2006 LIT MOON WORLD SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL -- Santa Barbara, CA

I wanted to take a moment to look at the festival as a whole. In addition to the six plays I saw, and the one rehearsal, I attended an art gallery which displayed sketches for theatre scene and costume design, puppets, set models, and other theatre related items.

I attended a lecture “Continental Shifts: Shakespeare in Central and Eastern Europe” moderated by Professor Simon Williams, Chair of the UCSB Department of Dramatic Art and featuring Dennis Kennedy, Samuel Beckett Chair of Theatre at Trinity College, Dublin.

Easily, my favorite production was the Polish Othello, followed by the Bulgarian Puppet Theatre's production of As You Like It, and very closely followed by the Bulgarian Romeo and Juliet.

Strangely, and somewhat sadly, the English language productions this week were the weakest. UCSB's Timon of Athens was a good show, but lacked the spark that the European productions had. The Canadian Juliet and Romeo was unique, but lacked spark and purpose. It had some great mask work and interesting uses for its set, but never followed through on any of it.

My good friend's production of King Richard II was interesting, with some great looking tableau's, but his deconstruction of language didn't work well at all in the vast space of the cathedral. It seemed out of control and never brought the audience in to the show the way it intended.

However, based on the rehearsal I saw, I had high hopes for the production of The Tempest. It might easily have stood next to the European productions in terms of story-telling and mood and effect.

I was very glad I was able to get to this festival, and it makes me yearn to attend some of the European theatre festivals.

It is obvious that great theatre work is being done, but not necessarily here in the States. Why?

A large part of it, I think is that the European theatres are largely state funded. (In conversation with the good people of the Bulgarian Puppet theatre, I learned that the Bulgarian state pays all the salaries and that they are only required to pay for everything else through ticket prices (a very reasonable solution, I think). Whereas in the U.S., theatres are forced to play to a lower common denominator in order to ensure that tickets will be sold so that there is enough revenue to continue a season.

I applaud John Blondell and the Lit Moon Theatre Company for this venture and for bringing these wonderful European theatre companies to the U.S. I hope that the trend continues and that I can attend more great festivals like this one.