Director: "Caesar' is straightforward, accessible

"I found it incredibly approachable, especially for people who are typically those who might shy away from Shakespeare," said Skaggs, who is directing the Prenzie Players' version of "Caesar," opening next weekend.

The Prenzie veteran said he knows what it's like to be overwhelmed by Shakespeare. Skaggs felt as though he was force-fed the Bard in high school, and he found St. Ambrose University's version of "Romeo and Juliet," whose cast included his now-wife, Kristin, slightly more palatable.

"I was off-put not by just the density of the verse but the shift the words had in meaning, which makes Shakespeare often very difficult to understand," he explained. "It seemed like you had to have some sort of advanced degree in mythology and ancient history to even start to grasp the illusions and the metaphors that were being made."

After appearing in the first Prenzie show, 2003's "Measure for Measure," Skaggs said he begin to change his mind — and "Caesar" sealed the deal.

"It was really lacking a lot of those references," he said. "It was very straightforward, and I'm a straightforward kind of guy."

"Caesar" is the first of a two-show season called "Prenzie Goes to Rome." The latter show, "Antony and Cleopatra," continues the story. Five of the same characters will be played by the same actors in the May production, to be directed by Kate Farence.

"That creates for us a number of problems and a number of interesting things to work through and play with," Skaggs said.

"Caesar" will be played in the round at the Q-C Theatre Workshop in Davenport. The players will be dressed in dark pants and shoes, with brightly colored sashes.

"They have the feel of a toga, but they are just covering about half of the torso," Skaggs said. "There's nothing worse than a Midwestern actor in a toga."

It fits the feeling that he and the cast are trying to convey, he said.

"What I wanted was, 'What if the Roman Empire never had fallen?' " he said. "What if we were subject to a lot of the feeling of a lot of the Roman Empire, where we had nation states and updated garb and a lot of the same vices and a lot of the same graces as well."

JC Luxton plays Marc Antony, Cole McFarren is Brutus, Stephanie Burrough is Cassius and John Turner is in the title role.

And — 416-year-old spoiler alert — Caesar dies in the first scene of the third act in the five-act drama.

"Caesar is dead for about 10 minutes before we break for intermission, and he's onstage throughout that period of time," Skaggs said. "Scholars have noted that Shakespeare broke a lot of drama rules, not the least of which is that he kills the title character before we're halfway into the show."

Turner, Skaggs said, has been a good sport.

"Caesar's corpse lies onstage for quite a while. That, I thought, was curious and interesting and presented a challenge that I was looking forward to undertaking," Skaggs added. "He's been doing an extraordinary job staying still and laying in a position where you can't tell that he's breathing."

"Caesar" is also unique, Skaggs said, in that there is no discernible protagonist or antagonist in the story.

"Like all real people, they do things we may not like," he said. "Let the audience make up their mind who they're most connected to in this story."