Much Ado
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For many years John Telford, Buzzmachine Studios’ creative director and managing partner, worked in the newspaper industry, spending a large part of his career at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was during this time that John teamed up with Judy Newmark, the paper’s resident theater critic to produce what has become an endearing annual project for the newspaper’s readers and the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis. Because this project is so near and dear to John, we thought it would be appropriate for him to write a few words about it. Here’s John:
A frame-by-frame illustrated guide to Shakespeare
Judy Newmark approached me in 2002 with a tremendous idea to illustrate the plot for the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis’ production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” rather than her summarize what can be a confusing storyline in words alone. I thought this was a tremendous idea, not only because this particular play is very complex with multiple twists and turns in the plot, but also because the language of Shakespeare can be intimidating to people today.
With the publication of that first piece in the paper, we got such a response from readers, we knew we had to do the same thing the following year with the Festival’s production of Macbeth. Again the response was tremendous, and every year since 2002, Judy and I have teamed up to produce a new illustrated summary of every play the Festival has performed. Judy has been a tremendous partner to collaborate with, and I’ve been glad to continue the project with her since leaving the Post-Dispatch to work at Buzzmachine Studios full time.
Client testimonial
“A lot of people had bad experiences with Shakespeare in high school. Some assume the language is impenetrable, but I think that Shakespeare, like the moon, belongs to everyone. I wanted the Post-Dispatch to break down barriers.
“John Telford and I did that together. Beginning with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 2002, John and I have turned each season’s production into an easy-to-follow diagram.
“I write a simple version of the story and John illustrates it, creating strong, clear images for the major characters and scenes giving each comedy or drama its own distinctive style, echoing the overall mood, and it has worked incredibly well.
“Each year, the Post-Dispatch publishes the diagram in a big, poster-page format. Many, many people save the page and bring it with them to the performance in Forest Park to follow along. English teachers save the page to mount in their classrooms. This summer, the Festival and the Post-Dispatch teamed up to produce a huge display wall with the diagram blown up and printed on it. The wall was constructed in the park near the stage; people gathered around it every night.
“The illustrations achieve an important goal: they help people realize that Shakespeare is nothing to be afraid of. They can in large measure thank John, and Buzzmachine Studios for that. Their artistry brings great stories to vivid life and their thoughtful approach to a big challenge makes them a pleasure to collaborate with, year after year.”