater has ever produced, and that was just a wonderful endorsement of Patrick and a feeling that, "Ah, yes, if I'm running the restaurant, "the Shakespeare restaurant, this is the kind of dish that people want to eat."

I love how passionately you speak about Shakespeare.

Tell me what it was that made you fall in love with Shakespeare.

I had a mom who was very enthusiastic about theater and took me to shows when I was a child.

I was lucky enough to have a great teacher who instilled in me a love of theater and a love of Shakespeare, and when I was at school, this teacher asked me whether I'd be interested in playing Hamlet-- this is when I was 16-- in the school play, and I spent the summer holidays listening to a radio broadcast of Kenneth Branagh playing the part.

Branagh: To be or not to be?

That is the question.

Listening to this, I think, really embedded in me a fascination with Shakespeare's mind, how he put ideas together and how he was able to create such drama in lines like "'Tis now the very witching time of night, "when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world."

These are very charged phrases which compel an audience to listen in a very different way from, well, any other writer that's really written plays since.

I am so excited to show our viewers this little treat.

Well, who would have guessed it?

Shakespeare meets Elvis Presley.

I love it.

Elvis Presley: ♪ Bless my soul, what's wrong with me?

♪ ♪ I'm itching like a man on a fuzzy tree ♪ ♪ My friends say I'm acting wild as a bug ♪ ♪ I'm in love, I'm all shook up, mm-hmm-hmm... ♪ This is a kind of good luck charm in the form of Elvis Presley.

The King himself.

He's with you as you walk on stage to deliver your Shakespeare performance.

Presley: ♪ I'm all shook up ♪ Curry, voice-over: Godwin is known for casting top Shakespearean actors such as Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma.

Why is this version of "Macbeth" resonating so well with people?

Well, I think people are always glued and gripped by this play, "Macbeth," probably more than any other Shakespeare play in that it's this study of evil and what it's like for someone to become so obsessed with power that they're willing to destroy everything they care about to get it.

Is this a dagger which I see before me?

And at the heart of it is Indira, who is playing Lady Macbeth, who is a kind of agent of ambition.

What's done cannot be undone.

To see that quality on the stage in this play, in this moment, in this production, I think, is exciting people.

I love this space.

The open windows.

You are set in the middle of DC.

How do you think that brings the community together in this theater space?

Well, I think theaters belong at the center of a city.

They belong at the center of people's lives.

So, for me, it's really thrilling that the Harman Hall is right here, as you say, in the center of activities, and you kind of can't miss it.

Curry: You have directed at all of the great theaters in London.

You could have done anything else as your next adventure.

Why did you choose Washington, DC, and why did you choose Shakespeare Theatre Company?

For me, the fact that Shakespeare was in the name of this theater, that this theater was so committed to doing these plays, was very compelling.

Indeed, I had been aware of it in England as being one of America's premier classical theaters, and I was really curious about America and working in the country's capital.

What do you foresee for you all for the future?

It's not about business as usual.

It's not about theater being for one group of people and not for others.

People from all political backgrounds can be in a dark room together and concentrate on something that might bring them together for an hour or two.

It's so precious, and that's my great hope.

Simon, thank you so much for joining us on "WETA Arts," and we can't wait to see what Shakespeare Theatre Company and you do next.

Well, thank you so much for having me on the show.

It's been a real pleasure to talk, and it's great to be in your city.

Simon Godwin's "Macbeth" runs from April 9 to May 5, followed by "Matchbox Magic Flute," starting May 21st.

The fall season brings more stars to the DMV, including Matthew Broderick in "Babbitt" and Hugh Bonneville in "Uncle Vanya."

Check out shakespearetheatre.org for details.

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