Anticipating Shakespeare Festival, Chamber Helps Transform Eastsound into Elizabethan Times

"The Plays of William Shakespeare" by Sir John Gilbert

Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce Director Lance Evans and President Michell Marshall are waiting with the rest of us to see, “what will be born out of the Shakespeare  Festival,” initiated this year on March 30 and 31.

They’ve set the stage for a fun-filled, fruitful annual event, starting with chef and restauranteur Bill Paterson’s suggestion to  invite the Seattle Shakespeare Company to perform “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet” at the Orcas Center.

Bright yellow posters adorn many windows and billboards on the island, reminding all that Friday, March 30 and Saturday, March 31, our green island will be transformed — with both a display of authenticity and a leavening of the comic — as artists,  shopkeepers, minstrels, actors, storytellers,  jugglers, innkeepers, taverns and wineshops recreate Elizabethan talents and wares.

Lance and Michell felt they had a handle on the business aspect of the festival, which they designed as a “shoulder season” event to promote visitors to the island. To that end, they’ve worked with Bed and Breakfast owners and other lodging establishments to offer special rates, that are listed on a special Chamber website: https://orcasislandchamber.com/shakespeare-festival

They’ve solicited funds and in-kind donations from local businesses, and arranged with Orcas Center to stage the two Shakespeare tragedies on their Center Stage. They’ve arranged for a gallery of artwork, “The Bard Gallery” to be installed in the “Post Office Building,” and invited local artists to create, display and sell their work. “Artists are frequently asked to donate their work, and get little in return,” Marshal says. “We want them to get something out of it, and so they will get 100 per cent of their sales.”

(The Bard Gallery will have its Opening Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 20)

And for that energetic, creative, dynamic “oomph,” Evans and Marshall engaged Jane Alden to mastermind  the artistic side of the Shakespearian re-incarnation.  Alden has spent over 40 years as a professional actress working on Broadway, off-Broadway, in regional repertory theatres, in touring companies,  and in television and films. Since moving to Orcas Island 16 years ago, she created the Orcas Island Children’s Theatre and began teaching, directing, producing and writing for children’s theatre.

Shakespeare has always been a special love and she has worked extensively “with the Bard of Avon.” In 2003 she created the Shakespeare Walk, an outdoor performance event  here on Orcas, in which the audience was led on a hike through woods &  meadows, encountering as they walked, scenes amd  characters, songs and fairies, witches and sword fights from Shakespeare’s plays,  performed by the students in her acting classes.

She quotes Shakespeare” “April hath put a spirit of youth in everything,” and adds, “Shakespeare’s spring has a feeling of exuberance, release and rejoicing about it. This is what we want the festival to express.”

“It’s intense!” she says of her days planning for the festival. She’s arranging for a Deputy Sheriff to act as a Bailiff to lock up “hoodlum” Matthew Laslo-White, who will also run an authentic monty card scheme. Hailley Thomson will re-enact her role as Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet,  Gillian Smith has the witches from Macbeth at the ready.

Shakespearian characters –Alden calls them, “The Shakespeare Squad” — will greet arrivals at the Orcas ferry landing. A parade is planned for Eastsound. Alden is scheduling vignettes throughout the day with islanders Christopher Evans, Frank Michaels, Indy Zoeller, Melinda Milligan,  Tony Lee, Ken Speck. Jennifer Pietsch, Paris Wilson, Patty Monaco, and Peter Vinson,

Morris Dancers will perform on the Village Green. Alden is looking for “a few good jugglers” ( contact her at jalden43@centurylink.net) and the Island A Cappella Singers will entertain diners at Agave on Friday evening with Madrigal songs, to be repeated at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Stage on the Village Green, and at 7 p.m. Saturday evening at Orcas Center.

Alden has engaged other musicians such as  Grace McCune and her Fairies, Rachel Bishop and her group of Musicians, Randy Smith and his group, Steve Alboucq and the Orcas Horns, (who will also headline a dance at the Odd Fellows Hall Saturday night.)

Assisting Jane is her redoubtable committee:

• Bev Leyman
• Antoinette Botsford
• Beth Baker
• Sharon Schmidt
• Peja Schussler
• Marcia Spees
• Mary Jane Elgin
• Patty Monaco
• Paige McCormick

Dean Carey  at Orcas Center is helping to arrange costumes, and Aurora’s Consignment and Laura’s Closet also are filling their wardrobes with Shakespearian and quasi-Shakespearian attire. Cindy Morgan at the Nest will make head wreaths; Sarah Coffelt will be face painting. Michel Marshall and Kathleen Speed will haunt their neighborhood as “The A Street Ophelias.” Carol Whitbeck will be styling long tresses in Elizabethan hair styles. The life-size Bison Antiquus at the Orcas Historical Museum will sport a red velvet cap and a round-the-neck ruff, courtesy of  his dresser, Denise Wilk.

Maybe donkey carts and sedan chairs will offer transportation through town. Maybe restaraunteurs will create evocative foods and libation to enjoy. Maybe street peddlers will hawk their wares, and fortune-tellers will advise of portents and warnings. Maybe coffee houses will sport knaves and wenches to serve the (inauthentic) tea and coffee drinkers. Maybe shops will sport Elizabethan scenes in their windows. Maybe even the most modern, or timid, shops will pipe in Elizabethan music to take their customers back to older times.

Will Julius Caesar be warned of the Ides of March and fall victim to the conspirators right on the streets of Eastsound? Will Portia plead for “the quality of mercy?” Will Lady Macbeth ever get her hands clean? Will Hamlet ever make up his mind? Will Rosencrantz and Guildenstern bomb? Will ghosts and witches join with the royalty and commonfolk?

Whatever is born, Evans and Marshall emphasize the emphasis is on fun, Orcas-style . “We want store-owners to do whatever they’re comfortable with,” they say. The goal is to celebrate Shakespeare’s spirit of humanity and the tapestry of famous and common folk, through days of celebration that will bring visitors and increase trade of all sorts on the island; to grow bigger, better, more remunerative — and more fun — every year, during a traditionally slow time. Added value would be those visitors returning at other times to dig deeper into the adventures they sampled during “The Shakespeare Festival.”

Other towns have Shakespeare festivals, but Orcas organizers are not looking to ape any other scenarios, but rather to come up with something different. Evans says, “I appreciate Jane’s vision, her creativity. We want it to be unique.

“It should be a great show all day, long into the evening,” Evans says. Marshall adds, “And it’s really important for the community to know, at the end of the day, to come to Orcas Center at 6 p.m. for wine and refreshment.”