Yellow Pages
Don’t go looking for your favorite local Shakespeare performance along the river in Mount Vernon this year.
The Skagit River Shakespeare Festival is taking its shows inside — and on tour.
Shakespeare NorthWest, organizer of the festival, has decided to produce two of the English poet’s best-known plays, “All’s Well That Ends Well” and “The Merchant of Venice,” at McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon instead of the outdoor stage at Edgewater.
The shows begin tonight and continue through Aug. 10.
This is the seventh year for the festival that traditionally has been held at Edgewater. Used to be that the group built the theater from the ground up, using the park’s outdoor stage, and then set up the seating, audience accommodations, the set, lighting, all the audio equipment and storage around it.
Building a theater each year cost the nonprofit Shakespeare NorthWest $15,000 and had organizers rushing to set up the stage in a 10-day window.
“We’re changing our focus,” said Damond Morris, artistic director for Shakespeare NorthWest and founder of the Skagit River Shakespeare Festival.
“We looked at our mission, and we asked, are we fulfilling the mission of educating the public about Shakespeare, or are we getting really good at building a theatre?
“It’s expensive, and we’re actually saving money by going into McIntyre.”
And Morris said he’s pleased to be able to use the state-of-the-art McIntyre Hall.
The Shakespeare Festival production will mark the first time that McIntyre will host two shows back-to-back during a single run. That style is called “repertoire” theater and means the two shows will play on alternate nights throughout the week. Both plays will be performed on Saturdays and Sundays.
In addition, Shakespeare NorthWest also has been presenting free showings of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in parks and outdoor venues across the county, as well as in Bellingham. The outdoor performances only use a few set pieces, and the actors perform on the grass, surrounded by the audience.
Performing Shakespeare outdoors is a testament to what Shakespeare theater really is, Morris said. And it follows the group’s mission to share Shakespeare’s works with people who might not otherwise have the chance to experience them.
“We are trying to make our shows accessible to as many people as possible,” Morris said.
Rob Slater, who directs “A Midsummer Nights Dream,” said he has had a blast doing the outdoor performances. Four of his six kids are involved in at least one of the three plays, along with his wife and niece.
“It’s a family affair for me,” he said with a smile. “If I was going to have fun doing a show, I’m going to do it with my family.”
There also will be an intermission performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” between the two McIntyre performances Saturday, Aug. 2. If an audience member sits through all three shows in one day, he or she can buy a T-shirt that reads “I survived Shakespeare Ironman.”
Despite the change of venue and “Midsummer” tour, much of the Shakespeare Festival presentations remain the same.
Audience members can again show up a half-hour before each show to participate in the popular “Sonnet Slam,” a competition that pits five actors against each other to remember and recite a Shakespearean sonnet after just 10 minutes of practice. The audience decides the winner.
“Coming early and seeing the slam is good for audience members because it gets them ready to understand the old English in the play,” Morris said. “That is good because then they are warmed up when the play starts. And all the action happens in the beginning.”
And, as always, the audience is treated to top-notch acting that aims to present Shakespeare’s plays the way they were meant to be experienced.
“I know that I have always had a hard time reading the texts, but seeing Shakespeare at a theater is Shakespeare in a completely different light,” said Trey Hatch, director of “All’s Well That Ends Well.”
“Shakespeare is meant to be acted,” Hatch said. “If an actor does a good job, they will plug the audience into Shakespeare.”
• Keith Chaplin can be reached at 360-416-2155 or .
