“Pericles” tells the story of a family torn apart by unlucky fates and circumstances. The play features both the dramatic and comedic, as well as fight scenes, dance sequences, songs, plaid skirts, prostitutes, murder, love, and colorfully dressed pirates.
Farmanesh-Bocca has assembled a company of young and established talent from both coasts to present Shakespeare in what he describes as a vital, rigorous and contemporary style. Stefan Wolfert will play Pericles. He utilizes movement within the play to drive the action, performing much of the play on the open floor rather than the stage. The performances focus on the Shakespearean text and the actors’ talents rather than scenery, he added.
“King Lear” opens on July 20, under the direction of Louis Scheeder, the director and founder of The Classical Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Scheeder is very excited to be working again with actor Apollo Dukakis, who will play Lear.“King Lear”is one of Shakespeare’s dramatic masterpieces, a moving tale about the old king, Lear, who goes slowly mad as his family and kingdom are torn apart by his callous and fundamentally evil daughters and their husbands.
Scheeder felt confident that, in Dukakis, “we had a Lear,” adding that “you want to have someone you know and you’ve worked with.”
Scheeder said “King Lear” and “Pericles, King of Tyre” will make a strong summer program because both focus on the power of the fates and families torn apart, but with very different results.
For the final weekend — Aug. 3-6 — the plays take to the outdoors, played out at venues yet to be determined.
In a related production, “The Comedy of Errors” will be performed at the Powerhouse Theater on Main Street, beginning July 15, by the Teen Classical Training Program under the direction of Monica Hunkin. The show, cut down to an hour long version, will be performed by local high school juniors and seniors, as a part of their acting workshop.
“The Comedy of Errors”relates the hectic and hilarious problems that occur when long-lost twins with identical servants stumble into each others’ families unknowingly.
While acknowledging that Shakespeare in Santa Monica is still a pilot program, Farmanesh-Bocca hopes to make the free productions a summer staple. But first, he wants to make sure it’s done right in the formative years. That requires building credibility within the community and at City Hall, as well as attracting sponsors to take the financial burden off of the students.
Last year, Shakespeare Santa Monica averaged a 90 percent attendance rate and organizers hope to do the same or better this year. More than 75 percent of those surveyed at the performances were either Santa Monica, Venice or Brentwood residents.
The inaugural production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” also directed by Scheeder and performed at Reed Park, attracted about 1,000 people of all ages within the community.
This year, Farmanesh-Bocca hopes the three plays attract 3,000 people. His dream is to build the community theater production in Santa Monica so that it has multiple venues, possibly even on the beach and at other parks. In years past, Shakespeare in Santa Monica has been performed on the Reed Memorial Park Tournament Tennis Court.
The production is sponsored in part by the city of Santa Monica’s cultural affairs division, which is beginning to focus on more cultural programming within the community’s open spaces.
Shakespeare Santa Monica’s free summer Shakespeare Repertory will be performing for three weeks at the Miles Memorial Playhouse, from July 13 to July 30. There will be evening performances at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Because of limited seating, reservations are recommended and can be made by calling the Powerhouse Theatre Hotline at 1-800-OFF-MAIN or by going to the Powerhouse Theatre Web site at www.powerhousetheatre.com.
For more information about Shakespeare Santa Monica, including exact show dates and performance times, visit www.shake-spearesantamonica.com.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 13, 2006. Read the original PDF.