Shakespeare's Villains at LGAC

An evening with Joe Falocco (rhymes with Morocco), July 8-10 at the Black Box Theatre. Photo by Sean Meyers Photography.

Joe Falocco (it rhymes with Morocco) began his career in show business as a stand-up comedian in the late 1980s in Washington, DC, where he worked on the ”open-mic“ circuit with Dave Chappelle and Patton Oswald.

”They were both much funnier than I was,“ Falocco says, ”which explains why they’re in Hollywood and I’m playing a warehouse on Lee Street.“

Falocco’s emphasis eventually shifted from stand-up to Shakespeare because ”the writing was better and the audiences were far more forgiving.“

Falocco has worked as an actor for the Charlotte, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin Shakespeare Festivals. He has also performed for the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern and spent a year on tour with the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express.

As a director, Falocco has staged ”The Comedy of Errors“ for the Shakespeare Festival of Arkansas as well as university productions of ”Romeo and Juliet,“ ”Hamlet“ and ”Macbeth.“

He served as dramaturg for ”The Tempest“ at the Blowing Rock Stage Company in 2007 and for Shakespeare Carolina’s 2009 production of ”Antony and Cleopatra.“

Falocco has a Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in Renaissance Literature from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and an MFA in

Performance from Roosevelt University. Boydell and Brewer Ltd. recently published his first book, ”Reimagining Shakespeare’s Playhouse: Early Modern Staging Conditions in the Twentieth Century,“ which is available at Salisbury’s Literary Book Post and through Amazon.com.

Falocco has been trying to develop a one-man Shakespeare show since 1994. His first attempt, a solo version of ”Henry V,“ was panned by the Chicago Reader as ”the pinnacle of irrelevance.“ Undeterred, Falocco has continued to work on this project and gained valuable experience performing in the three-man ”Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged“ for the Texas Shakespeare Festival and in David Sedaris’ one-man ”Santaland Diaries“ at Catawba College in 2003.

A breakthrough came in 2008 when he was asked to teach a course at Penn State Erie on ”The Theory and Practice of Stand-Up Comedy.“ In order to teach with credibility, Falocco began doing short sets at Erie’s local comedy club, something he had not done for nearly two decades.

”What I discovered,“ Falocco observes, ”is that stand-up and Shakespeare have a lot in common. They are both highly verbal mediums that require intense audience interaction and are not dependant on visual effects or other production values.“

He decided to develop a one-man show that would combine these seemingly disparate genres.

Falocco purchased the rights to perform Steven Berkoff’s ”Shakespeare’s Villains“ for Lee Street Theatre. He maintained the general shape of this work, but adapted it for a contemporary American audience.

”Only about 20 percent of Mr. Berkoff’s script remains. Please, therefore, do not blame him for my bad jokes,“ says Falocco.

”Shakespeare’s Villains“ is directed by Catawba College associate professor of theatre arts, Missy Barnes, who previously directed Falocco in ”The Santaland Diaries.“ They have been married for nine years and frequently collaborate in theatrical endeavors. Barnes, for instance, played Luciana in Falocco’s ”Comedy of Errors“ for the Shakespeare Festival of Arkansas.

”It can be stressful working together,“ Barnes notes, ”but at least that means we

get to be in the same city for several weeks at a time.“

Lee Street Theatre will present ”Shakespeare’s Villains,“ July 8, 9, and 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Looking Glass Artist Collective’s Black Box Theatre at 405 N. Lee St. in Salisbury.

Admission on July 8 is $5. The other performances are $10.

For additional information, call 704-754-2321 or contact leestreettheatre@gmail.com.