A new international theater festival in Calabasas

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A new international theater festival is set to debut in Calabasas next month, featuring performers from Ireland, the United Kingdom and Israel.

The four-day California International Theatre Festival will run Aug. 20-23 at various locations throughout the city of Calabasas. The festival is being organized by actress Linda Purl, who last year directed the Rubicon International Theatre Festival in Ventura. When financial cutbacks forced the cancellation of the Ventura festival for 2009, Purl approached the city of Calabasas, which agreed to partly fund the new festival. Additional sponsorship is coming from individuals, corporations and foundations.

‘We want the festival to speak to the global reality that we’re living in,’ Purl said. Calabasas, she added, offers many theatrical venues, including the civic center, which features a large amphitheater.

The festival will open with ‘Moby Dick -- Ishmael’s Tale’ by Conor Lovett and Judy Hegarty Lovett of Ireland’s Gare St. Lazare Players. The drama is a liberal adaptation of the Herman Melville novel and will play Aug. 20 at the Carlson Family Theatre at Viewpoint School.

‘An Evening With... Sir Donald Sinden,’ playing Aug. 21 at the Calabasas Outdoor Amphitheatre, is an autobiographical evening with the British theater actor as he recounts anecdotes from his colorful stage career.

The festival’s main event will be ‘A Tale of a Lonely Man,’ a chamber drama from Israel’s Ofer Amram Company that plays Aug. 22-23 at the Viewpoint School. The production, which features music and puppetry, tells the story of an amnesiac who invents a female companion for himself in the form of a lifesize doll.

Also featured as part of the festival are London cabaret artist Giselle Wolf and an evening of musical entertainment.

-- David Ng