Schroon Laker.com recently caught up with Patrick Siler, co-founder of the ADK Shakes Company.

Tell me more about that Puppet in David and Goliath?

“It requires four operators, one of whom is controlling the head and neck from behind the rest of the operators and still has the ability to make the puppet speak.  I helped with this and I still can't really conceive of exactly how it works. We're trying to channel Jim Henson to the best of our ability. Goliath stands 9 and half feet tall”

This year the ADK Shakes company features 14 actors. They arrived in Schroon on July 20th and immediately began rehearsals. Days later they opened with David and Goliath in Lake Placid and The Tempest in Schroon. North Country-wide the company will perform 33 shows. Patrick starts smiling broadly when he considers that number.

“There's a lot of stuff going on. Five plays by Shakespeare that these 14 actors have to hold in their heads all the time, because they don't just open and then we're done with them. They open and then we rotate through them.

“For the first time ever, it's already more ambitious than anything we've ever done, but we're trying something that we've always wanted to do and just decided to go for it. On Tuesday, August 19th, at Scaroon Manor Amphitheater, we will begin a half an hour earlier than usual.

“We usually have a 5:00 call in the amphitheater. We'll have a 4:30 curtain because the first thing we're going to do is poll the audience and let the audience choose which play we're going to do that day. We won't know until the audience says, "We want to see ..." and I guess we'll have to go by cheering or I don't know exactly how we're going to do it. But we're doing audience choice where the audience picks the show and then the cast just has to jump right into it.

How nerve-racking is that?

“For me, I have a strange mind. For me, this is not nerve-racking at all. That's the most exciting thing that I could do is show up and be like, "Tell me what play to do for you." I know that, for some of our actors, they like to have a good afternoon ahead of the show to get in the right head space and maybe run through all of theirs. I like to walk the tightrope personally. I'm looking for the most nerve-racking situation to put myself into, which is why I started a company that behaves this way. The energy will be high on audience choice night, I am certain”.

Schroon Laker.com is a proud sponsor of the ADK Shakespeare Company. For more information about the season, the actors and purchasing tickets, click here.