Ford Honors Program honoring the Royal Shakespeare Company, Michael Boyd, and Ralph Williams
Saturday, January 24th at 6 p.m.
Rackham Auditorium
$20 for Students

In October 2006, 1,000 students spent the night camped out in front of the Power Center just for the slim chance of getting tickets to a Shakespeare performance. If this sounds implausible, it is — for any troupe other than the Royal Shakespeare Company. But after all, the RSC is the stuff of which dreams are made, and the company’s three residencies at the University have been, almost without question, the height of artistic excellence at the University in the past decade.

This Saturday, the Ford Honors Program will hold an event celebrating the the RSC's history of performance at the University.

“These performances marked the University in the world of theatre,” English Prof. Ralph Williams said. “(The historic cycle of first residency) was one of the great productions of the century.”

Williams has been deeply involved with the RSC residencies and is a personal friend of Michael Boyd, the company's artistic director. This Saturday the collaboration between the two dramatic giants will be honored at the Ford Honors Program, an annual event that recognizes outstanding contribution to the arts.

“It’s a sensational cheer for what three great institutions can do that no one of them could have done on their own,” Williams said.

The performances were also very much collaborative efforts: They were produced by the RSC, paid for by the University and presented by the University Musical Society. The University's cooperation with the RSC was so successful that its blueprint has been used by the company in its other partnerships.

“It’s been stupendous for the University,” said Williams. “(It is) a relationship which has been mutually beneficial."

Observant art lovers may notice that the program is strangely out of place in January — it’s normally held in the rosier month of May. Why the shift? Simply to allow student theater enthusiasts (and Williams enthusiasts) access to the event. The move clearly speaks to the nature of the program. The residencies, and Williams’s involvement in them, have been in the spirit of whole-hearted collaboration — not just between company and university, but between performers, professors, students and community.

On this point, Williams could hardly restrain his enthusiasm.

Williams praised the prolonged nature of the residencies, suggesting that the duration and the additional programs made it possible for a real dialogue.

“It was not just one concert; people came in and sustained a presence. (Audiences) talked with others about it, thought about it. (The plays) became a way for society to talk about many of its central issues.”

Not only that, but the presence of RSC members like Patrick Stewart and Harriet Walter (Emily Tallis, “Atonement”) at everyday locales like the Ann Arbor Brewing Company and the State Street Starbucks gave theater enthusiasts enough excitement to last for months.

“They demystified excellence for students,” he said. “Seeing them on stage, they’re like…” Williams brought his voice to a whisper, “…gods.” But RSC members' involvement in University programs and their presence around campus gave students a new perspective on the possibility of achieving true excellence — on the mortality of the gods, as Williams would have it.

For all the celebrated success of the residencies, Williams is still hoping to achieve something more. The Royal Shakespeare Company has not made a formal agreement with the University to return. Although, according to Williams, both institutions are happy about their collaboration, there are no guarantees. Instead, the professor is proposing that the University continue to build a reputation beyond the RSC, and, perhaps, beyond the football stadium.

“This is a hope of mine,” Williams said.