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LAKE TAHOE — The Bard once again has arrived at Sand Harbor State Park.
Where others pack sunscreen, the 39th annual Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival is pulling “Twelfth Night” out of its bag of family entertainment.
The comedy, performed outdoors, will run daily from July 15 to Aug. 21, except Mondays, when other acts such as the Reno Philharmonic and rock groups like Mumbo Gumbo take the stage.
Believed to have been written between 1601 and 1604, the plot and diversity of characters is familiar to any modern-day devotee of soap operas and reality shows.
A pair of twins is shipwrecked along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. Viola cannot find her brother Sebastian and makes the awful assumption that he has died. Her own survival is contingent on the fact she hide the fact she is a wo man. From there the fun begins with confused love, steadfast friendships, royal revelations along with more songs than any other Shakespeare offering and plenty of swashbuckling sword action.
According to a pre-recorded discussion director Charles Fee held in Cleveland, he believes this play represents experimentation in Shakespeare's writing. The Stratford-upon-Avon native blended dramatic tragic styles with broad comedic strokes and found new tones and how to express them.
The LTSF for the second year has joined artistic forces with Cleveland's Great Lakes Shake speare Festival and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise.
Ever since actors took to London's Globe Theatre, launch ing and producing plays has always been a costly enterprise.
Instead, the trio of regional festivals make “creating and collaborating much more possible,” according to GLSF's Todd Krispinsky.
The arrangement allows actors to work all year, gain benefits such as health insurance and develop a shorthand system of acting among the com pany. The repertoire feel means Laura Welsh Berg and Alex Knox in the lead roles of Viola and Duke Orsino can act with a confidence gained over past performances elsewhere.
Sets are not struck at the completion of one run and destroyed. They are packed for the next series of performances. The same practice applies for period costumes that require research and construction several months prior to the first show.
Many of the actors will be making their Lake Tahoe debut.
The cast also is bolstered through the young talent of University of Reno theater students Drew Ernhout and Lucas Pederson.
Others like Kate Atack, and her husband Joe, are familiar faces due to their long association with the festival's D.G. Menchetti Young Shakespeare Program, which will also be offering a juvenile production of “Twelfth Night.”
Running for the two weeks of August, the free presentation will be offered at the Festival's Warren Edward Trepp Stage and other venues such as Valhalla's Boathouse Theatre in South Lake Tahoe.
Many audience members bring their own food and others order from Shakespeare Kitch en.
Among the offerings are steamer clams in butter sauce appetizers, to taco bars with slow-cooked cilantro chicken, and an assortment of Kobe beef burgers.
Seating ranges from premium that includes an Adirondack chair close to the stage, to sand dunes ready for blankets. For the first time, all lower gallery seats will be assigned at time of purchase.
With all that this year's Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival offers, the words spoken by Olivia are particularly appropriate: “This is very midsummer madness.”
Where others pack sunscreen, the 39th annual Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival is pulling “Twelfth Night” out of its bag of family entertainment.
The comedy, performed outdoors, will run daily from July 15 to Aug. 21, except Mondays, when other acts such as the Reno Philharmonic and rock groups like Mumbo Gumbo take the stage.
Believed to have been written between 1601 and 1604, the plot and diversity of characters is familiar to any modern-day devotee of soap operas and reality shows.
A pair of twins is shipwrecked along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. Viola cannot find her brother Sebastian and makes the awful assumption that he has died. Her own survival is contingent on the fact she hide the fact she is a wo man. From there the fun begins with confused love, steadfast friendships, royal revelations along with more songs than any other Shakespeare offering and plenty of swashbuckling sword action.
According to a pre-recorded discussion director Charles Fee held in Cleveland, he believes this play represents experimentation in Shakespeare's writing. The Stratford-upon-Avon native blended dramatic tragic styles with broad comedic strokes and found new tones and how to express them.
The LTSF for the second year has joined artistic forces with Cleveland's Great Lakes Shake speare Festival and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise.
Ever since actors took to London's Globe Theatre, launch ing and producing plays has always been a costly enterprise.
Instead, the trio of regional festivals make “creating and collaborating much more possible,” according to GLSF's Todd Krispinsky.
The arrangement allows actors to work all year, gain benefits such as health insurance and develop a shorthand system of acting among the com pany. The repertoire feel means Laura Welsh Berg and Alex Knox in the lead roles of Viola and Duke Orsino can act with a confidence gained over past performances elsewhere.
Sets are not struck at the completion of one run and destroyed. They are packed for the next series of performances. The same practice applies for period costumes that require research and construction several months prior to the first show.
Many of the actors will be making their Lake Tahoe debut.
The cast also is bolstered through the young talent of University of Reno theater students Drew Ernhout and Lucas Pederson.
Others like Kate Atack, and her husband Joe, are familiar faces due to their long association with the festival's D.G. Menchetti Young Shakespeare Program, which will also be offering a juvenile production of “Twelfth Night.”
Running for the two weeks of August, the free presentation will be offered at the Festival's Warren Edward Trepp Stage and other venues such as Valhalla's Boathouse Theatre in South Lake Tahoe.
Many audience members bring their own food and others order from Shakespeare Kitch en.
Among the offerings are steamer clams in butter sauce appetizers, to taco bars with slow-cooked cilantro chicken, and an assortment of Kobe beef burgers.
Seating ranges from premium that includes an Adirondack chair close to the stage, to sand dunes ready for blankets. For the first time, all lower gallery seats will be assigned at time of purchase.
With all that this year's Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival offers, the words spoken by Olivia are particularly appropriate: “This is very midsummer madness.”
If you go
What: 39th annual Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, featuring “Twelfth Night”
When: July 15-Aug. 21, except Mondays Where: Sand Harbor State Park, North Shore Lake Tahoe Tickets: Anywhere from $15 to $80 Learn more: www.laketahoeshakespeare.com |
