Saratoga News

Photograph by Judy Tembrock

Allan Loebs plays Falstaff in 'King Henry IV, Part I' in the production by the Festival Theatre Ensemble.

Midsummer's Dream

Visit to Ashland inspired foursome to create Festival Theatre Ensemble

By Sandy Sims

This week in Saratoga's Wildwood Park, the usual chirping birds and rustling eucalyptus leaves are only background to hammering, sawing and the swish of paintbrushes. That's because the actors from the Festival Theatre Ensemble (FTE) are building the set for Saratoga's second annual Wildwood Shakespeare Festival, presented under the sponsorship of the Saratoga Recreation Department.

This month FTE will be performing King Henry IV, Part I and The Hobbit at Wildwood Park. At the Saratoga Community Theater, they will present Twelfth Night and a theatrical adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. And for a special one-night performance, FTE will resurrect the mystery dinner play Crossing to Eternity at the Senior Center.

This year's expanded program is due to the success of last year's festival, and last year's program was the embodiment of a midsummer's dream.

Six years ago, Bruce De Les Dernier and his wife, Eileen, while enjoying their annual pilgrimage to Ashland for the festival of plays there, sat one evening with their friends Mark Pickens, a Saratoga playwright, and his wife, Rebecca. The foursome dreamed aloud of having their own Shakespeare festival. Eileen told De Les Dernier-who'd been acting for many years and also teaching theater at West Valley College for 12 years: "This is your calling; go do it."

The next summer De Les Dernier was asked to direct the Shakespeare Festival at Benbow Lake in Garberville in Humboldt County. He hauled a team of actors to Benbow in the heart of the redwood country in Northern California. De Les Dernier's new production team became the Festival Theatre Ensemble--a touring group of actors. They built the set for their plays by the lake; some even slept in tents nearby to guard it at night. "Up there [in Benbow] we do suicide repertory," says De Les Dernier. That's when the play and the set changes every day, and the actors do all the work themselves.

After three summers of traveling to Benbow, De Les Dernier ventured to Saratoga's Recreation Department and talked with Kim Saxton-Heinrichs about doing a Shakespeare festival for Saratoga. Saxton-Heinrichs was receptive. She told him to go look at Wildwood Park because there was an outdoor stage already built there.

"We crossed the little bridge to the park on Fourth Street and fell in love with the setting," De Les Dernier says. "It was perfect." The city approved. FTE planned the festival for afternoons because the outdoor stage at Wildwood only has enough power for sound, not lights.

Saratogans responded. The audience averaged 105 for each play: The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing and Treasure Island. All told, Saratogans bought 630 tickets. Even the restaurant Le Mouton Noire kicked in a $50 sponsorship to help out. During one performance, the winds grew quite powerful, and the eucalyptus trees rained leaves and "chunks of things," but the show still went on. "The audience stayed through it all," De Les Dernier recalls.

The city's Recreation Department, seeing the success of last year's festival, invited FTE to return and expand its productions indoors to Saratoga's Community Theater. The rec department also asked FTE to resurrect the children's theater program that had been closed down for two years. Shauna Harris, a member of FTE, had been the assistant director and choreographer for the former children's theater and was willing to take on the directorship. The new Saratoga Children's Festival Theatre (CFT) is currently rehearsing long hours so that the cast can open this year's festival with The Hobbit. This stage adaptation of the classic novel is written by Saratogan Pickens. It will run Aug. 8, 9 and 15 at 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. in Wildwood Park. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the gate.

Another addition this year is the resurrection of the mystery dinner play Crossing to Eternity. Pickens, who will also be acting this year in King Henry IV, Part I and Twelfth Night, has written a new dinner mystery for Max's American Grill in Los Altos each year for the last five years. (The usual run is October to March.) For the Festival, FTE is presenting a one-night production of this year's mystery dinner theater. The story unfolds on the luxury liner the Lusitania as it makes its historical Atlantic crossing during WWI. Instead of dinner, the audience--whose members will be treated like ship passengers--will partake of refreshments and dessert. This while they mingle and bribe and question the cast in order to guess who the murderer is. The play will be performed Aug. 19 only at 8 p.m. in the Saratoga Senior Center at the City Hall complex. The cost is $25 for residents and $30 for nonresidents.

FTE members have just returned from their yearly trek to Benbow, where they have been performing the three major productions for this year's festival. They are tuned up and ready for their hometown performance at Wildwood.

King Henry IV, Part I is Shakespeare's telling of young Prince Hal (Henry IV) coming of age in the midst of a savage rebellion. The audience will see lots of pageantry and even a battle between the Royalists and the Rebels that will include swordplay. Allan Loebs will return this year to play the wonderful character Falstaff. Performances are in Wildwood park at 3 p.m., Aug. 16, 22, 23 and 29.

Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare's funnier comedies. In pursuit of love, the cast weaves a tangled mess worthy of Lucy and Desi. In fact, this form of classic comedy is the basis for our television sit-coms. Performances are in the Saratoga Community Theater at 8 p.m. Aug. 8, 9, 15, 22.

This year's family classic, written and directed by De Les Dernier, is Beauty and the Beast. The performances are in the Community Theater at 8 p.m. Aug. 14, 16, 20 and 21.

Saratoga is responding again, this time with more money. Cinnabar Vineyards and Winery and Colour Shoppe Draperies and Interiors are each sponsoring one evening of production for $500. Two other businesses are considering sponsorships. This brings much needed relief to FTE, especially De Les Dernier. He has gone deeply into debt to finance the festival.

"Lumber and fabric is very expensive," De Les Dernier explains, not to mention all the other expenses, including the actors' pay. FTE has gotten support from other businesses around the county through free time, free rentals or reduced fees.

Some of the teacher is in De Les Dernier's dream because he is dedicated to bringing Shakespeare to a wider audience. In that effort, FTE has developed the popular Shakespeare Connection, an interactive production geared to elementary, middle and high school students. FTE has collaborated with local theater companies--including Menlo Players Guild--in producing joint projects. FTE has also agreed to provide a classical theater outreach project for the Northside Theater Company of San Jose .

FTE works to make Shakespeare plays as fun and accessible as possible. "The actors take their time speaking," says Jennifer Selden who does the booking and some performing, "and the acting is excellent."

"We get better and better the longer we work together," De Les Dernier says. "We're fiercely loyal."

A core group has been together since the beginning. Each year, newcomers audition for various parts in the plays. Sometimes a new person joins the ensemble permanently, but he or she must be group-minded because there are no stars. "When we take a bow, we all bow together," De Les Dernier explains. A player can have the lead in one play and be a sword-carrier in the next. In fact, Los Gatos chiropractor Nicole Chain will play Viola, the lead in Twelfth Night and will also be a sword carrier in King Henry IV.

Saratogans who would like to watch just how a troupe of actors work together from start to finish might take a picnic to Wildwood Park and watch the actors construct the stage they will be acting on. Then over the following three weekends, experience theater that ranges from pageantry and sword fights to mystery over dessert.

Tickets for "King Henry IV, Part I," "Twelfth Night" and "Beauty and the Beast" are $13 in advance and $9 for seniors and children under 12. Tickets at the door are $16. Tickets for all the shows can be purchased at the Saratoga Community Center, 19655 Allendale Ave., or by calling 868-1248 or 868-1249, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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