DIVERSITY | Offering a place for everyone
30 June 2008
Americans in Search of Summer Theater Needn’t Travel Far
Festivals abound in venues across the country
Washington -- “All the world’s a stage,” William Shakespeare famously declared -- and summertime events across America go far toward proving the point.
From Maine to Florida, from New York to California, and all points in between, seasonal theater festivals abound. Their varied offerings reveal a cultural landscape as vast and diverse as the nation’s geography.
The venues for vacationers in search of quality live entertainment present works ranging from stage classics to new plays by current authors -- with a heavy dollop of Will Shakespeare himself. Some companies leaven the serious dramas with forays into musical theater; a few draw upon ethnic roots.
To guide those in search of summer theater fare, America.gov recently conducted a brief survey of offerings available across the country, at theaters large and small.
REGIONAL DIVERSITY
Williamstown Theater Festival (Massachusetts) -- The festival has been operating in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts since 1955, founded in part with a gift from famed composer Cole Porter. Now boasting a company of over 400, the festival mounts productions on three stages, offers a range of drama-training programs and runs an outreach program for local youth.
Festival officials say its goals are “to attract premier talent, train young artists, revisit the classics in exciting new productions and develop new work.” This summer’s schedule includes such plays as Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy and the Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick musical She Loves Me.
Solvang Theaterfest (California) -- The 700-seat open-air arena, in the Santa Ynez Valley town of Solvang, was built by local labor in just 58 days in 1974. Run by a community-funded nonprofit organization, it is modeled architecturally on provincial Danish and Elizabethan theaters. The theater, home to a professional company from June to October, also is used for dance performances, concerts, and youth-oriented theater workshops.
Musicals dominate this summer’s schedule: Godspell, Ragtime and Hot Mikado are on tap.
Festival 56 (Illinois) -- A festival’s ambition does not necessarily correlate to its home community’s size. Located in the small northern Illinois city of Princeton, Festival 56 crams six productions into this summer’s six-week season -- including Henrik Ibsen’s classic A Doll’s House, the jazz musical City of Angels, Neil Simon’s comedy The Odd Couple and, for good measure, a free performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in a local park.
Festival 56 sponsors say it is “committed to championing the American theater as an art form by creating a home for the artists who are its heart and soul.” The organization also operates a summer theater camp for children.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND LATINO DRAMA
National Black Theater Festival (North Carolina) -- The Winston-Salem-based festival was founded in 1989, with the support of poet Maya Angelou, in an effort “to unite Black theater companies in America to ensure the survival of the genre into the next millennium.” The new millennium has now arrived; both the genre and the festival have not only survived but prospered.
The festival mounts more than 100 performances in its biennial six-day run, showcasing the best in African-American theater. It typically attracts more than 60,000 spectators.
Goodman Theater (Illinois) -- Chicago’s respected Goodman Theater, operating since 1925, has a year-round presence and a wider mandate than the National Black Theater Festival, but presents an ethnic component as well. For 16 days in August it will feature its fourth biennial Latino Theater Festival, billed as “a celebration of Latino culture with performances from some of the most extraordinary Latino theater artists in the world.”
Highlights will include a Spanish-language puppet piece from Mexico, De la Oreja al Corazón, and Al Son Que Me Toques, a musical adaptation of Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding.
SHAKESPEARE DOMINATES SUMMER THEATER
Almost 400 years after his death, Shakespeare continues to dominate the theater world -- and certainly the summer stage:
The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, begun in 1972 as a summer attraction, now draws more than 300,000 visitors from all 50 U.S. states and at least 60 foreign countries to Montgomery for its year-round schedule. Like similar companies, it balances its Shakespeare productions with plays of various genres by other authors -- in its case emphasizing Southern U.S. works. Thus, the summer’s schedule includes not only an updated Romeo and Juliet, set in Miami, and Cymbeline, but also George Farquhar’s Restoration comedy The Beaux’ Stratagem -- and even an Elvis Presley impersonator.
Operating since 1958, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder is observing what it calls “Season Two of our 50th-anniversary celebration.” The summer’s fare couples three Shakespeare plays (Macbeth, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Henry VIII) with two other productions: Woody Guthrie’s American Song -- a theatrical biography featuring much of the famed folksinger’s music -- and The Three Musketeers.
Shakespeare in the Park, conceived by Public Theater founder Joseph Papp in 1954, has staged its summer productions since 1962 at the 1,800-seat Delacorte Theater, an open-air amphitheater in New York City’s Central Park. Two factors have enhanced the series’ immense popularity with New Yorkers and visitors alike: The productions have typically featured big-name stars -- Patrick Stewart, Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Kevin Kline, Morgan Freeman and Al Pacino among them -- and, no less an attraction, the tickets are free.
This summer’s productions are Hamlet and the rock opera Hair.
The concept of free, outdoor Shakespeare plays has spread to other venues, including Washington’s Carter Barron Amphitheater -- where Hamlet is also this season’s selection. The annual series, Free for All, is produced by the Shakespeare Theater Company, which presents a mix of Shakespearean and other works year-round at two downtown venues.
