A blog is born.

Welcome to Wise Fool Shakespeare's new blog - The Artist's Corner.  We'll be using this space to let you get to know us a little better.  

For our first entry, meet Chani Ninneman - Wise Fool's Producing Artistic Director.  

Hello!
So, here's where a normal person would insert a nice, normal photo of themselves to be...you know - normal.  But I realized something.  I don't have any normal photos of myself.  So we'll just have to make do. 

I am the queen of Shakespeare! Muahaha!

Anyhoo, my name is Chani and I decided to start a Shakespeare company.  Why?  Because we have incredible theater here in Duluth: comedies, dramas, musicals, even original works.  But almost no classical theater at all.  So instead of whining about it (ok, I whined - a lot), people suggested I do something about it.  So I did.  

In the summer of 2010, I met with John Pokrzywinski about his dream of performing Hamlet.  (If you don't know John P - he's a brilliant local actor/director/human being.)

ME: Hey John!  I know it's always been your dream to play Hamlet!  How about you come do it with my my brand new SHAKESPEARE COMPANY?!
JOHN:  Jeepers!  That sounds great!

That's...not how the conversation went.  It was more like this:

ME:  Uh...hi, uh...John.  How are you?  Good, good.  I am well as...well.  So, do you maybe want to maybe perform your Hamlet with the new Shakespeare company I'm starting maybe kind of?  YOU'RE SO COOL!
JOHN:  Who is this?

Ok, it wasn't quite like that, either.  But it wasn't as easy a sell as I had hoped.  John was right to be wary.  I didn't have any money.  I didn't have a venue.  I didn't even have a director.  But what I did have was a community of artists who were hungry to do some Shakespeare.  And that counted for a lot.  Thankfully.

So after a month or two of begging, I mean - intelligently discussing, John and I reached an agreement.  I was going to start a Shakespeare company.  And he was going to direct and star in its first production.  (Yes!  Yes yes yes yes yes!)  (Next time you come to one of our shows, ask me about how we sealed the deal with pizza.  Literally.)  He was so wonderfully patient with me.  He didn't let me get away with saying 'I'll do it later'.  He was understanding when I made mistakes.  Because, boy, did I make mistakes.  Best of all - he shared the whole artistic process with someone he hadn't even known that well before all this.  In short, he had created a monster.  But the good, Shakespeare loving kind.

If anyone is still reading (hi Mom...), first - thank you.  Did I ever think in a million years I would start a theater company?  Good grief no.  But now that I have?  Best decision I ever made.  And it's all because of YOU.  We've done two shows so far; Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew.  Audience response for both shows was AWESOME.  Who wouldn't want to keep going after that?  And second - well, there is no second.  I think 'thank you' sums it up.