30th season kicks off June 25 and runs for a month

Published 11:24 pm Sunday, June 14, 2015

KILGORE – A unique group sat around the magazine-covered coffee table. At one end sat Don Quixote, twirling his handlebar mustache, with his bronze breastplate and helmet gleaming in the soft light.

By him sat a queen of fairies, with long, purple hair covering her face.

Next to her sat a standard nerd in horn-rimmed glasses, a short black tie, and mismatched socks.

And by him sat a deep-voiced man in a grey t-shirt and sneakers, reclining with his right leg over his left.

The group of professional actors from Kilgore’s Texas Shakespeare Festival (TSF) relaxed between rehearsals.

“I love the honesty of theater,” said Michael Pine, who will play Cervantes’ deluded Spanish knight in the TSF’s upcoming musical, The Man of La Mancha. “It’s so much fun to be able to portray all sorts of people. There’s probably been 100 thousand Don Quixotes, but we all come from our own perspectives on the world, and branch out from there. It’s always amazing.”

This summer marks the Texas Shakespeare Festival’s 30th season. Of the six plays on this season’s bill, two are Shakespeare productions performed during the TSF’s first season.

“I’m really excited,” said Carley Cornelius, who will play Titania, Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “It’s my fourth time doing this play. You can go to just about any Shakespeare festival, and they’ll be doing this. It’s hilarious, it’s beautiful, its language is gorgeous, and it’s magical.”

As she said this, the others chimed in on how many times they had performed in the classic play: one actor five times, another three, and another performed it a full seven times.

Ms. Cornelius’ mother started her in theatre at a young age, volunteering her for a minor role in Hello, Dolly! The two continued doing musicals together until Ms. Cornelius went to Ball State University in Indiana, then to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A friend recommended she try out in the TSF’s open auditions in Chicago. She auditioned with selected readings for the role of Titania, and moved south to join the troupe.

“I enjoy it most of the time,” she said. “I also don’t know what I’d do with my life if I didn’t have theater. I don’t enjoy it so much when I don’t have a job. You start to panic, you’re filled with anxiety, you see your bank account get smaller and smaller… Once you have a job, like the TSF, you’re at ease, you’re grateful, you’re excited. It’s a summer filled with joy.”

That same joy eventually drew in Jason Richards, who will star as Rick Steadman in Larry Shue’s comedy The Nerd. Unlike many of the other actors and crew members, Richards was born and raised in East Texas.

“I was a reluctant senior in high school, and I just took a drama class on a whim,” Richards said. “I had plans to do nothing.”

Over the next summer, Hallsville ISD hired a new drama coach, who saw Richard’s potential and pushed him into leading roles. He says he now enjoys working with a local group that has such wide recognition.

“The world comes right to my doorstep,” he said. “I love getting to know others from different places, different thoughts, different ideas… The biggest challenge is the first reading, though. You don’t know most of the people there, maybe you know some, but with that first collaboration, there’s always self-doubt as an actor. You wonder ‘Is someone here going to challenge me?’ And when they do, you say ‘I’m in the right room now.’”

From that first reading until opening night, the actors only have about 75 hours over some six weeks to rehearse, while most professional shows get at least 120 hours.

“You can’t waste any time, and you have to do a lot of your own work,” Pine said. “You have to do a lot of reading at home, and show up prepared.”

Once the actors are assembled, the plays chosen, and the first readings taken care of, it is up to the directors to bring the many elements together into the final product audiences will see.

This responsibility for The Nerd falls to Lee Ernst, who has a special connection to author Larry Shue. Ernst’s time at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre briefly overlapped with Shue’s, who was rocketing to fame after the success of The Nerd and The Foreigner. The two were friends before Shue’s death in 1985, and had many friends in common.

“I was intimate with the playwright, and consequentially, I want to tell the story right, and not screw it up,” Ernst said. “I know it can be done, and I want to make sure we can do it.”

In addition to directing, Ernst has acted for 35 years, and worked in makeup, costuming, and “fight directing” — literally directing fights, falls, and duels.

“I just decided to diversify,” he said. “I had a family to support, and I didn’t want to rely solely upon acting and voiceover work.”

He has used his low, round voice on commercials, video games, and even narrating a PBS documentary on Ronald Reagan, he says, “but I’ve always been a stage actor.”

He has starred in over 300 productions in his 35-year career so far, but directing is a fairly new part of his work.

“I never thought I was a director,” Ernst said. “I’ve always liked my relationships with directors, and I’ve been a fight director, so I’ve enjoyed those collaborations, but I’ve just been content to give my one slice of the pie, or two. A director, though, is responsible comprehensively. It’s like being a shepherd.”

He takes a hands-on approach, organizing technology and props, managing actors, and coordinating with directors of other plays. He calls it “just a different world.”

This season will feature six full length plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Nerd, Twelfth Night, The Man of La Mancha, The Belle of Amherst, and The Princess and the Players. Each play will have three to nine performances, as well as a talent showcase, a Chinese Theatre Night, and panel discussions from the cast and crew of each play.

Season tickets cost $90; otherwise, individual tickets are $30, Saturday matinee and Sunday evening tickers are $25, and the limited number of seats on the padded bench at the theater’s rear are $24.

Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased online at www.TexasShakespeare.com, in person at the Anne Dead Turn Fine Arts Center, Hwy 259 South and Brook Drive in Kilgore between 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, or by phone at 903-983-8601.

For a complete schedule of events, go to www.TexasShakespeare.com/calendar.