MC THEATER PROFESSOR JOINS ACTING RANKS
Release
Date: March 22, 2000
Starting April 13, several students at Monmouth
College will get the opportunity to throw one of their professors into a laundry basket, beat
him and make fun of him while he sports a pair of antlers.
And Bill Wallace will love every minute of it.
Wallace, a professor in Monmouth’s department of
communications and theater arts, will return to the stage as Falstaff in the upcoming
production of William Shakespeare’s "The Merry Wives of Windsor." It will be Wallace’s first
time on the other side of the curtain since the early 1990s, when he performed in a summer
dinner theater show on campus.
"I’ve probably done about 45-50 roles in various and sundry
places," said Wallace, who is on sabbatical from teaching this semester.
"This show is a little unusual," he continued. "There are a
few different stories behind its creation. One version is that Shakespeare wrote it as a sort
of command performance for Falstaff. Queen Elizabeth wanted to see another performance
featuring Falstaff, which was a pretty mean trick considering that he had been killed off in
‘Henry V.’
"It’s pure farce. Falstaff is made of more than anything
else."
Wallace said the storyline centers around Falstaff’s attempt
to scam money from a pair of women, but age has taken away from his considerable talents in
that area.
"He and his band of ruffians are in the habit of cruising
from small town to town, looking for easy pickings. They’re trying to pull one over on the
locals," he said. "But he’s a little older in this play, and not as good as filching as he
used to be."
Falstaff’s scheme goes awry when the two women discover his
motives after receiving identical love letters. Wallace explained the hilarious consequences.
"The women find out what’s going on and plot to revenge
themselves. They’re always one step ahead of him."
That includes two times when Falstaff, in fear of being
discovered by a husband, either hides or dresses in disguise. The first "escape" sees him
thrown out with the rest of the laundry into the Thames River, and the second has the husband
beat him, because he doesn’t like the old woman who Falstaff resembles.
In a third scene in the forest, Falstaff "wears an outlandish
costume with buck horns and the whole nine yards," said Wallace. "He’s basically humiliated at
every turn. The audience will have great fun. When the kids found out what they got to do to
me, they were lining up three deep saying, ‘Yeah, we want to do that.’"
He added, "The kids have been a lot of fun. It’s interesting.
I think they see me in a slightly different light. There’s a pretty sizeable age gap. It’s not
like they get to see me hanging around their dorm rooms, quaffing a few sarsaparillas."
Although the play is being directed by Professor Jim De
Young, Wallace said he tries to provide guidance as well, much like a quarterback is an
extension of the coach on the field.
"Just the other day, a student told me on the set, ‘I do fine
when you and I are exchanging dialogue, but when I have to stand for a while and watch others
speak, I don’t know what I should be doing,’" Wallace said. "I try to work through the same
processes they work through. Maybe they can see some shortcuts, or see what I’ve really been
getting at when they had me in the classroom."
Rehearsals are held Sunday through Thursday for 2-3 hours per
night, and they began in early March.
"It’s a little scary," he admitted. "The lines aren’t coming
as fast as they used to. But it’s a good idea to keep one’s skills at least semi-sharp.
"This is really part of my sabbatical project," continued
Wallace, who is also working on his department’s curriculum and investigating some
instructional technology possibilities for other professors while on break. "This was a good
play for me to do, because playing the role of Falstaff doesn’t take away a role from a
student."
After all, Wallace was a student once, too, and he recalled
his early days in the theater.
"I was a freshman in high school, and for whatever reason, I
decided to join the stage crew of a very forgettable musical called ‘It’s a Bird, It’s a
Plane, It’s Superman.’"
His first speaking role came the next year. Wallace chuckled
to himself as he remembered his performance as Officer Klein in "Arsenic and Old Lace."
From high school, he went on to Quincy College for his
bachelor’s degree, Indiana State University for his master’s and the University of Minnesota
for his Ph.D. He did his dissertation on "Marketing and the Non-Profit Theater." Wallace then
taught three years at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, Mich., before coming to
Monmouth in 1979.
He hopes to add Falstaff to his other acting career
highlights, which include playing the Henry Fonda character in "On Golden Pond" and playing
the lead in "Life With Father."
"I like all the different styles," said Wallace. "I suppose
variety is the spice of life. It’s good to not get locked into one thing.
"Comedy’s a lot of fun. Shakespearean comedy is a challenge –
when you try to pull some double entendre from a language that’s 400 years old. You want the
audience to not only understand, but to understand and get the joke."
There’ll be jokes aplenty at Wells Theater during the
four-day run of "The Merry Wives of Windsor." And even though most of those jokes will be
aimed right at Wallace, he figures to be having the time of his life.
Released
by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330
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