American and Shakespeare

In the Sept. 26 Calendar there is a rather sad story titled “Council Rejects Grove Festival Bailout,” in which Jan Herman writes about the Garden Grove City Council denying emergency funds to the Grove Shakespeare Festival.

Councilman Raymond T. Littrell says Shakespeare is un-American. This is not the first time he has tried to eliminate the Shakespearean festival. The last time, he claimed that Garden Grove was a “hard hat” city and that hard hats didn’t appreciate Shakespeare (many objected by wearing hard hats to the next performance).

Littrell’s now-regular objection to Shakespeare and the Gem Theater seems to have surfaced only after the competing Garden Grove Theater (an amateur theater of which I was a founding member) began holding its performances in a city-owned structure, in the Eastgate (city) Park, a long block away from Littrell’s home. Littrell became an active supporter of this small but very competent and competitive volunteer group.

In any case, Littrell’s rationalization for not presenting Shakespeare is far too anachronistic to dwell upon. I would rather quote from the story on A5 of the same Times edition, “All the Classrooms a Stage for Lessons on Shakespeare:” “Shakespeare has long been popular in America. He was first venerated by the Establishment as the preeminent poet in the English language.” Thomas Jefferson, outlining the proper education for young lawyers in the 18th Century, urged them to study Shakespeare night and day. He and John Adams visited Shakespeare’s birthplace in 1786. Enough said!

ELERTH S. ERICKSON

(Former councilman and mayor)

Garden Grove

A recording of the council meeting shows that Littrell said Shakespeare was “not American.” In Herman’s article, Littrell maintained that he did not label Shakespeare and the classics un-American or assert that the Grove should promote only American culture. He was quoted as saying: “I said we have a great American culture and we really aren’t taking care of it. We are doing everybody else’s culture.”

Littrell’s wife, Marilyn, is on the board of the Garden Grove Theater .

Donations from the public saved the Grove Shakespeare Festival’s final production of the season, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.”