Marisa O'Neil
With the slowly setting sun, shade trees, and a grassy knoll with a
small stage set at its foot, one could almost imagine a roving band
of performers plying their trade in the countryside of William
Shakespeare's England.
Even the odd airplane flying overhead did little to spoil the mood
as San Pedro-based Shakespeare by the Sea performed "Richard III"
Saturday for hundreds of people at Grant Howald Park. The Newport
Beach Arts Foundation sponsored the free show, which drew young and
old to see the tale of the Duke of Gloucester's ambitious and
scheming ways.
Tonight, they will perform the comedy, "The Two Gentlemen of
Verona."
"It's fun coming to something like this," said Costa Mesa resident
Carrie Piela as she sat in a lawn chair before the show. "The natural
backdrop is perfect for something like this. It's a good excuse for
the community to come together."
Konrad and Trish Swenson of Corona del Mar brought their sons,
4-year-old Spencer and 9-year-old Austin, to see their first
Shakespeare play. The couple home-schools their children and studied
Shakespeare's background to give the boys some perspective before the
performance, Trish Swenson said.
"I was telling the kids how authentic it is to see it outside,"
Konrad Swenson said.
But audience members at Saturday's performance had slightly better
accommodations than typical groundlings of Shakespeare's day, to be
sure.
Theater-goers of yore often congregated in a crowded, smelly,
standing-room-only pit below the stage. Saturday's audience relaxed
on blankets and in beach chairs, sipping glasses of wine and feasting
from loaded picnic baskets.
Balboa Island resident Ruth Leonard and her family brought salads,
cookies, decadent-looking fruit tarts and a plastic wagon filled with
bottled water. Leonard brought her granddaughter, Kelli Strong, for
an early celebration of her 16th birthday next week.
"I love coming here," said Leonard, who has come to the plays each
of the three years they have performed at the park. "We always like
to do something cultural on her birthday."
Most in attendance paid close attention to the actors on stage,
listening intently to the dialogue. One woman even brought along the
"Cliffs Notes" version of the play, just in case.
And for the youngest, antsiest children, who did not yet fully
appreciate the Bard, a set of swings and slides were a suitable
distraction.
