Autumn Leaves Performance Festival

A Review;

The name Autumn Leaves Performance Festival is intended to encourage the concept for future efforts for this time slot. It is hoped that regional and community theatres will join in to represent themselves in a festival environment. Until then, The Shakespeareans of Tamanend Park will continue as the principle group to present during this time slot.

We are now past our Fall Performance time slot. The level of publicity seems to have succeeded in bringing awareness of the program, but not sufficient enough to bring a large audience. I've run into many people who know about Shakespeare in the Park, some who have expressed enthusiasm and have conveyed their intent to participate or attend performances. Others are aware, but do not show any great interest, other than to be encouraging and believing that it is a good thing for the community.

Our performances on September 24th & 25th were rained out.

Although it wasn't raining on the 24th, it had been raining for days before and the field was pretty well saturated. It is likely that this effected attendance. We did see about 15 people on Saturday, some staying to see a performance, which as it turned out was predominately a rehearsal for the following day.

Unfortunately the next day, Sunday the 25th, there were torrential rains and so there was no chance for a performance. The folks that had been working the day before on their presentation were disappointed that they could not attend the following week.

We attempted to set up the film showing for Saturday night the 24th, but it started to rain after we got the screen set up. We did not even attempt to set up on the 25th because of rain.

On Saturday October 3rd, we had a costumed rehearsal for the 4th and we were intending to pursue the "Spontaneous Shakespeare" if anyone had come to participate in that. We saw no attendance in that regard. So clearly the concept of Spontaneous Shakespeare needs to be more significantly promoted if it is to find success. I do believe that this is a good program and I will continue to promote it as part of the performance schedule.

On Saturday night October 3rd, we set up the film and showed it, more as a test than a presentation, because the Boy Scouts had a Jamboree in the park that night and we did not have access to the power source to illuminate the trails. I thought we might have some Boy Scouts there, but no.

We now know that the set-up works and works well. We only need to address the trails to the field and promoting the film showings, but we now have the equipment and the methodology working quite well.

On Sunday October 4th we had a glorious day and everything went well, a few snafus, but nothing worth mentioning. We had a total of about 38 people in attendance, some folks came late without a chair or blanket and left. Others came late and stayed, but most arrived early and enjoyed the afternoon.

Fat Jacks did not attend or provide food service as planned, but we bought food and had that available. Henceforth, I believe we may provide that service ourselves as a fund raising devise.

Recordante showed up on time, much to our relief, all five of them in wonderful period costume, and performed a delightful set to open the show. Everyone very much enjoyed their excellent presentation.

An intermission followed and we opened the second half of the show with Arthur performing a Fife number to call everyone to their seats. This was followed by a dialogue scene from "Much Ado About Nothing" between Benedick (Arthur) and Claudio (Shawn), which was likewise followed by a Benedick's monologue "I do much wonder...".

The next piece was the song "Hey, Nonny, Nonny" sung in duet by Shawn Rose and Jennifer Cole. This was followed by the scene in "Much Ado..." where Don Pedro (Arthur) gives Hero (Maret) to Claudio (Shawn) and Beatrice (Jennifer) moves to sit in a corner and sing "Heigh-ho for a Husband". This song was then sung by Jennifer Cole which was then followed by Arthur Greisiger singing "It was a Lover and His Lass" accompanied by Maret Genzlinger on Recorder.

To conclude the program, members of BACT (Bryn Athyn Community Theatre) performed a scene from "Twelfth Night" which contains a number of songs. Included in this scene were; (in order of appearance) Arthur Greisiger, Deno Brannon, Shawn Rose, Maret Genzlinger, and Neil Goldstein.

Raffle tickets were sold for a framed photograph taken in Tamanend Park in the 1970's (which will be displayed here in the future).

All in all it was a successful presentation and everyone had a wonderful time. Let's hope we can build on this for the next performance time slot in the spring.