Tina Packer dedicated her life to interpreting, directing, and teaching the work of William Shakespeare – the legendary bard whose writing continues to galvanize deep reflection on life, society, and the fundamental structures of being some 400-plus years after his death.
“Because he was a playwright, and he was really trying to figure out political structures, social structures, the position of women in the world- Should we have a monarchy, or should we have a republic?" she explained. "You know, huge idea, the idea you wouldn't have a monarch, you might have a republic instead- Because he was figuring those things out, he was speaking deeply and passionately about it. He wasn't pussyfooting around the issues. He was really going into it.”
Speaking with Joe Donahue on WAMC’s The Roundtable in 2015, Packer laid out why Shakespeare, with his provocations, meditations, and examinations of joy, grief, and purpose remained an inexhaustible font of inspiration over her long and illustrious career in the theater.
“If we just say, ‘to be or not to be, that's the question,’ in this moment of time, with all our kids on their iPhones, are they ever actually alive now to what's happening to them in that moment as they're looking at their iPhones?" she asked. "Do they know what's going on in their bodies? Do they know what's going on in their relationships? Do they know what's going on inside them? Are they actually in a ‘to be’ state, or are they just hooked up to this thing? I mean, so, you have to keep on asking the asking the question again, and I don't know the answer, but what I do know is, is that [Shakespeare] asks the best questions.”
Packer founded Shakespeare & Company in Lenox in 1978 at The Mount, the historic home of Edith Wharton. In 2000, it migrated to a new location on a campus just outside downtown Lenox proper. One of its four theaters is named in her honor: the Tina Packer Playhouse.
To those who knew her and worked closely with her, Packer’s fiery presence and passion for theater, language, and people define both her life and legacy.
“She loved Berkshire County, she loved doing theater outdoors, indoors in this county, in the summertime, all year long. She just never really caught a breath between wanting to do theater and more theater and the stories that were told and what they signified and how they resonated for people. And she was so fascinated by people's lives and how it related to the stories that were being told," said Allyn Burrows, who has been Shakespeare & Company's Artistic Director since 2016. “For Tina, all theater was personal, and she just was endlessly and relentlessly scrupulous in keeping after the specificity of the language, the structure of the verse, the relationships of the actors on stage and the actor-audience relationship. She was always seeking that truth in the language. What does it signify? What does it say about humanity? What does it say about villains and heroes every step of the way? And we're going to miss her.”
Burrows remembers her as a troublemaker in the best way.
“The first week that I met Tina was, I met her in 1988, and we were doing a workshop production of a Primo Levi play in Boston called ‘Survival in Auschwitz.’ And we went out for dinner, and there were a bunch of us, and I was at the American Repertory Theater at the time, and I enacted a production that I was working on called ‘Skinhead Hamlet,’ and that was Hamlet done by skinheads, and I was very loud and got us kind of a lot of trouble in the restaurant. And she was just delighted by how much trouble we were getting into in the restaurant," Burrow chuckled. "She was so tickled by that.”
Shakespeare & Company plans to honor Packer with a celebration of her life on its campus on Sunday, May 31.
We’ll give Tina the last word, which for her, was always about the words themselves.
“The whole depth of Shakespeare is not changing the language, it's really going into the language and understanding what it means, and really, in the depth of that understanding, looking at the world," said Packer. "So, if you can really deeply think about that, then you start seeing the world on a whole other level. And if the actors can be articulate about it and take it on, then you have a shift in consciousness, rather than an entertainment, which is what happens now.”
