A New Version
This version of “Pericles” was freely adapted from Shakespeare by company member Angela Berliner. Pericles on the High Seas is the Gang’s first summer-in-the-park show for families. It complements the mainstage production of Love’s Labor’s Lost, running inside the Gang’s home at the Ivy Substation from Saturday, July 22, through Saturday, Sept. 16. "Not only are they both Shakespeare, but the themes are similar," Ms. Berliner said. "Pericles is about a man who gets a family, loses his family, and he must journey to find his family again. So it also is about love, labor and loss."
Summarizing the Contents
In Pericles on the High Seas, Pericles sails the high seas seeking adventure, helping those in need before marrying the princess Thaisa. His 16-year old daughter is kidnapped by pirates and sold to wicked bakers. Believing his daughter is dead, Pericles wanders the sea aimlessly. His daughter, meanwhile, struggles to survive the cut-throat baking world. Strange twists of fate and a touch of magic help to reunite the family. Shakespeare wrote it slightly differently. In the original story, the daughter is sold into slavery in a brothel. "Not exactly family subject matter," said director P. Adam Walsh. "The bakery works for the kids, but it lets us use innuendo so the adults can understand it on a different level."
Play Is Sized to Appeal
The outdoor production, condensed to run just under one hour, incorporates many elements already familiar to Gang audiences, including live music, commedia and spectacle. Giant puppets are being created by Laurie O’Brien, costumes by designer Vanessa Porter, and the scenic design is by Sibyl Wickersheimer. Pericles on the High Seas is the first production developed by The Actors’ Gang Children’s Theater Initiative, a pilot program funded in part by the Cultural Affairs Dept. of the city of Los Angeles. In addition to professional company members, the cast includes students from Culver City High School and La Ballona Elementary School who have participated in previous Actors’ Gang programs.
Getting Acquainted
Ms. Berliner, a playwright and actor, is working towards her M.F.A. in playwriting at UCLA. She has written several plays including Bender, Mosquito Bites, Little, the Apocryphal Acts, a co-adaptation of Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, and the one-person show Blood Hungary. As a member of The Actors’ Gang, she has been in several plays, including Blood! Love! Madness!; Tartuffe; Little; the Mysteries; Alagazam; Mephisto; and she plays Moth in the current production, Love’s Labor’s Lost. Mr. Walsh has been with The Actors’ Gang for five years. Pericles On The High Seas marks his third directorial venture at the AG. Other shows he’s directed at The Gang: Die Arty Farty Die and Beasts Of Burden.
A Peek at History
Founded in 1981 by a group of renegade theater artists, The Actors’ Gang has more than 90 productions and 100 awards to its credit. The Gang frequently wins acclaim for its daring interpretations of Shakespeare, Bruchner, Brecht, Moliere, Aeschylus, Ibsen and Chekhov while also developing bold new plays that address the world today through a prism of satire, popular culture and raucous stagecraft. Three Actors’ Gang productions — Tim Robbins’ Embedded, Anne Nelson’s The Guys, and Jessica Blank’s and Erik Jensen’s The Exonerated — have toured cities across the U.S. The Actors’ Gang actively reaches out to the community with its Artist Residency in Local Schools program; Special Matinees for local schools; Accessibility Performances for the hearing- and sight-impaired; and Pay-What-You-Can performances. For more information about Pericles on the High Seas, call The Actors’ Gang box office at
Beach Sounds for Summer Concert Series
Thursday evening is beach party time for the 7 p.m. performance in the Summer Sunset Concert Series in the Courtyard of City Hall. The Surf City All-Stars, who have been here before, are the attraction. Admission is free, and so is parking, underground, at City Hall for this fourth concert in the weekly series.
Weaving Music and History
Organized in the early 1980s, the Surf City All-Stars feature band members who were touring with both the Beach Boys and with Jan and Dean. They learned their musical specialty from the best. Brian Wilson and Mike Love of the Beach Boys, and Jan Berry of Jan and Dean taught them their authentic surf sound and harmonies. The All-Stars band includes Gary Griffin on keyboards (Beach Boys/Jan and Dean), David Logeman on drums (Jan and Dean/Beach Boys), and Don Raymond on guitar and bass (the Ventures/Jan and Dean). They will be joined by Philip Bardowell, who performed with the Beach Boys (taking Carl Wilson’s place), on guitar and vocals, and by Matt Jardine. Mr. Jardine’s father, Al Jardine, was a founding member of the Beach Boys, on vocals. Surf City, you can see, is rich in history.
Postscript
For information, visit www.culvercitymusic.org or call the Summer Sunset Music Festival Hotline at 310.253.5716.