Interview: Dan Matisa of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) with the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre at UCA in Conway

Are you afraid of Shakespeare? Well fear not young squires. Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre’s programming this year is assessable to all who shy away from The Bard. Starting June 15th at the beautiful new Windgate Center for Fine & Performing Arts on the University of Central Arkansas campus, there are three options to choose from-THE TEMPEST, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF William Shakespeare (ABRIDGED), and SHAKESPEARE CABERAT, but each show is so entertaining, I suggest you go see them all. 

Broadway World was excited to be invited to Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre’s media day. Getting an insider’s look is so much fun, and I love talking with the creative people associated with the shows. Because I had so many wonderful conversations, this is the first of three articles for this wonderful troupe of entertainers. 

THE COMPETE WORKS OF William Shakespeare (ABRIDGED) covers every work of Shakespeare in a very limited span of time, and with the small peek that I was allowed to watch the actors interact with one another, I am confident to say that you will laugh through, basically, the whole thing regardless of your Shakespearean education. This show will delight the whole family.   

Written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield, three actors (Quinn Gasaway, Augustine Nguyen, and my friend Heather Hooten) will be performing love scenes, death scenes, fights and whatever else, while playing 37 characters in 97 minutes. Can they do it? I can’t wait to find out. 

I was able to sit down with Director Dan Matisa, who has been with Arkansas Shakes since the beginning in 2007. 

Dan Matisa: I go all the way back as far as Chad (Bradford-Managing Director) does with this festival- the inaugural Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre. I met my wife here during that year. Yeah, this is really an artistic home for me. This is my 13th season. 

BWW: Oh my goodness! Really? Thirteen years? 

DM: Yeah yeah, and Broadway world means a lot to me. The year that I was here doing the play HENRY THE FOURTH PART ONE, I was very honored to get the Broadway World award for that play, so you guys mean a lot to me. 

BWW: So, tell me what all you've done. 

DM: I've been an actor for 12 seasons and also a director for one (at AST). I directed THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR here a few seasons back, and that was when we were still doing outdoor shows. That was over at the Hendrix Village and also in Argenta. So, this is my first time back as a director, and this time I'm directing THE COMPLETE WORKS OF William Shakespeare (ABRIDGED), which is hilarious send up of Shakespeare-it's a spoof of Shakespeare, in which three actors try to do all of Shakespeare's plays in under two hours. 

BWW: That's crazy! I've never seen that. 

DM: Oh, you're gonna enjoy it. It's really fun. 

BWW: I used to take the kids over to WinRock (Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain) to watch you guys at their outdoor theater. That was a lot of fun. 

DM: We will be touring to that location again. (Saturday, June 10. www.arkshakes.com/event-details-registration/complete-works-at-the-winthrop-rockefeller-institute) 

BWW: So what's been your favorite thing to do here? 

DM: My favorite thing about being here is the people. I love being part of this artistic community that's been going on for so long. The people that you get to work with here are just such great collaborators and so kind and so generous and gracious. Also, the people who come and support the shows and see the shows are wonderful. There is really a diehard community here of supporters who just love their performing arts and love their Shakespeare, and to come and see live theater in this day and age when there's so much coming at you with streaming and social and all the other ways to be entertained, it means so much to me to receive this support year after year after year. The very first year of this festival, the founding Artistic Director Matt Carini, who was a friend, said to me ‘do you wanna come to Arkansas and do a Shakespeare festival,’ and I said ‘sure, but that ain't gonna last,’ and here we are, you know, almost two decades later, and it's still going, and not only surviving, but thriving.  

BWW: We really appreciate you guys bringing this artform to our area. So, what do you think about the Windgate? 

DM: What a gift to this community, what a gift to UCA and to AST to be able to have this beautiful new space for the fine and performing arts. I know they inaugurated the Black Box theater within the UCA theater department season with a great production of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME. 

BWW: I wish I could have seen it. 

DM: Yeah, I wish I could have seen it as well. My good friend Chris Fritzges (UCA associate professor and performance director) was the director and was also part of that very first season of AST back in ‘07. So we are so thrilled to be the second and third and fourth shows to be in that new space. It's a pleasure and a gift. It's a beautiful, modern, accessible and versatile space. It's really, really fun. 

BWW: And this is going to be AST’s home? 

DM: That's my understanding that this is going to be the new performance venue for AST for now to the foreseeable future. 

BWW: And are you from around here? 

 DM: No, I'm from New Jersey originally. I spent 17 years in New York as an actor, then shifted to teaching. I taught at various places around the country, and now for the last six years, I've been at Bradley University, which is in Peoria, Illinois, which is where we live. 

BWW: We’ve been to Peoria. 

DM: When were you there? 

BWW: Before COVID. 

DM: For a visit or passing through? 

BWW: Playing in a band. 

DM: Oh, great! Excellent. How fun is that?! Well, Peoria is great and has a great community that supports the arts. We've been there about 6 years now. 

BWW: OK, so you're down here for the summer for a few weeks? 

DM: Yeah, a few weeks to direct the play, then doing some traveling, and then working at another theater called Shake on the Lake, which is up in Silver Lake, New York. Then I’ll spend some time with my family in New Jersey and then back to Peoria for the fall semester. 

BWW: What do you teach at Bradley University? 

DM: I teach acting classes, career prep classes, voice movement, whatever they need. I've been there for six years, and prior to that I was teaching at a school in Kansas for two years, and then a school in North Carolina. 

BWW: Emporia? (in Kansas) 

DM: Exactly, yeah. How did you know? 

BWW: I have a friend who teaches there.  

DM: Who’s that? 

BWW: Jim Harris. 

DM: Yeah, I know Jim. 

BWW: You know Jim? 

DM: I know Jim very, very well. He was also part of that very first season here in ‘07. We were all in MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM together- me, Jim, Chad, my wife Taylor, and lots of others, Chris Fritzges, and Shawna was involved in that season. Yeah, we go all the way back to that first season. Jim is a dear, dear friend. 

BWW: Yep, I like Jim as well. 

DM: Yeah, good man. 

BWW: Thank you so much. We are so glad you're here. 

DM: Thank you. 

For more information about their shows and their summer camp, which begins June 5th, visit their website at arkshakes.com.