♪ Hi, everybody.

I'm Felicia Curry and welcome to "WETA Arts," the place to discover what's going on in the creative and performing arts in and around DC.

In this episode, I meet with Simon Godwin, artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, which is bringing us exciting new productions.

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

Curry, voice-over: We introduce you to Estela Vélez de Paredez, who is leading a double life.

By day, I'm a judge.

By night, I'm a flamenco dancer.

We're ready to go do a show.

Curry, voice-over: And "WETA Arts" follows along as I prepare for a gig at MetroStage.

I've never done any of these songs in public before.

Are you serious?

Mm-mm.

No.

All these stories coming up on "WETA Arts."

♪ 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.

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... ♪ There's a kind of good luck charm in the form of Elvis Presley.

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 21.

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.

♪ Flamenco is a music and dance form that originated in southern Spain.

It's now danced around the world, and when Fairfax, Virginia's Estela Vélez de Paredez discovered it, she got hooked.

I'm Estela Vélez de Paredez.

I'm the artistic director of Furia Flamenca Dance Company.

[Flamenco music playing] ♪ [Flamenco music playing] We perform all over the DC metro area.

[Flamenco music playing] ♪ We teach to all ages and all levels.

We have performed from the big stage to the little stage to somebody's living room.

Name the festival, we've been in it, basically, but that was my way of bringing flamenco to the forefront.

[Cheering and applause] Everybody knows modern, contemporary, ballet, jazz.

Very few people know flamenco.

Flamenco is the dance of the people.

It was born in the streets.

It was born to communicate, to express, and so, it's a little bit more raw, less refined.

[Man singing in Spanish] ♪ I'm from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico was a possession of Spain until the early 1900s, and, therefore, we are heavily influenced by the Spanish culture.

I may not have chosen flamenco as the dance that I wanted to do as I was growing up, but I certainly was surrounded by it.

[Flamenco music playing] I wanted to be a prima ballerina, like most little girls, right, and that was my focus for many years.

15 years of my life I dedicated to ballet.

My teacher at the time wanted me to audition for Ballet of San Juan.

She spoke with my mother, and my mother was very honed in education and making sure that we stayed in school.

My mother decided that I wasn't going to audition, and not only was I not going to audition, but I was not going to come back to class.

So, needless to say, that was a little traumatic at the time.

In college, I took some dance classes, but I didn't go back to dance, per se.

From there, I went to law school.

From law school, I joined the Navy.

And then when I was working with the Navy, I would come home, and I would just be bored.

So, then I was like, "Well, maybe I'll go back to dance," and at that point, I went back to ballet and every art style that I could potentially do, every dance I always wanted to do.

Tap, Middle Eastern-- I tried it all.

Flamenco truly stole my heart, and I started doing both things.

Each one developed in their own way at their own time.

Through the years, I went up the ladder in my legal career.

The flamenco side of me slowly developed, and I was just a student.

I was a JAG for close to 10 years.

After that, I went to work for the Department of Veterans Affairs as an attorney.

I got the call to be a teacher in flamenco.

Then I became an artistic director of my own company.

I recently became a veterans law judge.

By day, I'm a judge.

By night, I'm a flamenco dancer.

DC has a flamenco community, just like wherever you go, and there's flamenco.

My company has anywhere from 12 to 14 performers at a time.

Our needs vary, obviously, depending on where we go.

The most crucial thing to have is a wooden floor.

We have to be able to have that percussive sound under us.

[Flamenco music playing] We always dance to live musicians.

We need to be able to hear them as we dance.

[Stomping] It gets loud.

[Flamenco music playing] ♪ Most everybody who goes and sees a dance performance has been taught to be very quiet and respectful and wait until the end, and then you applaud.

♪ We need, as flamenco dancers, energy from the audience and our audiences are not supposed to be quiet.

[Cheering and applause] For us, if somebody is not yelling and screaming through the dance, we think we're doing something wrong because we want that immediate reaction.

Part of what we do is educate, try to make sure audiences understand this is what we want you to do.

We want you to become part of the experience.

We want you to feel what we're feeling.

[Cheering and applause] [Flamenco music playing] If it's extreme sadness that we're conveying, we want you to go there with us.

[Flamenco music playing] If it's happiness, then, by all means, that, too.

[Cheering and applause] There is no bigger rush for me than to set foot on a stage and look out at an audience.

There is a feeling that I almost can't even explain.

You forget about life.

You forget about your worries.

You forget about everything that is oppressing you, and life can be really hard and throw some really bad curveballs, but when you step on that stage, you're free.

[Flamenco music playing] [Crowd cheering] Curry, voice-over: You can see Furia Flamenca Dance Company perform on April 27 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Try flamenco yourself with classes by Paredez and other members of her company in DC and Fairfax, Virginia.

Go to furia-flamenca.com for details.

In addition to hosting my very favorite show, "WETA Arts," I'm also a working actor who loves performing with fellow artists here in my hometown of Washington, DC.

Last month, I took part in a one-night-only show, and my "WETA Arts" TV family followed me on that journey.

♪ Hey, everybody, it is Felicia Curry here, and today is a really special day.

"WETA Arts" has decided to follow me around as I do a cabaret this evening with my friend Aaron Reeder.

I think y'all are going to have a great time.

Hey, everyone!

So good to see you.

Welcome to my space and getting ready for this cabaret day.

OK, so, this is my workspace.

I do a lot of my self-taping in here.

As you can see, self-tape stuff is up.

I'm going to get it out of the way so that we can get ready for this cabaret.

I'm so excited.

Sammy Davis, Jr.: ♪ Who can take a sunrise... ♪ Tonight's show is called "Beyond the Lights: Discovering Sammy Davis, Jr." This is a pretty special event for two reasons because I'm working with two people that I adore.

Aaron Reeder, he's a phenomenal talent-- he sings opera, gospel, Broadway, and he wrote tonight's show-- and Carolyn Griffin over at MetroStage is producing this.

She's produced at least 100 shows since MetroStage was founded back in 1984.

I'm just a guest in Aaron's cabaret, so, he asked me to do one solo, "Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered)."

It's from a Rodgers and Hart musical called "Pal Joey" from 1940.

I think it goes really well with what Aaron's put together-- It's about relationship, it's about longing, it's about love-- and then we're doing two duets.

I haven't played with the entire band.

That's why I have to do a lot of homework on my own, to make sure I'm ready to do everything.

[Laughs] [Music playing on phone] ♪ Bewitched ♪ ♪ Bothered, and bewildered ♪ ♪ Am I ♪ I've never actually sung any of these songs except in rehearsal with Aaron.

So, tonight is both exciting and a little bit nerve-racking, but that's one of the things I love about this business.

♪ I grew up in New Jersey and acted all the way through high school, and then I came here to go to the University of Maryland for journalism, but I stayed after graduation because of all of the incredible acting opportunities here in the DMV.

DC has allowed me to play Rapunzel.

I don't know that New York would have allowed me to do that.

DC has put me in puppet theater, Shakespearean theater.

I've done one-woman shows here.

When she stepped on that stage, I said to myself, "I want to do that."

For me, it was a no-brainer to stay here and do really great work.

I think we are ready to go.

I have to pack everything up.

So, first things first.

We've got to get all the outfits together.

I don't know if you all know, but I used to be a pageant girl, so, I have many, many dresses.

It's actually one of the things that prepared me so well to do this job.

We're ready to go do a show.

Let's do it.

[Laughs] ♪ We are headed to the Lyceum in Alexandria, Virginia.

The Lyceum is hosting MetroStage while they raise funds for a new theater.

Just taking this route makes me think about all the places that I've worked at.

I mean, this is the route to Ford's Theater.

MetroStage really holds a special place in my heart.

They gave me the opportunity to grow as an artist, and it's because of some of the work that I did there that I got into theaters like Signature Theater.

♪ I love him ♪ ♪ ♪ I love him ♪ I haven't talked to you about, you know, the places I started.

Toby's Dinner Theater of Columbia.

My first two Helen Hayes nominations were at Toby's.

Really proud of that.

♪ Kenny Loggins: ♪ Now I gotta cut loose... ♪ The first show I did at Toby's was "Footloose," and there are 3 of us that I know have been on Broadway.

Let me say this.

I have many friends who are huge successes in this business and who have never been on Broadway.

DC has offered them the opportunity to be working performers, and that, to me, is success.

Even by the people in it sometimes.

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

I've always said to myself, if I stop getting the jitters, it might be time to reconsider.

[Laughs] ♪ And here we are at the Lyceum.

Let's get this show on the road.

Ha ha!

Do you see what I did there?

[Laughs] ♪ Carolyn.

Oh!

Aah!

[Laughs] Oh.

So good to see you.

Fantastic.

Do you remember when we discovered you?

"Three Sistahs."

You came to an audition, and Tom Jones and I sat there, That's right.

and we looked at each other and said, "Oh, my gosh."

We knew you were the one.

So, there you go.

OK. Are we ready?

I'm ready.

Yes.

And I'll follow you up.

Curry, voice-over: I am so excited.

Aaron wrote this show because he was inspired by Sammy's music and the challenges that Sammy overcame-- race, religion, disability, stature, a lack of education.

So, for me, this piece is important on that level, too.

Sammy Davis, Jr.: ♪ Under my skin ♪ Aaron!

Hi, my friend.

[Laughs] Thank you for having me here.

Shut your face.

Of course.

[Laughter] What's your relationship, history with MetroStage?

Do you have one?

So, this is my first time doing any sort of partnership with Carolyn and MetroStage.

And then you and I, of course, "Les Mis."

♪ Laying on barricades, dying.

Dying together.

That's it.

We've never done a reading, a workshop, nothing.

And what's the message of the show?

Why Sammy Davis, Jr. cabaret?

He always stayed true to himself, and I think being an artist, it's sometimes difficult to stay steadfast in who you are.

So, I think the process of, like, putting this together really helped solidify, like, owning your own voice and being true to yourself...

I love that.

and one of the things that would be great is figuring out any sort of, like, blocking that we want to do.

Once the band gets in and sets up, we can figure it out.

I've never done any of these songs in public before.

Are you serious?

Mm-mm.

No.

Turn on the lights.

[Laughs] Action.

♪ Hey.

So, I'll come around you on that second-- oh, I mean, first verse, and I'll either turn this way.

You're looking for me, I'll just go... which if we're going to do all of that for those numbers, I'll just do stand for my solo.

That's fine.

Ready.

Check.

Curry: My voice.

OK. Reeder: ♪ You're the mate ♪ ♪ That fate had me created for ♪ ♪ And every time ♪ ♪ Your lips meet mine, ah ♪ ♪ Black magic called love ♪ ♪ [Cheering and applause] Griffin: It's with great pleasure that I introduce Aaron Reeder as he takes us on a heartfelt journey of the indelible Sammy Davis, Jr.

Thank you.

[Applause] ♪ This is "I Gotta Be Me."

♪ ♪ Whether I'm right ♪ ♪ Or whether I'm wrong ♪ ♪ ♪ I gotta be me ♪ ♪ I've gotta be me ♪ ♪ What else can I be but what I am?

♪ ♪ Felicia Curry, ladies and gentlemen.

Felicia Curry.

[Cheering and applause] ♪ I'm wild again ♪ ♪ Beguiled again ♪ ♪ A simpering, whimpering child again ♪ ♪ Bewitched ♪ ♪ Bothered, and bewildered ♪ ♪ Am I ♪ Curry: ♪ There is no place I know ♪ Both: ♪ To compare with pure imagination ♪ ♪ So go there ♪ ♪ So go there ♪ ♪ To be free ♪ Both: ♪ If you truly ♪ ♪ Wish to be ♪ [Cheering and applause] Exquisite, fabulous.

Man: Intensely personal and intensely real.

What an incredible talent.

What an incredible voice.

Woman: To see him with Felicia, who was a fantastic talent in this area.

So, it was just an amazing concert.

♪ Man: Sammy's music.

"Old Black Magic," all this material, I could have played it without the music, but it was just great.

Griffin: It's worth every minute I put into it because what we're able to give to our audiences and to our artists is really extraordinary.

Woman: Bye.

Curry: Thank you all so much for joining me.

Until next time.

[Chuckles] Curry, voice-over: If you're wondering what I'm up to next, you can catch me hosting our annual celebration of excellence in theater arts, the Helen Hayes Awards, at the Anthem on May 20, and you can find me at Wolf Trap in "Broadway in the Park" with Signature Theatre on June 29.

Follow me on Instagram-- @thefeliciacurry.

I am here backstage, actually.

Reeder: Sorry.

Curry: There's a meta pic.

Judy taking a picture of me taking a picture of myself.

I'm often reminded of at the airport when I arrive by the customs team, "Oh, you work for the Shakespeare Theatre Company.

"To be or not to be?

That is the question."

But I'm actually very happy because it tells me that Shakespeare, as usual, knew how to write a line that nobody could ever forget.

Man: Yeah.

Yeah.

All: Yeah!

Announcer: For more about the artists and institutions featured in this episode, go to weta.org/arts.