Nature’s Will

Anyone who’s ever decorated a set, spoken a soliloquy in the spotlight or carried a spear upstage knows never to utter the word “Macbeth” in a theater unless the footlights are ablaze. Say it outside of a rehearsal or performance of the play itself and something terrible will happen.

The so-called “Macbeth” curse stems from all its witch and devil business. And superstition’s as much a part of theater lore as the famous “To be or not to be” speech.

Veteran director Tom Bradac knew all this. But during the summer of 1988, he blew it.

Bradac, now director of Shakespeare Orange County, then director of the Grove Shakespeare Festival, was sitting in the Festival Amphitheatre (the amphitheater is now part of the Grove Theater Center complex). Benjamin Stewart, one of the troupe’s actors--who happened to be highly superstitious--asked him what was on the season schedule the next year.

“I said, ‘We might bring in “Macbeth.” ’ “

Stewart went white.

“So,” Bradac continued, “I said, ‘We’re outdoors, it’s just floated up into the air. There’s nothing to worry about.’ ”

But there was. Less than 45 minutes later, a summer storm blew in and a lightning bolt struck a transformer, plunging much of Garden Grove into blackness.

“The storm shut down our theater,” Bradac recalled. “I’d never seen lightning like that.”

Bradac and crew had been running a technical rehearsal for “King Lear,” so, luckily, not one ticket-holder got soaked.

Stewart, however, didn’t recover for hours.

“He kept telling me, ‘Well, you said it.’ ”

Toil and Trouble

Anecdotes about the hazards of performing Shakespeare at this time of year abound. With four troupes staging five plays in Orange County through the end of the season (details at left), the air is buoyant with thoughts of potential tragedy.

But, historically speaking, there shouldn’t be such trepidation. All of the Bard’s plays were presented outdoors--even during London winters--for most of his career. Shakespeare and summer have gone together since the 17th century, said Bradac, who has been directing these works for 20 years.

“There’s a festival feeling to Shakespeare as well, and ancillary activities often accompany summer productions--dancers, jugglers, pageants where Queen Elizabeth appears,” Bradac said.

Along those lines, Shakespeare Orange County will stage a 10-minute, outdoor “Green Show” before each of its indoor performances of “Romeo and Juliet” and “Measure for Measure” at Chapman University’s Waltmar Theatre. The mini-show delivers a brief sketch of the great poet-playwright’s life, replete with songs, sonnets and costumes.

And the Camino Real Playhouse in San Juan Capistrano, whose audience watches from the grass at Historic Town Center Park, promises a “prettiest picnic” contest nightly. Last year’s winner supped on carpaccio and medallions of beef surrounded by a damask tablecloth, silver and crystal while the strains of Renaissance airs wafted from their CD player.

By Any Other Name

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” has for centuries been staged during the year’s longest days. It’s not just the name. Think fairies, spirits, lovers and light summer entertainment--sort of.

“As in all Shakespeare,” Bradac said, “there are serious themes underlying the poetry, so you learn lessons about love and life and marriage, but it’s fun, and it’s frolic, and it’s magical.”

Indeed, certain lines from “Dream,” widely considered to be a blessed play, are recited as cures for uttering the forbidden “M” word. If you do misspeak, Bradac recommends quoting the closing speech faster than you can say “fools” and “mortals”: “If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended.”

“Dream” will be performed this summer at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles by one of Bradac’s famous former students, Kelly McGillis, to whom he taught drama at Newport Harbor High School. She joins an illustrious cast that includes Richard Thomas and David Dukes, directed by Peter Hall, founder of London’s Royal Shakespeare Company.

To pick a Puck closer to home, there’s Camino Real Playhouse, whose president, B.J. Scott, recently recalled a stinker of a summer tale.

The troupe, which moved from Dana Point three years ago, shared Town Center Park with a mother skunk and her four offspring during their first summer of productions.

The little stinkers never emerged during performances, only during rehearsals. Ten days’ worth. “They’d just parade across the stage area,” Scott said, “and everybody would dive behind something to get away from them.

“The little ones were maybe 3 inches long. Adorable! And we watched them grow up. We’d say, ‘Oh, look how big they’ve gotten.’ It was crazy. They were skunks.”

They never, however, did what skunks do best, Scott said. “They don’t have to to put the fear of God in you. They just get a lot of instant respect.” And what play was the troupe putting on, anyway? “A Comedy of Errors.”

All’s Well

A righteous error led to one disruptive night for the Troubadour Theatre Company six years ago.

The parody troupe, which will set “Twelfth Night” to music by Three Dog Night this summer at Grove Theater Center, normally makes the most of airplane interruptions. Actors stop everything to do their most entertaining imitations of a loud plane until the real noise passes.

But the first time the company performed “Shrew!” in Santa Monica, a criminal broke out of jail only a block away. That brought out five helicopters, which circled for 30 minutes.

“So we started doing the plane-imitation thing, which was funny for about five minutes,” said producing director Tim Groff. We then had to move the entire production into the space between the stage and audience. It was the only way people could hear a thing.”

Despite the odds and the elements, the pairing of summer and Shakespeare endures, thanks to determined actors and directors.

Charles L. Johanson, executive director of the Grove Theater Center, said things didn’t start off so well when he and artistic director Kevin Cochran took over in 1994. The troupe’s first alfresco production, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” was doused.

“We thought, ‘Oh great, a new theater, our first outdoor play, and we get rained on.’ And everyone kept telling us, ‘You know, it hasn’t rained on this day in 125 years.’ ”

Did someone speak that Scottish name again?

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A Wealth of Festivals Featuring Shakespeare Going out of town this summer? Here’s a sampling of Shakespeare festivals outside Orange County and across the country:

* Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, July 3-Oct. 9. (619) 231-1941.

* Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, through Oct. 31. (503) 482-4331.

* Shakespeare in Santa Fe (N.M.), June 26-Aug. 15. (505) 982-2910.

* California Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley, through Aug. 29. (510) 548-9666.

* Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Louisville, going through July 11. (502) 583-8738.

* The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, D.C., through July 18. (202) 547-3230.

* Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, New York City, through Aug. 29. (212) 598-7150.

SOURCE: American Theatre magazine, New York.