Drinking two or more beers (or any other drinks) while seeing theatre could very well be a recipe for disaster, but what the clever folks at the New York Shakespeare Exchange have crafted with their ShakesBEER pub crawl would definitely inspire the Bard to write a loving sonnet. A group of wonderful actors take on individual scenes from some of Shakespeare's most beloved works and perform in different bars, with audience members following from establishment to establishment (all within very close walking distance). The actors' interaction with the audience make for a unique experience that defies anyone's preconceptions of Shakespeare, in the works of NYSX he comes more alive than ever. With the pub crawl returning in September with a very special Irish edition, we spoke to associate producer and actor Carey Van Driest about getting to work with one of the city's most exciting theatre companies.

When did you develop such a passion for Shakespeare?

I was first introduced to it in high school, like a lot of kids, and we read Romeo and Juliet out loud in class.  I remember sensing this was cool stuff, but didn’t really get my first taste of performing it until I was a freshman in high school and we did a cut of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for regional competitions.  I was Puck and got an award, which my mother still proudly displays somewhere.  That was it, I was smitten.  Getting awards will do that.

I loved going to one of your pub crawls because it made me hear that beautiful music that can be Shakespeare done well. However why do you think it's so easy to get Shakespeare so wrong?

Good question.  And thank you!  Hmmm, well in my experience there is an initial mental hurdle when picking up the words for the first time, at times even for veteran Shakespearean actors, thinking that this stuff is ‘hard’ because it’s not the way we speak any more.  I was taught in college, once you figure out the basic meaning of a passage, to go through, thought by thought, and put it in colloquial words, which means not using any of Shakespeare’s words (except ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘of’ - stuff like that of course).  It forced me to have the meaning in my head when I said the text out loud again, and somehow the sense comes through so clearly because you’re not focusing on the individual words; you’re focusing on what you’re trying to express.  And then there’s the reason ShakesBEER is so successful - the closer the audience is to the performance, the less they focus on the words and the more the relationships, needs and intentions come through.  Most productions have the audience removed from the actors, as traditional theatre dictates.  But when it’s closer, we absorb it differently.  Relationships, needs and intentions are the things we recognize no matter what language is being spoken.  You can always tell what someone is saying when they’re right in front of you, trying to get what they want from someone else.

Out of the tons of scenes Shakespeare wrote, how do you come up with the scenes you want to use for each pub crawl?

We first look for comedy, and opportunities to use the bar settings.  Then it’s about how many people are in the scenes and do they tell a full story when they’re extrapolated from the context of the full play.  Sometimes we also combine parts of scenes throughout the play to make a ‘mini-story’, like focusing on the journey of two or three characters throughout the full play.

Making a scene work out of the context of the play must be quite challenging. What's the process like? How much do you count on people knowing the play/actors engaging with the characters etc.?

Nice segue.  Honestly, knowing the scene and/or the play hasn’t been an issue.  We do get people excited about seeing Romeo and Juliet or Midsummer, but once the scene starts, it’s about this moment with these characters.  Assuming we’ve already made sure the story that we are telling is clear, the actors in the crawls are true professionals, and it’s their characterizations and brilliance with the language that make the scenes come to life.

Equally important how do you decide which scene to set in which pub?

That partially has to do with whether it’s a two-person or three/four/five-person scene.  If we have to have more room to place actors throughout the space, we’ll need one of our bigger bars.  Since all of our bars have standing options (visibility is one of our top priorities!), then it’s about the feel of the bar, and whether everyone will be able to have great sightlines for the particular scene.

How does having the audience so close to the actors affect the dynamic of the performance?

I think it’s the reason ShakesBEER has become the phenomenon that it has.  People walk away saying “I had no idea Shakespeare could be so great!”  It’s tangible, the feeling of having the action happen within inches of you, rather than the width of a proscenium stage.  It also creates an urgency that I’ve never felt anywhere else.  Anything can happen - an audience member may laugh in an unexpected place, and it’s up to the actors to piggyback on that and respond - it lets the audience know they are an intrinsic part of the experience.  It also forces our actors to really be on their toes, which enhances that feeling of immediacy…it’s intoxicating.  Every actor who’s done a crawl is itching to do another one immediately afterwards!

What does the Irish twist of this pub crawl involve?

We’re excited to be a part of this year’s 1st Irish Festival, produced by Origin Theatre Company.  Origin is a peer organization, and there is a lot of mutual respect.  We both saw the opportunity to add ShakesBEER as an event to this year’s Festival and capitalizing on the Irish part of the partnership was intriguing to us because we like to include other authors occasionally in ShakesBEER.  We have a Cyrano de Bergerac scene we do as well.  Shakespeare refers to Ireland often in his plays, so it seemed like a good fit, and we found the scene we’re doing in the more contemporary canon of Irish playwrights. It’s gonna be a hoot.

What's your poison of choice when seeing/doing Shakespeare?

I’d say characters that I can relate to in some way.  Which, in his brilliance, Shakespeare wrote hundreds of.

Who's the ultimate Shakespeare character?

Such an unfair question!  Shakespeare himself!  Who I’m guessing wrote himself into many of his plays.  Both literally and figuratively!

Which of his characters would you love most to play?

I think every actress wants to play Lady Macbeth at some point in her career.  Um, Hermione from Winter’s Tale, and I’m also a Rosalind fan from As You Like It, and actually get to play her in one of our scenes this next crawl!

What Shakespeare play do you wish people would do more often?

Love’s Labour’s Lost can be really hard one, but I think it has lots of mine-able moments.  We do a scene from that play sometimes in ShakesBEER and it’s gold.  Absolute comic gold.

For more on ShakesBEER and the New York Shakespeare Exchange click here.