California Shakespeare Theater
Encyclopedia
California Shakespeare Theater ("Cal Shakes") is a regional theater located in the San Francisco Bay Area
of California. Its performance space, the Lt. G.H. Bruns III Memorial Amphitheater, is located in Orinda
, while the administrative offices, rehearsal hall, costume and prop shop are located in Berkeley
.
and The Tempest
in John Hinkle Park in Berkeley. It was founded by a group of amateurs who wanted the enjoyment and experience of acting and production: no one was paid, and the plays were free.
The company produced several more plays in 1974-1975, including Pantagleize by Michel de Ghelderode
during the winter, Twelfth Night and a transfer of the Berkeley High School production of As You Like It
. After that, the name changed to the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, and started a schedule of four plays per year that continues to this day, although more non-Shakespeare plays are now on the bill. Dakin Matthews
was Artistic Director from 1983–1987, with Michael Addison taking over as A.D. in 1987 and holding the position till 1995.
In 1991, the festival built its current performance venue, the 545-seat Bruns Memorial Amphitheater in the Orinda hills, and changed its name to California Shakespeare Festival. In 1995, actor Joe Vincent took over the theater's artistic direction, serving till 1999.
In 2000, Jonathan Moscone was appointed its current Artistic Director. In his first season at Cal Shakes, Moscone directed a production of Tom Stoppard
's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; the company continued to produce one non-Shakespeare play a year until 2005, when its productions of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Parts One & Two (Charles Dickens
, adapted by David Edgar
) began a tradition of two Shakespeare plays and two non-Shakespeare plays each season. In 2003, the company officially changed its name to California Shakespeare Theater. In 2009, Susie Falk was named Managing Director, following the departure of Debbie Chinn. In late 2009, Moscone was chosen by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) as the inaugural recipient of the Zelda Fichandler
Award. The award was created to recognize an outstanding director or choreographer who is transforming the regional arts landscape through his singular creativity and artistry in theater.
Also in 1979, the festival began holding fall classes, a training program in all facets of classical theater including voice and movement, period style, scansion, stage combat, and other production aspects. Also offered was an introduction to classical drama in both its literary and theatrical aspects. Fall and spring classes for youth and adults were offered as recently as spring of 2009.
California Shakespeare Theater also presents Student Discovery Matinees, afternoon performances of Shakespeare productions for school groups that include pre-show activities geared toward youth. In 2001, they began teaching pre- and post–show workshops wherein Cal Shakes teaching artists visit classrooms in order to enrich and support the Student Discovery Matinee experience. That same year, Berkeley’s Malcolm X Arts Magnet Elementary School and Pinole Valley High School hosted playwright Karen Hartman in Cal Shakes residencies; Hartman taught creative writing and storytelling in both residencies, and each one culminated in a presentation of the students’ works directed by Jonathan Moscone. In 2007, Cal Shakes received the first of several grants from the NEA's Shakespeare in American Communities initiative to expand its residency program and Student Discovery Matinee activities. The theater now offers classroom residencies, afterschool programs, and home school programs throughout the Bay Area.
and San Francisco's Campo Santo, resident theater company at Intersection for the Arts
to relocate Shakespeare's Hamlet
to the 1980s-era drug-ravaged streets of East Oakland. The two-year process (2004–2006) included interviews with former drug lords and Shakespearean scholars; writing workshops in schools, juvenile halls, and churches; and Q&A panels attended by the public. It culminated in a sold-out, eight-week run of the play directed by Moscone at Intersection for the Arts
. In 2010, the Advanced Drama Department at Oakland Technical High School revisited Hamlet: Blood in the Brain, choosing the play as their entry in the American High School Theatre Festival, which they won. The Oakland Tech students will now perform their production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2010.
From 2005-2007, the NW/NC program developed King of Shadows, an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream
by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
that took place in San Francisco, with gay urban youth at its center. Cal Shakes partnered with MFA students at American Conservatory Theater
and community organizations such as Larkin Street Youth Services, Guerrero House, and LYRIC (Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center) for discussions, workshops, and field trips.
In 2005 Cal Shakes began a partnership with Write to Read, a juvenile hall literacy program run by the Alameda County Library, holding writing workshops based on Hamlet: Blood in the Brain. In 2007, actor and Cal Shakes Associate Artist Andy Murray began to teach workshops and extended residencies using Shakespeare to develop the public speaking, leadership, and cooperation skills of the juvenile hall residents.
In 2007, Cal Shakes commissioned San Francisco playwright Octavio Solis to adapt The Pastures of Heaven
, an early novel of interconnected stories about farm life in the Salinas Valley by John Steinbeck
. The project partnered Cal Shakes with Word for Word Performing Arts Company for a series of development workshops; community partners include the National Steinbeck Center
and Alisal Center for Fine Arts, both located in Salinas. The adapted work is the first play specifically commissioned for California Shakespeare's Main Stage. It will have its world premiere in June 2010, directed by Jonathan Moscone.
In 2009, Cal Shakes announced a second capital campaign, titled Building for the Future, to renovate the Bruns Amphitheater—including its grounds, backstage area, technical facilities, and the theater itself—using sustainable practices.
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
of California. Its performance space, the Lt. G.H. Bruns III Memorial Amphitheater, is located in Orinda
Orinda, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Orinda had a population of 17,643. The population density was 1,389.5 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Orinda was 14,533 White, 149 African American, 22 Native American, 2,016 Asian, 24 Pacific Islander, 122 from other races, and...
, while the administrative offices, rehearsal hall, costume and prop shop are located in Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
.
History
Founded as the Emeryville Shakespeare Company, the company began performances in 1974, with productions of A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
and The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
in John Hinkle Park in Berkeley. It was founded by a group of amateurs who wanted the enjoyment and experience of acting and production: no one was paid, and the plays were free.
The company produced several more plays in 1974-1975, including Pantagleize by Michel de Ghelderode
Michel De Ghelderode
Michel de Ghelderode was an avant-garde Belgian dramatist, writing in French.-Career:...
during the winter, Twelfth Night and a transfer of the Berkeley High School production of As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
. After that, the name changed to the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, and started a schedule of four plays per year that continues to this day, although more non-Shakespeare plays are now on the bill. Dakin Matthews
Dakin Matthews
Dakin Matthews is an American actor with a long history of work in film, television and theater. He is also a playwright, director, and theatrical scholar.-Life and career:...
was Artistic Director from 1983–1987, with Michael Addison taking over as A.D. in 1987 and holding the position till 1995.
In 1991, the festival built its current performance venue, the 545-seat Bruns Memorial Amphitheater in the Orinda hills, and changed its name to California Shakespeare Festival. In 1995, actor Joe Vincent took over the theater's artistic direction, serving till 1999.
In 2000, Jonathan Moscone was appointed its current Artistic Director. In his first season at Cal Shakes, Moscone directed a production of Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; the company continued to produce one non-Shakespeare play a year until 2005, when its productions of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Parts One & Two (Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, adapted by David Edgar
David Edgar (playwright)
David Edgar is a British playwright and author who has had more than sixty of his plays published and performed on stage, radio and television around the world, making him one of the most prolific dramatists of the post-1960s generation in Great Britain.He was resident playwright at the Birmingham...
) began a tradition of two Shakespeare plays and two non-Shakespeare plays each season. In 2003, the company officially changed its name to California Shakespeare Theater. In 2009, Susie Falk was named Managing Director, following the departure of Debbie Chinn. In late 2009, Moscone was chosen by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) as the inaugural recipient of the Zelda Fichandler
Zelda Fichandler
Zelda Fichandler is an American stage producer, director, and educator, best known as cofounder and longtime artistic director of the Arena Stage theatre in Washington, D.C....
Award. The award was created to recognize an outstanding director or choreographer who is transforming the regional arts landscape through his singular creativity and artistry in theater.
Participants in Cal Shakes productions
- directors: Karin Coonrod, Daniel Fish, Timothy Near, Lisa Peterson, Aaron Posner, Mark Rucker, Joel Sass, and Kate WhoriskeyKate WhoriskeyKate Whoriskey was the artistic director of the Intiman Theatre in Seattle, Washington, USA, for a year, departing in April, 2011 after the theater's board cancelled the remainder of the 2011 season due to financial problems. Whoriskey had been co-Artistic Director of Intiman along with Bartlett...
; - designers: Christopher AkerlindChristopher AkerlindChristopher Akerlind is an American lighting designer for theatre, opera, and dance. He won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Light in the Piazza and an Obie Award for sustained excellence for his work Off-Broadway.He attended...
, Riccardo Hernandez, Christine Jones, Meg Neville, Todd RosenthalTodd RosenthalTodd Rosenthal is an American scenic designer. He won the 2007 Tony Award for Best Scenic Design and the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Set Design for Steppenwolf Theatre Company's August: Osage County....
, Annie Smart, and Stephen Strawbridge; - composers: Gina Leishman and Andre Pleuss;
- choreographers: Joe Goode and K.T. Nelson; and
- actors: Annette BeningAnnette BeningAnnette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films...
, Stephen Barker TurnerStephen Barker TurnerStephen Barker Turner is an American actor.Barker is a Juilliard Drama School graduate from St. Louis, Missouri. After starring in numerous stage productions, he made his film debut in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. He has a small but important nonspeaking role in Cosmopolitan...
, L. Peter Callender, Ron Campbell, James Carpenter, Jeffrey DeMunnJeffrey DeMunnJeffrey DeMunn is an American theatre, film and television actor.-Life and career:DeMunn was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Violet and James DeMunn. Stepson of noted actress Betty Lutes DeMunn...
, Lura Dolas, Michael EmersonMichael EmersonMichael Emerson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Benjamin Linus on Lost and fictional serial killer William Hinks in The Practice.-Early life:...
, Gerald Hiken, Patrick KerrPatrick KerrPatrick Kerr is an American television actor. He is probably best known for his recurring role as Noel Shempsky on Frasier...
, Ravi KapoorRavi KapoorRavi Kapoor is an actor of Indian heritage best known for his roles on Gideon's Crossing and Crossing Jordan. Before relocating to Los Angeles, Kapoor worked for ten years as an actor in England. He trained at East 15 Acting School...
, Sharon Lockwood, Julian Lopez-Morillas, Domenique Lozano, Carrie PrestonCarrie PrestonCarrie Preston is an American film and television actress, producer and director. Her husband is actor Michael Emerson, and her brother is actor John G. Preston.-Early life:...
, Reg Rogers, Stephanie Roth Haberle, Danny Scheie, Douglas SillsDouglas Sills-Life and career:Born in Detroit, Michigan, he grew up in the suburb of Franklin, where he was friends with both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. Sills attended Cranbrook School, from which he graduated in 1978, and the University of Michigan where he majored in music...
, Steven Skybell, John VickeryJohn VickeryJohn Estill Vickery is an American stage and film actor known for his work in Babylon 5 and Star Trek. Vickery grew up in Oakland, California. He attended the University of California at Davis, where he pursued a degree in mathematics...
, and Sigrid Wurschmidt.
Artistic Learning
In 1979, Berkeley Shakespeare Festival began Summer with Shakespeare programs, six-week camps for ages 14–18, culminating with a performance in the John Hinkel Park amphitheater. The camps have continued, in one form or another, to this day, going under several different names (Camp, Conservatory, Summer Theater Programs). In 2009, the camps were offered to ages 8–18 in two- and five-week increments, with locations in Lafayette, Oakland, Orinda, and El Cerrito. Participants study acting, physical comedy, stage combat, movement, improvisation, and text, and the camps still culminate in a Shakespeare performance by each age group.Also in 1979, the festival began holding fall classes, a training program in all facets of classical theater including voice and movement, period style, scansion, stage combat, and other production aspects. Also offered was an introduction to classical drama in both its literary and theatrical aspects. Fall and spring classes for youth and adults were offered as recently as spring of 2009.
California Shakespeare Theater also presents Student Discovery Matinees, afternoon performances of Shakespeare productions for school groups that include pre-show activities geared toward youth. In 2001, they began teaching pre- and post–show workshops wherein Cal Shakes teaching artists visit classrooms in order to enrich and support the Student Discovery Matinee experience. That same year, Berkeley’s Malcolm X Arts Magnet Elementary School and Pinole Valley High School hosted playwright Karen Hartman in Cal Shakes residencies; Hartman taught creative writing and storytelling in both residencies, and each one culminated in a presentation of the students’ works directed by Jonathan Moscone. In 2007, Cal Shakes received the first of several grants from the NEA's Shakespeare in American Communities initiative to expand its residency program and Student Discovery Matinee activities. The theater now offers classroom residencies, afterschool programs, and home school programs throughout the Bay Area.
New Works/New Communities
In 2003, Cal Shakes launched New Works/New Communities (NW/NC) with the aim of engaging marginalized communities while creating new works of theater based on the classics. Hamlet: Blood in the Brain was the first major NW/NC project, partnering Cal Shakes with playwright Naomi IizukaNaomi Iizuka
Naomi Iizuka is a playwright. Iizuka's works often have a non-linear storyline and are influenced by her multicultural background.Iizuka's mother is an American Latina and her father is a Japanese banker. Born in Tokyo, Iizuka grew up in Japan, Indonesia, Holland, and Washington, D.C., United...
and San Francisco's Campo Santo, resident theater company at Intersection for the Arts
Intersection for the Arts
Intersection for the Arts, established in 1965, is the oldest alternative non-profit art space in San Francisco, California. Intersection's reading series is the longest continuous reading series outside of an academic institution in the state of California....
to relocate Shakespeare's Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
to the 1980s-era drug-ravaged streets of East Oakland. The two-year process (2004–2006) included interviews with former drug lords and Shakespearean scholars; writing workshops in schools, juvenile halls, and churches; and Q&A panels attended by the public. It culminated in a sold-out, eight-week run of the play directed by Moscone at Intersection for the Arts
Intersection for the Arts
Intersection for the Arts, established in 1965, is the oldest alternative non-profit art space in San Francisco, California. Intersection's reading series is the longest continuous reading series outside of an academic institution in the state of California....
. In 2010, the Advanced Drama Department at Oakland Technical High School revisited Hamlet: Blood in the Brain, choosing the play as their entry in the American High School Theatre Festival, which they won. The Oakland Tech students will now perform their production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2010.
From 2005-2007, the NW/NC program developed King of Shadows, an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is an American playwright, screenwriter and comic-book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and for the HBO drama series Big Love.-Biography:...
that took place in San Francisco, with gay urban youth at its center. Cal Shakes partnered with MFA students at American Conservatory Theater
American Conservatory Theater
American Conservatory Theater is a large non-profit theater company in San Francisco, California, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. A.C.T. was founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Tech by theatre and...
and community organizations such as Larkin Street Youth Services, Guerrero House, and LYRIC (Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center) for discussions, workshops, and field trips.
In 2005 Cal Shakes began a partnership with Write to Read, a juvenile hall literacy program run by the Alameda County Library, holding writing workshops based on Hamlet: Blood in the Brain. In 2007, actor and Cal Shakes Associate Artist Andy Murray began to teach workshops and extended residencies using Shakespeare to develop the public speaking, leadership, and cooperation skills of the juvenile hall residents.
In 2007, Cal Shakes commissioned San Francisco playwright Octavio Solis to adapt The Pastures of Heaven
The Pastures of Heaven
The Pastures of Heaven is a short story cycle by John Steinbeck, first published in 1932, consisting of twelve interconnected stories about a valley in Monterey, California, which was discovered by a Spanish corporal while chasing runaway Indian slaves...
, an early novel of interconnected stories about farm life in the Salinas Valley by John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
. The project partnered Cal Shakes with Word for Word Performing Arts Company for a series of development workshops; community partners include the National Steinbeck Center
National Steinbeck Center
The National Steinbeck Center is a museum and memorial dedicated to the author John Steinbeck that is located at One Main Street in Salinas, California, the town where Steinbeck grew up....
and Alisal Center for Fine Arts, both located in Salinas. The adapted work is the first play specifically commissioned for California Shakespeare's Main Stage. It will have its world premiere in June 2010, directed by Jonathan Moscone.
The Bruns Amphitheater
In 1988, philanthropist Clarence Woodard led a capital campaign that resulted in the building of the 545-seat Lt. G.H. Bruns III Memorial Amphitheater in Orinda's Siesta Valley in 1991. It was named in memory of the late son of George and Sue Bruns of Lafayette, CA, who was killed on June 26, 1967, in an automobile accident just before he was due to ship out for service in Vietnam. The Bruns grounds feature an annual sculpture installation, Art in the Groves, multiple picnicking groves, pre-show performance talks by dramaturges, and on-site cafe. The stage itself has the Orinda hills as its backdrop, and patrons are encouraged to bring their food and drink into the amphitheater for the performance.In 2009, Cal Shakes announced a second capital campaign, titled Building for the Future, to renovate the Bruns Amphitheater—including its grounds, backstage area, technical facilities, and the theater itself—using sustainable practices.