Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum: If any place in Southern California is fairyland, it is Topanga. And every summer, it is fairyland in fact, as they put on their truly magical production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I have a particular relation to that play having worked on it several times in several guises (none being actress) and have seen productions from high school to professional to cinema some strictly Elizabethan and some ultra-modernistic. I am taken away by this production. Such a delicate, delightful hand at the directorial reins! Wonderfully physical and physically comedic, universal in young love's confusion and 'drama'...and the setting tips the evening into the eldrich -- is it a real owl or an actor? Both are present and heard from. The open air theater dips into midsummer night as you watch the play take place. I knew my daughter, Elizabeth would be enchanted, but my son, Alex, is a harsher critic (as all 14-year-old boys are!) and even he was taken away.
The theater continues to be run under the beautiful and wise eyes of Ellen Geer. This year, she is directing her own interpretation of The Three Musketeers. We saw a scene at their 2010 Friendraiser, and it promises to be a thought-provoking swash-buckling romp.
And it is a privilege to watch Ellen Geer playing Maria Callas in Master Class. Even the open air theater can hardly contain the power of seeing this strong, glorious woman portraying another.