Also this issue: Casting Call The ghostly work of Leonardo Drew is on display at the Fabric Workshop and Museum. -Robin Rice Go Fish -Susan Hagen Summertime Singing -Debra Auspitz Keiko Miyamori -Debra Auspitz Dynamic Duo -Steve Cohen

June 13-19, 2002

artsbeat

compiled by Debra Auspitz

Arcadia University in Glenside is celebrating the addition of a summer Shakespeare festival on its campus. David Bassuk, director of Arcadia’s theater program, which expands this fall to include a B.F.A. in acting, organized the festival’s first season and will direct a production of The Tempest. The other festival offering will be Much Ado About Nothing, directed by McCarter Theater’s Tracy Bersley. Bassuk says the motivations for starting the program were simple: “We’ve been doing a lot of Shakespeare here at Arcadia, and I’ve done a lot of Shakespeare in my career. It seemed like there was no summer Shakespeare festival [near Philadelphia]. There are wonderful events that are a good drive from here, like the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, but we have a wonderful setting for a Shakespeare festival right here at Arcadia.” For information on the festival or the camp, call 1-877-ARCADIA.

Bassuk says that, though the two plays this summer will take place indoors due to construction on Arcadia’s grounds, he hopes next summer to have outdoor productions as well. He points out that Grey Towers Castle, a striking centerpiece to Arcadia’s campus, “is modeled after Alnwick Castle, home of Henry Percy, who is featured in Henry IV, Part II.” Bassuk hopes next summer to do that play or one of the histories outside by the castle. This summer’s productions are cast with a company of professional actors, many of whom are household names in Philly theater (David Howey, Ian Rose and Paul Nolan, to name a few).

Arcadia will simultaneously run a “Summer Theater Institute,” Bassuk adds, “what we’re calling ‘Camp Shakespeare.’” Every two weeks the high-school-aged campers will put on fragments of Shakespearean works that they will rehearse during the summer days, while evenings will be filled with the full-length festival productions. Here’s hoping the fest does indeed move out-of-doors, but a Shakespeare festival so nearby the city sounds appealing either way.

After a successful first year, marked by its impressive series of programs that coincided with the PMA’s Dox Thrash exhibit, The Philadelphia Print Collaborative (PPC) is gearing up for year two. PPC will host another fall festival, this time focused on two events: the Brandywine Workshop’s 30th anniversary and the Print Center’s fall undertaking, Imprint. Imprint is the largest public art project ever attempted in the city, with work from artists like Virgil Marti and Dottie Attie appearing on billboards, mall kiosks, coffee cups in stores throughout the city and ads in local papers. PPC’s coinciding series of events, Image & Print: A Contemporary Conversation with History, runs from Sept. 20 through Oct. 19.