Mountain Winery Hosts Shakespeare Festival Benefit

The Mountain Winery is once again helping important local causes, this time hosting the Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival 2012 season kickoff fundraiser from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Proceeds from the event, $10 for every prepaid $25-ticket sold, will support the nonprofit festival and its Festival Theatre Ensemble. Tickets at the door are $30.

Between $40,000-$50,000 is needed every year to support the festival, said Los Gatos resident Mary Tomasi-Dubois, a member of the Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival Board of Directors.

Those who attend the benefit will enjoy the beautiful winery scenery in Saratoga, a mini renaissance faire, a few scenes from several Shakespearean plays, sword-play demonstration, troubadour singers, renaissance dance performances and wine tasting. Food is not included with the ticket purchase. 

The ensemble was founded in 1994 by Artistic Director Bruce W. De Les Dernier and is dedicated to the production of classical theater and stage adaptations of classic novels, legends and fairy tales, according to the ensemble's website.

The Thursday-through-Sunday show season was originally created for touring as was done in the 16th century, when acting groups moved from place to place performing wherever possible, the website said.

In 2001, however, the ensemble settled in Los Gatos and founded the local Shakespeare Festival, performing under the stars each summer at to the delight of about 200 people each evening.

"I want to make sure that even though we've been here for 10 years, we're here for another 20 or 30," Tomasi-Dubois said. "The arts are always suffering, and performing arts, especially, so we need the support." 

While the festival has enough money to start this season—running July 8 through Aug. 7—it needs to raise money for its 11th year in 2012. "We need to start early to make sure we'll still be around," she said.

Money raised will be used primarily to rent costumes, equipment for combat scenes and lighting, and to refurbish the set, Tomasi-Dubois said.

"It's good, inexpensive professional entertainment," she noted.

The organization also runs Camp Shakespeare, which lasts 10 weeks and caters to young actors up to age 18.

"We're trying to make people aware that we're even in town," she said. "There are a lot of people who don't know we've been around for 10 years."

Newcomers need not be afraid of Shakespeare, as the ensemble and artistic director have properly paced the plays so people understand the acting, even when they've walked away confused after watching the same work at other venues.

"If it's paced great ... the action, along with the dialogue, makes it very understandable and very enjoyable," she said.

This year, the ensemble will perform the non-Shakespearean Charley's Aunt comedy, the Tragedy of Macbeth and Twelfth Night.

Amy Goldsmith, another member of the organization's board of directors, said she wished the community would be more aware of the festival. 

"We're a really determined group," she said of the fundraising efforts.

Los Gatos Shakespeare Festival Producer Jennifer Selden was hoping for a good turnout tomorrow since the economic downturn has hit arts organizations hard.

"That's [the arts] is the first area the government cuts funding to, combine that with the fact that most foundations use investment incomes, which have taken a big hit, to fund their grants to us, and you have a financial double wammy for our budget," she lamented.

Unless the festival raises ticket prices to more than $50 it can't begin to cover the actual cost of the productions, she explained.