Regardless of the vagaries of the weather and the propensity of flies to dive-bomb actors’ throats, Chicago’s outdoor theaters are in expansionist mode this year with William Shakespeare front and center. Although some folks prefer interior comfort to the annual mingling of sweat and iambic pentameter, the big demand for outdoor fare is fueling greater ambition on the part of local companies.
At the Peabody Estate in Mayslake Forest Preserve in Oak Brook, the First Folio Shakespeare Festival is in its third season and has this year expanded its offerings to two shows. “Romeo and Juliet” runs in July and “Much Ado About Nothing” occupies most of August.
“The expansion is a direct result of audience members’ requests,” says First Folio producer, David M. Rice. “Ninety percent of our ticket buyers so far have bought both shows.”
As one would expect, the budget at First Folio has risen this year — to more than $120,000 from about $68,000. And instead of the roughly 3,500 folks who saw the work of the company in 1999, First Folio is projecting that some 5,000 people will attend one of its shows this year. That’s a far higher figure than many well-known off-Loop troupes attract to an indoor season of five or six shows.
These heady days have prompted talks with the Du Page County Forest Preserve District (which controls the estate) about building a year-round theater for First Folio. Current plans call for a 250- to 300-seat space in the annex to the mansion on the property. If those plans are realized, First Folio would continue to produce outdoor Shakespeare during the summer and produce other classical works in the winter.
This year, “Romeo and Juliet” will be given a traditional Italian renaissance treatment, while “Much Ado” (which stars Mary Ernster as Beatrice) will be set in New Mexico just after the Civil War. Most of the actors will appear in both productions, which share the direction of Alison Vesely.
“We’ve lived our whole lives in the western suburbs,” Vesely says. “There are a whole group of theatergoers out here who love Shakespeare but do not want to drive into the city.”
There are still issues with being outdoors, of course. Opening night for “Romeo and Juliet” had to be moved back a day because it conflicted with the Village of Oak Brook’s holiday fireworks show.
– Festival Theatre in Oak Park has been in existence now for 26 years. There have been some struggles.
During the three or four consecutive seasons preceding its silver anniversary, this long-established company was hit by a series of washed-out shows (in many case on prime weekend evenings) that threatened the financial stability of the group, which produces one outdoor show each summer at Austin Gardens in Oak Park. Like many outdoor theaters, Oak Park relies on ticket sales for more than 60 percent of its budget. If there’s no show, there’s no income that night.
“The theater finally has turned a corner financially this year,” says founder and artistic director Dale Calandra. “We still have a deficit but we’re no longer at the point of panicking about it.”
This year’s production will be “Twelfth Night” (here billed as “12th Nite”), which begins preview performances on Tuesday and opens to the press on July 6.
Calandra says that he has long resisted the temptation to do more than one show a year. “It’s important that we keep the quality high and retain our Equity actors,” Calandra says.
Because there’s only one show, it’s possible to keep it running for a long time. “12th Nite” will play 54 performances, spread out over eight weeks. If all goes well, 5,000 to 7,000 people are expected to see the show.
Calandra describes the concept for “12th Nite” as the “kitchen-sink period,” because the soundtrack encompasses everything from period music to Gilbert and Sullivan to Ricky Martin. Visually, though, this show was inspired by the ideas and architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Because houses deigned by the famed architect draw many visitors to Oak Park, that sounds like a savvy tie-in.
“I know,” says Calandra. “I cannot believe we never thought of it before.”
– Most outdoor theaters shy away from the major tragedies, presumably on the theory that people don’t want to sit still for more than three hours and be made to contemplate weighty issues on a hot night. But after nine seasons in Lake Forest successfully producing such hefty stuff as “Macbeth” and “Hamlet,” Shakespeare on the Green makes no such concessions.
This year’s production is “King Lear,” featuring Craig Spidle in the title role. Opening night is July 14, and the show will play for three weekends.
Admission and parking are free. Each year, 10,000 to 12,000 people attend the show, which takes places on a grassy slope in the grounds of Barat College.
“When we started in 1991, we had a budget of $35,000,” says producer JoAnne Zielinski. “Now it’s over $130,000.” Shakespeare on the Green is supported by Barat College and a slew of corporate sponsors. A group called The Friends of Shakespeare solicits cash from individual donors.
Shakespeare on the Green spends some of its money on renting its costumes from the Stratford Festival Theatre in Ontario. For this year, it has ditched its traditional set (modeled on the Globe’s playing space) and hired a set designer in the person of Joe Tilford.
“Having a set designer has been one of our long-term goals,” Zielinski says.
Karla Koskinen, artistic director of the troupe and the director of “King Lear,” says that the choice of “Lear” probably represents the end of her “existential angst period.”
“The people who help us raise money always ask if we can do something light,” Koskinen admits. But she says she has preferred the darker fare. With cuts, “Lear” will last about an hour and a half. The cast (which includes Zielinski in the role of nasty Goneril) mainly features actors who have worked at Shakespeare on the Green in previous seasons (Scott Parkinson plays the role of the Fool).
“We all feel,” Koskinen says, “like we are scaling a cliff.”
As Zielinski admits, sight lines can be tricky in the sloping playing space used by Shakespeare on the Green. But if this kind of growth continues, the troupe is hoping to persuade Barat to remodel its grounds and give the theater a permanent outdoor home.
– It won’t take place outdoors, but according to reports from New York, there are plans underway for a Chicago production of “The Bomb-itty of Errors,” some time in the next year. The off-Broadway show, which closes Sunday after 228 performances, is a rap adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” (it sounds perfect for Navy Pier). Roth also produced “Wit” in New York, an acclaimed play that seems to have shown up in every city in America except Chicago.
