Celebrated stage and screen actor JAY O. SANDERS will join host NATHAN WINKELSTEIN, Red Bull’s Associate Artistic Director, for a conversation focused on one of Shakespeare’s most iconic characters. Appearing in the Henry IVs and The Merry Wives of Windsor–and also eulogized in Henry V, Falstaff is a unique study. Sanders will read Act 2 Scene IV from Henry IV and discuss the rewards and challenges of playing Shakespeare’s most lovable and licentious old knight. They will take your questions through Youtube and Facebook LIVE.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
JAY O. SANDERS's Shakespeare roles have ranged from Titus Andronicus, Marc Antony, and Macbeth, to Toby Belch, Caliban, Petruchio, and Bottom, appearing in more shows at the Delacorte Theater (Shakespeare In The Park) than any other actor to date. Other acting credits include Girl from the North Country (Broadway - on pause for COVID), Uncle Vanya (2019 Drama Desk Award, Hunter Theater Project), Cyrano (Guthrie), The Michaels, Gabriels, and Apples (written and directed by Richard Nelson, Public Theater, European & World Tours, and COVID-year Zoom trilogy), and Stuff Happens (Public). Television: “Manhunt: Deadly Games,” “Sneaky Pete,” “The Sinner” (Season II), “True Detective.” Film: Revolutionary Road, The Day After Tomorrow, JFK, Edge of Darkness, Angels in the Outfield, Glory, Tumbleweeds. Author: A World in Common, an actor’s diary. Playwright: Unexplored Interior. He is also a prolific narrator of documentary films.
NATHAN WINKELSTEIN is Red Bull Theater's Associate Artistic Director. He has been with Red Bull Theater for three years, serving as Producing Director of The Revelation Reading Series, Education Director of Shakespeare in Schools and the Masterclass offerings. He also serves as a literary and casting associate for Red Bull. Nathan is also the NY Casting Associate for American Shakespeare Center. He has acted or directed for numerous companies around the country and in the UK, including Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Shakespeare Theater Company, W.H.A.T., LCT, The Folger, The Tobacco Factory, American Shakespeare Center and others. Nathan has taught for Red Bull, STC, LCT, WHAT, TGS and Shakespeare Forum; he also provides private acting coaching in NYC. Nathan received his BA in Theater from the University at Buffalo and his MFA in Classical Acting from the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK. Nathan is a proud member of Actors Equity.
EXCERPT
HENRY IV, PART 1
Act 2: Scene IV
PRINCE HENRY
Do thou stand for my father, and examine me upon the
particulars of my life.
FALSTAFF
Shall I? content: this chair shall be my state,
this dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown.
Give me a cup of sack to
make my eyes look red, that it may be thought I have
wept; for I must speak in passion.
PRINCE HENRY
Well, here is my leg.
FALSTAFF
And here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility.
Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy
time, but also how thou art accompanied: for though
the camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster
it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted the
sooner it wears. That thou art my son, I have
partly thy mother's word, partly my own opinion,
but chiefly a villainous trick of thine eye and a
foolish-hanging of thy nether lip, that doth warrant
me. If then thou be son to me, here lies the point;
why, being son to me, art thou so pointed at? Shall
the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher and eat
blackberries? a question not to be asked. Shall
the sun of England prove a thief and take purses? a
question to be asked. There is a thing, Harry,
which thou hast often heard of and it is known to
many in our land by the name of pitch: this pitch,
as ancient writers do report, doth defile; so doth
the company thou keepest: for, Harry, now I do not
speak to thee in drink but in tears, not in
pleasure but in passion, not in words only, but in
woes also: and yet there is a virtuous man whom I
have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name.
PRINCE HENRY
What manner of man, an it like your majesty?
FALSTAFF
A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a
cheerful look, a pleasing eye and a most noble
carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or,
by'r lady, inclining to three score; and now I
remember me, his name is Falstaff: if that man
should be lewdly given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry,
I see virtue in his looks. If then the tree may be
known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then,
peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that
Falstaff: him keep with, the rest banish. And tell
me now, thou naughty varlet, tell me, where hast
thou been this month?
PRINCE HENRY
Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me,
and I'll play my father.
FALSTAFF
Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely, so
majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by
the heels for a rabbit-sucker or a poulter's hare.
PRINCE HENRY
Well, here I am set.
FALSTAFF
And here I stand: judge, my masters.
PRINCE HENRY
Now, Harry, whence come you?
FALSTAFF
My noble lord, from Eastcheap.
PRINCE HENRY
The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.
FALSTAFF
'Sblood, my lord, they are false: nay, I'll tickle
ye for a young prince, i' faith.
PRINCE HENRY
Swearest thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne'er look
on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace:
there is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an
old fat man. Why dost thou converse with that
trunk of humours, that swollen parcel
of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that
grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in
years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and
drink it? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a
capon and eat it? wherein cunning, but in craft?
wherein crafty, but in villany? wherein villanous,
but in all things? wherein worthy, but in nothing?
FALSTAFF
I would your grace would take me with you: whom
means your grace?
PRINCE HENRY
That villanous abominable misleader of youth,
Falstaff..
FALSTAFF
My lord, the man I know.
PRINCE HENRY
I know thou dost.
FALSTAFF
But to say I know more harm in him than in myself,
were to say more than I know. That he is old, the
more the pity, his white hairs do witness it; but
that he is, saving your reverence, a whoremaster,
that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault,
God help the wicked! if to be old and merry be a
sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: if
to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine
are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Peto,
banish Bardolph, banish Poins: but for sweet Jack
Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff,
valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant,
being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not him
thy Harry's company, banish not him thy Harry's
company: banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.
PRINCE HENRY
I do, I will.