Shakespeare takes center stage in summer festivals

A steel moon rises over the saw-toothed horizon. The audience takes its seat and the curtain opens to reveal Sherwood Forest.

Charles Fee watches from stage left as his Shakespeare troupe makes its entrance. Suddenly, an owl swoops overhead. Then a doe strays onto the set, clip-clops across scene and disappears into the indigo night.

“That happens sometimes,” said the affable Fee, producing artistic director of three nationally-recognized Shakespeare festivals. “Nature becomes part of the set. It makes the production feel alive and actors just go with it.”

Fee manages the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise and Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. Each venue gives Shakespeare performances a distinct flavor.

The Lake Tahoe stage melds into a pristine environment of boulders and ponderosa pine. Alpine surroundings underscore Shakespeare’s references to forested settings.

”It’s easy to imagine the real thing,” Fee said.

An altogether different feeling greets visitors to the Boise amphitheater. Built adjacent to the Boise River, the stage offers views of rolling hills and garden paths. Such a place can transport audiences visually and spiritually into scenes from Macbeth or A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Fee explained.

“There’s a feeling of excitement around a Shakespeare event,” said Sara Bruner, one of the performers at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.

Bruner grew up in Boise and recognizes faces in the audience whenever she performs. That feeling of camaraderie forms a tight bond between audience and actor, she said.

“Coming to a Shakespeare play gives you a chance to understand something about yourself,” said Bruner. “Depending on how old you are or where you are at in life informs how you experience the play.”

Open-air stages have been synonymous with Shakespeare performances since the reign of England’s Queen Elizabeth some 500 years ago. Plays took place in courtyards on a makeshift stages. Gatherings had grown in frequency and popularity by the time young Shakespeare entered the scene as an actor-in-training.

When the Great Plague of London struck in 1567, the panicked major disbanded performances and expelled players from the city. His actions were an unexpected blessing.

Creativity has a way of surviving and thriving in harsh circumstances. Shakespeare and like-minded entrepreneurs built permanent stages outside city limits. Modeled after courtyard settings, corseted actors performed on an open air stage with seating on three sides—the original “Elizabethan stage.”

Shakespeare became a wealthy man and retired to the countryside at age 49. In his absence a tradition grew. Theater companies expanded throughout England and performed Shakespeare scripts as well as lesser-known plays.

During the late 1800s Shakespeare mania spread from England across the Atlantic. Traveling minstrels performed for Americans from prairie to shining sea.

In 1935, a permanent Shakespeare festivals was introduced in Ashland, Ore. The unlikely location had a small population base and a higher regard for pugilism than theatrical arts.

A local drama professor received $400 from city officials to erect an Elizabethan stage—so long as he scheduled boxing matches alongside alongside acts of Shakespeare. His first playbill announced Twelfth Night and Merchant of Venice. And the Oregon Shakespeare Festival was born.

Other festivals followed suit. The Old Globe Theater in San Diego opened in 1937. The Hofstra Shakespeare Festival at Hofstra University was founded in 1950 and the American Shakespeare Theatre began five years later.

“Outdoor festivals are all about the experience,” Fee said, who acted in a version of ‘A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream’ as a teen-ager. “They never feel dated.”

Shakespeare production offered a realistic career path by the time Fee went to college in the late 1970s. He studied theater at University of Pacific in Stockton, Calif. and spent summers along the California Coast in Santa Maria.

The agricultural community was home to laborers and bankers and wealthy farmers. It offered Fee an acting position at Hancock College’s Pacific Conservatory for Performing Arts, a highly acclaimed professional studio.

Later, Fee received a master’s in fine arts from the University of San Diego. He worked at La Jolla Playhouse, founded by Hollywood stars Gregory Peck and Dorothy McQuire. By the early 1990s he became director of the Sierra Reparatory Theater in Sonoma, Calif.

Fee proudly shares the entrepreneurial spirit with Shakespeare himself. He implemented a successful business model for spreading fixed stage costs across several venues.

Players and their sets rotate between Tahoe, Idaho and Ohio stages. The rotating theater companies offer an affordable way to bring world-class performances to small communities, Fee explained.

“Lots of people have made Shakespeare sort of a summer pilgrimage,” Fee said. “If you go from festival to festival, even if you see the same play, you may see a wildly different approach.”

Families can add Shakespeare festivals to their travel itinerary in any part of the US. Among the popular festivals:

• Colorado Shakespeare Festival at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The season goes from June through August. http://www.coloradoshakes.org/
• Great Lakes Theater Festival, a year-round professional production in Cleveland, Ohio. http://www.greatlakestheater.org/
• Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Cold Spring, N.Y. Performances start in June and go through August. http://hvshakespeare.org/content/2013-season-calendar
• Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise, Idaho. Performances extend from June through September. http://www.idahoshakespeare.org/.
• Illinois Shakespeare Festival in Bloomington, Ill. The season lasts from April through August. http://thefestival.org/
• Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival at Incline Village, Nev. The plays begin a six-week stint from early July to late August. http://www.laketahoeshakespeare.com/
• Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Ore. This annual festival begins in spring and continues through October. http://www.osfashland.org/
• Michigan Shakespeare Festival in Jackson, Mich. Performances go from July through August. http://www.michiganshakespearefestival.com/#!contact
• North Carolina Shakespeare Festival in High Point, N.C. Plays occur in September. http://www.ncshakes.org/
• Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Performances begin in June and go through October. http://www.bard.org/
• Texas Shakespeare Festival in Kilgor, Texas. The season begins in June and ends in July. http://www.texasshakespeare.com/
• Virginia Shakespeare Festival at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, Va. Plays begin in mid-June and go through mid-August. http://www.wm.edu/as/vsf/
• Shakespeare festivals abound in every state. For a comprehensive list go to http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/linksfestivals.htm

Article by Jay Alling, editor of Sensible Driver. Write to jay@sensibledriver.com.