All the world's a stage

By Jill Boyd, Colorado Hometown Newspapers
May 19, 2004

(Cast members of Lafayette Community Players' production of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" rehearse last weekend. First-time actor Karl Yambert said the play is accessible and full of physical comedy.)

Lafayette man goes from Shakespearean scholar to actor

Lafayette's Karl Yambert pours over Shakespeare's scripts, finding poetry in the rhythm of the words. A self-described lover of the Bard, he is fascinated by the way in which the playwright's ideas—penned during the time of Queen Elizabeth I's England—have resonance today.

Usually an armchair admirer of the man who has been dubbed the world's greatest dramatist, Yambert soon will bring Shakespeare's words to life. He will perform in the Lafayette Community Players' upcoming production of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors."

"Reading is a lot of fin. I can turn my imagination loose," Yambert said. "But it's also very solitary, and ultimately limiting." Playing a part in the comedy affords him the opportunity to explore how a live production navigates and utilizes a Shakespearean script.

"The Comedy of Errors" marks his first stint as an actor. According to Yambert, it has thus far been a success. "It's gone very well," Yambert said. "It's been very illuminating." Yambert—along with 20-plus other actors in the show—has spent the last month rehearsing the farce.

He has found himself a role as both student and teacher. Because of the extensive study he has done of Shakespeare's plays, he acts as a consultant of sorts for the other performers.

They're coming at it from a non-Shakespearean background," Yambert said. "I'm trying to alert them to the potential in the verse." Yambert said the cast is avoiding the impulse to do an affected reading of Shakespeare, adding, "They're not imitating Laurence Olivier or anything."

As Yambert helps his castmates heighten the effectiveness of the performance by utilizing Shakespeare's iambic pentameter to its full potential, he is learning the stagecraft by observing the more veteran actors. "What I've found being on stage, there's a lot going on except for people just talking," he said. "That's a whole new dimension."

Yambert is very aware of the inaccessible stigma surrounding Shakespeare's works. "I know there are a lot of people, the very name Shakespeare scares them," he said. For those people who bristle at the thought of sitting through three hours of wherefores, thous, and prithees, Yambert says "The Comedy of Errors" is not a haughty, pretentious play.

It is full of plenty of slap stick, physical comedy bits. "While the words are wonderful and are the backbone of the play, a production has to learn how to fill in around the words to give them meaning," Yambert said.

And independent Shakespearean scholar, Yambert admits even he does not catch every word of a performance of the Bard's work. He takes that as a challenge during his first adventure as an actor. "We're just people together on a stage, just trying to make something out of words on the page," Yambert said.