Meet the Cast of Henry V: Ryan Farrell

Photo by Sarah Stark featuring (from left to right) Steven Schwall, Paul Riopelle, Josh Fremer, and Ryan Farrell.

Greetings Patrons! My name is Ryan Farrell, and I'm here with Pigeon Creek Shakespeare company for our production of Henry V as the Dauphin, Grey, and Bates. A majority of my acting history has got to do with Shakespeare, and no matter how many productions I'm in, I always enjoy his works and the people he draws out to work on them.

A lot of the reasons why will be plain to see in our production. Chief among these are three reason; Characters, motivations, and costumes! When it comes to characters, there are heroes, warriors, scholars, and then there's me. Prince of France and professional jerk. The Dauphin comes off as brash, cocky, and full of himself. He thinks he's the best, but has no evidence to back it up. This does serve as his motivation though, to prove himself and become the king he sees himself as. Of course, his status will also give him some epic threads, the finest the French have to offer. The majority of the cast is some form of nobility or warrior, so the costuming will be captivating across the board! For those of you from an acting prospective, I'd like to include a bit about the process of characterization and memorization. Shakespeare performed in a theater space that was thrust, or a stage that had audience on three sides instead of the more modern one. Pigeon Creek uses this same practice to really involve and intrigue the audience, to interact with them, include them, and make the story come to them. As actors, it helps us make realizations, gives us moments to play with, and gives us energy to keep our emotions high.

For me, another contributor to this is honestly, fear. It's more intimidating to have that many people closer to you while performing. This makes memorization all the more important. Shakespeare's verse and prose is difficult for me to memorize, but I utilize a technique to help me. I take a blank sheet of paper, and use the first letter from each word of a chunk of lines, writing them down in order that they appear. This way, I can use it to "see" the words without seeing them in reality. It gives me a bit of a guide, but still makes me remember. Thank you all for the interest, the time, and your support. We're looking forward to you seeing the finished show, and we hope to see you in the crowd!