Affordable Shakespeare at the Ford : Theater: Each patron pays with a can of food to see ‘Romeo and Juliet.’

Elite theater at non-elite prices has a place in L.A., as was demonstrated on opening night of Shakespeare Festival/L.A.’s free production of “Romeo and Juliet” and at the VIP dessert party at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday night.

Admission is a can of food. Vons triples the take, and the food is donated to the Salvation Army and AIDS Project Los Angeles. “Everyone can afford a can of peas,” said actor Michael Gross.

With the recession, the Shakespeare Festival/L.A. board had to set a “very aggressive budget,” said board member Dick Gooden. “A lot of corporate sponsors say, ‘Tell you what, we’ll give you 80% of what we gave you last year.’ You have to write a lot of letters and follow up.”

The L.A. Unified high school students who attended three nights of previews were “rapt,” said actor Ryan Cutrona (Lord Capulet), even though “Romeo and Juliet” is a play “about high ideals and philosophy we’re not accustomed to.”

“I don’t see why L.A. wouldn’t be as good as any other city for Shakespeare,” Megan Porter Follows (Juliet) said a little defensively.

Many in the audience, including L.A. natives, were making their first visit to the venue and marveling over its mini-Hollywood Bowl (just down the street) features. The Ford has all the Bowl’s pleasures: Patrons can spend a summer evening in the Hollywood Hills and stand in line for a Ben & Jerry’s Peace Pop at intermission.

It also has the torment--nightmarish stack parking, except the stacks are shorter.

After the play, guests chowed down on a simple spread of chocolate cake and pecan pie and washed it all down with champagne or soda, courtesy of Hamburger Hamlet. Get it? Hamlet.

“That was my idea,” said festival producing director Ben Donenberg.