A flourish of uncomfortable dresses, ruffled shirts and a rushed but content look on the actors’ faces. This was the scene at a 17th annual Kern Shakespeare Festival rehearsal.
And they haven’t even gone on stage yet.
For four weeks now, the actors, directors and “techies” have been rehearsing the two plays “The Winter’s Tale” and “As You Like It.” While the crew will tell you it’s twice the hard work, they also will admit to being pretty excited.
“Well, hopefully we’ll get an excellent outcome and have a large audience,” said 17-year-old BC student Jarrod Ackerley, who’s playing a lord and a shepherd in “The Winter’s Tale” and the male lead, Orlando, in “As You Like It.” “I think both of the casts are extremely strong and people are out there willing to play their parts and everyone is doing what they have to do to get their stuff done and make sure their part is solid. I think everything will come together in the end and the outcome will be the same as it has been for the Shakespeare Festival in past years. I think people will definitely enjoy it.”
Like Ackerley, many of the actors are appearing in both productions, which means twice the amount of costume changes and stress backstage.
“It’ll probably be crazy because we have to go from so many different costumes,” said 23-year-old BC and CSUB student Cory Rickard, playing Mopsa in “The Winter’s Tale” and the female lead Rosalind in “As You Like It.”
“I have to go from a chick to a guy in a matter of seconds and then go back to a chick in a matter of less seconds, so it’ll probably be pretty crazy.”
Although, Rickard said, it’s worth it.
“It’s really fun,” she said. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun.”
Randy Messick, the director of “The Winter’s Tale,” said the festival allows people to see two of Shakespeare’s plays that aren’t as well known as “Hamlet” or “Romeo and Juliet.”
“Oh, I think people are really gonna enjoy it,” he said. “‘As You Like It’ as you know is very funny, set in the ’60s. It’s very clever, lots of great tunes in it. And “The Winter’s Tale” of course is a great show written at the end of Shakespeare’s career when he was really firing on all cyclinders, and it’s not done that often. So, I think that’ll be fun and exciting for people to get to see a show that you don’t get a chance to see very often.”
This year’s Shakespeare Festival is slightly different from previous ones. Aside from taking on two full acts at once, the show will be performed in the Indoor Theater, and includes a score of actors, said Bob Kempf, the director of “As You Like It.”
“Well, this one has involvement from actors from the community and guest actors from New York and Los Angeles,” he said. “We’re doing two plays at once, rather than just one, so there’s a lot of people involved in doing twice the work at once. It’s a major endeavor.”
Ackerly described it as the biggest local theater production this year.
“I would consider the Shakespeare Festival to be the biggest event of the year,” Ackerley said. “The biggest local theatre, acting event. ‘Cause they put on ballets and what-not at the Convention Center that are pretty big, but as far as acting goes in local community theatre, I’d say that the Shakespeare Festival is probably the biggest event.”
Most people who don’t act have a hard time imagining themselves on stage, but many of the actors said they try to make the roles their own.
“I try to make every role personal,” Rickard said. “How I would be if I was in that situation and then add some other character things to it that aren’t as much me. But every role is personal. I hope to show a change. A dynamic from being one way, to change perspectives in my life and then hopefully a better person at the end.”
“I hate rehearsals,” he said. “The shows are wonderful. When a show goes up, there’s nothing like being out there. Hearing when the audience claps, if you know that they think you’ve done a really good job.”
Hamlet asked a good question in his famous soliloquy, but one that goes unanswered is the power of Shakespeare’s mainstay in modern society.
“I think it’s a number of things,” Kempf said. “People always say the thing about Shakespeare is the human experiences that we see in Shakespeare, happen to us today too,” he said.