THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 21, 1995 TAG: 9506210065
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
IN 1957, JOSEPH Papp began putting on free productions of Shakespeare in Central Park. He had grown up poor in Brooklyn, and wanted everyone to have a chance to witness great theater.
In 1993, Ann Russell Taylor - a Suffolk native who was a New York actress for nine years - took a gander at the new and glamorous 24th Street Stage at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
The stage ``was just crying out for Shakespeare,'' said Taylor, who then went to work to make that vision come to light.
After much politicking, networking and marketing, the lights go up at 8 p.m. Thursday on Shakespeare's raucous comedy ``The Taming of the Shrew,'' which continues nightly through Sunday.
Also scheduled for the 1st Annual Oceanfront Shakespeare Festival are the Bard's classic tragedy ``Romeo and Juliet,'' opening June 29, and Paul Rudnick's recent comedy, ``I Hate Hamlet,'' opening July 6.
Don't expect a long evening on a folding chair or blanket: The Shakespeare plays have been cut for this series, and run less than two hours.
Coincidentally, the New York Shakespeare Festival begins its season Thursday, too. Founder Papp, who died in 1991, spoke often of the appeal of outdoor theater:
``When the moon is out and the wind begins to whisper, it's theater at its best. You can't beat it.''
Norfolk thespian Gerry Rowe, who is directing ``I Hate Hamlet,'' just hopes the wind will stay to a whisper, and not howl across the actor's microphones.
After all, there are challenges in presenting theater outdoors, especially with a roaring ocean at stage left, and the summer cruise strip at stage right.
Not that Shakespeare had it any better in his day. His works played as often to ragtag commoners as to royalty.
``I don't think there is anybody in my cast who has played outdoors,'' Rowe said.
Actors will be wearing lapel mikes, he added, ``so it should be very hearable.''
He hopes lines are heard. ``It's a very funny show.''
``I Hate Hamlet'' is about a television actor who gets offered the part of Hamlet in a park in New York City. He's never performed Shakespeare, or acted outdoors. He rents an apartment that used to belong to John Barrymore. So the great actor's ghost comes back to help him play the part.
Joe Mahler, a Norfolk native who has performed Shakespeare in Manhattan, is playing Barrymore. Also cast are area veterans Shirley Hurd and Sam Hakim.
``A great, great cast,'' Rowe said. ``We're having a ball in rehearsal.''
Fun, fun, fun,'' is how John Anderson described the tone for ``The Taming of the Shrew,'' which he is directing.
``I think the fun in this thing is watching these two people really abuse each other, until both of them give in.
``They go after each other, tooth and nail, until they find something in each other that they like - and love.''
Anderson, 32, is the festival's artistic director. His theater background includes five years as a director/actor with Minnesota Shakespeare Company in Minneapolis.
As of three weeks ago, he also is playing Petruchio, the husband in ``Taming.''
In late May, the actor originally cast as Petruchio dropped out - and Anderson stepped in.
A popular area performer, Anderson had it in mind to direct and act in a show next season.
``But, if I had to do it over again, I'd do it this way.'' With the other actor standing in as Petruchio, he was able to block the scenes and more effectively realize the overall stage pictures.
Then Anderson jumped into the pictures he created, knowing full well what they looked like.
He and Taylor arrived at a theme for the first season: love.
``So we're taking three looks at love.'' With ``Romeo and Juliet,'' ``it's romantic love which goes awry.'' In ``Taming,'' ``it's the most boisterous love that works out.''
And in ``I Hate Hamlet,'' ``it's a love of the theater.''
Certainly, love of theater is what spurred Taylor to create a summer troupe - her mid-summer night's dream come true.
Soon after Taylor moved to the Beach in 1988, the 13-year-old Shakespeare-by-the-Sea Festival folded. ``And I really had wanted to work with them.'' Five years later, she mustered the courage to go at the task.
``We're a big enough city,'' she told herself, to have free Shakespeare in the park - Papp-style. MEMO: BARD AT THE BEACH
What: First Oceanfront Shakespeare Festival, produced by Summer Shakes
Inc.
Where: 24th Street Stage, 24th Street and Atlantic Avenue, Virginia
Beach
When: ``The Taming of the Shrew,'' Thursday through Sunday, plus July
15; ``Romeo and Juliet,'' June 29 to July 2, plus July 16; ``I Hate
Hamlet,'' July 6 to 9, plus July 14. All shows at 8 p.m.
How much: free
Call: 425-1164 ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Bill Tiernan, Staff
Norfolk native Joseph Mahler plays John Barrymore in "I Hate
Hamlet."
by CNB