Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival Celebrates 30 Years

The Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival launched in 1997 with the professional production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the goal of presenting the magical comedy every decade with a different theme. Now, as the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company celebrates its milestone 30^th year, it will again honor the tradition. This summer’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is set in the 1920s jazz and gangster world of Chicago and will run June 19 to July 5. “Hamlet” is the second production, July 10 to 26, and will be set in the late 19th century. All performances are at 8 p.m., Friday through Sunday, in Kingsmen Park on the California Lutheran University campus.

“This season is personally special to me because it is the first time I have shared the Kingsmen directing positions with my daughter, Caitlin, who is directing ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’” said Michael J. Arndt, director and founding member of the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company. “Caitlin grew up attending Kingsmen productions with me and acted in our production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ when she was 8 years old.”

The comedic production features original ’20s-inspired music performed by actor and jazz singer Shannon J. Sharpe in the lead role of Puck. The “Rude Mechanicals” or bumbling clown actors of the play represent former vaudeville performers of the period. Though this is Caitlin Arndt’s first time as director of a Kingsmen Shakespeare Company professional production, she directs the Kingsmen’s Summer Theatre Camp (Camp Shakespeare).

Director Michael Arndt was inspired to set the tragedy “Hamlet” during the Gilded Age, an era where American businessmen built extreme wealth and power. The play focuses on the villainy displayed by those in power who will stop at nothing to maintain their position and young Hamlet’s confronting his struggles with royalty, love and madness. Cal Lutheran alum and former Kingsmen apprentice Seta Wainiqolo plays Hamlet. Wainiqolo received his MFA in acting from Yale University and has been a professional screen and regional theatre actor for several years.

Kingsmen Shakespeare Company is the professional theater company of Cal Lutheran. The nonprofit organization coordinates apprentice programs for professional and aspiring Shakespearean actors, an educational tour program in local schools and summer theater camps for youths. To date, the festival has featured 58 productions of the Shakespeare canon and had over 100,000 audience members.

All performances are on the Streeter Stage erected in Kingsmen Park on the Cal Lutheran campus, 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks. Grounds open at 5:30 p.m. with preshow entertainment at 6:45 p.m. General admission tickets are between $23 and $35. Refreshments are available for purchase at the event, and picnic food can be pre-ordered. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit KingsmenShakespeare.org or call 805-493-3184.