Shakespeare in The Rockies: A Happy Beginning

Abstract

ATURE was more than kind to the first Colorado Shakespeare Festival, which opened Aug. 2, a pleasant mile-high summer's evening, in the Mary Rippon Theatre on the campus of the University of Colorado in Boulder. Not only did the daily threatened rain withhold itself from the three opening nights, but nature also proved so personal a presence that she actively and graciously participated, on cue, in the undertakings. Bernardo's . . . yond same star that's westward from the pole . . . was palpably present, and the audience turned to look at it, shining down on Flagstaff Mountain, when that good soldier pointed from Elsinore's battlements. Sleepy sparrows hidden in the branches of one of the big Colorado blue spruces which grow upon the stage remained courteously silent before and after but bestowed a rustling, chirping grief on Ophelia's madness so appropriately that some playgoers subsequently inquired if these could have been off-stage sound effects. Two nights later, when lions whelped in the streets of Rome, a falling star arced across the Colorado heavens to compound the portents of dark doings in the Forum. The following evening began with black, low clouds, a night for gloomy musings on woman's perversity, but as Kate got kissed the stars came out to watch, and then a near-full moon peered down benignly on a masterful taming of a delectable shrew. Nature deserved a listing with the cast, or, at minimum, program credits. I would not want to hint mysticism in meterological coincidence, but perhaps one is permitted a speculation that these things also might have delighted an Elizabethan audience? Even more. I'd like to think they represented a gentle blessing on the earnest, inspired labors of a troupe of nobly talented young actors. The Colorado Shakespeare Festival, newest addition to the roster of Elizabethan repertory theatres in America, opened with Hamlet. Julius Caesar was played Aug. 4, and The Taming of the Shrew on Aug. 5. The three plays then followed each other in that sequence for a two-week run through Aug. i6. It is anticipated the festival will be expanded in coming seasons to four or five weeks, and the plans, at present, envision a hard-core repertory of the more important and popular plays rather than any methodical working of the canon. Choice of the plays for this year was a strong one, perhaps even a touch bold. Nearly everyone has had some experience of Shakespearian theatre, or its dilution, which can be brought to bear on the three plays selected. The Hamlet and sure-fire Shrew came off exceedingly well. As might have been expected,