“What fools these mortals be!” Puck famously utters in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
St. Louis audiences may be fooled in Shakespeare Festival St. Louis' production that lets the spritely Puck be two places at once. The secret? Puck is played by identical twins, Austin and Ryan Jacobs, transplants from Houston.
The brothers, who just graduated from Webster University, join us for our latest Cut & Past podcast to talk about sharing the role in the play and a childhood on the stage. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” opens Friday in Forest Park.
Here’s some of what you’ll hear in the podcast:
- Austin Jacobs on their first stage role, in a version of “Alice in Wonderland”: “We were of course Tweedledee and Tweedledum — what else?”
- Ryan Jacobs on avoiding being hokey on stage with the twin thing: “How can we use that to support the telling of the story rather than just being pyrotechnics that look cool?”
- Austin? Ryan? (We couldn't always keep up!) On what surprised them most about St. Louis: “There’s so much support for the arts here. It’s kind of amazing.”
Look for new Cut & Paste (#cutpastestl) podcasts every few weeks on our website. You can also view all previous podcasts focusing on a diverse collection of visual and performing artists, and subscribe to Cut & Paste through this link.
Follow Willis and Nancy on Twitter: @WillisRArnold and @NancyFowlerSTL
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