In Love With Shakespeare

While we haven’t reached a level of hysteria over Shakespeare where McDonald’s is marketing a Big Macbeth with a Julius Caesar salad on the side, there is a whole lot more interest in the playwright these days than before the huge success of the Oscar-dominating “Shakespeare in Love.”

Posters for the Ojai Shakespeare Festival’s summer season aren’t even up yet, but publicist Leigh Melander said local junior high and high school students are already fighting to audition for the group’s internship program.

“Shakespeare has been changed from this old dead guy that speaks in a language that is very hard to understand to being vibrant and hip,” Melander said. “Shakespeare is fun right now.”

This month in Ventura County, several other performance groups are expecting large audiences because of the popularity of the Bard--Shakespeare that is, not the county’s first doctor, Cephas--and “Shakespeare in Love,” this winter’s tale of the young playwright struggling in Elizabethan theater.

Coming up first is the ninth annual Ojai Renaissance Faire, which will feature five of Shakespeare’s plays performed outdoors at Lake Casitas April 17-18.

Bill’s writing is “still fresh after all these years,” organizer Dick Wixon said.

Because the World’s Most Popular Author has retained his title for more than four centuries, it’s hard to say whether this tempest of offerings truly represents a renaissance of the Renaissance. As my newsroom encyclopedia says, “Shakespeare seems not to depend on fashion.”

Still, local librarians report that “Shakespeare in Love” and maybe fellow Oscar contender “Elizabeth” have resulted in more curiosity about Shakespeare’s life and work. Even those who aren’t required to do so for a class are picking up his plays and sonnets and want to know more about the man.

“Just off the top of my computer, I would say there does seem to be more interest in Shakespeare as a person,” said Camarillo librarian Gail Demirtas.

But, she said, this year’s Best Picture winner hasn’t generated the same interest as last year’s.

“Titanic, Titanic, Titanic,” Demirtas said with a sigh. “Everything in the system went out for months.”

Interest in the true story of the big sinking boat (and the movie’s dreamy star) may even have helped Shakespeare, because teeny-boppers hungry for more Leo have rented DiCaprio’s 1996 version of “Romeo and Juliet.”

But the Bard gets his best exposure in the classroom. In an annual ritual, high school students in Ventura County--and indeed in nearly every hamlet--attempt to tame the shrewd playwright--line by line, measure for measure.

For their teachers, the labor of love is not lost (nor is it much ado about nothing), for at the end of their academic journey, all’s well that ends well. (Unless it ends in summer school, which has a way of destroying those midsummer night’s dreams.)

At Simi Valley High School, where 12th-graders study Shakespeare in their British literature classes, even non-seniors have stopped by the library to check out his work. It’s a phenomenon that librarian Agnes Zagar has seen before, most recently with Jane Austen’s novels-turned-movies.

“Whenever we get a Hollywood film that is based upon a novel,” Zagar said, “we always have an increased interest in that novelist or that author.”

The downside of turning commonly assigned books into films, she said, is that “sometimes the students will rent the movie instead of reading the book.”

(I suppose I should caution that if a student relies too closely on a film director’s interpretation, that student’s exam could be a comedy of errors.)

If you too are in the mood to herald the Bard, and curling up with “Coriolanus” just isn’t good enough, here are several options to see Shakespeare locally:

* The Ojai Renaissance Faire takes “Shakespeare at the Lake” as its theme for its ninth annual festival. Two local groups will present five of Shakespeare’s plays. April 17-18 at Lake Casitas near Ojai; $8 for single-day adult ticket, $12 for weekend pass. Call 496-6036 for information.

* Celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday, which scholars believe was sometime in April 1564, at “For the Love of Shakespeare--A Birthday Bash for the Bard.” April 23 at 6:15 p.m. at the Sherwood Country Club; $35, includes a buffet including English lamb stew, salmon, English beer and port. Performers from the Ojai Shakespeare Festival, whose season starts in July, will set Shakespeare’s poetry to music. This event raises money for the World Affairs Council. Call 449-9953 for more information.

* The Xanadu Theatre Company presents “Julius Caesar,” with women playing the conspiring senators. April 24-25 and May 1-2 at 2:30 p.m. at the Arts Council Center, 482 Greenmeadow Ave., in Thousand Oaks; $10. Call 381-2747 for tickets and information.

* “Shakespeare in Love” is still running at movie theaters in Camarillo, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Westlake Village.

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Massie Ritsch is a Times Community News staff writer. His e-mail is Massie.Ritsch@latimes.com.

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OUT & ABOUT

Arroyo Verde Park offers natural delights; Conejo Players present “Me and My Girl.” B9