Richmond’s two downtown universities, Virginia Union (VUU) and Virginia Commonwealth (VCU), may seem to exist in alternative realities, separated by Broad Street. But Rick St. Peter has bridged the divide between the institutions since his early days as a professional director.
“Back in 1998, when I first graduated [with an MFA in directing] from VCU, I sent letters to all of the theater companies in town, looking for work,” says St. Peter. “I got one response and that was from VUU.”
“They hired me to direct ‘Tartuffe’ and work as an adjunct,” he continues. “So VUU will always have a soft spot in my heart because my first step into the professional world was facilitated by that.”
St. Peter has taken an impressive series of globe-spanning steps since that first one, serving as artistic director of a theater company in Kentucky, working as a professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, and teaching as a guest lecturer in London, Ukraine and Romania.
He earned his doctorate at Texas Tech in 2013, came back to central Virginia in 2021 and now works as the theater program coordinator at VUU.
This month, St. Peter returns to VCU to direct “Twelfth Night,” his first experience there since graduating. “I’m really excited to be back,” he says. “There are a lot of ghosts; the first time I walked into Shafer Street Playhouse, I got a little verklempt.”
“Twelfth Night” has emerged over the years as one of Shakespeare’s most produced comedies and adaptations like the film “She’s the Man” have cemented its plotline of romantic misadventure into the contemporary psyche.
In the play, a young woman, Viola, disguises herself as a man to enter the service of Duke Orsino and falls in love with him. However, he loves the wealthy countess Olivia, who ends up falling for the disguised Viola.
“The stakes aren’t terribly high in the play,” says St. Peter. “I want it to be fun. You can tell when the group of people who are telling the story are enjoying working with each other and that collective enjoyment sort of bleeds into the audience.”
St. Peter was a Fulbright Scholar in 2016 and, this spring, added the honor of being selected to the Fulbright Specialist Program. In his career, he’s directed Shakespeare many times, infusing each show with a contemporary perspective. For instance, his 2001 production of “The Taming of the Shrew” for Barksdale Theatre (now Virginia Rep) included scenes set in a boxing ring.
St. Peter says tackling “Twelfth Night” requires paying special attention to the music used in the production. “The play is suffused with music,” he says. “When I did it before [at Clemson], I used a lot of music from artists like Jason Mraz.”
“Students these days don’t seem as comfortable with ambiguity,” he says. “They want to know what’s right and wrong. Theater traffics so much in that gray area so I tell them, ‘If you want certainty, the math department is over there.’”
A different musical option came to light when preparing this latest staging. “You never want to repeat yourself,” says St. Peter. “And the folks at VCU said ‘we have this really talented composer in our music program.’” St. Peter was up for something new and so junior Kyler Sircar will be lending original compositions to the production.
“I love what I’m hearing so far,” says St. Peter. “He has come up with some pretty amazing stuff.”
St. Peter says that, thanks to the quality of VCU’s theater program, his cast hasn’t had too much problem digging into the language and conventions of Shakespeare. That said, he has seen some changes over the more than 20 years he’s worked with young actors.
“Students these days don’t seem as comfortable with ambiguity,” he says. “They want to know what’s right and wrong. Theater traffics so much in that gray area so I tell them, ‘If you want certainty, the math department is over there.’”
While he sometimes has to push them out of their comfort zones, St. Peter expresses an abiding respect for his students. “I get sick of hearing these kids get shit on by people my age,” he says. “They’re not afraid to call out bullshit and I love that.
“If this planet is going to get saved, it’s gonna be this generation that’s gonna do it.”
“Twelfth Night” will run Nov. 14-17 at the Singleton Center for the Performing Arts, 922 Park Ave. Tickets and information at https://arts.vcu.edu/academics/departments/theatre/vcuarts-theatre-mainstage-season/.
