In this Sonatas & Soundscapes interview that aired Wednesday, January 28th, host Bradley Fuller chats with William Starrett, CEO and artistic director of the South Carolina Ballet, about upcoming performances blending Shakespeare's romantic comedy, Felix Mendelssohn's iconic music, and Starrett's own choreography of the ballet that first brought him to Columbia.
TRANSCRIPT:
FULLER: William, it’s great to have you!
STARRETT: Thank you, Bradley, it’s great to see you.
FULLER: 2026 is the 200th anniversary of the concert overture that composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's incredible music by this German composer, only 17 at the time he wrote it back in 1826. Has this Bicentennial been on your calendar for a while?
STARRETT: It has, and, you know, it’s a challenge every year to figure out what the season is going to be and how I'm inspired or what I think the public not only would love but should see. And so, getting to celebrate that 200th anniversary. I'm cheating a little bit—so it’s the concept of when he began it.
But I was especially fascinated because of his age of 17. So I joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet when I was 17. And so, I know that you're capable of a lot at a young age. I was just really inspired by the work, and there's a long history of A Midsummer Night's Dream here in Columbia with the South Carolina Ballet, and it actually has a lot to do with ETV!
FULLER: Could you touch briefly on that ETV connection?
STARRETT: So our founding director Anne Brodie came out of sabbatical and she was going to create a new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. And her partner, Michael Land, was my ballet master in New York—I was dancing for the American Ballet Theater.
And so, he was the ballet master, my teacher. And of the 77 dancers with the American Ballet Theater, he approached me to see if I wanted to come to Columbia, South Carolina and be a guest artist with this brand new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
I was incredibly honored that he picked me out of all of the dancers. Anne Brodie had some bad experiences with male guest artists in the past, and so she had to meet me. So that was unusual. They flew me here to Columbia just to meet me. And we got along famously.
So, she created the role of Oberon in the brand new production on me.
And this was a long time ago in 1977. We premiered it at the Dreher High School auditorium, and there were only a few male dancers, and coming from New York, they wanted to treat me special. And so, they cleaned out the janitor's closet, and that was my dressing room. [laughter] And I performed it at Dreher High School, and it was filmed by ETV back in 1977.
FULLER: So, A Midsummer Night's Dream was the ballet that brought you here to town, starting off maybe in the janitor's closet, as you said.
STARRETT: Yes.
FULLER: And coming a long way since then?
STARRETT: That’s right, and then in 1987—it was the second year that I became the full artistic director—and I created a brand-new production. And so that's the one that we know today. And I think I did it again in the 2000 and 2011 seasons.
And I think we've remounted it about five times. This is the fifth time we’ve be mounted it since 1987. And I of course danced Oberon in the 1987 production with Mariclare Miranda. So this year, Joshua Van Dyke is performing with Claire Rapp as Oberon and Titania.
"When I hear music, I see movement."
I have a fantastic cast and it's been really magical putting it back together. I've been really working real hard at going back to the 1987 version and really coming back to its essence and how I was inspired by the music in the beginning, and really getting back to the heart of the production and all the meaning behind the movement.
So it's been a really great process. We already performed in Camden, and we've been on a five-city tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
FULLER: Maybe we could delve a bit into—you said getting back into the essence of the work. How does Mendelssohn's music move you, how does it strike you? What kind of impressions does it leave, and how did that influence your choreographic decisions?
STARRETT: It’s kind of clear to me in my mind what the story is as it’s unfolding. You can hear the humor. You can definitely hear Puck. You can hear the essence of the king and the queen—of Oberon and Titania. You know, it's just interesting—when I hear music, I see movement. And so it would just come to me.
I was greatly influenced by the Royal Ballet’s production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that’s choreographed by Frederick Ashton. And I danced Puck in that production in New York for the Joffrey Ballet.
But I also danced Oberon with another production with the Northern Ballet Theater. I performed it at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, and I was Oberon in that production. So I’ve performed A Midsummer Night's Dream in several different productions, so I was really familiar when I created the ballet.
But I just really looked freshly at it, particularly the humor and the timing of the humor. To me, I just see the characters, you know—it's written into the music. So it's very quick. It's very different from other ballet music. It's not oom-pah-pah that's easily countable, you know. It's very much more rhythmic and it's harder to count. And it's a little bit more interesting because it's not so calculable, you know. You can't calculate exactly how it's going to turn out so much.
FULLER: There's something kind of fleeting and effervescent about these fairies dashing through the woods?
STARRETT: Yes, yes! And it's wonderful because you can just hear the comedy and you can hear the nobility of the king and the queen, and it's just kind of all in in the music. I love that it's very fast-paced, which I think is very American, and it appeals.
The ballet is a little bit shorter than some of the ballets, certainly the Romantic Era, you know, with Swan Lake having four acts. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is in two acts. It’s a little bit shorter, which I think is real current for right now.
People's attention spans—they want to go to the theater, and they want to see something beautiful, and they want to hear something beautiful. But they want to get with their spouse, and they want to get on to dinner, and so it's really the perfect ballet. I think that the story unfolds really easily.
"Can you imagine that we're still celebrating this amazing score 200 years later?"
What’s wonderful to me is that musicians really respect the music. And a lot of ballet music isn't always so respected by musicians because it's so, you know, oom-pah-pah, or even, or such a calculated tempo. So that's really fun for me that the music is respected. And it’s especially fun that we get to celebrate—can you imagine that we're still celebrating this amazing score 200 years later? It’s just—
FULLER: It truly is incredible. I mean, it's just marvelous music in its own right, but then to think that a teenager wrote the overture, at least. And then, later on in his life, he was adding these other bits of music, including the famous “Wedding March,” which is maybe the most iconic recessional of them all.
You mentioned respect for the music—you have a live orchestra joining you?
STARRETT: Yes, so I formed last year the South Carolina Ballet Orchestra, led by Scott Weiss. He's the conductor, and he's just incredible to work with. He was actually at the studio this morning watching the production. We've sent him three different years of the production, so he's seen how it's evolved in different interpretations.
But we're really ready for the orchestra rehearsal, and he has contracted some of his choice, favorite musicians because we've known about this since the summer. So he has reached out and really got the crème of the crème of the musicians he really wants for this score.
It's really exciting for all of us that we get to do two performances with the live music. It's just an amazing experience for Columbia and for the audiences. Our mission is twofold with the South Carolina Ballet: one is to educate. Education is a huge part of what we do. And then, of course, the second is to keep the ticket prices affordable for everyone. So that's our mission.
It’s just really exciting that we're finally here.
FULLER: Music, dance, visuals—a lot of wonderful elements coming together here for this upcoming production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. William, thanks so much for sharing today and all best to you and South Carolina Ballet.
STARRETT: Thank you, Bradley.
More information about the South Carolina Ballet can be found at southcarolinaballet.com
The South Carolina Ballet is a financial supporter of South Carolina Public Radio.
