Before our first official date, my wife and I spent some time “not dating” - we got together, but not on actual dates. We played some tennis, visited each other’s families, and so on. But we also went to the Kern Shakespeare Festival with others.
Founded by then-professor Randy Messick nearly four decades ago, the festival has generally featured two contrasting Shakespeare plays, put on by Bakersfield College. During out dating years, and before the kids made everything a bit more complicated, we used to go every year. Then, later, when the kids got old enough to come along, we took them. (Starting at really young ages - I think my youngest was four for the first one. She did fine. And it was surprising how much they liked live theater - and got the jokes.)
This year, we definitely had to see both plays, because our longtime family friends Marina and Selah Gradowitz were in them. Marina is a theater major at BC, and featured in last year’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year. This year, Marina returned to again play opposite Connor Deming, as Juliet. She also plays Katharine in Love’s Labour’s Lost - so a lot of work for her this month. Selah, a senior at Bakersfield High, was last seen as Wednesday Addams, and got to fill in in a small part as the forester.
We saw the plays on successive Wednesdays, working around my symphony schedule, as well as work for my eldest.
As usual for BC, the productions were slightly abbreviated, keeping the lengths to a reasonable two and a half hours. At the same time, BC tends to take risks and use a lot of creativity in staging, letting the students experiment and find fresh ways of making Shakespeare come alive.
For Love’s Labour’s Lost, the costumes were essentially of Shakespeare’s time….but with Converse sneakers. And, a soundtrack that was definitely modern and ironic. (The opening sequence, for example, was choreographed to Wet Leg’s “Chaise Longue.”) Best of all, “Dumaine’s Sonnet” was turned into a boy band song. (Matthew Prewitt composed it, and recorded it for a proper lip-sync and dance number.) Very fun indeed.
I won’t recount the plot here, as I already discussed it after we saw it in San Diego back in 2016. That version wasn’t as shortened, which meant a lot more of the ridiculous banter and wit - but which might have been a bit much for both students and audience here.
I should particularly call out Trinidad Sandoval for his hilarious portrayal of Browne, and Kevin Ganger as the pedantic Holofernes. His scenes were perfectly done, with all the stuffiness and ludicrous display of “learning.” My kids certainly laughed.
Moving on to Romeo and Juliet, I do have to say that (bias aside), Marina was excellent. Her lines were always clear, even when she was sobbing on her bed, and she captured that blend of innocence and sexual aggression which makes Juliet a complicated heroine. I do note that they changed a few lines in the play to make Juliet 17 rather than 13.
A number of the actors were in both plays, which is an impressive feat of memorization and focus. Trinidad Sandoval played Tybalt, which meant two very physical roles in rotation. Also kudos to Nathan Armendariz for playing Don Armando in the first, and Mercutio in the second. Nice to see Randy Messick still playing Friar Lawrence - for what must be over a dozen times over the years.
Oh, I should mention the setting. BC did this in 1980s costumes, with lots of 80s music. The fight scenes were a street brawl, carefully choreographed to classic 80s music - “Welcome to the Jungle” anyone? The costumes definitely brought back some memories. The vibe seemed to go pretty well with the play. A plot - and characters - as overwrought as the music. And really, the tragedy isn’t so much the fighting families (the fight seems to be mostly among the servants, not the actual family members) as the emotional overreactions of certain characters. Tybalt is much to blame for taking the feud more seriously than anyone else. Mercutio is a punk, of course, and doesn’t help things. And good god, if Friar Lawrence had just come clean, we could have avoided most of the bad stuff. But that is the point. (And, I think, one reason that Juliet is so young in the original. None of us were thinking particularly straight at 13.)
This runs tonight, Friday, and Saturday, for local people - two more of Love’s Labour’s Lost and one more of Romeo and Juliet. Locals, come out and support our hometown students as they keep the magic that is Shakespeare alive.
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