Photograph Courtesy of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis
Last September, Rick Dildine left Chicago’s edgy About Face Theatre to become Shakespeare Festival St. Louis’ first executive director. Only 30, he’s got the resume of someone a decade older, and for the festival’s 10th season, he’s overseeing the production of one of Shakespeare’s most ambitious plays: Hamlet.
So you’re in the West End, right?
Our offices are in the Central West End, and that’s where I’m living as well. St. Louis has been very welcoming to me. There is so much to do! There’s such a strong cultural life here in the city, so I’ve been staying fairly busy getting to know the artists in town, the different organizations and not-for-profits in town, and just the city.
So I hear you sneaked in to see Merry Wives last year, but got the impression that you hadn’t spent a lot of time in St. Louis before moving here.
I used to come here when I was a kid for Midwest theater auditions. They hold them at Webster—in fact, they were just last weekend—but this is the first time I’ve been back to that after being away for years. That was my connection to St. Louis, was coming here to try to get a job as an actor.
And you’re one of those rare people who has a talent for doing the creative as well as the financial and administrative stuff.
I try to! I’ve been very lucky in my career that I’ve always said yes to any opportunity that’s come my way, and I’ve been very fortunate that I have been able to make a career in theater. That’s meant saying yes to being a stage manager; being an actor; being a director; being an intern in all different areas. Saying yes a lot has given me the unique perspective of understanding the important things for artists and for creating art, but also the practical realistic demands of running an organization. We are asking ourselves, ‘How we can get better at what we’re already good at?’
You know some people may think you are nuts, swapping Chicago for St. Louis.
You know what? St. Louis is a great city. I hope, as an outsider, I can be that voice to the people who live here, and keep reminding them that St. Louis is a wonderful city. It’s a wonderful city to call home, and to have an artistic life. The thing that got me was showing up [to see Merry Wives of Windsor] and there were 3,000 people out there to watch that show. That’s what got me—the sense of community, the sense that this is important for St. Louis, and we’re all going to come out, and we’re all going to show our support. That got me excited. We straddle the line not only as a theater institution, but as a civic institution. We bring together the community for an event that is unprecendented here: the best-quality theater product we can find—for free.
So you’re taking the reins for the festival’s 10th anniversary; those kinds of milestones tend to be times when companies give themselves a makeover, but it sounds like you’re not interested in making huge changes just yet.
This first season, I wanted to get to know the organization, to get to know the people, the community, and I wanted to listen. I wanted to see what is exciting to St. Louis. I wanted to understand where the organization is in its history, and what is the next step. It’s been six months, so now we are in the process of figuring out, what does 2011 look like? And 2012? So there will be some exciting things happening, which we will share hopefully soon—in the next five to six months. But community is very important to me. I want to be standing alongside everyone and want to be part of creating something for the community, and to be able to do that it’s very important to understand the community and to understand what’s important to them. What do they like? What do they stand behind? What do they believe in?
It’s interesting to see how many St. Louis people are in this year’s production. Jim Butz, an SFSL vet, is playing Hamlet; and you have another local guy directing.
I think it is good for St. Louis to see that we have fantastic talent here. The top two questions you have to tackle before you even tell anyone you’re doing Hamlet: do you have the guy who can play Hamlet? And do you have the person who can direct it? We have those people here. Bruce Longworth is a nationally recognized director, and it’s time for St. Louis to see that. Jim Butz comes from a wonderful theatrical family, but he is also a fine actor himself. St. Louis should know that, and see that. Two-thirds of our cast is from St. Louis. It’s been close to that, but it’s a solid two-thirds this year.
So this marks a return to outdoor theater for you?
I really got a lot of my producing experience, and a lot of my directing experience, running a large outdoor venue in Kentucky, the Stephen Foster Theater, which I think is now in its 53rd year. So I had led that theater from season 45 to its 50th anniversary season. Working outdoors in nature has a lot of pros and cons. There’s the unpredictable nature of working outside. But it demands what you put on have importance, and that it is, for lack of a better term, BIG. When you are competing with nature, you have to put language and music on stage that can compete; it’s huge. When you have trees surrounding you, you have to put solid work out there. So Shakespeare is the perfect match for that, in my opinion.
Last year, Shakespeare Glen got an overhaul; what’s new in 2010?
One of the things we’re looking at is what’s going to be new in the Green Show this year. We’re going to be adding more lectures, and as far as the production goes, Bruce Longworth and I have really been looking at, well, how do we create a set and an event that comes out into the audience? I don’t mean like actors in the crowd, but the set this year is not just going to be a flat piece of scenery. It will have a lot more depth. In fact, it’s going to come out over what is existing stage right now, and will jut out at the audience. We’re really trying to create a new experience as far as how the audience sees the show. It’s going to be your traditional period piece, what people would just consider a traditional Shakespeare period piece—we’re just focusing on doing a solid, solid show.
