It has been a week since we closed the shows and it’s a somewhat strange experience. No rehearsals? No small, last minute crises to handle?
I have been spending some of my creative time looking at plays for the future. Samuel French has a great database of its plays that break down by cast size and I’ve scanned through and discovered about twenty that are definitely worthy of consideration.
The criteria for selection, leaving the Shakespeare offering aside, of a companion piece breaks down to something that will work outdoors, that has the right “feel” for our audience, that has the quality we need to build on our success of this year and, as David Stenstrohm said, “Uses the horses you have.”
We are looking at Henry IV i, Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado to choose from for our classic selection for the Mountain Shakepsere Festival 2009 but what is the right companion piece? Suggestions?
August 4th, 2008
It is rare when you have what can be called a “perfect” experience but I think we came pretty close yesterday for the wrap up of the 2008 Mountain Shakespeare Festival season.
We had a full house for our final “You Can’t Take It With You,” to say the least, and this capped a weekend of large houses - or so I hear because I was off in Vermont for a couple days for the opening of a new theatre.
(More on that later.)
Sitting and watching this extraordinary enemble play with this play brought me great delight as a director. As I watched the story unfold and the work of each performer I knew what they had been through individually to get to this point and in every case there was clear growth and such truthfulness in what they brought to the performance.
As the final lines were spoken, I felt like standing for them, for their wonderful committment and fine, fine execution but I didn’t want to be the director that forces a standing ovation. No need to worry as out of the corner of my eye I saw the center section stand and cheer and I joined in.
Bravo, company of our Festival, and all those who stood behind and beside them to make this happen. Take a well-earned bow.
July 28th, 2008
I barely made it home yesterday before I collapsed in the hammock and slept for three hours. But what a great weekend for the Mountain Shakespeare Festival.
The Bard’s Faire, which miraculously came together in less than a week, was a lot of fun for the kids who participated or just came to fling cabbages or fish for toys. Allie Jo’s original songs and the great live tunes made for a fun day. I wish I could recall all the groups who participated but perhaps someone can post that here to help me out.
While all this fun was going on I gave some kids from the age of 4 - 14 some initial tips on sword fighting. I can only say that it was less dangerous than it sounds! (The swords were wooden, which helped a lot.)
The other big excitements were the great reception we got for Comedy of Errors - the cast really got its stride and the show took off - I also had the thrill of going on in on a role because the young actor got a severe sunburn. I’ve “been there” and when I saw just how bad the burn was I did my best to fill in for him. Jake will be back next weekend to close out the show and promises never to forget the sun screen.
July 21st, 2008
It was a pretty darned good weekend for the Mountain Shakespeare Festival!
“You Can’t Take It With You” had the best opening of any show I have ever directed and I was actually able to enjoy the experience! Normally, I make an expectant father look relaxed, but in this case I felt that the show as completely ready for an audience. And it was, delighting the opening night crowd in the Pine Mountain Club Gazebo.
The next two performances could have dropped off a bit but they didn’t. The matinee was solid and the Saturday night show was, in my view, a seminal event for our Festival. It was a truly realized performance and reached a level of professional quality we can all be proud of.
There is always things that can be improved but the audience and actors shared in a wonderful give and take and the play really “sang.”
“The Comedy of Errors” is also coming into its own. We only had the one performance on Sunday and the actors really stepped up against tons of distractions that included, right at the outset of the play, a party on loudspeakers literally next door that culminated in a delightful serenade over the sound system. Thank goodness the woman was such a good singer!
Throw in passing 2-stroke off road bikes and rumbling mufflers and you get the idea. I am proud of the cast for enduring and putting in a pretty good show with all that to contend with.
July 16th, 2008
We are building towards our opening of “You Can’t Take It With You” tomorrow and we’re at the stage where all the ingredients are to hand and we’re stirring it up to put it in the oven.
I choose “oven” because Pine Mountain Club and the entire West is under a massive heat wave. Toss in the Goleta Fire and the 300 other fires burning in California and “Stay, and Breathe awhile…” takes on new meaning! If there were a giant smoke detector over California our ears would be ringing.
But the show improves steadily and I can now safely say that I have enjoyed directing this play more than any other. The Mountain Shakespeare Festival is truly, with this season, maturing into a company and I enjoy seeing the work of the actors as they take over these roles.
We just need to avoid dehydration and wish the fire fighters good luck in their battle with the elements.
July 10th, 2008
I think it’s the company manager in Shakespeare in Love who says that “It’s a mystery,” in reference to how theatre comes together.
It is, certainly, but it is also the result of unrelenting hard work!
Given the conflicting schedules, tight funds, complex logistics and challenge of doing a Shakespeare play the cast and crew somehow managed to pull it off.
And it is good! And will only get better.
Kudos to all who made the “mystery” happen and now tell all your friends to come see the shows.
Peter Kjenaas
July 7th, 2008
Tonight we open The Comedy of Errors with our Mountain Shakespeare Festival. For me, not acting in either play, this is an unusual moment. Normally, I am all geared up for that first entrance, that moment when all the work goes in front of a live audience. That moment is always a mixture of things for me with nerves in play and expectations and wild energies making for a spirited “conversation” between the ears.
As the artistic director it is quite different. I feel more like a mechanic than an artist, more like a troubleshooter than a director … my mind is as much on how comfortable the seats will be for the audience as it is on the quality of the work!
In many ways, my “job” at this juncture is to remove those things that would prevent the work of the actors from acheiving maximum affect.
OUtdoor theatre has so many distractions that can and will come up that it’s never a perfect world, but the imperfections are part of charm and excitement. You do the best and hope!
Here’s to no one firing up their chain saw in Act I, no pack of Harleys descending in Act II, no racing skate boarders wheeling through in Acts III and IV and no mating crows filling the trees in Act V!
Break a leg!
Peter
July 5th, 2008
Not sure how Tech week got the moniker Hell week, but it can be pretty much spot on as a description of what it can be like. There are literally thousands of details that have to do with mounting a show. The obvious ones are lights, costumes, sound, props, set, etc. These are no small task in and of themselves, especially when resources are tight as in the case of a new theatre company like the Mountain Shakespeare Festival.
The less obvious tasks and details involve the building of the shows and that final push to get ready for performance. This “invisible” work happens in living rooms, fields of sage and showers up and down the mountain, and now in Los Angeles and Bakersfield as well, as actors run their lines in what can be a somewhat desperate charge to the finish line.
At least in our modern world actors are now joined by millions on their blue tooth devices as those who walk around “talking to themselves.”
July 1st, 2008
Bakersfield Californian
Camille Gavin: Mountain Shakespeare Fest on the rise
by CAMILLE GAVIN, contributing columnist
e-mail: gavinarts@aol.com | Wednesday, Jun 25 2008 10:42 AM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jun 25 2008 10:42 AM
Some local residents may be surprised to learn, as I was, that a budding Shakespeare festival awaits them at the top of the
Grapevine and that it’s now in its third season. A few years ago I wrote a few lines about live theater performances in the Frazier
Park area but had no idea it’s grown into what is now called the Mountain Shakespeare Festival.
True, the festival is still in its formative stages, with performances on weekends only from July 5 to 27, outdoors at Pine
Mountain Club.
Even so, Peter Kjenaas, the artistic director, thinks it has the potential to become an attraction equal to that of the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Ore., which draws people from all over the country during its 10-month season. The director
is no stranger to Ashland, having spent three seasons there playing lead roles. He’s also got solid professional credits, with
memberships in the Dramatists Guild, Screen Actors Guild, and Actors Equity Association.
Kjenaas believes Frazier Park itself could well be the biggest draw for a festival, given the beauty of its natural environment and
its location, only an hour’s drive from either Bakersfield or the northernmost communities of Los Angeles.
“We’re trying to get folks to see it as a great weekend getaway, a place where the whole family can have fun and breathe clean
air,” said Kjenaas, who has lived in the area for the past eight years. He and his wife, actress-teacher Michelle Morain, are the
parents of two children.
“We had been living this theatrical lifestyle — 15 days here, 15 days there — and we realized we couldn’t do that anymore,” he
said. “So we moved here in 2000, then we adopted twins from Bolivia, a boy and a girl.”
Many of those in the festival’s company live in the mountain community, including a number of Frazier Park High School
students. As for the more experienced actors, several involved in this summer’s productions — “Comedy of Errors” and “You
Can’t Take it With You” on alternating weekends — will be familiar to Bakersfield theatergoers.
One is Bob Kempf, who is directing “Comedy of Errors.” He has been involved with Bakersfield College’s Kern Shakespeare
Festival and has acted in and directed productions at other local venues.
Among the actors appearing are Roger Mathey, former manager of Spotlight Theatre; Don McClure, who played the lead role in
BC’s “Hamlet”; and Joe Mitchell, who was in the cast of “You Can’t Take it With You.” That show, written by George S. Kaufman
and Moss Hart, just finished a three-week run at Spotlight, and was directed by Kempf. Kjenaas, however, will direct the
Mountain Shakespeare Festival’s production of the play, which opens July 11.
Coupling an Elizabethan play with a 20th century comedy may seem a bit odd. But, says Kjenaas, they are linked by a common
thread.
“They are both about the uniting of very different worlds and the coming together of different walks of life,” he said.
Both, he added, have enjoyed a rich and successful production history.
Performances are on a thrust stage that has been added to the gazebo at Pine Mountain Club. Chair seating is provided.
June 28th, 2008
Hi all,
Also, this wonderful write up from Holly Van Houten on “You Can’t Take It With You.”
Before you read it, however, I would like to say that of all the plays I have had a hand in directing, perhaps 20 or so, I believe that the writing in this play truly ranks among the best. The characters are so vivid, so clear and so funny!
We were working on the big “J-Men” scene and roughly 18 actors end up o stage by the end, there is an explosion, singing drunk, hey, everything you could want and I realized that unlike most plays every single one of the 18 characters we quite distinct! Usually, when you have that many characters on stage at least half of them are “holding as spear” so to speak, they provide a very useful function to focus energy and attention, but rarely do all the characters on stage “cast a shadow.”
Remarkable.
Read on…
Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s “You Can’t Take it With You,” is a delightful combination of escapist comedy and thought-provoking commentary on issues relevant, not only to its own period (1930s America), but to every one in every age. The main focus of the play is the love affair of Alice and Tony, but in negotiating the stark differences between their families, the play manages to engage controversial political issues relevant during The Great Depression, such as FDR’s “New Deal” policies, free speech, the recent levying of an “income” tax, communism and the fall of Russian royalty. But, the play goes even further by delving into the broader philosophical notions of happiness and prosperity. The play, at its heart, makes an attempt to reconcile the tension between two competing versions of the American Dream. The Kirby family represents a version of the American Dream, which tells us that in America, if we work hard, we can gain wealth and prosperity. Anyone, regardless of class, can pull themselves up by their boot straps and achieve not just financial stability, but financial success. We see this portrayed not only in Mr. Kirby’s philosophy, but in the eager attempts of the Grand Duchess Olga Katrina and her family to get ahead in the New York department store workforce. On the other hand, Grandpa Vanderhoff and family represent that part of the American Dream that harkens back to the Declaration of Independence: the pursuit of happiness. According to Grandpa, to be happy, we must be independent: free to do what we like… and for Grandpa, that means playing darts, collecting snakes, attending random commencement addresses, but most of all enjoying his family and his time. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, both versions of the American Dream were coming under heavy questioning. Businesses were failing despite hard work and those who equated happiness with material wealth were desperately in need of Hart and Kaufman’s theatrical realignment of their priorities. The genius of this play is its ability to engage such important issues in a way that is both light-hearted and illuminating. Through farce, satire and just good old belly laughs, “You Can’t Take It With You,” is a play that speaks, not only to its own generation, but timelessly to issues that continue to touch us all. The play has been an enormous success, with a run of 837 performances on Broadway and successful revivals in 1965 and 1983. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1936 and the 1938 film version won the Academy Award. It well deserves its status as a truly “American” classic.
June 27th, 2008
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