Theater

It all started in 1638, when the Kingdom of Sweden sent two ships, the Calmare Nyckel and Fogel Grip, to establish a colony in what is now Delaware. Now, a bevy of artistic and theatrical festivities are being organized in honor of the national “Year of New Sweden” resolution to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the birth of the first Swedish colony in the United States. The celebration includes a visit Oct. 1 by Her Royal Highness Princess Christina of Sweden to a Royal Jubilee Ball at Hotel del Coronado.

Anne-Charlotte Harvey, a Swedish-born professor of theater at San Diego State University, is the chairwoman of San Diego’s New Sweden ’88 Celebration. She’s doing her part to honor that title by translating a variety of Swedish plays, including August Strindberg’s “Miss Julie,” running through Saturday, which Harvey also directs at San Diego State’s Don Powell Theatre; “The Changeling,” a children’s play by Goran Tunstrom, which will tour local schools through March and play at SDSU Dramatic Arts 102 on March 17-19; “Medea’s Children,” by Per Lysander and Suzanne Osten, an American premiere to be presented in April at an unannounced time and place by the Actors for Actors Theatre, and “A Meeting of Queens,” an American premiere to be presented by the University of San Diego on Nov. 17-20.

Also on tap is “Hitler’s Childhood” by Niklas Radstrom, which is not being translated by Harvey, but is being directed by her husband, Michael Harvey, also a professor of theater at SDSU.

What are Harvey’s goals for the New Sweden celebration? “We hope that by the end of the year, people will have a better awareness of where Sweden is. Many people confuse it with Switzerland.”