Dachs Thoughts

Tonight I saw another Shakespeare play, and another new festival for me. I saw Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s production of As You Like It. It was a bit of an adventure getting there, as I haven’t been to Santa Cruz in at least 20 years. The “theater” is on the UC Santa Cruz campus, which seems very spread out with lots of natural undeveloped land. It sits in a glen surrounded by redwood trees, a very nice setting reminiscent of John Hinkle park in Berkeley. The show was very well done, all of the acting top-notch. The staging was very spare, similar to CalShakes. The scenes in the duke’s palace just had blue and white curtains as a backdrop, but when it went to the forest of Arden, they pulled back the curtains, and the natural redwoods of the glen formed a perfect setting. By the time the play was over, the fog was settling in to the hills of the UCSC campus.

I hadn’t realized it when I got my ticket, but this was the opening night of the newly reconstituted Shakespeare festival. It had previously run for 32 years as part of UCSC, but last year they closed it down for budgetary reasons. So a separate group took up the challenge and manged to get it restarted, although they’re still leasing the theater space from the university. The glen was full on opening night, and it seemed like a enthusiastic, although laid-back crowd. I will certainly try to go back again.

This completed my unplanned mini-marathon, where I’ve seen 4 different Shakespeare plays, put on by 4 different festivals, in only 8 days. 107

Tonight I saw my third Shakespeare play, produced by the third company, in less than a week. I saw CalShakes production of The Comedy of Errors. It was a very enjoyable production of this light comedy, and each of sets of twins was played by a single actor. It was a small cast where each of the players played multiple parts (which became part of the joke).

Happily, we had a full-house with our group, being joined by Mark and Charlotte R and John B. We had a nice potluck beforehand, with Andy and Bill of the 9 toes. Perhaps I’ll get some follow-up participation. While I didn’t really plan this in advance, I have one more Shakespeare play this weekend, from yet another company. I’m getting a good feast of the Bard this week.

For the second time in two days, I saw one of Shakespeare’s plays. This time it was The Taming of the Shrew, put on by the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, a.k.a., Free Shakespeare in the Park. After seeing Friday night’s play, I just happened to see an online post, and realized it was happening in Pleasanton, so I thought I’d just get some more this weekend.

It was a nice evening to be out in the park watching a play. This rendition of the play included some rarely performed introductory scenes involving the drunkard Christopher Sly, which basically makes the main story a play within a play. While it was a little uneven, the main actors were solid and did a very good job. As is sometimes the case, they tried to make it a little too slapstick for my taste, rather than confronting the story head on. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable evening, and nice to see one of my favorites not too far from home. Since my next CalShakes show is this Thursday, this is going to be a week of lots of Shakespeare.

Tonight I saw my first Shakespeare play of the summer, and my first production of the Livermore Shakespeare Festival. It was a very enjoyable rendition of Much Ado About Nothing. The cast did a very good job, and while there might have been a few rough edges, it was quite well done. The setting against the house-stage worked very well, and the action did a lot of moving around and through the audience.

I’ve been meaning to see one of the Livermore Shakespeare Festival shows for years, but I’ve never gotten it done before. I hooked up with Bob and finally made it. The show took place in the middle of Concannon vinyard, on a stage built against a nice two story house standing in the middle of the vines. It’s actually a very nice setting. I’m glad I finally made it this year as they are going to be changing venues next year. It’s also nice to be just a few minutes from home, reminiscent of my DC theater days. Another Shakespeare play in a week. Yay, it’s getting fun again.

There’s been a long drought of posts, which indicates my fun level has been at a very low ebb. But tonight I kicked-off the new CalShakes season seeing Lorraine Hansberry’s play from the late 1950s, A Raisin in the Sun. I was there alone (with lots of space), but it was a good solid play. The play dealt with some serious issues, but wasn’t too heavy, and the acting was very good. It was a good play to start off the season, and it was nice to get out to the theater again.

Experiencing my 6^th Shakespeare play of the year, tonight I saw my last CalShakes production of the season, A Winter’s Tale. It was a fun, if a bit offbeat, production. It featured much of the cast of last year’s Spunk. The cast was all very good, most of whom played multiple parts in the dual kingdoms of Sicilia and Bohemia. L. Peter Calendar was particularly good. Also noteworthy was the use of lighting. There was a lot of dropping the barrier between the acting and the audience, and a couple of audience participation pieces.

We lucked out as the temperature was quite bearable, but the wind did pickup and was a bit blustery. A couple of Bill and Andy’s friends joined us, so we had nearly a full crew. Considering this is my 5^th Shakespeare play in just a few weeks, I can honestly say my appetite is just getting stronger. At least this summer my theater drought has subsided a bit, even temporarily exceeding my DC rate. I’ll have to seriously looking to some of the alternative venues during the fall/winter/spring.