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|
 Artistic Director: Janice L Blixt |
| For Janice L Blixt, Shakespeare must be exciting, visceral, and immediate. In her own words: “The plays have been produced continuously for 400 years because his characters speak to universal truths: love, hate, humiliation, exaltation, honor, betrayal, greed, generosity, failure, and success. More than any other playwright, Shakespeare in his work defines what it means to be human, the potential and the mundane. His characters live, strive, and, oftentimes, die onstage nightly—and the best productions of Shakespeare are the ones that demand their audiences live the journey with them. “Shakespeare’s, and many other classical playwrights’, plays are not defined by plot: most plots are “recycled” from other places, some are strong, some are silly. Rather, these plays are defined by language: by the music of the words the actors speak. As Artistic Director of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, my primary duty is to make that language come through loudly – and clearly.” anice is a founding member and Producing Artistic Director of A CREW OF PATCHES THEATRE COMPANY, a repertory company specializing in exciting and engaging, no-fuss, first folio, full-length Shakespeare productions. For the Patches she has directed: JULIUS CAESAR, MACBETH, TWELFTH NIGHT, and ROMEO & JULIET. She has also been the vocal director and text coach for OTHELLO, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, and HAMLET. For other Chicago theatres she has directed ROMEO & JULIET, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, and HENRY V. Janice has also made a name for herself in the world of workshops and classes, teaching classical text work, voice, and Folio Technique for professional actors, for Loyola University, The City Colleges of Chicago, and for high schools around Chicago and its suburbs. Janice received her MFA in Acting from Detroit’s Hilberry Repertory Theatre at Wayne State and BA’s in Theatre Arts and Literature from Bradley University. She has studied with international talent from Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Stratford Festival, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In Chicago, she has played the Marquise de Merteuil in LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES at the Bowen Theatre, and Doreen in TARTUFFE, Maudie & Connie in PIGS WITH WINGS, and all the women in COCKTAIL TIME (both PG Wodehouse adaptations) for City Lit Theatre Company. She has also worked at The Next and at Timeline on new works. In the Detroit area she has worked at Meadow Brook, the Jewish Ensemble Theatre, and for Heartlande. But her great love and joy has come from performing Shakespeare: she has played Lady Macbeth; Viola, Olivia, and Maria in TWELFTH NIGHT; Portia and Metella in JULIUS CAESAR, Lady Capulet and the Nurse in ROMEO & JULIET; Isabella in MEASURE FOR MEASURE; Rosalind in AS YOU LIKE IT; Beatrice in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING; Dionyza in PERICLES, Isabella in EDWARD III. Though she has performed for other Shakespeare festivals, she has always prized her connection to the Michigan Shakespeare Festival which dates back more than a decade. She received rave reviews for her turns as Kate in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, Titania in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, and Queen Elizabeth in RICHARD III. And it was at the Michigan Shakespeare Festival that she met her husband, David Blixt, author/actor/director/violence designer and longtime Artistic Associate of the Festival. They have two beautiful children: Dashiell, 3½, and Evelyn, 1½. |