Jihad Milhem, left, Cominius, and Sam Sandow are former directors. With this performance, Sandow completes Shakespeare’s canon.
“I happily crave for death rather than mercy.” This is worth me, and I beg for it. “ – Angelo, “Measure for Measure”
Sam Sandow from Boulder has a lot of words … not himself. Many of them were placed on his tongue by the greatest writers in English history.
Actor Sandow, who has appeared in Shakespeare’s plays for 52 years, has just achieved a feat, so no one really knows how many people have played it so far.
Sando is currently playing the senior director in the production of “Coriolanus” at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. That is, he has appeared in all 37 plays that are generally considered to make up Shakespeare’s canon, and there are also some controversial plays. Thrown for good measurements (for measurements).
The creative team behind the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s Coriolanus presented Samsandow with commemorative shorts to complete Shakespeare’s canon.
And he starred in 35 of the 37 plays of Colorado Shakespeare. Colorado Shakespeare is the second oldest Shakespeare festival in the country with 65 seasons. And one was started by his father, James Sandow. He first put his son on stage when he was just 15 years old.
“Sam is a true gentleman in the theater and this is a very monumental achievement,” said Timothio, producer artistic director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. “I’m so happy with him and excited about us that he was able to complete the canon here at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, where the Sandow family is the royal family of the theater.”
Sam is friendly, but not a very enthusiastic man. What is his reaction to completing what he considers to be similar to an athlete who has won a tennis or golf grand slam?
“I just do the show,” he says briefly.
“It’s almost reassuring just because I’ve been shaving this for 52 years. I didn’t really think about it. But in the last decade, I’ve probably begun to think it’s possible.”
No one has an official list of everyone who has accomplished the feat, but Orr and Sandoe know only two American actors so far. Both crossed the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Julian Lopez Morillas, who starred as Tartuv in 1992 and returned to Boulder in 2008 to complete Kanon, who plays Cardinal Walsey in “Henry VIII.”
At least one other old Colorado actor did the trick, and he had a built-in advantage. Like, he built a theater in the basement of Hooker Street in northwestern Denver. In 1911, Georgeswarts opened a residential Victorian playhouse, the first theater to perform all 37 Shakespeare plays in western Mississippi. He is believed to have appeared in all plays before his death in 1937.
James Sandow is a professor, librarian, bibliographer, and Shakespeare scholar at the University of Colorado and was first asked to perform a play on campus in the summer of 1944. However, as the Navy took over the university’s indoor theater for war efforts, Sandow should try performing “Romeo and Juliet” at the newly built Mary Lippon Amphitheater. It began the annual tradition that became formal when his friend, British professor Jack Clauch, officially founded the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in 1958.
James Sandow has become a legend at both the old Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Boulder and Ashland. And he took his wife and four children to the theater. Overall, James Sandow oversaw nine seasons in Boulder between 1961 and 1973. And whenever he needed a child, he turned to himself. He cast Anne in her first play when she was six. In 1970, he cast Sam as “Richard III” and “everything goes well” as what he might call “living furniture.” This summer, Sam will once again appear on “All’s Well” as the Duke of the Florent.
Sam has been fairly consistent with the company for years – 2022 is officially his 32nd season, playing a major supporting role. It blended well with 20 years of work at the University’s Strategic Media Department.
He hasn’t played many roles, but his favorite was to play the smart Angelo in “Measure for Measure.” He is a hypocrite who sentenced a man to death for fornication and looks back to propose a young nun. He will also play a composite chorus character in “Queen Margaret,” the original adaptive mashup of “Henry VI” (all three) and “Richard III” for the 2000 world premiere at Boulder. I loved that. “As far as I know, I’m the only one who has played that role so far,” he said.
Sandoe doesn’t hate his role, but as a character actor, he admits, “I spent so much time standing endlessly on stage while people were talking, talking and talking.” I am. But that’s okay. He never became a star – he was there for a fun way to spend the summer. And some of the things that stood around it were next to celebrities like Val Kilmer and Jimmy Smits.
Launched in 2018, Sam Sandoe starred in 35 different Shakespeare titles at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.
Sando has appeared five times in “Richard III” and “Twelfth Night”, the most in Shakespeare, and has appeared in 12 titles other than Shakespeare. However, a major factor in his completion of the canon was the arrival of Ol in 2015. Ol launched an “original practice” every year with the aim of allowing the company to complete the entire canon for the second time. This is a limited theater experiment that the cast will gather and present. The less feasible titles are like how they were performed during Shakespeare’s time. There are few rehearsals, a partial script is at hand, and there is no designated director. However, it allowed Festivals and Sandow to check boxes that could not be checked otherwise, such as titles beginning with “Henry VI.”
“We must be grateful that the Colorado Shakespeare Festival is one of the few places dedicated to performing ambiguous Shakespeare plays, as well as the 10 most popular titles,” Sandes said. Says.
Sando also got outside help to fill out the dance card. He has been playing at the Shakespeare Oratorio Society since the 1970s and checked a big box in 2009 when a group of Boulder Upstart Crows performed “The Two Noble Kinsmen”.
When Shakespeare’s position in the modern awakened world is undergoing new and unpleasant considerations, Sandow continues to firmly believe in the eternity of his words.
“Shakespeare is always relevant, as it is now tackling so many issues that are completely rejuvenated by what is happening in the world at any given time,” Sandow said. “He touched the human soul in many ways, and that’s why his play has endured.”
Brothers Anne, left, Sam Sandow grew up as a boulder bard
Sando clearly has a bard in their boulder blood. Sister Ann Sandow believes that her father, who directed more than 70 plays at the Mary Lippon Amphitheater before his death in 1980, is pleased to learn that Sam has completed the canon. “But I think he’s a little surprised by the very idea that anyone can achieve that,” Sam added. “For all the records my dad set, he was far from perfecting the canon.”
Best of all, Sam wants to share the joy of his work with his wife, Sally Sandow, who died in January 2021. When Sally met Sammy, they played together in the musical “Noel & Garty” and got married in 2001. .. Sally called Sam her “leader of Act III.”
However, Sally was able to attend the company’s 2019 launch party, so she knew that plans for both the last two missing titles on Sam’s list, “Pericles” and “Coriolanus,” were underway. I did. “Pericles” was checked last summer.
“So Sally knew what was coming, and she was very happy-because she knew that I meant completing the canon,” Sandow said.
And now he’s trying to do it again.
“There are 17 titles I have to repeat,” Sandoe said. “So if you do it more than once a year, you’ll be 84. And again-I might get two in a few years!”
Please play again, Sam.
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