Interview: Rynn Vogel And Adam J. Jefferis on Mashing Up Shakespeare in ROSWELL THAT ENDS WELL

Ask writer-director duo Rynn Vogel and her husband, Adam J. Jefferis, to explain their latest Shakespeare in the Park concoction, and they’ll sum it up like this:

“A cowgirl with dreams of life as a dance battler in outer space finally gets her wish—thanks to a four-armed alien king with a tummy ache.”

It may not look like typical Shakespeare, but rest assured: Helena and Bertram are alive and well in this playful, family-friendly mashup of All’s Well That Ends Well, a free Shakespeare in the Park production running weekends, August 2–24, at Media Park in downtown Culver City.

“The original play by William Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well, is very present,” said Vogel, who has been creating Bard mashups for The Actors’ Gang for about a decade.“The main plot is followed quite closely, with some adjustments and simplifications to the story that make the content family-friendly and, more specifically, kid-friendly.”

This production is the latest in The Actors’ Gang’s long-running summer Shakespeare series, a tradition that aims to make Shakespeare accessible and free for all. Led by Oscar-winner and founding artistic director Tim Robbins, The Actors’ Gang has been blending Shakespeare with pop culture since 2006. Past productions have included Harry Potter Hamlet, Toy Story Tempest, and Much Ado About Pooh.

The Actors’ Gang was founded in 1981 by Robbins with the goal of creating "bold, original works for the stage and daring reinterpretations of the classics.”

“I think if someone comes to our play with an awareness of who Shakespeare was, they will immediately recognize our show as a Shakespeare adaptation,” Vogel said. “For those who have never heard of The Bard, they will simply enjoy the fantastic world we create with songs, dances, and colorful costumes, and maybe learn an important life lesson while being entertained by our storytelling.”

In Roswell That Ends Well, Helen is a cowgirl in New Mexico who gets a shot at her dream life when four aliens land in her dusty town searching for a cure for their king’s tummy ache. Helen, using knowledge passed down from her father, a former Area 51 scientist, cures the king. 

As thanks, the king offers her a place in his Galactic Royal Guard, where her dreams of interstellar dance battles can come true. But Bertram, the Dance Captain of the Guard, refuses to accept her because she’s an Earthling. Instead, he gives her a list of seemingly impossible tasks she must complete to earn his acceptance.

Vogel and Jefferis took the time to answer BroadwayWorld’s questions about this year’s mashup—and why Roswell almost didn’t happen at all. 

How long have you been writing and directing these summer shows?

Adam: I’ve been a part of the summer show tradition since I joined the company in 2008. So, when Tim asked me to direct in 2022, I was overwhelmed with excitement and thrilled to collaborate with Rynn as the writer/adapter. We had collaborated on a few holiday shows for the Gang prior to 2022, and in the fall of 2021, we adapted and produced As You Like It as a Halloween-themed online production entitled As Boo Like It. So, we brought that into the park as our first summer show collaboration, followed by Much Ado About Pooh (2023), and The Comedy of Arrs (2024). 

Whose idea was it to make Shakespeare “family-friendly” in such (wonderfully) wacky ways? 

Adam: As much as I would like to take credit or give it to Rynn, The Actors’ Gang has had a long history of cultivating actors and artists from within the company to write, direct, and present new works. Among the many people who have brought these “family friendly” shows to life, I believe that credit should be given to the team who presented our first production Pericles on the High Seas; Angela Berliner (Writer), P. Adam Walsh (Director), Greg Reiner (Managing Director, 2006), and Tim Robbins (Artistic Director).

How close to the source material are you? Is it just "loosely based" on Shakespeare? Does it follow the same structure but lose all the Shakespeare-speak (no "Thou" and "Thee")? 

Rynn: The original play by William Shakespeare, “All’s Well that Ends Well,” is very present. There is a mix of modern-day vernacular and Shakespeare’s original words. It is one of my goals when adapting these plays to utilize as much Shakespeare as possible so that our audiences can see how accessible the Elizabethan language can be to modern English speakers. The main plot is followed quite closely, with some adjustments and simplifications to the story that make the content family-friendly and, more specifically, kid-friendly.

Adam: Even before Rynn and I were asked to lead these productions, there has always been an importance placed on Shakespeare's poetry. Children embracing the language of Shakespeare for the first time is a magical event for audiences and performers alike, and we are excited to be the first access point for so many of them. 

What has the response been? Do kids even know that they’re watching a Shakespeare play? 

Rynn: This is the 18th production, and every year our audiences grow and grow, so I think we can safely say the response has been wonderful. 

Adam: By keeping this free and making it fun for all ages, we are joyfully showing up for our community, and I think that’s a good thing. Rynn is right, every year this event gets bigger and more patrons are hearing about us. We have families who have been coming since their kids were toddlers and are now in college. In years past, many parents have shared with me that they read the plays, or parts of them, to their children before and after coming to see the show in Media Park. So, I think kids absolutely know they are watching a Shakespeare play, and we’re making it a memorable experience for them to return year after year.

It must be fun to come up with titles and storylines. Do you come up with the title first and go from there? What are some titles that DIDN'T make it—I don't know, maybe..."Much Ado About Muffin?" or "A Midsummer Night's Meme?" or "The MandaLEARian" (Sorry, it's too fun.) 

Adam: Over the years, we’ve mostly begun with the title first and created from there, but there have been times that we’ve workshopped titles or themes that didn’t make the cut. One year, we landed on My Little Pony Midsummer, but that was after we workshopped a few themes… 60’s/Hippies and Cats & Dogs, both hilarious, but didn’t make the cut. Earlier adaptations that I’ve always thought were fun titles are Titus the Clownicus, Cymbeline the Puppet King, Harry Potter Hamlet, and Mighty Morphin Midsummer.

Rynn: I try to focus on comedies so that the storylines have a more upbeat resolution, and I also try to avoid reusing the same plays we’ve already adapted in years past. Getting to name the play is such a fun part that Adam and I usually brainstorm it together and have a list of possibilities before landing on one in particular. Although this year, I had such a strong vision that Roswell that Ends Well was the only contender. The year we mashed up Winnie the Pooh with Much Ado about Nothing, we had a number of versions to pick from: Much a Pooh about Nothing, A Big Ado about Winnie the Pooh, A Big to do About Pooh, Much Ado about Winnie the Pooh, but Much Ado About Pooh ended up the winner.

Do you think this is the only way to do Shakespeare and have kids actually like it?  How about the grown-ups?  

Rynn: I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s the ONLY way, but I find this presentation of Shakespeare makes the material much more accessible to a larger audience, of all ages. I often have folks approach me after seeing a performance and comment that they had never understood a Shakespeare play before watching our interpretation, or that they had never really enjoyed watching a Shakespeare play until now. I’ve also had Shakespeare fans say that our plays have given them new insights or inspired them to go home and reread the original full-length play with new eyes.

Adam: I agree with Rynn, it’s not the ONLY way, but I think it’s such a great introduction to Shakespeare for kids. By interweaving the original text with plain English, some ‘teen talk’, and even some Spanish, audiences of all ages really get a kick out of seeing how we interpret and handle all the language and dialogue.  

What would Shakespeare think? 

Rynn: Shakespeare was a writer “of the people” during his time. He wrote using slang of the lower classes and was an outspoken critic of the ruling class. Therefore, I’d like to believe that if he were writing now, in the middle of the 21st century, he would be on the side of artists like us who strive to bring joy and levity to the stage, especially during times of strife. 

Adam: I feel like every time Rynn and I collaborate on these productions, something magical happens and everything falls into place so perfectly. I think that’s Shakespeare’s way of communicating to us that we’re doing something right. We’re cultivating a space where creativity and collaboration are at the forefront, so much so, that in the last couple of years I’ve started saying “It’s in the show!” to nearly all proposals from actors, designers, and crew members. We’re like a real-life version of the Mechanicals, and I can only hope he’s enjoying seeing everyone having so much fun working on his plays.

I heard this show almost didn’t happen this year. Tell me about that.

The Actors’ Gang was among the many organizations that suddenly lost crucial funding for community programming from the National Endowment for the Arts. For us, it was the Grants for Arts Projects award to support the upcoming installment of our wildly popular free Shakespeare in the Park. Luckily, we were able to replace the $15,000 lost through the cancellation of this grant with vigorous effort and generous support from like-minded partners in the community and The Roy Cockrum Foundation.