A 2011 student in performance; photo by Jay Yamada

Summer Shakespeare Conservatory performances—abridged plays performed by youth age 8 to 18—are a wonderful, low-cost way to introduce younger theatergoers to Shakespeare.

The schedule for the remainder of the 2012′s performances is below, along with ticketing and other information.

FIVE-WEEK CONSERVATORY PERFORMANCES
Location: Bentley Upper School, 1000 Upper Happy Valley Rd, Lafayette
Tickets: $8 each, or $5 for students and seniors in advance ($2 more day of); you may also purchase an all-day performance pass for $25. To purchase, click here and select your performance from the drop-down menu. Performances are sorted by the number of weeks in the conservatory session.

Friday, July 20
Merry Kinsmen in The Tempest 10am
Noble Knaves in King Lear 11:30am
Riotous Knights in Hamlet 1pm
Fortune Artists  in The Tempest 2:30pm
The Queen’s Own in A Midsummer Night’s Dream 6pm

Saturday, July 21
Merry Kinsmen in The Tempest 10am
Noble Knaves in King Lear 11:30am
Fortune Artists in The Tempest 1pm
Riotous Knights in Hamlet 2:30pm
The Queen’s Own in A Midsummer Night’s Dream 5pm

THREE-WEEK CONSERVATORY PERFORMANCES
Location: Holy Names High School, 4660 Harbord Drive, Oakland
Tickets: $8 each, or $5 for students and seniors in advance ($2 more day of); you may also purchase an all-day performance pass for $15. To purchase, click here and select your performance from the drop-down menu. Performances are sorted by the number of weeks in the conservatory session.

Friday, July 27
Merry Kinsmen in The Comedy of Errors 10am
Riotous Knights in Macbeth 11:30am
The Queen’s Own in A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1:30pm

TWO-WEEK CONSERVATORY PERFORMANCES
Location: Bentley School, 1000 Upper Happy Valley Rd, Lafayette
Tickets: $8 each, or $5 for students and seniors in advance ($2 more day of). To purchase, click here and select your performance from the drop-down menu. Performances are sorted by the number of weeks in the conservatory session.

Friday, August 3
Merry Kinsmen in Romeo and Juliet 10am
Noble Knaves in King Lear 11am
Riotous Knights in The Comedy of Errors 12pm
Fortune Artists  in Hamlet 1pm
The Queen’s Own in Macbeth 2pm

On June 21, National Dump the Pump Day, travelers are encouraged to park their cars and favor public transportation. Cal Shakes and BART are joining the festivities by collaborating on a special contest: Travel to Cal Shakes by BART for our June 21 performance of The Tempest, and you’ll get a sticker saying you “Dumped the Pump” when you board our free BART-to-Bruns shuttle at Orinda station. At the Bruns, roving spies will be looking for sticker-sporting patrons, on whom they’ll bestow $10 BART tickets. Take BART to Cal Shakes on June 21: Save gas, help the environment, and maybe win a free future ride!

Please email marketingintern@calshakes.org by 6/18 if you plan to take BART to Cal Shakes on 6/21, so that we can plan accordingly to accommodate riders on our free shuttle. Thanks!

What do cocktails and The Tempest have in common? You decide! Enter our Cal Shakers Tempest cocktail contest!

Invent a vodka-based drink, name it, and tell us about it no later than Monday, June 4 one of these ways:

• Email marketing@calshakes.org with the subject header “Tempest cocktail contest.”
• Post your recipe on Twitter with the hashtag #tempestcocktail.
• Share on our Facebook wall by June 4.

The creator of the winning cocktail will be rewarded their choice of a Tempest T-shirt or free entry to our June 8 pre-performance Cal Shakers party at the Bruns.

Cal Shakers, start your jiggers and join us where the winning cocktail will be served.  Tickets available now for the pre-show party on Friday, June 8 at 6:30pm.  We’ll be serving up warm and gooey gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches, sumptuous soup shots, luscious desserts, and our Tempestuous drink winner, compliments of Stockholm Krystal Vodka.  Meet our tarot readers and see what the summer has in store for you (besides attending lots of Cal Shakes shows). Tickets for this exclusive event are only $40 per person for Cal Shakers members and $60 for nonmembers.  Price includes one ticket to that evening’s performance. Buy tickets here. Want to become a member of Cal Shakers? Visit our membership page.

Our popular, free Inside Scoop events have moved; they are now being held at the Orinda Theatre, 4 Orinda Theatre Square. Inside Scoops are lively panel discussions and Q&As, offering context, conversation, and the ever-desirable sneak peek provided by those who know the show best. Get inside the creative process with our cast and creative team while they’re still deep in the rehearsal process—and enjoy complimentary sweet treats and Peet’s coffee and tea beforehand.

Appearing at the star-studded Tempest Inside Scoop are director Jonathan Moscone, actor Michael Winters (Prospero), actor James Carpenter (Alonso), choreographer/actor Erika Chong Shuch (Ariel), actor Emily Kitchens (Miranda), costume designer Anna Oliver, and Resident Dramaturg Philippa Kelly.

DETAILS

• What: The Tempest Inside Scoop
• When: Mon, May 14. Sweet treats and Peet’s at 6:30pm, panel at 7pm
• Where: Orinda Theatre, 4 Orinda Theatre Square. Please use the special entrance from the sidewalk to the left of the cinema’s main doors; look for a Cal Shakes greeter who will help you find your way.
• Cost: Free
• Seating: Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis for most guests.
• Cal Shakes Champions at the Supporting Cast ($250) level or higher: To reserve seats, email bsandefur@calshakes.org or call 510.809.3297.
• Parking: Free parking is available for this event in Orinda Theatre Square’s garage with validation. Please remember to bring your parking ticket into the cinema to receive validation.
• More info: 510.548.9666, info@calshakes.org, calshakes.org/events.

Date, time, and artists subject to change. Pictured above, clockwise from top left: Erika Chong Shuch and Jonathan Moscone in conversation (photo by Jamie Buschbaum); James Carpenter; Philippa Kelly at a 2011 Inside Scoop (photo by Jay Yamada).

In the months leading up to our 2012 Main Stage season, we are profiling some of the artists shaping our productions. —The Tempest, Spunk, Blithe Spirit, and Hamlet—in our e-newsletters. This month, we’re featuring renowned Bay Area actor René Augesen, who will make her Cal Shakes debut as Ruth Condomine in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit. What follows is the transcript of my email interview with René. To sign up for our email newsletter, click here. 

Manoel Felciano and René Augesen in ROUND AND ROUND THE GARDEN at A.C.T.; photo by Kevin Berne.

You’ve been an A.C.T. Core Company Member since 2001, and have performed at Lincoln Center and the Public Theater in NY and on stages throughout the country. What’s your experience with outdoor theater?

I’ve not worked in outdoor theatre for a very long time. Around 20 years ago I worked at Trinity Shakespeare Festival in Fort Worth. I did Ophelia in Hamlet and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew one summer, and Juliet in R & J and Luciana in The Comedy of Errors another summer. I’m told the weather in Orinda is much more fickle than Fort Worth!

What’s your experience with Noël Coward? Can you share any early thoughts on the role of Ruth Condomine or on Blithe Spirit in general?

In my first year at A.C.T. I actually did a production of Blithe Spirit in which I played Elvira (Condomine). It should be pretty interesting and odd doing a show a second time, playing a different character. I remember Shona (Tucker, who played Ruth) finding it particularly challenging to pretend like she didn’t see me; we kept cracking each other up because of it.

Mark Rucker directed you in Once in a Lifetime at A.C.T. What do you like about working with him? What do you think he’ll bring to this production?

I’ve actually worked with Mark a number of times. He directed me in one of my very favorite shows, The Rainmaker. I love working with him. I think he’s one of those rare directors that intuits what each actor needs, individually, and gives them that. He takes the time to know who you are as a person and as an actor and very generously morphs, sometimes several times a day, into exactly what you need at the time. It’s difficult to know when an actor needs to hear more or less from a director at any given moment. He somehow knows. And he’s always up for a game of “what if…”.  So he’ll bring to this production what he always brings, collaboration and fun and color and idiosyncrasy.

What or who inspires you right now? Any particular writers, music, current events, people, et cetera?

I fear anything I write here will sound pretentious but here goes.

I could go with the obvious and say Shakespeare. But it is true that I pick it up often. That I daydream about doing it quite a bit. That I secretly work on it. That when I teach it I keep working on it even after the class ends. And that I’m a bit obsessed with the actual “work” that it takes to do it.

But also I’m lately sort of obsessed and inspired by and always looking for performances and actors that don’t announce themselves, that transform into character without seeming to shout “Look at me! Look how good I am!” Bryan O’Byrne, Mia Wasikowska, Viola Davis. Performances that sometimes transcend what otherwise might have been mediocre material.

And finally, if you could have appeared any play in history, what (and/or where, and/or with whom directing or sharing the stage with you) would it be?

OK, this is really hard! I’d love to answer with my dream cast and play on the Broadway stage, now—but I feel like that’s cheating. So I’ll say Our American Cousin, so that I could throw my body over John Wilkes Booth and change the course of American history for the better. I’m kidding.

I don’t know! Maybe do Macbeth with Marlon Brando in the 1960s with Harold Pinter directing? That might be awesome!

Subscribe now to get the best seats at the best prices for Blithe Spirit and the rest of our 2012 season.